Ammo in cold weather
- Thread starter SPUR60
- Start date
Tomahawker
Active member
Wow, what gives? Did you look at primers? What gun? My nose itches
I had that happen last year. I had switched to a non-toxic clp. No bang on 2 roosters, so had to go to my backup gun and got one. It was light primer hits. Switched to regular clp after that, and no issues.
Also had it on the last shot of the year, at the end of January, but I think that was probably just a bad shell. It was about 0 degrees though, so possible something got a little froze up with the firing pin too. No issues this year in single digits though.
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Tomahawker
Active member
Looking at primers might tell the tale
Yes. Faint marks on the primers. Winchester SX2. Well maintained. I took 4 of the failed rounds and loaded them in my cousins Franchi instinct on Saturday when we took a break for lunch. 2 of the 4 failed to fire in that O/U, 2 fired. At that same time I shot hevi bismuth, 2 3/4" winchester super pheasant, Federal Upland, and some random fiocchi and federal steel shot I had in my truck to verify that the gun wasn't the issue. I think the issue was simply a harder primer that combined with the cold temps caused the issue.
I rarely shoot anything less than 1 3/8 oz in lead, and I run this gun pretty dry. A touch of FP-10 on the bolt rails after a tear down cleaning job. Trigger mechanism and firing pin assembly do not get oil, all that does is attract dirt on those parts and it's not needed. I'm well versed in maintaining this particular gun.
Yes they worked as expected when they went bang. Can't go wrong with 220 pellets of copper plated 4's through a patternmaster EXT on late season roosters.
KEOutdoors
Well-known member
15 isnt cold enough to severely alter ammo performance in modern factory ammo. Once you get to -15 then you start having primer failures. All loads will be slow at cold temps, but you wont get a FTF at those temps.
Im guessing its a firing pin clearance issue due to metal shrinkage (or weak spring), and just was not smacking those hard Winchester primers good enough.
KEOutdoors
Well-known member
This definitely leads me to believe your gun has a weak firing pin, the cold is just setting it over the edge. If it was an ammo issue, all of them would have FTF
Yeah, but was that -40F or -40C?
John Singer
Well-known member
I did an internship at Schwan's in Marshall, MN, way back when. Their distribution center buildings are kept at -40. People had to put on snowmobile suits every day to enter and do their work. I felt bad for the people in the winter, going in there when it is dark and cold outside in the morning, and coming out to dark and cold, and spending the whole day in frigid cold.
I only had to do it for a week, in summer. Everyone in the company, or at least anyone who had anything to do with the goings on in those buildings, even if they didn't work inside the buildings normally, had to do a week shift in there to see how stuff worked.
I only had to do it for a week, in summer. Everyone in the company, or at least anyone who had anything to do with the goings on in those buildings, even if they didn't work inside the buildings normally, had to do a week shift in there to see how stuff worked.
Tomahawker
Active member
Schwan man coming to our house was a big deal. I grew up on a farm out in the boonies. Any visitor was swarmed by kids and dogs let alone one with ice cream.
When working there, I would swing by the distribution center periodically. They would take broken boxes of ice cream goodies and put them in a big pile 10 to 20 yards from the warm up room door. Employees could buy them at a discount. I didn't want to go through the whole process of putting on a snowmobile suit, but would open the door to -40 deg, run to the pile, rummage through it, and race back to warmth, with my bounty.of creamy goodness.
They had quite an operation. Sad to see them go the way of the dinosaur. DoorDash and Grubhub don't have the magic that you describe.
Maybe a new method of getting private hunting access. We could start the legend of the pheasant hunting ice cream man. Bring a little powered cooler with treats for the farm kids.
Tomahawker
Active member
Aww man, idk they went out of business.
The delivery part is gone, but the various brands are still supplied to schools, grocery stores, etc. I'm not positive on the details, but I think the family sold the food production side of the business a handful of years ago, but kept the home delivery half. They then rebranded the delivery part as Yelloh (I guess trying to be trendy and compete with modern home delivery companies) a few years later. That only lasted a couple years, before they had to shut down this November.