Coldest temp you have ever shot in a match?

[Larry (Omaha)]

Inside a nice toasty warm home looking out at the snow, I had a memory pop into my head. In my early years ( the young and dumb ones) of shooting muzzleloaders, a club member invited some friends to stop over to shoot on his acreage. It was -13 below and it was the first time I experienced my spit patching getting totally frozen. It was a short hoot as we did not last long, but I will never forget it. After the shooting, his wife invited us all in to their 1910 vintage old home. The parlor stove was piping hot along with the wood burning cook stove in the kitchen. She served us hot chocolate as we warmed our frozen hands and bodies.
Now: Tell us any freezing shooting experience you have had.

 

[FishDFly]

Cannot compete with your temperature, nor do I wish to.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I too have shot when my spit patch froze before I could seat the ball. The temperature was single digits back then. Like to think I am older and wiser now.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Cannot compete with your temperature, nor do I wish to.

Yes, but I do believe you are a lot smarter than I was then. Will not happen at my age now!!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Not really sure how cold, BUT when I inhaled at one match, I could feel the hair in my nose sorta freeze up....

When I hocked a loogie ..., the loogie froze solid before it hit the ground and I'm 5' 10"

LD,

 

[mooman76]

Not a match but have shot when it was 20 below. In AK you have to keep doing things, even when it is real cold or you do nothing. Gotta keep your sanity some how.

 

[Grimord]

Worse I ever experienced was a primitive biathlon shoot when the temp was 6 degrees above zero and there was a 30MPH wind. I saw four people break ram rods that day, and quite a few balls stuck 1/2 way down the barrel due to the patch lube freezing to the bore.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Worse I ever experienced was a primitive biathlon shoot when the temp was 6 degrees above zero and there was a 30MPH wind. I saw four people break ram rods that day, and quite a few balls stuck 1/2 way down the barrel due to the patch lube freezing to the bore.

Interesting! I noticed an extra slippery feeling when loading. Once I got the flat frozen patching to fold into the muzzle.

 

[rich pierce]

I was shooting today at 8 degrees. Used mink oil patches. Found they also work for starting fire. Keeps a nice flame going a couple minutes to help a fire get started.

 

[S.Kenton]

Not so much cold as there was 2 foot of snow on the ground at our match. We shoveled our way to the paper targets and some of the guys got thier trucks stuck on the way to woods. That was about 15 yrs ago. More recently I was out hunting during Muzzeloading season with my brother, now THAT was a cold day. I took a shot at a coyote and hit him, went to check for blood and couldn’t find any. I hate hunting in cold weather....

 

[billraby]

I went camping when it was -60 degrees. But no shooting. Made a igloo on a frozen lake.

 

[LongWalker]

Did a trade gun match at -25F once. You really can shoot those things with mittens on.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Shot at the range a week ago it was -12F. Was there for a couple of hours.

 

[tenngun]

I think +2 was the coldest for a compilation, was at an event where it got to -10 at night, hunted at -10 camped out in Wyoming it was cold enough that my pint of Yukon Jack froze.

 

[SDSmlf]

When I lived in Upstate New York shot at -20°F or so and learned the shortfalls of things like Borebutter and spit patch. Had best luck with -40° rated windshield wiper fluid for patch lube. Only ‘matches’ I shot at low temperatures (-15°F and a bit lower) were 3D archery. Most of my knocks broke as I released the string because of the cold. Guess that’s a warmer weather game.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Anything below -20 sure takes the fun out of it.

 

[McClura]

I was invited to a Beef Shoot north of Amarillo, TX in early November, 1983. Left OKC about noon on Thursday, 55°, drove to Amarillo and got a room that night. Got up the next and it was about 50. Went to the range just North of town and started the shoot. By the end of the day it was in the high 40's. Saturday am was 38° and very gray skies with some North wind. By noon it was snowing in our faces and 33°. Finished the match, won some beef and went to the hotel for a nap and a warm meal. After the nap I woke and it was snowing like crazy. I packed, stopped and got a thermos of coffee, some snacks and purchased another thermos and filled it with Hot Chocolate. When I hit I-40 headed east they were closing the roads behind me all the way to about 40 miles out of Oklahoma City. I had a nice K5 Blazer then, 36" tires and 2" lift with hopped up engine. I busted drifts all the way home. I don't think or it didn't seem like my heater got very hot all the way home. Had to wear some insulated coveralls and gloves. That was the craziest cold weather I have ever shot in. Dang Blazer looked like a snow ball when I pulled in to the house that morning.

 

[Bighorserider]

It wasn't-13, but I did a Seneca run on snowshoes once with the Penobscot Muzzleloaders in Maine once. It was cold enough that you needed snowshoes.

 

[Eterry]

Not cold but i used to shoot ppc with a group of veterans, a tank commander from Korea was the range master. You know the drill..."if it ain't raining we ain't training " manure.

One spring we were shooting near Dye Mound Tx and it came up a bad cloud... if you ain't from Texas that means it was tornado weather. The twister hit the ground about a quarter mile away, we could see debris and hear trees crashing. The range master refused to call a cease fire, I shot in the middle of it, getting rained and hailed on.

The Specialty prize was a fifth of Jim Beam... we left the empty bottle at the gate on our way out.

 

[Rudyard]

Well if I seem to have of this written before . I was so keen to shoot . So a work mate drove me to a quarry. I set up a target at 80 yards and proceeded to shoot my 450 military match rifle made from an old Martini gov't barrel. I could not blow down the barrel and the capping got progresivly harder even the top hat size . I soon reached a point where I couldn't grasp the stock, I fired 8 shots then recovered my target & scuttling into his warm car the tempreture was 46 below not considering the wind chill .This was Nr Mackenzie BC in 1971 I still have the rifle & target and the pair of mitts I tried to use . 70 odd degrees of frost wasn't ideal but we only got alternate Sundays . We thought nothing of working ( Building the township) in 20 below it being dry not the miserable freezing damp that motivated my wanderings from my native Yorkshire .
Regards Rudyard