Hiking downrange for shooting drills at unknown distances.
Introduction
A couple years ago I was able to take a High Angle Rifle Training (HART) course at Thunder Ranch. The HART course focuses on long range shooting from awkward field positions and angles.
During this course we were hit with a surprise snowstorm and sustained cold temperatures over the entire period. It gave shooters a chance to see how their gear performed in less than optimal conditions.
This write-up is not about the course (which was great in all aspects). Rather, it’s about what gear can do in winter conditions. The first part is on my Sako TRG, but it also discusses gear failures I saw and some takeaways from operating in winter weather. I hope you find this summary useful.
My Equipment
Sako TRG-22 Rifle
NightForce F1 Scope with Mil-Dot Reticle
Federal Gold Medal Match 175 Ammo
USGI Sling
Other Shooter’s Equipment
4 - Remington 700s (standard and custom)
1 - Savage (don't recall model of bolt rifle)
1 - Accuracy International Arctic Warfare
1 - Noveske (Unknown model and caliber. This was a test rifle that was not used the entire course.)
For this course, I had my Sako TRG-22, which I moved to from my basic Remington 700P when pursuing long range rifle skills. The Sako TRG-22 is purpose built precision rifle. Out of the box it is sub 0.5MOA and I routinely can shoot it under 0.3MOA. More importantly than shooting groups though, the Sako TRG is accurate and reliable in all weather and all conditions I’ve taken it in.
A Winter Storm
On the second day of the course, we woke up to temps in the 20s and the beginning of snow. By the time we got to the range the wind was gusting 10-20 MPH and snow was starting to come down. A short time later, the snow was really starting to kick into high gear and gusts were in excess of 20MPH. The snow and wind were hammering our gear.
I made no attempt to cover my rifle. Instead, like the other students, I let it get a full dose of Mother Nature to see what would happen. I did make sure to cover the scope glass though when I was off the gun with the generic NightForce bikini cover (as this is what I would normally do even when conditions were fine).
The Sako’s First Taste of Snow
Observations on the Sako TRG-22
Our rifles were caked with snow. When you shot, the snow melted. When it melted the water went into gun actions and magazines. When the guns cooled, the water turned back to ice. This process repeated as we fired, then stood down off the rifles between strings. Snow, melt, freeze. Snow, melt, freeze. Deeper and deeper the water got into the rifles and then freeze.
So we now get to see if the Finns that designed my Sako TRG thought of these things.
Naturally, they did. It's Finland, not Hawaii and the Finns are use to bad winters and shooting. I can say that the spirit of Simo Häyhä lives on in the Sako TRG.
Bolt and Bolt Handle
First of all the bolt did get ice all over it but still worked fine. The slick sides of the bolt body, which I had covered with CLP, did not collect any snow or ice. The bolt simply scraped anything off as it operated. The bolt cycled fine, but earlier it was slow for a round as a bunch of ice was covering the ejection port at one point. Otherwise, no problems and it still worked smoothly. The ice just broke off the bolt when I cycled it and the TRG didn’t seem to care. Ejection was consistent and reliable.
The TRG bolt tolerances are tight enough so that ice really can't get into the action in a serious amount and get a strong hold on things. Yet the bolt is also loose enough that larger debris cannot enter and jam it up. The slick sides of the bolt (especially when coated with CLP) do not allow anything to stick to it that can't be freed up by operating the handle. The enclosed action (discussed below) also plays a critical part in why this rifle is so reliable.
The bolt handle is metal with a plastic bulb on the end. The plastic bulb doesn’t get cold and even with bare hands it was manageable. This is intentional on the part of the design.
I did notice some ice being packed into the area beneath the handle on the receiver when the bolt was closed. However, it was never enough to keep the rifle from going into battery. I scraped it out every now and then with the tip of a bullet just to be safe.
Enclosed Action, Bolt Spring and a Light Strike Primer
The enclosed TRG action kept a lot of snow and ice out of the works. This is a critical feature because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you can keep debris from collecting around the lugs of a weapon, it will have fewer problems. I feel that the angled lugs of the TRG bolt also offer a lot for the reliability of the weapon. They tend to not want to pack debris into the lug engagement areas around the breech. The bolt therefore has a very reliable lockup when in bad conditions and exposed to a lot of dirt, ice, etc. My TRG has never had a bolt malfunction after thousands of rounds in either good or bad weather.
After about 30 minutes the Sako is caked with snow. Ice formed on the rear of the bolt causing a minor malfunction.
