AK vs AR vs MISC ice test.

[ParaSpartan117]

How entertaining. Pick it apart!

Yeah... in Florida I'll stick with my Sotaracha or Cherry Balmz. Slip2000EWL or ALG Go Juice are acceptable oil alternatives. And the AR platform. And let's be honest, more water was able to be introduced into the inside of the AR platform by the angle the water was poured than that would affect function than the AK. And how well were the AR platforms lubed and with what? And CLP? Really?

For the next test, I'm going to freeze a Glock in a block of ice and then say it is inferior to a hammer.

 

[AZ_Rifleman]

A captured Bushmaster M4 from when they invaded Georgia. Interesting.

 

[Diz]

This kinda shit is mildly entertaining, but mostly irrelevant. It seems to have become a cottage industry on you tube to imagine some goofy scenario and then test out your weapons in it. Do you know anybody that actually encountered these kinds of conditions? I don't. When your weapon got wet, muddy, dusty, etc, you just cleaned it off and drove on. Back when dinosaurs still walked around, we coated our weapons inside and out with CLP and got on with it. When you got back, it went in a fresh water dunk tank and then you cleaned it, end of story.

 

[JLL2013]

Norway still issues HK416s...even after the nonsense about "issues in the cold." I'd call that a clue.
Nyet, rifle is fine.

 

[shoobe01]

This kinda shit is mildly entertaining, but mostly irrelevant. It seems to have become a cottage industry on you tube to imagine some goofy scenario and then test out your weapons in it...

And also to insist everyone else is "some people on the internet" but you are the expert. I hate these things. Avoided it till a bored afternoon today and I regret it now.

For the fun of it, I have totally fired a frozen gun. Walking around during an ice storm. I covered the optics up, and wiped things but not everything. And when we got contact (okay: blank/MILES!) the gun... fired. It was cool because ice flew off a long ways from the ejector port and on the third round all the ice on the BFA let go and that was a bit of a show. As it warmed bits melted and dripped and made my pants wet which was odd. It fired because... who leaves their gun outside to get iced up, empty? The thing he fought in that video every time, loading, is irrelevant unless you are trying to bring a gun into service from the rack in the abandoned, recently underwater Nazi arctic base as the zombies approach I guess.

 

[Diz]

So that's where that MG-42 I just saw came from!

Yeah I mean the SOP in really cold weather was to leave the weapons out in the cold, if you had a warming tent or whatever. The best way to get into trouble was to thaw it out, and then re-freeze it without a complete wipe-down. So yeah if you got it real cold, and kept it like that, you'd be fine.

And I gotta tell ya, my biggest concern was ice in the neck of my canteen, making it difficult to get a drink, much less a brew going. My AR might have been ice-cold but it worked just fine. You just didn't want to touch it with bare hands.

We have been working with Conny at coldskills.com to develop some AW versions of our kit at Crossfire. He has a training group up above the artic circle in Sweden. He might know a thing or two about weapons and cold weather. Have to ask him what he thinks about this shit.

 

[shoobe01]

I agree, we're following the best practices, I even just in the last couple months helped lecture (not sharing the video cause I look like a doofus) on setting up ad hoc weapon stands outside the warm tents, but /cover them/. But as much as one of our training leaders has done work with Norwegians, et al (and many of his 240Ls cracked from ice even left outside) that's still limited viewpoint. I'd love to get more experience from the cold weather people, yup, yup.

To deviate from guns (gasp!) I am actually a bit torn on electro-optics and radios. While keeping batteries warm is good, condensation then frost on connectors, optics, etc. is a killer as well so... six of one? That's how I have to currently lecture it, with more awareness of issues that explicit rules but love more experienced guidance on that as well.

And please: no more cool Crossfire stuff! Let me be happy with what I own for a little while!