what's your bad/cold weather rifle?

[351 power]

good idea for a test. will try my p-14

[one eye joe]

Mine's a "Twede" - '98 Mauser with a '96 barrel screwed in. Put it in a Ramline stock and topped it with a 2-7 Vortex Viper scope. Pretty cheap set up, so I don't worry too much about using it in weather.

[coalcifer]

No matter what the weather, I have used the same rifle for big game hunting since 1965.  It has been in sub freezing weather, rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain and the heat of summer.  Without fail it always worked.  It is a Winchester 88 in .284 and I do have a spare original stock, still in the box, for it.  I have used other guns, but this is the one I always choose.

[oneoldsap]

                              I have a Teflon-Moly coated 760 Rem. in .358 Win. w/ 20" barrel . It wears a 1.5-4.5 Weaver wideview in a Weaver pivot mount . Totally weatherproof and totally reliable . I have a rapid fire rifle that I have yet to have to shoot twice at a Deer or Moose ! Bang Flop !

[OldSchoolRanger]

  About 10 years ago, I did a test, for my own curiosity.... I lived in no. Wisc. at the time, it was late Dec. after deer season.  I was curious as to what rifles would fire in extreme cold... The test:   I completly cleaned and de-oiled every rifle that I owned,.... made up some  rounds with only the primer in it..... set all the rifles outside in the cold, ( it got down to  -17 F that night...) next morning I went out and picked up each rifle, released the safety, and pulled the trigger... I won't go into details of the rifles that failed, but only  1  went off (fired the primer) that was a Remington 742 in '06 cal.   Not one of my fancy-schmancy bolt actions or lever would fire until I re-cocked them and pulled the trigger !!  Today I hunt with other than that Remington, but I now hunt in shirt-sleeve weather out west.  If I ever go back to the bitter cold of the north woods, I will depend on my (de-oiled) remington.  PS.. a remington 700 bolt also failed in that test.. so I am not 'brand-bashing'  Bob

Please don't consider this as a knock, but did you take apart the bolt & degrease that too? If not, I can see why the Rem. 700 failed, the firing pin probably froze in the bolt.

I use a Remington 788 in .308Win., if it's raining before I go out hunting, otherwise, I've been using a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 7x57Mauser, for the last 10 years. Both are tackdrivers.

[ardeekay]

Yes...(on the bolt..)  once, years ago, I had a brand new Rem 788, found filings and crud inside the bolt.  Another time I used a friends Rem. 721 and it failed in november's deer season.. I found that he always oiled the rifle, and put it away.. over the years the oil got cruddy, and it would fire in warm weather, but failed in the cold..  Since then I always take a newly aquired rifle, either disassemble the bolt, or ( in the case of one that I don't care to dissasemble..like a semi auto) strip it down to the metal, and soak it in a pan of old gasoline, and blow it out with a air hose blower, then only use a light synth. oil for storage.  Like I said previoulsly, I cleaned and de-oiled all of them in the test.  I just picked up a used vanguard that had crud down inside the bolt housing, it didn't seem to affect the fall of the pin... but its clean now.

[lucky guy]

Coyote hunter,
What is the purpose of the blue tape on the barrel?

Levi

A couple wraps of blue tape around the barrel tune the harmonics of the barrel, cut the group size in half and add 200fps to the bullet.  That, plus it makes the rifle and bearer invisible to the elk...


Seriously, I peel an inch or so off and cover the muzzle when it is raining or snowing or the trees are dripping.  Keeps stuff out of the barrel.  The hardest stalk I ever did included 5-1/2 to 6 hours of watching and waiting and a final crawl of 100 yards on my back, head first, through sage and cactus  and about 3” of fresh snow.   When I sat up to take the shot I got snow in the barrel.  By the time I got it cleared with sage twigs and a small piece of paper towel from my pocket, shooting light was almost over and the elk had started to move again.  Had just a few seconds to pick my shot and take it.  Things could have been worse, as I got a nice 6x5, but a little tape would have been a big help.  I’ve taped the barrels ever since when conditions suggested doing so.  The tape blows off without affecting accuracy, or so I’m told, but  I fold the end over so I have something I can easily grab and take it off before the shot.  Masking tape adheres much better in the cold than electricians tape, which I used to use, and the blue is more visible than the tan.

Have you seen the little black barrel condoms that Birchwood Casey sells?  Pretty cool, a couple bucks for 20 or so. 

On which rifle, I mostly hunt the Cascades and Ochocos in Oregon where it can rain or snow most anytime during big game season, all the rifles are foul weather rifles.

[LanceR]

I'm a little late to the conversation but I use the same firearms I use in good weather.

When in a "shotgun only" area I use a 20 ga. Savage 220 with a Sightron SII Big Sky 3-9x42 scope.  My load is Federal Premium 3" with a Tipped  Barnes 273 grain Expander.  I had used a 12 ga. 210F for years and bought the 220 as soon as they came out.

For muzzleloading I use a Savage 10ML II .50 caliber rifle with stainless metal and a laminate stock.  Same scope as above.  I use either a 300 grain non-magnum Hornady XTP or a 275 grain Barnes XPB ahead of around 44 grains of Accurate 5744.

For centerfire hunting of deer and black bear I use a CZ 550 full stocked .308 with a Burris Euro Diamond 1.5-6x40 scope.  If I'm in a deer only area I load 165 grain Sierra GameKings and in a deer/black bear area I load a batch of Barnes 168 grain Tipped TSXs.  The zeros and trajectories are identical to within an inch to over 250 yards.

As others have written, I don't have problems with the blued steel and walnut CZ.  It had the barrel channel and action inletting sealed from the factory.  Routine cleaning and oiling has kept the metal blemish free.

I hunt in Upstate NY and, especially when in the Adirondacks, it can get awfully cold.  I use a liberal coat of a wide temperature range grease on my bolts with no issues.  The stuff keeps the water and ice out and stays slippery at very low temperatures.  It was originally formulated as an aircraft instrument grease.

I cut the finger and thumb tips off a couple pair of latex gloves each year and keep them in a small zippie bag in my pack.  That gives me an assortment of various sizes of shoot through muzzle covers for really ugly weather.  The pinkie tip are likely not small enough for most centerfire rifle but the CZ has a hooded front sight so they stay on OK.  The savages have fat enough barrels that there is no issue.

Once it gets cold I leave the firearms out in the mud room so they don't sweat when I bring them in or melt falling snow when I take them outside.  Since we own a farm in very good hunting country my hunting trips usually start by walking out the kitchen door and peeking around the barn....

Lance

[parkergunshop]

My favorite is a .338 Winchester Mag, built on 1914 Enfield (P14) action with a 24 inch number 2 1/2 Shaw Barrel parkerized and in a MPI synthetic stock with a 50 M/M Leupold 3x9 Scope. 

For lighter stuff  a .257 Ackley Improved on a Santa Barbara Mauser action with a 22 inch Shaw Barrel, parkerized and in a MPI synthetic stock with a Lyman 4X scope.  This rifle weighs just over 7 pounds with scope.

For anything else a .308 Winchester on a small ring short action Mauser action with a Remington Factory .308 barrel refitted and parkerized in a Bell & Carson Stock with a Lyman 3X scope with a post and crosshair.