I did have one light strike on a primer and it did not fire. I thought this was going to happen because when I got behind the weapon I saw a big blob of ice formed around the rear of the bolt where the firing pin mechanism is exposed (same as on other rifles). The exposed pin provides a tactile/visual indicator of a cocked weapon. However the downside is it is exposed to the elements instead of protected in the bolt shroud.
I pulled the trigger and the firing pin spring broke the ice, but the round did not fire. I could tell the pin didn't hit hard. I just cycled the action and it worked fine from then on the rest of the day. The mis-fired cartridge showed a primer dimple, but it was perhaps half as deep as normal. This was the only malfunction the rifle had the entire course.
But I now understand something about the Sako. When I was taking apart the bolt before I told myself "This spring is very strong, I wonder why they did that?" Well, that strong spring will slam that firing pin forward even if covered in ice or really gunked up.
Safety
The safety on the TRG is inside the trigger guard and has always been a little delicate to me (supposedly fixed in the 2013 version?). I felt the Sako safety getting "sticky" (maybe stiffer is the right word?) but it worked fine all day and never caused any problems. I was wearing gloves so it may have just been how my fingers were feeling things. However the safety of the Sako is in the trigger guard similar to the Garand/M1A/M14. I didn't have any issues, but I could see how having on big bulky gloves would make operating it without hitting the trigger tricky.
Then again, the exposed safety of the Remington 700 actions up top of the receiver was an open invitation for ice and snow to enter the trigger assembly (and this is what happened in other rifles). I think I prefer Sako's safety location now that I've been through some very bad weather with it. The safety is better protected from the weather being inside the trigger guard vs. on top of the receiver. It is harder for water to enter the Sako TRG action from above than the Remington 700s due to its design.
Trigger
The trigger worked fine all day even with a bunch of wind, ice and snow whipping all through it. It broke just as crisp as always and trigger pull weight was consistent. The trigger did not change with the wild temperature swings either. The Sako TRG trigger is excellent and the fact that it worked all day with the same crisp break in winter ice conditions speaks a lot about the engineering that went into it.
Accuracy
The gun remained accurate all day even in cold temps. I noticed no change in performance. It remained sub 0.5MOA on paper and steel targets even with temperature swings.
Magazines
The magazines fed smoothly all day even when I left a couple out by accident and they had a lot of snow blown into them. One magazine was caked with snow and slightly froze inside the stock magazine well, but a quick tug on the pins protruding from the magazine yanked it right out. The pins are there on purpose to allow sticking magazines to be taken out easily.
Downrange. The Rifle Has Now Re-Cooled and is Good and Frozen.
Stock
The stock was great. The cheek riser is made of composite instead of metal so it is not cold on your face in winter weather. Yes, I can now confirm that the stock is not cold when on your face in the middle of a raging snowstorm with freezing temps. Any rifle with a metal cheek riser, or even mostly metal stock, would have been very cold in terms of rifle handling. The TRG composite stock was very comfortable even with bare hands in the cold.
Nightforce F1 Scope
The scope worked fine during the course. It got absolutely soaked and frozen and soaked and frozen again.
The turrets markings were coated in windblown snow and ice. I just knocked the ice off the turrets so I could see the elevation marks and all worked fine. Turrets turned smoothly and remained accurate all day. I didn't notice the cold temps affecting the turning. The rear ocular lens was getting hammered with wind blown snow all day when I was using the scope. I would simply wipe it away with my glove and keep on shooting. The front objective had the sunshade attached and was facing away from the wind and actually stayed (relatively) dry. I saw no damage to the lens coatings when I cleaned the scope back in the shop. They look as if nothing had happened to them.
NightForce Rotating Ocular Magnification Adjustment
NightForce says they use the entire rotating rear ocular for magnification adjustment because it is easier to handle with gloves in cold weather. I can say it was pretty easy. When my fingers were numb it was simple to just grab the entire thing and turn it. I saw other shooters fussing with their magnification rings that were smaller. I think the Night Force was faster to adjust so I've now made peace with the ocular magnification adjustment even though I can't use my flip up caps on the scope like other brands. I also think the Bikini covers make a better weather-tight seal anyway.
High Magnification Not Needed
White out conditions were present at times. Often engaging targets past 300-400 yards was impossible simply because you couldn't see them. Higher magnification in the snow would often make things worse. I found that when the snow was really whipping I had a better view under low power (3-5X) than 15X power. High power made the white out worse and made finding targets difficult, as they'd fade in and out of view. You need to dial back the power.
