We recently covered some tips on keeping your airgun in top condition when shooting in hot and humid climates. Now, it’s time to examine how to keep your airguns performing well when shooting in hot, arid environments. While there are some similarities, there are also some significant differences. Let’s get started.
Dust is Your Enemy
If humidity is your enemy in hot and humid areas, then dust is what you need to mitigate when out in hot and dry climates. We test a lot out in the desert, and dust is a constant problem. You will still want to use a good protectant like Ballistol to maintain the metal, but it gets much harder when you start trying to stop dust from contaminating everything.
If you’ve ever seen the after-effects of a gun that’s been left to get dusty and then moved around, you’ll realize that dust acts just like sandpaper. Now, if that’s what happens to the outside of your gun, imagine what it’s doing to the delicate internals. This is your biggest challenge.
Break Barrels
Most folks pay a lot of attention to their PCPs with regard to dust, but you also need to consider what dust can do to all the moving parts in your breakbarrel. If you get dust in the joints or in the spring and compression chamber, you can see degraded performance over time. We recommend keeping your airgun in a case or gun sock whenever it’s not in use. Additionally, blowing off your gun with a compressor or some sort of compressed air, focusing on the joints and spaces where dust could make its way into the action, is important.
CO2, Multi-Pump, and PCPs
Guns with o-rings, seals, and integrated pumps are going to be especially susceptible to dust. PCPs with regulators can be especially problematic when it comes to extra dusty environments. It only takes a small amount of dust to cause reduced performance or even catastrophic component failure. So what can you do to prevent it?
Well the first thing you want to do is make sure that the area used to fill your gun is free from dust and dirt. This could be the fill port on your PCP, the CO2 piercing pin on your CO2 airgun, or the pump intake port on your pump-pneumatic airgun. All these “inputs” are just waiting to let dust into the internals of your airgun and ruin your day. Be mindful of where they are and inspect them carefully before, during, and after use. Clean them regularly, and again, make sure that you are storing your airgun in some sort of protected environment. We keep our guns either in their boxes, in a gun cabinet, in hard-shell cases, or in gun socks. The last thing you want to do is leave your airgun naked to the environment, even if you have it indoors. If you have to dust your house, then that same dust will be getting into your airgun unless you keep it safely tucked away.
And Then There’s Your Optic
So we’ve talked about some things you need to look out for with your airgun when in hot and dry climates, but what about your scope? Dust is still going to be your biggest enemy. What you don’t want to do is take your shirt and try to wipe away the dust. If you don’t have a proper cleaning solution, eyeglass cleaner works well, you’ll just be grinding the dust into your optics. That’s certainly NOT what you want, as it will scratch and eventually destroy the coating on your optics and ruin your scope. If you don’t have eyeglass cleaner handy, then you can try to use compressed air to remove the dust. If you treat your scope like you would an expensive camera lens, then you’ll be in good shape. Even keeping one of the camera lens blower/bush kits in your gear bag may be a good idea. The important thing to remember is that you don’t want to rub anything on a dry lens to clean it. Make sure that you are blowing out the dust, or if you need to get rid of grime, then make sure that you are using some sort of liquid cleaner. To be extra safe, contact your scope manufacturer and see what they recommend to get the best results.
Other Considerations
This last note may help some folks who find their POI shifting when shooting in hot weather and can’t seem to get their airgun consistently “dialed in.” This would apply in both humid and arid climates. Metal is a living thing. Ok, so metal isn’t really alive, but it does react to its environment by contracting and expanding based on temperature. Additionally, different metals expand and contract at different rates and volumes based on their composition. So aluminum will expand and contract differently than steel. And different grades of each will also react differently. What this means is that it’s normal for your POI to be different coming out of a cool vehicle if you last sighted your airgun in the sun on a hot day. You may need to let it warm up and become thermally saturated and equalized before really starting to dial things in. It’s also why shooting in hot weather after having last used your gun in cold weather may yield different results. It’s normal and it’s OK. You just want to be aware of the potential need for adjustments when you get ready to pull the trigger.
Any more questions?
We hope these articles help you get the most out of your airguns. If you have more questions, please let us know so that we can either address them in an article or provide direct guidance. Just give us a call. We are always here to help.
