12-04-2018, 11:27 PM
We build a lot of guns for LEOs in northern climates, including Alaska and (of course) northern MN (were in MN). As you can imagine, these guns freeze solid when stored in trunks and go through a repetitive freeze/thaw cycle when stored in the front of a cruiser (not an ideal scenario). Obviously failures of any kind are not an option for these guns.
Believe it or not but we actually degrease these guns prior to shipping and advise our customers to use degreaser in the winter months as well. Get the moving parts as clean and dry as possible (including the tail of the bolt, the rings, the inside of the carrier, and dont forget the buffer tube).
It sounds counterintuitive but it works great when the gun is properly prepped prior to winter. We advise new gas rings right away in the spring so they have some time to break in before running them dry.
Heres a quick overview on what we do to prep the gun. Hellbenders Guide covers parts of this very well so Ill just send you in that direction to start with.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Precision-Ri...AR10/4-42/
Id warn against making any adjustments to the stock buffer or spring though. In the cold, a little extra spring pressure wont hurt. For a similar reason I wouldnt turn the gas down too much either, at a minimum you should tune in the temps youre shooting in (our LEO guns dont use adjustable gas blocks so we tune with spring rates and buffers in these). The most important part in this guide is really the work to the bolt and carrier. Making sure that your chamber is cut correctly is going to be beneficial as well (especially if yours is on the tight side). In addition to HBs guide, we also make sure that both the upper and the buffer tube are free of any burrs or other irregularities that might catch or hang something up.
Once we have the gun prepped we follow that up with a pretty intense break in. Depending on where the gun is going and how it will be used, this will consist of as many as 500 rounds or as few as 100. We use various types of brass factory ammo and use more of a copper equilibrium process than a bench process when it comes to the shoot, clean, shoot, repeat process. Since these arent intended for extreme long range, we suggest going into the winter with the barrel reasonably clean and completely dry. During the break in process we keep the gun really wet, to the point that its almost dripping wet. You can use various oils for this but weve had the best luck with Militec-1. Weve found that the Militec-1 seems to absorb into the metals during this process (especially when the gun gets hot) and it conditions them to behave as if they were lubricated even after degreasing.
Im tapping this out on my phone so hopefully Ive mentioned everything, if not, the bulk of it is here. Weve had a ton of success with this process, even on guns that spend all winter frozen and experience temperatures well into negative extremes for prolonged periods of time. We had one customer in Alaska do a frozen torture test for us and didnt experience any sort of failure under normal circumstances. We pushed the issue in the end and had him bring a frozen gun inside until condensation started to build, then take it back outside and let it freeze. He experienced a FTF right off the bat (short stroke IIRC) and no further issues once he cleared the jam and proceeded. Obviously you shouldnt do this, once the gun is frozen youre better off leaving it that way until youre finished using it. We tell our LEOs to either keep the gun warm (warm house to warm car and vice versa) or frozen (keep it in the trunk). Taking a warm, dry gun out into the cold shouldnt cause an issue as it freezes. The reverse is true if you take a cold gun into the warmth. What you need to be concerned with is cold to warm to cold where freezing of condensation is possible (wet is bad, condensation or oil).
In your case it sounds like you could use a little polishing. Id concentrate on the bolt lugs (see above for the process) and the extractor. FWIW, we do not remove our extractor O-rings when the cold comes. They firm up a little but dont solidify like some cheap O-rings can. With the extractor face polished the O-ring doesnt cause any issues when chambering and it never hurts to help extraction a little in a defensive firearm.
Good luck!
Believe it or not but we actually degrease these guns prior to shipping and advise our customers to use degreaser in the winter months as well. Get the moving parts as clean and dry as possible (including the tail of the bolt, the rings, the inside of the carrier, and dont forget the buffer tube).
It sounds counterintuitive but it works great when the gun is properly prepped prior to winter. We advise new gas rings right away in the spring so they have some time to break in before running them dry.
Heres a quick overview on what we do to prep the gun. Hellbenders Guide covers parts of this very well so Ill just send you in that direction to start with.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Precision-Ri...AR10/4-42/
Id warn against making any adjustments to the stock buffer or spring though. In the cold, a little extra spring pressure wont hurt. For a similar reason I wouldnt turn the gas down too much either, at a minimum you should tune in the temps youre shooting in (our LEO guns dont use adjustable gas blocks so we tune with spring rates and buffers in these). The most important part in this guide is really the work to the bolt and carrier. Making sure that your chamber is cut correctly is going to be beneficial as well (especially if yours is on the tight side). In addition to HBs guide, we also make sure that both the upper and the buffer tube are free of any burrs or other irregularities that might catch or hang something up.
Once we have the gun prepped we follow that up with a pretty intense break in. Depending on where the gun is going and how it will be used, this will consist of as many as 500 rounds or as few as 100. We use various types of brass factory ammo and use more of a copper equilibrium process than a bench process when it comes to the shoot, clean, shoot, repeat process. Since these arent intended for extreme long range, we suggest going into the winter with the barrel reasonably clean and completely dry. During the break in process we keep the gun really wet, to the point that its almost dripping wet. You can use various oils for this but weve had the best luck with Militec-1. Weve found that the Militec-1 seems to absorb into the metals during this process (especially when the gun gets hot) and it conditions them to behave as if they were lubricated even after degreasing.
Im tapping this out on my phone so hopefully Ive mentioned everything, if not, the bulk of it is here. Weve had a ton of success with this process, even on guns that spend all winter frozen and experience temperatures well into negative extremes for prolonged periods of time. We had one customer in Alaska do a frozen torture test for us and didnt experience any sort of failure under normal circumstances. We pushed the issue in the end and had him bring a frozen gun inside until condensation started to build, then take it back outside and let it freeze. He experienced a FTF right off the bat (short stroke IIRC) and no further issues once he cleared the jam and proceeded. Obviously you shouldnt do this, once the gun is frozen youre better off leaving it that way until youre finished using it. We tell our LEOs to either keep the gun warm (warm house to warm car and vice versa) or frozen (keep it in the trunk). Taking a warm, dry gun out into the cold shouldnt cause an issue as it freezes. The reverse is true if you take a cold gun into the warmth. What you need to be concerned with is cold to warm to cold where freezing of condensation is possible (wet is bad, condensation or oil).
In your case it sounds like you could use a little polishing. Id concentrate on the bolt lugs (see above for the process) and the extractor. FWIW, we do not remove our extractor O-rings when the cold comes. They firm up a little but dont solidify like some cheap O-rings can. With the extractor face polished the O-ring doesnt cause any issues when chambering and it never hurts to help extraction a little in a defensive firearm.
Good luck!