Sako TRG-22 and NightForce F1 Conclusions
Overall the Sako and NightForce worked great without any problems. The system was very reliable in the snowstorm and suffered no malfunctions, save for the one light primer strike, which was minor. In snow conditions the rest of the course the Sako performed without any issues out to 1200-yard engagements. Go Finland!
Other Shooter’s Equipment Malfunctions
1) We had a Schmidt and Bender Scope break. The scope leaked and the internal lenses got covered with ice and the scope was out of action.
2) A Savage bolt gun had an ejector break. The shooter had to manually remove brass the rest of the course. He was shooting pretty hot hand loads, which could have contributed to the problem. But it could have also been the weather that contributed to it.
3) A user of the Accuracy International Arctic Warfare (AIAW) reported his trigger getting "crunchy" for a while but cleared up later (ice that melted perhaps into the trigger?). It still functioned fine. He had no malfunctions otherwise that I saw or heard about.
4) A stock Remington 700 had the bolt freeze up and wouldn't go into battery. It had to be thawed in front of a heater.
5) Another stock Remington 700 had a bolt freeze as well. It too went to the heater to thaw.
6) Another shooter with an AICS bedded 700 action had a trigger malfunction. I’m pretty sure he was using an after-market trigger and not a factory stock trigger. This also happened during the snowstorm and was likely ice related.
7) One shooter used grease on his bolt and reported it causing problems in the cold when it solidified.
Malfunction Summary
- Of the four 700 action rifles present, 50% of them had to be put in front of a freezer to thaw and get them to work reliably. The third 700 after market trigger had to be thawed as well if I recall. So that’s a 75% failure rate for the 700s that were there.
- The only Savage there broke. Could have been due to hot loads, or the cold. Or both. Don't know.
- The Sako and AIAW rifles had no major issues.
This is a small sample size, but the 700 actions had a lot of problems. They need to be protected during snow storms with a cover, etc.
Winter Storm Takeaways
1) In snow conditions, scope operation is severely compromised. When I shoot in bad weather I find it is just about impossible to keep the rear ocular dry and this affects operation as targets are blurred. Some scopes collected a lot of snow and ice on their oculars and almost became unusable. Also, a leak in a scope in freezing conditions will result in a quick death.
200 Yard Targets – I actually would have preferred iron sights over optics in this storm.
2) I could see targets naked eye that were impossible to see through the scope at any magnification when white out conditions reduced visibility to 300 yards and less. I am certain that if I had iron sights I could have made the shots that the scope simply could not resolve due to visibility. Having a scope in bad weather may in fact be a liability vs. iron sights in some circumstances. If my rifle had iron sights on them I would have used them over the scope during the snowstorm.
3) The open action of the Remington 700 exposes it to bad weather. The action allows a lot of ice/snow into the lug area and this caused problems vs. the more enclosed Sako and AI actions. The bolt on the 700 also encourages packing of ice and debris into the lugs compounding the problem. The Sako TRG and Accuracy International with covered ejection port and angled lug design provided superior reliability and operation in winter storm conditions.
Improvised Support. Elevation card is on bikini cover and I had a spare in my pocket. Nobody was using a computer in snow conditions.
4) You must know what your gun's data is for elevation and have it on the gun so you can get to it quickly. When there is snow blowing you're not going to be able to take out your ballistic app and run the numbers for the perfect shot. Not only will you be exposing your electronics to harsh elements, it may not work with gloves on and battery life is severely compromised in the cold. Plus, it’s just too slow when under pressure. A simple card on the rifle is fast and reliable if you don’t have your elevations committed to memory.
700 Yard Unknown Distance Range – Laser Range Finders Need Not Apply
5) Milling targets works in very bad weather, Laser Range Finders don't. If you can see it, you can mil it. I doubt most range finders would have worked in this very bad weather even though it was entirely possible to engage targets at times out to 700 yards. The snow would have caused major problems for lasers. I milled a steel target at unknown distance on a hillside almost 600 yards away in a driving snow. I then dialed in the elevation and hit it first round. There is no chance my laser range finder would have worked on it to get the range. So my advice is to make sure you know how to mil targets and practice it because you may need it one day.
6) Keep things simple. I didn't see anyone messing around with wind gauges, ballistic apps, cosine indicators, etc. None of that stuff would have helped make any of the shots.
