Store a Glock in cold weather question - Page 2

tekarra · November 23, 2012, 07:59 PM

I am sure the Austrian army conducted cold weather tests on the Glock prior to adopting it for service. I owuld have no qualms about leaving a Glock out in the cold then firing it.

tekarra · November 23, 2012, 08:01 PM

Delete, duplicate post.

bakon · November 23, 2012, 08:27 PM

Our dept has had Glocks for 20 years. No weather problems or rust. Pittsburgh gets rain, snow and everything in between for 5 months a year.

Josh17 · December 29, 2012, 12:27 AM

So I brought the gun inside from the cold. It's 9 degrees outside right now. It's been in the car for a month and a half.

When I brought it inside I field stripped it and wiped down everything, then using a hair dryer on everything - even the barrel and recoil spring. I used the hair dryer on it for a couple mins. Then I wiped everything down again with a t-shirt, put it back together, then put it back in my car. Was that the right way? Is the Glock good to go? I just wanted to be sure that I did the right thing after brining it from cold into warm house, then putting it back into cold car.

I don't know of you can visually see the wet condensation from brining it in from cold to warm, it didn't look wet or didnt see moisture anywhere, but i still wiped it down and blow dryer it before putting it back in my cold car. Hope that was the "proper way" to do it. Not sure if Glocks really even need to worry about this or not but did it just in case.

thedudeabides · December 29, 2012, 09:05 AM

I keep my truck guns lubed up with TWP-25b and a coat of CLP.

Also keep a big bag of dessicant in whatever compartment they're in.

Glocks are VERY rust resistant. I carried one in blowing rain and seawater hurricane conditions along the Gulf. Even if it rusted, it still worked.

drail · December 29, 2012, 11:10 AM

The gun will probably be fine (if it's still there). The lube is what will cause you problems. Leaving a gun in a car to freeze is not a really good idea if you desperately need it to work. Read up on the soldiers who spent some time in the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

thedudeabides · December 29, 2012, 11:27 AM

Quote:

The lube is what will cause you problems. Leaving a gun in a car to freeze is not a really good idea if you desperately need it to work. Read up on the soldiers who spent some time in the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

I promise you a frozen Glock will fire every single time.

If you don't believe me, put one in the freezer and try for yourself.

And cars don't get THAT cold.

You can use lighter, thinner lube, if you think it's a concern, but Glocks are used by polar patrols with no problems.

Josh17 · December 31, 2012, 01:17 AM

I'm not as considered about the cold (though if does get cold in my car in my area). It's around 15 degrees F right now. The HIGHEST it will reach for the next few months will be 40 degrees F, and that will be the high. The lows can be -10 or so. AVERAGE overall temp for day including highs and lows is probably 25 to 30 degrees. But besides that, I'm more concerned about leaving it in the cold for days/ weeks/ months on end and brining it inside to the warm house then back out to the cold car. I keep hearing of "oh condestation will build up and cause problems with the Glock". Everyone I've personally asked says its BS they have brought their Glocks from 12 hours of 5 degree weather into a 75 degree room for hours and back into cold again with no problem. So I don't know if they are just lucky - or if the whole "condenstation building up on gun when going from extremely cold to hot and back and forth on Glocks is a over hyped myth". Don't know what to believe. And If its true how do you fix something like that?? Blow dry the Glock every time you come inside into warm area? That doesn't seem right...

9mm · December 31, 2012, 01:33 AM

I would not worry unless you live in Russia where you throw hot boiling water off your aprtment and it freezes into snow. Then I would worry about the gun.

ClydeFrog · December 31, 2012, 03:30 AM

For safety & security, I wouldn't leave any loaded firearm in a vehicle, 24-07, or year round. If you really want to tote a sub-compact Glock pistol, I'd store it in a excellent Bore-Store bag, with a light amt of a high quality CLP like Weaponshield, Gunzilla or Mpro7's LPX. Apply the CLP at least 2 times a year to the areas listed in the Glock's owner manual.
If you are going to use the motor vehicle & have let the pistol sit in extreme cold weather, I'd unload it & conduct a quick function check before you take off, to make sure the sub-compact works correctly.
You'd want to know your Glock works BEFORE you may get into a critical incident.
I'd read years ago, that many spec ops units or troops would test fire their weapons on the helicopters while en route to a mission. They didn't want anything to bust or break down during a firefight.

Clyde

Sport45 · December 31, 2012, 04:57 AM

I'd bring it in with me too.

Just leave it in the case and it will be fine. The air in the case is cold and dry and as it warms up its relative humidity will decrease.

