Hello everyone,
Well, Finally got to do a little real world cold weather ( -35F) testing yesterday and thought I'd share what I saw and see if anybody else had some extreme cold AR rifle tips. Rifle and ammunition sat in the truck bed for about 8 hours prior to shooting.
The 32.0gn CFE223 under a 123sst load 5 shot group center was ~4.25" above POA at 100yards, and ~6.25" below POA at 300yds. Temp was -35F and Barometer was 30.25 with an altitude of 435'. Running the numbers looks like about 2375FPS at the muzzle. This load runs around 2550FPS in the 60-70 degree range from my 20" J&T.
Accuracy was pretty ok, and the group at 300 put 4 shots into 2.5" with the 5 hitting about 4 inches to the left.....could've been me, could've been a little wind, could've been the rifle....
The rifle operated fine, I ran a VERY light coat of mobil 1 grease and a little MDL in the bolt ( this runs well in my Garand down to the -40s) I would be interested in what you all have found to be effective....It seems like the two lubes the guys I work with use are 5606 hydraulic fluid or break free. The only out of the ordinary operation was that a handload of 30.8gn LVR didn't lock the bolt back after the last shot.
The only thing I wish I had done differently would have been to load the magazines and let the sit before using. All in all a pretty fun way to spend an hour....had the range to myself and the sound attenuates so well at those temps that I could hear the bullets hitting the paper at 300 :-)
Well, Finally got to do a little real world cold weather ( -35F) testing yesterday and thought I'd share what I saw and see if anybody else had some extreme cold AR rifle tips. Rifle and ammunition sat in the truck bed for about 8 hours prior to shooting.
The 32.0gn CFE223 under a 123sst load 5 shot group center was ~4.25" above POA at 100yards, and ~6.25" below POA at 300yds. Temp was -35F and Barometer was 30.25 with an altitude of 435'. Running the numbers looks like about 2375FPS at the muzzle. This load runs around 2550FPS in the 60-70 degree range from my 20" J&T.
Accuracy was pretty ok, and the group at 300 put 4 shots into 2.5" with the 5 hitting about 4 inches to the left.....could've been me, could've been a little wind, could've been the rifle....
The rifle operated fine, I ran a VERY light coat of mobil 1 grease and a little MDL in the bolt ( this runs well in my Garand down to the -40s) I would be interested in what you all have found to be effective....It seems like the two lubes the guys I work with use are 5606 hydraulic fluid or break free. The only out of the ordinary operation was that a handload of 30.8gn LVR didn't lock the bolt back after the last shot.
The only thing I wish I had done differently would have been to load the magazines and let the sit before using. All in all a pretty fun way to spend an hour....had the range to myself and the sound attenuates so well at those temps that I could hear the bullets hitting the paper at 300 :-)
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