Happy New Year!
Mike broke the internet with this one.
Does your favorite rifle work frozen? (Spoiler alert; probably not, but you should see anyway)
But it does depend upon the type of frozen. Watch the full test, having water intrusion into the rifle and the rifle freeze up is a problem. A big problem, one that given a frosty environment you might need to fix before a rifle can be relied upon. Having the rifle get extremely cold and normal operating lubricants start to gel can be problem too, but nothing will kill a gun like all the operating groups being totally iced.
There is also a notable difference from the gun being cold, and the gun being frozen (ice in operating groups because of water intrusion) and the locations of various failure points vary from gun to gun based on where each gun is open or sealed.
It is simple physics folks. Steel, aluminum, and polymer all react to extreme cold to differing degrees. Metals will contract, if there is moisture it will expand into those gaps, polymers will be most neutral to temperature overall but they don’t generally control the operating bits.
Have a look. Also, if you aren’t subscribed to Mike’s channel by now… why?