Yesterday was the last day for my cow Elk draw. Now, I've seen many Elk this year but have been snake bit as far as taking one for one reason or another. So I decide that I just have to go out this past weekend. Saturday was a no go, Friday +5 out, cooled off to -18 and snowed making the roads sheets of ice. Sunday, the weather called for -29 with a windchill of -36, lovly January hunting weather, but I'm bound an determined to go out for the last day. I get up and it -23 only...perfect, all except the 85% humidity (@ -23, are you kidding me?) so that makes the windchill to be about -8000 degrees, so away I go. The drive out to my area was a slow one, the roads were still as slick as loon poop. I get to my first spot and low and behold, 9 Elk. I put a staulk on them but it's a no go. After that I see dozens of deer, Moose, Coyotes and even got to watch a pack of wolves hunting the far side of a river valley from me, but no more Elk.

I guess that's why they call it hunting and not killing. A long day of icey roads, freezing my behind off and all I got to show for it was track soup. All in all, a great day in the outdoors. (See, us hunters really arn't all there.... )

I don't have enough panties and socks for that kind of weather, matter of fact I'm bitching about 25-30 degree days, which would probably feel pretty good to you right now.

at least you are getting out of the house.

I don't have enough panties or socks for that kinda weather either.....

I'm not actually complaining. Getting out in what ever weather is okay by me. It's just funny what lengths we'll go to to enjoy our hunting and fishing for that matter. Now there is only preditor hunting left open for this season. I'll get out a couple times during the dead of winter to chase yotes and wolves. Fingers crossed for a few days of -5 to -10 for that.

Other than the -8000 degrees it sounds like a great place for a hunter. Coyote, deer, elk, moose and wolf spotting all in one day! Sounds pretty close to paradise.
Don

You want to laugh? We have about 3" of snow and temperatures just below freezing point. Last year laws were changed: we were not allowed to hunt when the ground was covered with snow has been changed into "we are not allowed to hunt 24 hours after the last snowfall when the ground is covered with more than 2". But the government can close hunting when it's too long too cold.
As from the first snowfall last week, the tree-huggers are shouting to close hunting period because the animals are having it far too difficult to survive.
Today it's announced that hunting is closed from tomorow till Saturday (included). They gave this the whole day on the news reports and almost every hunter did get 4-5 mails for this.
Later on again a few mails: because the government can not publish this tomorow, it's still allowed to hunt tomorow, so only Thursday, Friday and Saturday is closed.
Any idea how much all this stupid things have costed? Better not ask...

Normally I was not going to hunt tomorow, but the donkey in me is forcing me to go out hunting tomorow...

Did I mention we had sun today and a lot of snow already melted?

A poor day's hunting beats a day stuck indoors in my book.

I envy you guys who DO get out there because I'm all too often denied the opportunity due to business commitments.

Grant, what rifle and ammo do you use to hunt at25 below? Any special precautions?

life is too short to not go hunting...

And the story continued
So this evening I went hunting for roedeer. And as if I got help from Upstairs, 1 doe and 2 young ones came to my high seat. The young ones: 1 buck still without antlers and 1 female. At this moment in the year I like to shoot the young females... because bucks will give a trophee in Summer, not now.
All 3 were very close, all within 100 m and the little female even came closer, so I guessed it was meant to be. I took my Sabatti in 222 Rem and I didn't want to aim at the neck or head because I wanted to see the performance of that 63 grs Sierra SMP. Well, normally she couldn't excape, but my rifle didn't do "bang" as always, it just did "tek".
So Somebody must have decided it was not the right moment, so I didn't try again. I took my dog and went back to my car. I examined the round and saw a nice point in the primer. I cannot remember that I ever had a primer not functioning at such a moment of truth...

but now I know that on that spot that doe has a young buck and a young female and I haven't decided yet that I go back for her after these 3 days winterstop or that I just let my friend go for her.
Maybe I had 50 rounds in my pocket this evening and when you just get that single round with a bad primer in your chamber, isn't that somekind of a sign? Maybe it was not her time yet OR maybe she is meant for somebody else... time will tell, I allready have had my part of the fun

Aloysius, pull the bullet and check for powder. I thought I had a bad primer only to find a SHMBO interruptions caused me to not fill a couple of cases.

also see if it (primer) has been hit properly??? maybe a build up of grit inside the bolt??? my .223 would do it quite a bit when I first got it untill I was shown to release the spring tension when putting it away in storage. it also makes the bolt not go in to the rifle unless you know whats what.

Damn.. HOT here..

Now Geland, I think too cold...
I pulled the bullet and it still had its 21,0 grs of powder. I pushed the primer out and the inside showed like all other CCI's small rifle primers.
Then I opened the bolt. Sabatti is about the same as Mauser, except the safety. I removed the fireingpin and now I think that Elvis gave good advice: I think a little grease inside had become too thick due to lower temperatures. So I removed all the grease and gave it a small touch of tefflon-oil. It works better than new now.
So I also put that bad round back together, even using the same primer and I'll try to make it to the shooting club next Saturday (because I might be a donkey on some occasions, but this alse means that I'll try to avoid hitting the same stone the second time, so this round is not for game anymore )

Conclusion: italian rifles can be compared with italian cars, they are afraid of bad weather and low temperatures,
but they are a dream to use when the weather is fine and you get them started!

This week some US marines from California are training with the Canadian 12th infantry regiment at the Valcartier military base (about 50 km north of Quebec City). They sleep in heated tents were the temperature is kept at +10 degrees C but outside it was -39 degrees C and -51 degree C with the wind chill factor. They leave their firearms outside in the cold all the time. If they bring them into the tent, condensation will occur on all the parts of the mechanism and as they are brought back outside in the cold all the parts of the mechanism get jammed with ice and do not function.