Bringing a cold rifle inside

[DGP4]

Leaving the rifle in the case when you bring it in is good advice. I use renaissance wax on all the metal and wood and it lasts a long time. Oiling the metal parts is the worst thing you can do!

 

[joshb]

You better keep it well oiled if going in and out or the bore will rust and pit on you. Still, I guess that depends on your humidity levels, mine is usually 75% to 95% except for a few days of the year. Everything sweats either going in or out so out they stay out until cleaned.

Just checked accuweather,
Humidity
97%

Move west, young man!!!! It’s a lot dryer over in Kerrville!

 

[Evan]

As a high altitude Colorado native, this conversation just strikes me as funny. I'd never considered it before! Iced drinks hardly sweat here it's so dry!

 

[K22]

I'm in the "do nothing special club."

I shoot and hunt all year around. After a range / hunting session the rifle exterior is wiped down and placed in the safe unless I reached a round count where I routinely clean which is about 30 to 40 rounds depending on the rifle / caliber.

Is that the proper process? I don't know, probably not but I've been doing it this way for so long and my rifles seem not to have suffered any ill affects. Maybe it's works for me because I rarely go more than seven days without shooting. I have seasonal rifles which I thoroughly clean and lube when I retire for the season but while in season I follow the above described process.

When a hobby becomes onerous then it's time to change hobbies.

 

[rayporter]

what do you do in bear country when camping a hundred miles into the bush?

i kind of like my rifle beside me.
personally i push a patch with a piece of weedeater line every night. if the barrel wont put the first one on target -get a new barrel.

 

[pikespeakgoat]

Count me as another do nothing special, never even thought about it...just went elk hunting the other morning. ..left nice warm 72° house for a few hour hike at -14°....not an issue....maybe the half hour drive back home warmed the rifle up slow enough?

But then again, we don't have too much humidity at 10k feet either.

 

[JohnKielly]

Where I live here in Australia, the issue is to get the rifles out of their cases & buff them down when we come inside into the cold evening after a humid day. Those grey foam blocks sure suck in moisture & need to be warmed dry regularly.

 

[spudgun]

Bringing a rifle in and out during hunting season caused me to miss the biggest buck I have ever seen. 30 below temps on Saturday then brought the rifle in over night, next morning 40 below temps and went to shoot and all I got was a click when I pulled the trigger. Tried to open the bolt and it was frozen in place. Had to kick it open with my boots.

After all the banging, cussing, and yelling at it (the gun) the buck decided to go some where else where it was quiet.

Now I leave the gun in the cold until after hunt is over.

 

[6.5grendel]

Put the rifle in a case while still outside and cold and leave it in the case when you bring it in. Moisture won't condense on it then and it will warm up slowly. No problem.

This is exactly what I do. The cold metal hitting the warm air causes the condensation. When it's in a case it slowly warms up and prevents the condensation. Don't have to worry about oiling it down or cleaning it every time

 

[dthomas]

If it is 30 or 40 below i'm not going outside much less worried about bringing my rifle back in to a warm house.

 

[rayporter]

during elk season about 10 years ago we had rain the first day and then snow. temps dropped to single digits in town but i was camped at 10400 and who knows what it was in camp. when i got up in the morning i made coffee and took my rifle apart to thaw. it took quite while to thaw the bolt and trigger holding them over the fire on cooker and the guys laughed at me. i made sure it was working before i left camp. i got the last laugh when it fired and had meat.

leave it outside? not me.
it pays to check your gear.

 

[miningshawn]

Finally, I can be helpful.

My day job (what I do to afford more primers...) is surveying. In the course of my job I use total stations, auto-levels, and theodolites in every kind of weather excepting extreme heat. My job site is on the 68th parallel in Alaska.

In the winter (which is about 6 months here) we have to allow our instruments time to adjust to temperature or we will experience significant parallax error. The general rule of thumb is 2 minutes for every degree of temperature. Going from the office to the field on an average winter day is a temperature change of 80 to 100 degrees (from 70 to -25 typically). We bring the instrument out first thing and place it cased in the back of the truck. With luck it is parallax free by the time we need it.

Going inside is the same as going outside if we expect to use the instrument indoors. Going from cold to hot we also stand a chance of fogging the glass, but a quick wipe with a methanol pad (lens cleaner) takes care of that.

The quality of the instruments has never had us experience internal fogging unless the unit was dropped or otherwise abused. All of them are nitrogen filled, as are most quality scopes manufactured now.

When I am home in Montana I have also started to get in the habit of placing my scoped firearms in the back of the truck (cased of course) when going to the range in the winter. I will bring them inside without hesitation if I don't intend to use them in the next few hours. At hunting camp I lock them in the truck overnight.