Does anyone sell it?  Not seeing it on Sako's site.

Aaannnnnd, my afternoon just got better:



Chosin Documentary

The more recent experience I have is when our Club held its Annual "Bastogne Bulge" Match on the Sunday nearest Christmas (depends on how the date falls).

Using M1 Garand rifles or M1 carbines (the only two weapons allowed), the purpose of the shoot is, first, to honor our WW2 vets of the Battle of the Bulge on a day likely to be close - weather-wise  - to their conditions, ... and secondarily to "sort of" test the shooter and his Garand or carbine in cold weather conditions.

So while the temps were not Frozen Chosin cold, the range thermometer this year was indeed smack on ZERO when we started firing the first string, not including the wind chill.  (Hazarding a guess, I'd say 'felt' temp was maybe   - 5  or  - 10. The wind wasn't bad).

We shoot the match in 3 stages:  20-rds prone;  20-rds sitting, kneeling, or squatting (your choice);  and 20-rds standing (off-hand). Target are checked & patched between stages.

Then, for whoever is up for it, we do some informal Rattle-Battle type shooting on the fly, ... at least until someone yells, "Hey dudes!  The coffee and hot chocolates are ready!

Then everyone gathers up their rifles and gear, stuffs them into their vehicles, and we all head down to the oh-so-warm-n-cozy Club house where the gas-powered fireplace is running full out ...

How does Marvel Mystery Oil behave in low temps?  I'm thinking it might be a decent cold-weather lube.

The suggestions and comments in this thread got me curious, so I ordered a tube of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Lubriplate-Low-temp-Multi-purpose-Temperature-Grease/dp/B000P1NT84

Description sez:

Will test it out on a couple of my "beater" rifles  -  one a bolt, the other an autoloader. I'll leave them outside for a few days during the next cold snap, and then hit the range.

It works, but if you can afford an actual gun-specific synthetic you can get the same results without having to breathe in a bunch of the additives they put in motor oil.

Most people's problems with cold weather and guns will consist of bringing cold weapons into a heated shelter.   They'll freeze solid from condensation when you take them back outside.   If it's cold enough ( like 0 F ) they'll even freeze *inside* in short order, because the metal itself takes so long to warm back up above freezing.

Until recently the Canadian ranger units were still using the Lee Enfield No 4 as their issue rifle. The ranger units operate in Canada's northern regions. The Canadian military recently began replacing the Lee Enfields with a new bolt action rifle in .308 Win. The rangers were apparently quite satisfied with the Enfields, but the supply of spare parts eventually dried up and the replacement rifle project was funded.

I love the old Lee Enfields and was fortunate to acquire a pair of brand new No. 4 MK2 rifles back in the late 1980's after the UK (or was it Ireland) began selling off brand new rifles that were released from Nato emergency war stocks.

Both of my rifles were made in 1954 and were still in the original arsenal wrapping. At that time sealed ammo cans of Winchester made .303 ball (overruns from a DOD contract) were available and cheap. I took advantage of that and still have several thousand rounds stashed away.

I cannot think of a better rifle for general survival purposes in a cold weather climate. The 10rd magazine and a full power .30 caliber cartridge seem ideal for both personal protection and hunting. I love the AR platform, but if I were operating in cold weather especially where bear contact was a possibility, my choice is the Enfield.

Link to article about the Canadian Ranger replacement rifle for those who are interested.

http://www.sadefensejournal.com/wp/?p=3808

Dude,  awesome post.

I couldn't agree more, having had a few No.4s myself back in the day, along with an ass-ton of mil-surp .303 Brit.

Stupidly sold them off about 10yrs ago to fund other projects.

Back in 2001 while in cold weather training and then later in Norway our A2's ran just fine (we didn't shoot them a ton though). It was cold enough a few times our M240G's hiccuped a few times, a change in the gas setting fixed that though. We were never issued LAW so we made to with CLP.

Not an exhaustive test by any means but it's about the only time I've ever been in that much cold and snow where I couldn't stop whenever I needed to clean my guns.

Interesting reading about them.  They use '06 ball and 10mm for polar bears.

Sirius 1917 details

Thanks for that link!   Awesome info there.

With any oil you want to understand their "pour point" and not necessarily their "freeze point".

Marvels is -65 degrees which is the same as BreakFree CLP.

I've always used CLP or motor oil and until recently never had an issue. I used some Penzoil synthetic (10w-30) for the last year or so with no issue, but had a 6920 out in the mountains and snow shooting and had immediate failure after one round. It was probably 15 deg with snow all over, fired once, failed with different ammo after that. I was getting primer strikes but not enough to ignite wolf or rem 223.

Couldn't figure out and thought my SSA was bad, but once I pulled it apart, I had ton of oil around the firing pin which I think thickened up and slowed the pin down (don't know why it worked once, but maybe the gas also helped clog things up). After cleaning the bolt and pin of oil it would fire. I'm going to change lube and make sure I keep the oil out of the firing pin for now.