I'm headed to Kyrgystan this November for Marco Polo. Temperatures I'm told can go below zero F. I'm not so concerned about lube getting thick (I'll use dry lube)as I am about condensation. However, I would appreciate help from anyone who's been there.

Some type of dry lube or a good synthetic is waht you need. I also take my bolt apart and clean with alchol or brake/carb cleaner, then lube. Other parts of gun can malfuntion with cold(safeties, trigger assemblies come to mind) but in my ecperience the culprit is normally the bolt.

When I go on overnite hunts in cold weather I leave my gun outside to keep it cold. The worst thing you can do is bring it inside a warm tent/building after it has been cold and then go out and try to shoot....that will almost always result in problems, no matter what you lube it with! Once you get you gun cold(in the teens of lower F) I would leave it cold, if possible, until you are done shooting. If you do bring it inside and it frosts up, sweats, you need to totally go through it again and relube after drying it out before you try to shoot(lessons learned to hard way!).

YMMV, but I hope I helped and didn't confuse you.

-phil

quote:

Originally posted by Brice:
I'm headed to Kyrgystan this November for Marco Polo. Temperatures I'm told can go below zero F. I'm not so concerned about lube getting thick (I'll use dry lube)as I am about condensation. However, I would appreciate help from anyone who's been there.

Best lube is sperm whale oil if you could ever find any, my gunsmith used to use it to lubricate the internals S&W revolvers and other firearms.I always carry Break Free with me on hunts,had a Sako 06 hangfire on a cool mtn morning hunt when I attempted to shoot a blacktail the misfires were from the congealed lube in the bolt, fixed it with BF now before hunts I put either BF or a special light weight lube in the bolt and work it a few times.