Gun oil for freezing conditions

[shotgun sam]

Last night I was asked what gun oil I recommend for use in freezing conditions to make sure the action does not freeze up. I have never had this problem using Bisley gun oil but in some Countries this must be a problem.
Having been in Canada during the summer visiting my wife’s relations on the deck they had a thermometer which went down to -70 Celsius and up to 50 Celsius and last winter the lowest reading they had was -50 Celsius.
Does anyone know what sort of gun oil they would use in those conditions.

[WelshShooter]

Have a look at Froglube. Although it's not an oil it seems as though it would do the trick for you.

[Chuck]

My mate in the US uses a fine synthetic winter grade motor oil that woks fine, Mobil I think...

[Blu]

Well it gets really cold here, as cold as Canada and during the winter months if I venture out with a rifle I use G-96 Gun treatment. It's good down to -65C

[Blu]

Just had a read on the G96 can, it's good down to -50 and not -65, my bad.

[snayperskaya]

Glorious Comrades of the Red Army quite often used ATF on their AKs/RPKs/PKMs etc, good to at least -50 and cheap.

[Lex]

I've read about mixtures of 1/4 ATF and 3/4 synthetic oil for extreme cold conditions. They use Archoil CLP too. The general advise was to enlarge the firing pin hole by 0.5mm and to keep the firing pin clean of grease and dust since it was the part most prone to freezing.

[Jenks]

Back in the sixties I was attached to the Somerset and Cornwall light infantry which was at that time a winter warfare battalion. I went with a company of them them to Wainwright Alberta, as unit armourer. I recall that prior to going out on exercise it was my job to remove any vestige of grease or oil from the weapons. Rifle LIAI (SLR). Out in the field when under canvas, rifles were not to be taken into tents for fear that the temperature would go above zero (fat chance) and moisture might condense on the cold metal causing the action of mechanism to freeze. I believe (not sure) that the degreasing agent was a form of Naphtha. Perhaps in those days the utlra low temperature oil/ grease wasn't available. The other job was to remove and stow the trigger guard into the pistol grip to allow the rifle to be fired with bulky mittens on. I must say it did make the rifle look highly prone to accidental discharge. Fortunately the only time ball ammunition was used, was in a highly controlled range environment. That was my first encounter with electric/electronic targets.


Jenks

[Gundoc]

We used some yank stuff in Bosnia after standard rifle oil turned to mush and froze the action.

Froglube now do a cold weather specific variant, which I've not tried, I am however a big fan of the normal stuff. Even the wife doesn't complain too much, smells a bit like tcp which is preferable to ox24 apparently.. Especially in the dining room...

[Sim G]

I have friends in Norway who run their guns dry in the winter.... Which makes a lot of sense. Personally, I've never been out when it's that cold...