Dan,

I once went caribou hunting between Christmas and New Year above the old sheep mountain lodge. It was cold. Close to -30 degrees. I got up on a pair of dandy bulls and couldn't hit them from 150 yards with a '06 that I'd taken everything with. I found that my zero was close to 4' high and left from where I had zero the rifle that August. When the weather warmed up my point of impact went right back to where it had been. I was pretty new too extreme cold weather hunting and the effect it could have on your rifle. For years the only solution was to zero my rifle in the temperature in which I'd be hunting. About seven years ago, Hodgdon brought out their Extreme line of powders. Now I didn't test anything at -30 degrees, but I did test in temperatures in the low teens up to the low 100s degrees and that Extreme powder works. No change in zero, velocity or accuracy. I've gotten to the point that I only use Hodgdon extruded powders.

My oldest son was born in the territory of Alaska and the oldest daughter was born in the state of Alaska. To top it off, a year later I was in Hawaii on business when they became a state. My stay in Alaska in '64 was the last time I was there. Shame, I kind of always wanted to go back again.