cold weather cast bullet shooting

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  • Last Post 21 November 2022
99 Strajght posted this 05 November 2022

Has anybody done any testing with cast bullet in cold weather?  This summer I got into shooting USPSA with 22 long rifle cal. bullets. Everything was shooting well until it got below 50 degrees and my groups opened up 3 or 4 times their size. I remember this happening with 30 cal. bullets a few years ago when I was shooting in the cold. Is it me or is the cold affecting cast bullets?

Glenn

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RicinYakima posted this 05 November 2022

Depends upon the lube on the bullets, in my experience. 

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99 Strajght posted this 05 November 2022

What lub works. I was using 45/45/10.

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RicinYakima posted this 05 November 2022

I use Grey #24, no longer made, for accuracy shooting, but just stick with NRA Alox and let it go at that. You want something soft for cold weather. 

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Ross Smith posted this 05 November 2022

I like white label 2500+. Or lbt soft.

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Bud Hyett posted this 05 November 2022

Years ago when M&N lubricant was made, this lubricant required at least three shots fired on each string before it would start to group:

  • In a group match, I'd fire three or four into the sighter to judge wind and then go to the record target. 
  • In a score match, again I'd fire three or four into the sighter for wind and then go to the record target. 

I've seen the results of testing where thermocouples were attached to a Savage 12 BVSS .308 above the chamber and both long and short strings shot. The rifle grouped best when the barrel temperature was between 122 and 125 degrees. This suggests barrel temperature affect lubricant qualities.

In colder temperatures, the barrel will take longer to heat up and may not get to the internal temperature affecting the lubricant in a match's time limits that it needs to shoot well. 

As Ric suggests, NRA Alox/Beeswax would be a good starting point. You could test to see it the rifle comes back to grouping after a series of twenty or even thirty shots when the barrel is warm.

I'm using Javelina Schuetzen Lubricant which is very soft to start with. I may be avoiding this phenomenon by chance. I have testing to do these coming months when the temperatures will be in the forties and fifties, I'll see what I can observe.  

I'd like to give a better answer, this is all empirical evidence.

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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delmarskid posted this 05 November 2022

I use white lithium grease and beeswax. It’s about the consistency of cold butter. I’m one of those people who likes it a -5 or so if the sun is out. My cast shooting seems about the same regardless of temps as long as I’m not “vibrating “ too bad.

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M1fuzz posted this 06 November 2022

40’s and 50’s!!! Come on Bud. You are from Illinois. You know that ain’t cold yet!!!! Lol.

I do want to do an experiment this winter with this when it gets around 10-30*. I’m out when it’s below zero.

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Spindrift posted this 06 November 2022

I read somewhere that having some parafine wax in the lube is beneficial for cold weather shooting. Parafine wax liquifies when pressurized. My "home brew" has a lot of ingredients (beeswax, parafine wax, ATF, two-stroke oil, high-temp grease, lithium grease, moly grease, a little soap and lanolin and maybe a few more minor constituents). I've tested it down to 0°F, it worked perfectly. I've made a how-to on another forum, and could post a link if that is acceptable.

My suggestion: either make 666-1, or cook some lube with parafine wax being 1/3- 1/2 of your wax base. The rest of the wax should be beeswax, microcrystalline wax or something else with the capacity to bind some oil.

There is another barrier technology that is impervious to weather conditions and does not require fouling shots- powder (or polymer) coating.

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Bud Hyett posted this 06 November 2022

40’s and 50’s!!! Come on Bud. You are from Illinois. You know that ain’t cold yet!!!! Lol. I do want to do an experiment this winter with this when it gets around 10-30*. I’m out when it’s below zero.

I was in Illinois, the emphasis on "from". I now live in a small town halfway between Seattle and the Canadian border nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. The weather here is moderate. Add the effects of chemotherapy and I do not get too adventurous for cold weather. 

Ed Doonan told me once I got to a place with mild winters, I'd never return to Illinois. He forgot to add mild summers. 

My testing scenario includes the weather range for our matches. I cannot test lower temperatures since we do not have them. I almost envy you for the ability to test in colder temperatures.

I should add that after retirement, I planned on moving to Montana. Cancer struck and five of the top ten oncologists in the USA are in Seattle. I'm staying until cured. It's been an arduous six-year journey, but I'm on a research study that is working. 

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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M1fuzz posted this 06 November 2022

Keep on fighting Bud!!! I don’t envy going out in the cold to do this experiment but, for the sake of this topic I feel it is now my duty!!!

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Qc Pistolero posted this 07 November 2022

Keep fighting.Science has made giant leaps against the beast.One of my closest friend had been given 3 to 6 months.....16years ago.He shoots over 10K rounds/year with us and fully enjoys doing it.

As far as cold enlarging groups I haven't experienced it.I live in Qc Ca.and shoot from 90* to aprox 15*F.Calibers are mostly 30-30,38-55 and 45-70.I use a lube that's quite soft(during summertime,it sticks to the fingers).During summertime,one ''warming shot;wintertime,3 warming shots and everything is the same thereafter.

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Eutectic posted this 07 November 2022

I have noticed two things. Soft lubes worked better. No surprise, single shot rifle shooters found out this years ago. Winter lubes were softer - more oil components. 

There is a temperature/ammunition component. This showed up with cast loads developed in winter which showed poor summer accuracy until the load was reduced. 

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John Alexander posted this 08 November 2022

There seems to be a census that soft bullet lubes are best for cold weather. How soft is soft enough? Is lube that will work through a common lubrisizer at normal room temperature soft enough?  

And what experience do we have with Lee Liquid Alox, or other similar coatings in cold weather?  Do they cause trouble in cold weather? Or in cold weather?

John

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RicinYakima posted this 08 November 2022

Define "cold". For me, anything below 50*F is cold and while I have shot groups below freezing, groups are worse either because of the lube, or I am shaking. Grey #24 is good to a little before 50*F.

I have correspondents in Alaska that shoot cast bullets at zero, and below. 

No experience shooting groups with any of waxy solid lubes like LLA. 

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 09 November 2022

if softer lube is really just less  lube ...

and softer lubes work better in cold weather ...

maybe * no * lube works best of all in cold weather ...

*******

barrel condition is one of the things that can cause wild fliers ...  something mysterious about the lubes ...

maybe why we name guns after wimmin critters ...

ken

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John Alexander posted this 09 November 2022

Now that I think of it, I shots lots of CBs from my sort of heated shooting shed in the winter in Maine. Miles on snowshoes going to target and back.  Don't remember any horrible problems.  At the time I was using the original LBT Blue. I don't think you would call that a soft lube. Will have to dig out the old notebooks.

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tony1960 posted this 09 November 2022

Cold!!! hell yeah, it got down to 48F (9C) here a couple of years ago, coldest day in 11 years the radio said. I had to put long trousers on and a shirt with buttons, don't want too many of them. Couldn't stop shiverin', shot like rubbish.

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Pentz posted this 12 November 2022

Que "the frozen logger"

 

 

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99 Strajght posted this 21 November 2022

I has snowed for the last 12 days here. All temperatures were below 20 degrees. listen to this.

 

Da Yoopers - My Car Won´t Go - Bing video

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