Thought maybe some of you could help me with malfunctions that sometimes crop up with my AR (technically, an Olympic Arms UMAR in .22-250) in cold (20F and below) weather. It sometimes fails to completely feed a follow-up round, but the last time I went out (15F), the bolt locked back after the first shot and I had to hit the mag release.
I don’t think ammo’s an issue, because they check out fine in my case gauge, plus shells fall into the chamber fine if I point the rifle barrel down and drop them in.
Freeze-up due to condensation isn’t an issue because I keep the rifle in an unheated garage and it rides in the back of a truck on the way to the field.
Someone said to lube with FP-10 because it’s rated to -49F, but the problem still persisted, so I wiped down the bolt and inside of the upper and now run everything “dry.” (Because I only shoot the rifle a few dozen times a year, I’ve been told that “running dry” won’t be a problem.)
Have any of you dealt with this issue? Anyone can chime in, of course, but I’d especially like to hear from those who hunt in SERIOUSLY cold climates. (Sometime it gets down to -40F here.)
I don’t think ammo’s an issue, because they check out fine in my case gauge, plus shells fall into the chamber fine if I point the rifle barrel down and drop them in.
Freeze-up due to condensation isn’t an issue because I keep the rifle in an unheated garage and it rides in the back of a truck on the way to the field.
Someone said to lube with FP-10 because it’s rated to -49F, but the problem still persisted, so I wiped down the bolt and inside of the upper and now run everything “dry.” (Because I only shoot the rifle a few dozen times a year, I’ve been told that “running dry” won’t be a problem.)
Have any of you dealt with this issue? Anyone can chime in, of course, but I’d especially like to hear from those who hunt in SERIOUSLY cold climates. (Sometime it gets down to -40F here.)