Multiple targets required rapid engagement from awkward positions. No time to check the ballistics computer and fuss the shot. Get into position, set your elevation, make the shot, spot the impact, and correct if needed.
7) It didn't matter how much less chromatic aberration one scope had over another or whether the color rendition was too warm or too cold. You only cared about whether the thing worked to spot the target and could be adjusted quickly and accurately with cold fingers and limited visibility. Simple reticles that were easy to see are what you wanted. My standard mil-dot reticle worked great. Thin reticles would have been a very bad idea. They would likely get lost in the movement of the snow and branches surrounding various targets during the storm. On the dark winter background of dead trees the thin reticles would also have had problems.
8) High magnification on scopes did not help. Good-sized knurled knobs that were easy to grab and turn with numbers you could read in wind driven snow were a big help. Zero stops to quickly return the scope to zero without having to count rotations was an excellent idea.
9) When your hands are freezing you don't have the fine motor skills to do many things. Everything on the rifle and other gear for taking the shot should be manageable when you are wearing gloves and can't feel your fingers. Small levers and buttons should be avoided.
10) Magazine fed guns are much easier to use in the cold vs. fixed magazine top loading bolt guns. I saw people dropping live rounds in the snow and losing them trying to load their non-magazine fed weapons. Reloading top loaders with gloves on is also an exercise in patience. It's much easier to drop an empty mag and slap in a new one.
11) I wouldn't want my ammo hanging all over my gun in those stock shell holders. In bad weather you want ammo safely held in a magazine or pouch ready to go and not being coated in ice, snow and dirt as external ammo holders would be allowing. That's just inviting problems in terms of action malfunctions. Plus, when cold the elastic in those holders can harden up and the shells can actually fall out as you are carrying the rifle, or the ammo can be brushed out just from ordinary movement when scrambling around. I like keeping ammo in a pouch or magazine until ready to use and not hanging on the firearm in any form.
11) The Butler Creek flip up caps collected a lot of snow at the rear ocular in the scopes I saw using them. I saw one rear eyepiece that was almost half covered in hard caked snow inside the rear cap. This happened during the shooter using the weapon, not when closed. The caps also made wiping the snow out harder. The bikini cover, although not as fast to use, didn't allow snow to collect in my scope. The ridge around the ocular was just too small and what snow did collect was easy to remove. I used to dislike the bikini covers vs. the flip caps but today my opinion about the bikini covers has changed. They're actually very good at making a weather seal and didn't allow snow to collect like the flip covers.
12) At some point you and your gear are just so wet that no amount of wiping off the scope lenses is going to help. By the end of the day it was difficult to engage targets past 300 yards simply because scope lenses were coated with water, ice and snow. There is no dry clothing or cleaning supplies left that you can use to wipe the things off. Interestingly the NightForce F1 coatings were almost hydrophobic. Meaning that yes they'd get wet, but even when I wiped the wind blown snow off with my soaking wet glove the water tended to move away. This may be an accident (I doubt it), but I thought it was interesting and if scope makers don't have hydrophobic coatings (think Rain-X for scopes) they should really consider it.
An 1100+ yard shot.
13) I keep my bolt guns lubed with CLP because it just seems to always work no matter what. CLP didn't freeze and stayed put. The action worked smoothly all day and CLP was still present after six hours of shooting even after the ice and snow soaking. If you are using another lube, make sure it works when cold and doesn't solidify into a sticky mess inside your action when frozen.
14) I knew snow was in the forecast so I took my Thermarest foam mat and didn't use a thin shooting mat. I actually prefer the Thermarest anyway, but other shooters were getting cold lying on top of snow with only a thin piece of cloth between it and them. Thermarests are cheap, lightweight, and comfortable shooting mats.
Small targets situated randomly between 500-1000 yards in a valley.
15) If you run a factory rifle, try to keep it stock and don’t do anything tricky with your reloads, trigger, etc. I have seen a ton of problems with customized gear and out of spec ammo both as a student and instructor. If you want a reliable rifle system, I recommend leaving rifles exactly as the designers intended them to be and not taking your reloads to the hairy edge of safety.
16) Top of the line gear can break just like anything else. A Schmidt and Bender scope went down hard and wasn't coming back. Cheaper scopes worked all day. There are no guarantees that paying top dollar means something won't break. Have a backup plan and test your gear under less than perfect conditions to find out what happens before you really need it.
Winter conditions are very hard on equipment and personnel. A day of shooting in bad weather can teach you a lot about what works and what doesn't.
Thanks for reading.
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