I was considering testing some of my hunting loads under cold weather conditions (winter) to see if there would be any change in performance. I thought it might be a good idea being that the barrel would always stay fairly cold and would reduce the time between shots. Would anyone have any comments or have tried it with good results? Would I have to be concern on how the powders would burn compared to warmer fall weather?

Cold wether will affect your shells to some extent. Especiall shells that are loaded with the ball or sherical type powders. vangunsmith

Vangunsmith, sorry but could you be a little more specific. I’m not that familiar with powder that much, just numbers.

You will likely see a noticeabledrop in velocity which varies with the particular powder used.You may also see a change in accuracy which may be better or worse than in warm temperatures.I try to sight my rifles in at the normal temperatures that I hunt in to eliminate as many variables as possible.

I'll do my initial load development throughout the spring, summer and fall. Then the fine tuning in November so I can have the gun and load ready to go for the rifle season.

You know I made this nice load with TBBC and RL22 in like 15 degrees F, and then in the summer time, it locked the brass up believe it or not. I was shocked.

Bigcountry,

I've noticed more velocity/pressure variation when using Alliant powders than with any other powders I've tried. If I will be using Alliant such as RL19 and I find a max load in the winter months I'll usually have to back down 1.0-1.5 grains if I want to use it in the summer. I've just about went exclusively to the Hodgdon extreme powders for this very reason. I can't get away from RL19 though. In my custom 280 Rem. I get nearly 3200 fps with a Combined Technology 140 gr. BST. Accuracy is in the .300 range when I have a good day and on a bad day it's .625.

I have also noticed that several of my rifles shoot a little lower at 100 yards in cold weather. I'm assuming this is a result of the 100 or more fps in speed that they lose between August and January. The difference is only an inch or two - not enough to be a significant factor at normal big game hunting ranges - but enough to miss a coyote at distance.

Thanks guys for the info. I’m still in the process of getting accurate loads ready for hunting in November. Talk about work. I will however try some loads this winter to see what happens, just for the heck of it but will start up with new loads next spring. Thanks again..

trailer,

Depending on the powder being used and the outside temperature, There could be no difference to a great deal of difference. Some powders seem to lend themselves to radical differences. It hasn't been very long ago that you worked up your loads in the summer, and rezeroed your rifle for the cold weather. The one make of powder I've had the graetest experience with was Dupont/IMR. I lived in Alaska for awhile and learned the hard way. My first summer there I worked up different loads for my '06 using IMR 4320 for the light bullets, up to 150 grain, and IMR-4350 for the bullets 180 grains and heavier. Well everything went just fine until we went after caribou between Christmas and New Year. I had a chance at two great bulls at less than 100 yards. I seem to recall firing about ten rounds and never touched a hair. When I checked the rifle I found it was off over six feet. I rezeroed the rifle and got two bulls the next day. I also found the cold weather velocities of my rifle were 150 fps slower than warm weather velocities.

When Hodgdon brought out their Extreme Powders I did a little testing with Varget. The test ran for three winters and two summers. On the coldest and hotest days we have in New Mexico I'd go out and shoot the loads for my daughters 7mm-08. I would shoot a string of ten shots over a chonograph and use the average of those shots. Well the temperatures didn't go to fifty below, they did run from over a hundred to the low teens. The test also used three different lots of powder. The extreme spread of velocities was slightly over 19 fps, with no change of zero. As a result of the test I made I now use Hodgdon extruded powders for all my rifle reloading. I no longer have to worry about change of zero or velocity change.

This subject comes up every once in awhile, and I've read entries where others have stated their powders are insensitive to temperature changes. If you do a little research of the site you should be able to come up with additional information. I started to test two other powder and dropped them pretty quick when they didn't give me the initial accuracy I wanted or reacted to temperature changes. The Hodgdon Extreme powder is the only powder that I am comfortable recommending as being insensitive to temperature changes. I hope that this is of some help.

Good luck and God bless.
Bob