You only get condensation on a cold gun when you expose it to the warm humid air in the house. They don't sweat in the case, the case doesn't even have to be air tight.

Jrsteeno · December 31, 2012, 07:37 AM

For camera gear, the common practice when bringing a cold camera into a warm environment is to place it in a ziplock bag so that you don't get condensation buildup on the lens glass, sensor and other internal electrical parts. Basically you leave it in the bag until it comes up to room temp.

I wonder if this would work in your situation to avoid condensation on your Glock? Never tried it myself with a handgun.

Sharpsdressed Man · December 31, 2012, 06:20 PM

"Happiness is a warm gun." John Lennon, November 1968.

drail · January 1, 2013, 12:23 AM

I have used the plastic bag trick for years when I had to bring a cold gun (or camera or tools) into a warm building. It works. A cold gun brought into a warm building will have condensation form quickly and not just on the surface, the inside of the gun will "sweat" too and will stay wet longer than the outside of the gun. Get some large Ziplock freezer bags and keep a couple in your vehicle. I would still be worried about any lube that has reached really frigid temperatures on a defensive gun. I guess the only way to really know is to stick it in the deep freeze (unloaded) and see what happens as far as feeding, extracting, mag release, etc. with dummy rounds. I have never had a gun freeze to the point it was non functional but I have heard a lot of old hunters tell stories about it. I lived in northern Ill. for a few years years and one winter it got down to 28 below for a week. I had to bring the battery out of my truck into the kitchen at night or it would be dead or cracked open and reinstall it every morning. Lots of people were having batteries freeze and burst. I would not want to depend on a gun that had been exposed to that kind of cold.

Venom1956 · January 1, 2013, 02:48 AM

If a gun can't handle a little bit of cold should be replaced.

I'd think most guns would continue to function long after the cold started to effect their operators.

Josh17 · January 1, 2013, 06:07 AM

The ziplock bag idea sounds like a good idea but only after long term storage.

But how do you know if condestation has affected the reliability of the gun causing it to jam, etc? What I do, is simply take
The mag out (and of course any round that might be in the chamber)
And then simply pull the slide back until it stays in the open position, close the slide, powerstroke/open the slide again, close slide, open slide again to full open position, and repeat like 5 times. I assume if the slide is able to open and close then condestation hasn't frozen anything and the gun should be good to go. Am I right?

Sport45 · January 1, 2013, 06:31 AM

Quote:

The ziplock bag idea sounds like a good idea but only after long term storage.

But how do you know if condestation has affected the reliability of the gun causing it to jam, etc? What I do, is simply take
The mag out (and of course any round that might be in the chamber)
And then simply pull the slide back until it stays in the open position, close the slide, powerstroke/open the slide again, close slide, open slide again to full open position, and repeat like 5 times. I assume if the slide is able to open and close then condestation hasn't frozen anything and the gun should be good to go. Am I right?

If you bring a very cold gun inside and do that it will fill with condensation as you're doing that.

Bring it inside in the case, a zip-lok bag, or even a plastic grocery bag and there will be no condensation as long as you leave the gun in the bag until it warms up to room temperature. Actually, it only has to warm up above the dew point to avoid condensation when you uncase it.

DaleA · January 1, 2013, 09:21 AM

Josh17 - You've 'heard this' and you've 'heard that' - it's time to TRY it and then you'll KNOW.

Take the gun out of the car into the range and fire it. Don't run the action or field strip it, just take it out of the car and see if it fires. This is the best way to find out if YOUR gun works the way YOU want it to work. If it does, (and I bet it will) you're golden. If it doesn't then come back and tell us what went wrong and we can go from there.

Josh17 · January 1, 2013, 05:08 PM

I actually meant I pull the slide back, close it, pull the slide back, close it, repeat while the gun is im the COLD car because i figured if the slide still
Opens the gun should be good to go.

I will test fire as often as I can... Normally that's maybe ever 6 months. The closest legal place to shoot is 30 miles up deep into the mountains (which blew my tire out twice when I spent the time to go there. Then there is one actual range out here, closed half the time to weather so it sucks. That is also 45 min drive to just "test it out" and pay for it. Being outdoor
Range kinda hard to sit there in 5 degree weather and practice. At least for me. So sadly there is almost no where to go shooting out here unless you go deep into the forest. And during the winter, it's risking your life out here, you drive up hill on cliffs and you move a couple inches too far or slide... It's over. Pretty lame. I had a shooting range that was close by, only one in town, shut down by the city. Seems to be trending.

