Shooting in the frozen North

[Airgun-hobbyist]

I'd like to get out in the dead of winter to hunt and would like to hear your experiences shooting in the freezing cold.  Has anyone ever done extensive shooting or hunting in well below freezing temperatures?  How did this effect the gun as far as holding air?  Ever have an o-ring fail because of the cold?  And, did freezing temperatures effect accuracy at all (providing that you were already sighted in with cold weather)?

[Wayne52]

The only thing that I've ever had fail in the freezing weather was a TKO (LDC) for my Prod, the gun was doing really great power with and SS valve in it and the TKO blew apart, I had to wait for the snow to melt before I was able to recover the TKO parts, I ended up getting Rocker1 to make a new one for it that was tested on a 60fpe Mrod for pressures and it's never fail since.  The TKO was assembled by press fittings only and is the reason that it came apart due to the contraction of the metal in it.    I've never had an o ring fail in the freezing weather though.

[rkr]

One thing to remember is that the pressure in your gun will drop quite a lot when you take it outside. It would be best to have a tank outside and re-fill from that after the gun has cooled down to outside temperature. 

[Back_Roads]

 I have been out in temps to -10, that's all my old body can take fo9r any length of time. Guns various brands have done well. As mentioned keep an eye on fill pressures they can drop as much as 500 PSI from warm house to frigid outdoors.

[Airgun-hobbyist]

Thanks for the input here.  Sounds like o-rings are a non-issue.  I was wondering what the pressure drop might be like if going from warm to very cold.  500 psi on an unregulated gun would be a pretty good change in point of impact.  I'm thinking that a small tank or hand pump is in order to help regulate the pressure based on temperature. 

[JeffB1961]

so if we top off outside in very cold weather and don't shoot anything i'm guessing we need to degass a little or shoot down a few hundred psi before taking the gun back inside ?

[Airgun-hobbyist]

so if we top off outside in very cold weather and don't shoot anything i'm guessing we need to degass a little or shoot down a few hundred psi before taking the gun back inside ?

Yes, degassing it would be wise if you are normally filling to the gun's maximum fill pressure.  A shot or two would do this and verify scope settings and point of impact.  If you only fill the air reservoir to a lower pressure to regulate a shot bell curve then the build up of pressure when it warms would not be an issue for the gun itself, but it seems like it would be a faster fps first or second shot so that might be off high or low depending on the gun.

[Back_Roads]

 I may add heavy lubes on the hammer can cause FPS issues, I use dry lubes there.