Guns jammed

Went shooting on family property in LDF and my Kimber 1911 jammed and my XD .45 jammed. After they "warmed up" the jamming problem went away. These are AZ guns and I've never fired rounds from them when it was below 75 Degrees or so. Nor have either one of them jammed before.. not once.
What's the trick to prevent jamming in the cold? A little more oil? Is it the oil gumming things up so less oil?

Thanks for the tips.

What ammunition were you using? HP? FMJ? Other? Reloads? Commercial? I've used Break Free for years and never have had any issues in the cold or hot weather.

1FASTC4 said:

Went shooting on family property in LDF and my Kimber 1911 jammed and my XD .45 jammed. After they "warmed up" the jamming problem went away. These are AZ guns and I've never fired rounds from them when it was below 75 Degrees or so. Nor have either one of them jammed before.. not once.
What's the trick to prevent jamming in the cold? A little more oil? Is it the oil gumming things up so less oil?

Thanks for the tips.

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Factory ammo or reloads. Oil or grease on the slide?

Some powders are really temperature sensitive and burn a little slower when super cold. If these rounds are reloads they could be a little weak. As for Lube, greases are fine for Arizona but not will get stiff in the cold of Wisconsin this time of year (my wife is from there and I hear about it all the time). I lube all my semi's with Mobil-1 5w-30 (It's essentially free to me as I use it in my truck and then just let the cans drain a day or so more for the last drops that I fill my gun lube bottle with). It will flow and not hold up the slide at temperatures far lower than you will want to shoot in. This morning it was 7 degrees in my yard so it gets cold here too.

What the hell are you doing up in Eagle River? Don't you know its winter up there? lol

I'm in AZ now and although its a bit frosty in the north, its a world away from LaCrosse.

Use a very small amount of thin oil in cold weather to avoid jams. To much or too heavy an oil will tend to gum up.

1FASTC4 said:

Went shooting on family property in LDF and my Kimber 1911 jammed and my XD .45 jammed. After they "warmed up" the jamming problem went away. These are AZ guns and I've never fired rounds from them when it was below 75 Degrees or so. Nor have either one of them jammed before.. not once.
What's the trick to prevent jamming in the cold? A little more oil? Is it the oil gumming things up so less oil?

Thanks for the tips.

Click to expand...

What kind of jams?

Failure to feed?
Failure to eject?
Failure to fire?
Did the slide not lockup tight?
Was the primer dented if round was chambered and trigger pulled?
Did the fired rounds eject normally?

I use sewing machine oil on a pair of 1911s and a plastic gun I've got for a backup.

1FASTC4 said:

Went shooting on family property in LDF and my Kimber 1911 jammed and my XD .45 jammed. After they "warmed up" the jamming problem went away. These are AZ guns and I've never fired rounds from them when it was below 75 Degrees or so. Nor have either one of them jammed before.. not once.
What's the trick to prevent jamming in the cold? A little more oil? Is it the oil gumming things up so less oil?
Thanks for the tips.

Click to expand...

You didn't leave them out in the icy rain last night, did you? <grin> I have no answers, I go to the AV range winter/summer and have no issues with jamming.
On another note, I had the scanner on all day and didn't hear any complaints of the shooting. That's a good thing, sometimes I wonder about the neighborhood. The cops were busy checking out drunk employees at the casino and people rolling their cars on side roads.

We shoot all the time here in the winter and I've never had any problems due to weather in any of my auto pistols or rimfires. Old ammo maybe?

http://www.cdnninvestments.com/lu2pami1ands.html

I have had problems with them freezing after shooting because of condensation on the parts, especially on the M203. We for some reason can't get the light weight CLP here, so I use the stuff on the right.

Cobbersmom said:

You didn't leave them out in the icy rain last night, did you? <grin> I have no answers, I go to the AV range winter/summer and have no issues with jamming.
On another note, I had the scanner on all day and didn't hear any complaints of the shooting. That's a good thing, sometimes I wonder about the neighborhood. The cops were busy checking out drunk employees at the casino and people rolling their cars on side roads.

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Actually we shot on the 22nd, but I have been busy unpacking so didn't have a chance to post. The cops(one this time) showed up because of complaints.

those pistols have tight tolerances , the bitter cold will make the metal & materials contract.. Although My Glock has always worked in the heat & the sub zero cold....a drop or two of slip2000 & away we go.

I believe folks are spot on with their recommendations regarding the lubricant. I've had great luck with a really tight custom race gun (with very light springs) in the cold using either CLP or synthetic motor oil.

Best of luck!

+1 on the Slip2000.

I use Mobil 1 on my super tight Les Baer custom 1911. It goes hunting with me and has no problem in the cold. Bagged a buck with it a few years ago.

Tetra Synthetic Gun Lube is my first cold weather choice - Mobil 1 is my 2nd choice. Right now, it is really cold in the Mountain West (2 F as I write this). But I have not experienced firearm failure because I heeded the advice of other cold weather shooters who advised me to remove all the factory gun grease and re-lubricate with synthetic lubes.

But, I am puzzled. Most of my friends in WI who also spend time in AZ go to AZ in the Winter and return to WI in the Summer. You seem to have moved to WI in the winter. What gives?

"LDF"? Lac du Flambeau?

I just use CLP and shake off excess. For colder temperatures, LSA may work better.

I agree with those that said to use a lighter lubricant. CLP or RemOil work great for me. The one poster that talked about less oomph from the ammo in the cold is correct too. The ammo will shoot quite a few feet per second slower. Try keeping your ammo warm (in a pocket next to your body for example) and that will improve the situation.

jpm84092 said:

"LDF"? Lac du Flambeau?

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Yes.

Thanks for the help, everyone! I was shooting factory loads and the shells were not ejecting. The problem went away after the first few rounds. I just assumed the guns warmed up.

My timing for moving up here could have been better. We drove up through a huge storm on the 20th. It snowed pretty good from South of Rockford all the way to our front door in Eagle River. We didn't count a ton of cars in the ditch(18), but expected to join them every second. I was driving the family conversion van and the ABS quit working the very first time I hit the brakes in the snow. It was an adventure the last 350 miles.

We've been planning to move here for years. The Phoenix area isn't great for raising a family. Among other things, the air quality is poor and the school systems rank very low. I've had family in this area since before I was born and always come up for a couple of weeks in the summer...I made sure to OC!

My kids, we have 4 four year olds, will be of school age next year so we wanted to get up here before then. My wife received a nice job offer from Marshfield Clinic, in Minocqua, as a Nurse Practitioner and they needed her to start in January, thus the timing of the move.

I use Gun Butter lubes exclusively winter and summer on my 1911s and have never had any problem, they always run.
http://www.gunbutter.com/