November 23, 2012, 08:27 PM	#28
bakon Senior Member Join Date: May 28, 2009 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 294	Our dept has had Glocks for 20 years. No weather problems or rust. Pittsburgh gets rain, snow and everything in between for 5 months a year. __________________ “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” George Orwell

December 31, 2012, 03:30 AM	#35
ClydeFrog Junior member Join Date: May 1, 2010 Posts: 5,797	If it were me.... For safety & security, I wouldn't leave any loaded firearm in a vehicle, 24-07, or year round. If you really want to tote a sub-compact Glock pistol, I'd store it in a excellent Bore-Store bag, with a light amt of a high quality CLP like Weaponshield, Gunzilla or Mpro7's LPX. Apply the CLP at least 2 times a year to the areas listed in the Glock's owner manual. If you are going to use the motor vehicle & have let the pistol sit in extreme cold weather, I'd unload it & conduct a quick function check before you take off, to make sure the sub-compact works correctly. You'd want to know your Glock works BEFORE you may get into a critical incident. I'd read years ago, that many spec ops units or troops would test fire their weapons on the helicopters while en route to a mission. They didn't want anything to bust or break down during a firefight. Clyde

December 31, 2012, 04:57 AM	#36
Sport45 Senior Member Join Date: May 25, 1999 Location: Too close to Houston Posts: 4,196	I'd bring it in with me too. Just leave it in the case and it will be fine. The air in the case is cold and dry and as it warms up its relative humidity will decrease. You only get condensation on a cold gun when you expose it to the warm humid air in the house. They don't sweat in the case, the case doesn't even have to be air tight. __________________ Proud member of the NRA and Texas State Rifle Association. Registered and active voter.

December 31, 2012, 07:37 AM	#37
Jrsteeno Junior Member Join Date: December 12, 2012 Posts: 2	Another idea For camera gear, the common practice when bringing a cold camera into a warm environment is to place it in a ziplock bag so that you don't get condensation buildup on the lens glass, sensor and other internal electrical parts. Basically you leave it in the bag until it comes up to room temp. I wonder if this would work in your situation to avoid condensation on your Glock? Never tried it myself with a handgun.

January 1, 2013, 12:23 AM	#39
drail Junior member Join Date: February 2, 2008 Posts: 3,150	I have used the plastic bag trick for years when I had to bring a cold gun (or camera or tools) into a warm building. It works. A cold gun brought into a warm building will have condensation form quickly and not just on the surface, the inside of the gun will "sweat" too and will stay wet longer than the outside of the gun. Get some large Ziplock freezer bags and keep a couple in your vehicle. I would still be worried about any lube that has reached really frigid temperatures on a defensive gun. I guess the only way to really know is to stick it in the deep freeze (unloaded) and see what happens as far as feeding, extracting, mag release, etc. with dummy rounds. I have never had a gun freeze to the point it was non functional but I have heard a lot of old hunters tell stories about it. I lived in northern Ill. for a few years years and one winter it got down to 28 below for a week. I had to bring the battery out of my truck into the kitchen at night or it would be dead or cracked open and reinstall it every morning. Lots of people were having batteries freeze and burst. I would not want to depend on a gun that had been exposed to that kind of cold. Last edited by drail; January 1, 2013 at 12:31 AM.

November 23, 2012, 07:59 PM	#26
tekarra Senior Member Join Date: May 26, 2007 Posts: 1,164	I am sure the Austrian army conducted cold weather tests on the Glock prior to adopting it for service. I owuld have no qualms about leaving a Glock out in the cold then firing it.

November 23, 2012, 08:01 PM	#27
tekarra Senior Member Join Date: May 26, 2007 Posts: 1,164	Delete, duplicate post.

December 29, 2012, 12:27 AM	#29
Josh17 Senior Member Join Date: February 26, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 196	So I brought the gun inside from the cold. It's 9 degrees outside right now. It's been in the car for a month and a half. When I brought it inside I field stripped it and wiped down everything, then using a hair dryer on everything - even the barrel and recoil spring. I used the hair dryer on it for a couple mins. Then I wiped everything down again with a t-shirt, put it back together, then put it back in my car. Was that the right way? Is the Glock good to go? I just wanted to be sure that I did the right thing after brining it from cold into warm house, then putting it back into cold car. I don't know of you can visually see the wet condensation from brining it in from cold to warm, it didn't look wet or didnt see moisture anywhere, but i still wiped it down and blow dryer it before putting it back in my cold car. Hope that was the "proper way" to do it. Not sure if Glocks really even need to worry about this or not but did it just in case.

