Shooting in the cold

[sdh1911]

I knew you guys were pretty tough, but, I can't imagine going out shooting in the temps you've all been talking about. I don't mind the low temps around here, but, what you are talking about blows my mind, guess I'm a wussy at the young age of fifty. Truly my hats off to you all, thanks for all the input, A very merry Christmas to you all and the best of health to you all for 2007-SDH

[tiriaq]

The day I described when we were competing at -45, the greatest difficulty most folks had was with their scopes. .22 metallic silhouette is shot at 4 ranges. Almost all the scopes froze up, and parallax and range adjustments could not be made. My scope was one of the few that worked - a Burris 6x HBR. Parallax froze, but the adjustments worked fine. I was impressed. My Brno silhouette rifle is magazine fed; the folks with single shots suffered while loading. I should have put one of the little pads for eyeglass nosepieces on my trigger; developed frostbite on my trigger finger.

[Claven2]

Last year's milshoot the temp varied between minus 15 and minus 20 celcius. That's plenty cold for things to freeze up like action oil...

[sdh1911]

I think it would be safe to assume, dry lube is a big seller up there? I just can't imagine shooting in temps like that and have a whole new respect for those that have served in areas subjecting solders to those temps. My uncle was in the 121 N.C.B. assigned to 4th Marines. He served in Boganville, Iwo to name a few. He was a very lucky fella, but he used to tell me he would take that any day, rather than freezing to death in some fox hole. One of his vet buddies lost one foot and a few toes on the other foot in the Battle of the Bulge. Truly the greatest generation-SDH

[stencollector]

I was in Repulse Bay on ex about a decade ago. Even dry lube wouldn't work. Naptha gave some decent results, but at -50, things just weren't made to work. The 50s would shoot one, cock one, shoot three, cock one.....I reached for the top cover release and it snapped in my hand.
There is an eeriness to the North. It is utter silence, except for hearing the ice crack from the dryness.
One of the artilleryman who was with us came in to the tent with a sheepish look on his face. He had braved the cold to take a leak, but as he ****ed, he couldn't hear it hit the ground. He thought that was a bit strange, but just figured it was another of the idiosynchrasies of the North. That is, until he put his Arctic mitts back on to find that one of them was quite warm (and moist).

[Garand]

Well sten collecter, they do put those strings on the arctic mitts for a reason

[Stevo]

You guys must be lucky to shoot at distances beyond 300m. Thats maximum here on military rifle ranges. When its getting cold I stuck my ammo into my pocket to keep it warm. I am a fairly experienced shooter but not good enough to take all possible imponderabilities into account. The discussion is very interesting but purely academic. On military ranges we are limited to FMJ ammo only, so accuracy handloads are stopped by the non-avalability of match FMJ bullets.

That's a shame cannonball. Our little, $50 a year membership, range goes up to 500m. You're welcome to come shoot.

Back to the topic, every time we go out shooting with the Rangers, it's usually windy, raining, snowing and/or -30 C. To be honest, I don't see much difference at 100m unless the wind is driving snow or rain in our faces.

[sdh1911]

When I was a kid, my folks moved me from a riot torn area of central New Jersey to a lake in mountains called Lake Hopatcong. My first winter there was brutal (by our standards) it didn't get out of the teens for about a month and the lake froze solid, folks were driving the cars on it and I thought that was the coolest thing. Some guy parked his car to go ice fishing and after a short period of time the lake ate the car. Me and my folks stepped out on the ice to watch the goings on and got out around 100 yards when we heard a huge crack that sounded like a nothing I'd ever heard before. We hauled but off the ice figuring the lake was going for desert. Truth was it was nothing more than a pressure crack. I never got used to it and have no desire too. The one thing I did like about the lake was plinking on the ice with the .22, made a neat frozen puff. I gotta give to you guy's, I don't know how you get used to that cold-SDH

[Stevo]

SDH,
I spent three years working north of the Arctic Circle. Weeks of dark and -40 in the winter.

The bay would get 12-15 feet (or more) of ice on it, and it was salt water. Well, brackish actually.

The flip side was driving home from the airport at midnight in the summer, heading north, and looking straight into the sun that was completely above the horizon. We had a nice beach for beach parties too.

[tiriaq]

stencollector is right about the silence in the arctic - sometimes it is so quiet that the silence has a presence to it.