Winterizing an action

[sirmissalot]

I've always heard stories of guys having firing pins freeze up on them, never really thought anything of it.

Well this year it happened to my sister while I was hunting with her. Twice. First time may have been enough to get her heart rate up and mind racing just enough to cause her to miss the next shot (which actually fired). Second time cost her a shot on a buck which I believe would have been a fatal one.

Both times the firing pin hit the primer but only barely, they are hand loads and she's shooting a mark V weatherby chambered in 30-06. It was around 7 degree's on one, low teens on another.

What do you guys do to "winterize" an action?

Her rifle is on the chopping block anyhow, shes lost enough confidence in it that I know shes done with it. She got to pack one of my dads Coopers and of course has to have one now 

[JimmyHoffa]

use graphite for the extreme cold.  clear out all the oil first.

[sirmissalot]

What do you use to get all the oil out?

[sirmissalot]

Just bringing this back up, I've got a hunt in montana this year that has good odds of subzero temps so I'd like to be prepared

[Bofire]

HOT water works, pure alcohol should. do not forget to oil when yer done hunting
Carl

[eastcoastguy]

I whitetail hunt in Maine every year. Temps range from -20 to 40 depending on the yr. After i clean my rifle i wipe it down getting all excess oil off. Never had anything freeze or fail.

[Westside88]

use graphite for the extreme cold.  clear out all the oil first.

I've heard of making a lubricant out of graphite and rubbing alcohol in  little bottle like for eye drops. The alcohols will evaporate away. I'd be surprised if this isn't something that's available commercially. We used to use a dry graphite spray at work when we needed to avoid attracting dust

[T Pearce]

A product called "Gunslick" (Anhydrous Graphite) is all I ever use anymore. Because it's dry the dust and dirt doesn't gum up the action of the autoloader or the bolt guns. No oils to thicken in the cold.
As a poster mentioned earlier about mixing with isopropyl alcohol and using an eye dropper, this should work well and might dry even faster.

[Stein]

I've never had that problem, but I don't run much oil in the bolt at all.  I clean it out, wipe it down with oil and then wipe that off and put it back together.  I run a Remmy 700 and couldn't imagine how gummy it would have to be to slow down the firing pin.

If I was worried, I would just run it dry.

[300rum]

I missed your first post but I would lean more to moisture in the firing pin.  A clean firing pin channel and a light oil should work at those temps.  A wise thing to do in really cold temps is to keep your gun stored in the cold temp, this also helps your scope from fogging up on the outside.  When you take your rifle from a 70+ degree truck to sub freezing temps and high humidity you can see condensation build up on the metal.  I would dry fire it a couple times, that might help but then again, I have never had a problem, even in Montana in sub zero temps and snow.     

What do you use to get all the oil out?

Blow it out with an air compressor.  An air compressor makes gun cleaning so much easier......

[300rum]

I should mention too that when you clean your gun make sure that you put a light oil on your safety mechanism.  I once owned a stainless Model 700 that I bought for a "bad weather rifle".  I backpacked in a long way into the backcountry and it rained 4 days straight.  On the 3 day I noticed I couldn't take the rifle off safety.  I had to beat the safety on to "fire" and had to keep the rifle on "fire" for the rest of the hunt (without a loaded chamber, or use a partially open bolt for the safety).  The Stainless 700 had one metal clip in the safety that was blued.  The blued part rusted up hard. 

For a light oil I like Rem Oil.  Rem Oil is an almost worthless oil as far as heat dissipation goes or for preventing wear but the one good thing about it is that it is a very, very light oil, perfect for this application.  Spray it on and wipe any access off, I am looking for a very thin coat.   

[JJB11B]

I use rem Dry lube in my Winchester SX3 shotgun for duck and goose hunting. I had a Benelli Nova and a Charles Daly shotgun both freeze up on me duck hunting. No wet lube in cold weather for me.

[Okanagan]

I've had the same experience mentioned in the first post -- several times!

There are two different problems being mentioned in this thread.  One is action not working properly because cold thickens lubricants and gums up the works.  The other totally different event is having water inside the action freeze and stop it from functioning correctly.  Ice inside the action is what the first post describes.

The solution to sluggishly cold lubrication is to remove all oil before the cold season and perhaps use a bit of dry lube, as several have mentioned with variants.  Some use a trace of very light oil on key friction points such as locking lugs.

Ice inside the action is a different problem.  That has to be monitored hour by hour when air temp and moisture set up conditions to get water in the action and then freeze it.   Temps hovering above and below freezing are usually much more of a problem for such icing than deep cold.   I've had it happen to me in freezing rain conditions.  In such conditions I work the action, dry fire if in doubt. You can tell by the sound if the firing pin is breaking ice or falling free.   I've not found a surefire way to keep rain etc. out of the rifle action if moving, still hunting.  On a stand I'd keep it covered.

Bringing a cold rifle inside a warm room or vehicle causes condensation on all metal surfaces, inside and out.  If you take it out in the cold again before all of that evaporates, it will freeze.  Therefore we leave rifles outside in the cold when camping overnight, under a porch eave or with a garbage bag over them to keep rain etc. off. 

Once frozen, dry firing may break it loose.  Warming under an armpit may thaw it. We had to hold one rifle above a campfire for several minutes.  In my experience ice has stopped the action on Rem 700's, Tikka T3, Savage 111.  Check it every dawn before hunting and every once in awhile during a day of freezing rain etc.

If it happens, don't panic.  Especially west of the Crest Trail, don't be surprised.  Have a plan to deal with it.  Often the first misfire will break enough ice for the firing pin to hit hard enough on the second shot.  That happened to me on a 6x6 bull elk one dawn.  With a rest over a log the sound was a slow cchhiinnk of breaking ice and tick on the primer rather than rifle firing.  I eased open the bolt as silently as possible and ejected the round in the chamber.  It had a small dimple in the primer.  I guessed that enough ice broke for it to work on a second shot so cycled in the next round in the magazine.  It fired and from the same rest I killed the bull a few seconds later.  On that one I had hunted in a drizzle till dark the preceding evening, bivvied out as it got colder, and the rain water inside the action/firing pin channel had frozen.  I didn't check the action that morning.

One key is to check it often and not let a huge amount of ice to build up that will require a more major thawing.  Carrying the action under an armpit may help, though that ups chances of scope fogging.

Been distracted while composing and several have mentioned some of the same solutions before I got this posted.

[sirmissalot]

Awesome information, thanks a bunch guys

[Fl0und3rz]

use graphite for the extreme cold.  clear out all the oil first.

I've heard of making a lubricant out of graphite and rubbing alcohol in  little bottle like for eye drops. The alcohols will evaporate away. I'd be surprised if this isn't something that's available commercially. We used to use a dry graphite spray at work when we needed to avoid attracting dust

Used this in the sub engineroom.

http://www.newmantools.com/chemicals/neo2pds.htm