Cold weather
 

I plan to go hunting for the first time next week. I don’t care about the weather, I have one of those tiny blinds with the built in chair, so wind should not be a huge issue. I will dress for the weather and can start a fire in the protected bush if needed. But I have one question; does the cold weather have any effect on the rifle or the scope? I have shot it at the range in winter, but if this weather sticks around it is considerably colder than it ever was when I was practicing. Anything I need to watch for?
Thanks

If you haven't already done it, take the bolt apart, and degrease the internals, or the grease can freeze.

Will do!
Thanks.

Like e11 said, degrease bolt, safety and trigger. And when the prey comes by, breathe off to the side, avoiding the scope lens.

I was wondering about fogging up optics in cold weather. Thanks for the tip!

Optics shouldn't fog up when they get cold. The exception is when you bring them in from the cold to a warm environment

Then it is a matter of cleaning off the lens.
If a scope or binoculars are fogged up servicing is needed.
Cat

Agree with the degreasing - at best a dry lube if needed.

Still recall a -40 elk hunt where my poor hunting partner's rifle froze up... Elk in front of him and *click*

Balistol, use this to lubricate your rifles and you will never have it frozen. This stuff is awesome!

I use a light film of synthetic oil on my fingers, and then wipe over the firing pin. It won't freeze, and it prevents corrosion. The factories sometimes have big gobs of grease in the bolt that freeze and stop the firing pin from falling normally. I flush my triggers with lighter fluid and have never had an issue.

I had bought a used sako 243. 579 and had a hang fire in the cold as the previous owner had oil/ solvent in the trigger. I should have checked , cost me a nice whitetail. Hunting partner had is win 70 misfire in the cold. Washed out bolt body and firing pin with white gas and he got a deer the next day

At -38°C I had trouble with a Zeiss scope. I could not turn the magnification ring or adjust the parallax. I even tried bare handed and they just would not turn. This was on my varmint rifle and I missed a chance at a coyote over it. I had the magnification on 25x from a previous shoot and could not find the coyote looking through the scope and the FOV was blurry because of the previous parallax setting.