December 29, 2012, 09:05 AM	#30
thedudeabides Senior Member Join Date: August 22, 2012 Posts: 1,031	I keep my truck guns lubed up with TWP-25b and a coat of CLP. Also keep a big bag of dessicant in whatever compartment they're in. Glocks are VERY rust resistant. I carried one in blowing rain and seawater hurricane conditions along the Gulf. Even if it rusted, it still worked.

December 29, 2012, 11:10 AM	#31
drail Junior member Join Date: February 2, 2008 Posts: 3,150	The gun will probably be fine (if it's still there). The lube is what will cause you problems. Leaving a gun in a car to freeze is not a really good idea if you desperately need it to work. Read up on the soldiers who spent some time in the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

December 31, 2012, 01:17 AM	#33
Josh17 Senior Member Join Date: February 26, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 196	I'm not as considered about the cold (though if does get cold in my car in my area). It's around 15 degrees F right now. The HIGHEST it will reach for the next few months will be 40 degrees F, and that will be the high. The lows can be -10 or so. AVERAGE overall temp for day including highs and lows is probably 25 to 30 degrees. But besides that, I'm more concerned about leaving it in the cold for days/ weeks/ months on end and brining it inside to the warm house then back out to the cold car. I keep hearing of "oh condestation will build up and cause problems with the Glock". Everyone I've personally asked says its BS they have brought their Glocks from 12 hours of 5 degree weather into a 75 degree room for hours and back into cold again with no problem. So I don't know if they are just lucky - or if the whole "condenstation building up on gun when going from extremely cold to hot and back and forth on Glocks is a over hyped myth". Don't know what to believe. And If its true how do you fix something like that?? Blow dry the Glock every time you come inside into warm area? That doesn't seem right...

December 31, 2012, 01:33 AM	#34
9mm Senior Member Join Date: January 9, 2011 Location: Land of the Free Posts: 2,834	I would not worry unless you live in Russia where you throw hot boiling water off your aprtment and it freezes into snow. Then I would worry about the gun.

December 31, 2012, 06:20 PM	#38
Sharpsdressed Man Junior member Join Date: June 21, 2009 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 1,176	"Happiness is a warm gun." John Lennon, November 1968.

January 1, 2013, 02:48 AM	#40
Venom1956 Senior Member Join Date: October 4, 2008 Location: WI Posts: 3,656	If a gun can't handle a little bit of cold should be replaced. I'd think most guns would continue to function long after the cold started to effect their operators. __________________ E-Shock rounds are engineered to expend maximum energy into soft targets, turning the density mass into an expanding rotational cone of NyTrilium matrix particles, causing neurological collapse to the central nervous system.- Yeah I can do that. I guarantee you will know it if a bicyclist hits your house going 1000 mph. -Smaug

January 1, 2013, 06:07 AM	#41
Josh17 Senior Member Join Date: February 26, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 196	The ziplock bag idea sounds like a good idea but only after long term storage. But how do you know if condestation has affected the reliability of the gun causing it to jam, etc? What I do, is simply take The mag out (and of course any round that might be in the chamber) And then simply pull the slide back until it stays in the open position, close the slide, powerstroke/open the slide again, close slide, open slide again to full open position, and repeat like 5 times. I assume if the slide is able to open and close then condestation hasn't frozen anything and the gun should be good to go. Am I right?

January 1, 2013, 09:21 AM	#43
DaleA Senior Member Join Date: September 12, 2002 Location: Twin Cities, MN Posts: 5,310	Josh17 - You've 'heard this' and you've 'heard that' - it's time to TRY it and then you'll KNOW. Take the gun out of the car into the range and fire it. Don't run the action or field strip it, just take it out of the car and see if it fires. This is the best way to find out if YOUR gun works the way YOU want it to work. If it does, (and I bet it will) you're golden. If it doesn't then come back and tell us what went wrong and we can go from there.

January 1, 2013, 05:08 PM	#44
Josh17 Senior Member Join Date: February 26, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 196	I actually meant I pull the slide back, close it, pull the slide back, close it, repeat while the gun is im the COLD car because i figured if the slide still Opens the gun should be good to go. I will test fire as often as I can... Normally that's maybe ever 6 months. The closest legal place to shoot is 30 miles up deep into the mountains (which blew my tire out twice when I spent the time to go there. Then there is one actual range out here, closed half the time to weather so it sucks. That is also 45 min drive to just "test it out" and pay for it. Being outdoor Range kinda hard to sit there in 5 degree weather and practice. At least for me. So sadly there is almost no where to go shooting out here unless you go deep into the forest. And during the winter, it's risking your life out here, you drive up hill on cliffs and you move a couple inches too far or slide... It's over. Pretty lame. I had a shooting range that was close by, only one in town, shut down by the city. Seems to be trending.

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