Biathalon ammo for freezing temps?

[BlastersAreCool]

I've heard/ personally experienced 22lr performance in the precision department fall off noticeably once the temps begin to dip. I feel that's a well established thing. My question is how much more performance gain are shooters regaining with quality biathalon ammo? Can I expect (once I find the type of cold weather gun food my cz 455 pt likes) to achieve my usual 1moa @ 50y and just over an moa @ 100y above 40*F w/ a good lot of SK+ or is biathalon ammo going to still be below my expectations? I ask this because it seems that once you cross over into the biathalon stuff the cost climbs pretty quickly. Thanks for any of your guys feedback.
Location: MI
Blaster: CZ 455pt

 

[justin amateur]

The biathlon rated 22lr is intended for cold weather competition.
I've tried the Eley, Fiocchi, Lapua, SK biathlon variants and RWS R100.
All run about 30 to 50 fps hotter than the SV/Match cartridges in temps above 60° F.
Down at the freeze point they are intended to run at SV speeds, 1060-1090 fps.
Best results I ever obtained with 22lr came from a box of SK Biathlon Sport.
Luck of the production line lottery on that one.

50 at 200

80 fps ES and the calculator shows about 8 inches of vertical is to be expected. Looks like what you ended up with on target Rabid. You think the tuner can compensate for that much ES? Hmm, I never did cross reference the ballistic calcs, but makes some sense. Trouble is I don't have chrony...

www.rimfirecentral.com

50 at 200

I wonder what Thunderbolts or bulk Winchester 36 grain cphp's would do. They're bulk ammo... I could do 50 at 50/100/200 all from one carton. It's a wonder someone else hasn't tried it already. How bad could they be? Cost per round is cheap enough. :rolleyes: Uh-oh! :eek: Good thing I'm...

www.rimfirecentral.com

50 at 200

Same setup Large circular pattern is caused by bullet seating. ES is only 100 fps, not enough to create that much vertical. 100 fps would produce about 3 inches. Seating depths varied and roll a cartridge on a flat surface the bullet tips had a visible wobble about the axis of rotation. Not...

www.rimfirecentral.com

50 at 200

Jaia, I've been wondering if you have been reading the wind and holding off to compensate or if you use the same aiming point for all shots?

www.rimfirecentral.com

50 at 200

That target was shot vertical, not horizontal, dang picture!:confused:

www.rimfirecentral.com

 

[PAYDIRT]

My 455 hates cold weather, I'll. E watching this thread.

 

[BlastersAreCool]

justin amature thank you! Even though you are down in FL it still looks very promising! I think I'm going to look further into this! Thanks guys for your feedback sofar??

 

[Fig]

True dat. I also think that if you run Tenex or Eley Match you’re still going to be well off Just because it’s consistent. I’m ok with lower MV as long as it’s consistent!

 

[littlepod]

I stick my ammo in my pocket, load before the stage, leave mag in pocket. Shoot stage in 2 minutes... I don't think my ammo hits the freezing temps that quickly. I've been shooting in the 40's-60's with no real change in MV with my SK+, Center-X.

 

[BlastersAreCool]

Does anyone know of an online store that I can order biathalon ammo that has GREATER than one or two types in stock? I'm not seeing any places on ammo seek searches or hitting up some stores ammoseek suggests...

 

[justin amateur]

Graf and Sons shows 4 out of 5.
Eley, Lapua, Fiocchi and SK. No RWS.

 

[straightshooter1]

Does anyone know of an online store that I can order biathalon ammo that has GREATER than one or two types in stock? I'm not seeing any places on ammo seek searches or hitting up some stores ammoseek suggests...

Here's one: https://www.brunoshooters.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=rimfire_ammo

 

[Rover31]

The real problem with cold weather shooting is the barrel.
Yes true the ammo is a bit hotter the lube on the bullet is lighter weight but that is not where most problems are found.
Biathlon rifle barrels are “designed” or made for cold weather use. Anschutz has a process for treating the barrel so it is stable throughout the temp range.
I have had a couple of Izhmash biathlon rifles. One of them did not shoot well in cold temps. The other was immune to cold. All of the Anschutz biathlon rifles I have seen along with my daughters are not affected by the cold.
I have a Savage rifle that above 20f is a great shooter, below that, it’s a great club and that’s with any ammo biathlon or not.
I will say that in 10f or below we shoot Lapua Biathlon. Only just because, I honestly have not seen a difference with ammo. It’s in the barrels metal properties.

 

[Lesloan]

The real problem with cold weather shooting is the barrel.
Yes true the ammo is a bit hotter the lube on the bullet is lighter weight but that is not where most problems are found.
Biathlon rifle barrels are “designed” or made for cold weather use. Anschutz has a process for treating the barrel so it is stable throughout the temp range.
I have had a couple of Izhmash biathlon rifles. One of them did not shoot well in cold temps. The other was immune to cold. All of the Anschutz biathlon rifles I have seen along with my daughters are not affected by the cold.
I have a Savage rifle that above 20f is a great shooter, below that, it’s a great club and that’s with any ammo biathlon or not.
I will say that in 10f or below we shoot Lapua Biathlon. Only just because, I honestly have not seen a difference with ammo. It’s in the barrels metal properties.

Before this thread I sometimes wondered what it could be about biathlon ammo that made it shoot better in low temps. I still do. But now I also wonder what it could be about a rifle barrel that'd make it shoot better in the cold. Re the ammo, there must be something different to make it cost more than, say, Lapua Center-X. Is Lapua's biathlon considered match grade? From the price I'd assume so.

I should add that (a) I have no supporting data, but my scores seem to decline when the temp. hits somewhere around 40 deg. F, so I try to keep my ammo warm and (b) that I've never tried biathlon ammo.

 

[KAIFS]

It can get fairly brutal here in NE and Northern WI in the winters, with temps often -10F or lower (not including chill factor). As I hunt rabbits throughout a winter (both human and dog food) I did have challenges in both ammunition and rifle selection (platform)during extreme cold months. Rifle lube selection/choices were also something to consider...

This “brake fluid looking” lubricant is the best I have found for super cold weather and especially in semi-auto platforms (note, I do NOT run any of my weapons wet, ever).

Lapua Biathlon Extreme is what I settled for for my “extreme cold” hunting, just under 1050fps out of 20” target barrel. If temps are -10F or warmer- my preferred Federal HV ammo does just fine. I do have a 2” target (rabbit head) so extreme accuracy is not as important.
Barrels absolutely are NOT created equal for cold weather. My very best arctic cold 22lr shooting rifle is a CG63-22 Junior- yes, a Target rimfire version of a Swedish CG-63 target rifle in 6.5x55... super heavy and single shot(not to mention a diopter sight) so not ideal hunting or speed shooting rifle.
I also own several Target (Silhouette type) rifles by Anschutz and Walther all with heavy barrels. Do not laugh now, but a Romanian M69 trainer is actually second most accurate in extreme cold and outshoots silhouette rifles (pencil barrel too) at 100m.
While my primary rifles for hunting in 22lr are Sig Sauer 522-Target in ALL temperatures, your mileage may vary. With proper lubrication- Sig was the only (out of 4 tried) semi-auto which functioned 100% reliable and can harvest me rabbits (head shots only) from 20m-200m with exceptional accuracy (basically a MOA rig)...

 

[GBMaryland]

Used Lapua Biathalon Xtreme yesterday in 20F, and it was one of the best shooters of the test run.