How would hot temps affect my Shield?

[fbcmrjrtykr]

My place of employment prohibits CC so I have to leave my Shield in my vehicle. The summers get pretty hot in south MS so it's not uncommon for the temps inside the truck to exceed 100 degrees. I keep my gun out of direct sunlight, locked in a Gunvault NV300 with a spare mag in the glovebox. What adverse effect can these temps have on the gun or the ammo? Thanks in advance.


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[Lee in Quartzsite]

None....nothing to worry about.

 

[SpringGunTunes]

None....nothing to worry about.

Yep. The metal gets a lot hotter shooting the firearm than it ever will inside a vehicle. And the injection molding temperature required to melt the polymer frame is many hundreds of degrees hotter than the temps in a car.
You're fine.

 

[PHolster]

Parts of your car interior will melt long before the Shield does. If your gun begins to melt, I would suggest moving to some other town than the Sun.

 

[Stratajema]

I agree with the replies. OP, if you store your Shield with a round in the chamber, try to store it with the barrel pointing down towards the ground. Why? Well, slightly off topic, but car fires can happen and the biggest danger is a chambered round that is cooked off in a fire.

It happened to a friend 35 years ago... he visited the dentist, so he left his gun in his "tiny" Subaru, 30 minutes later there was a big bang from a car that ran into his parked car at 60 mph! ...followed by a little bang once the car was fully engulfed in flames.

If you want to read an interesting story about ammo stored in a car in the desert for 5 years, follow the link below, then scroll down and read the post by "Bear Craap". Also, notice his remark about firing heated ammo.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110715075335AAT0nua

 

[Jakpro]

Only 100 degrees?

That would be a nice cool day here!!

 

[fbcmrjrtykr]

Only 100 degrees?

That would be a nice cool day here!!

Well I DID say "in excess of" .... but at least it's not a dry heat ... no wait....which is better?

Thanks to all who commented. I feel better about storing it.

 

[Atticaz]

I agree with the replies. OP, if you store your Shield with a round in the chamber, try to store it with the barrel pointing down towards the ground. Why? Well, slightly off topic, but car fires can happen and the biggest danger is a chambered round that is cooked off in a fire.

It happened to a friend 35 years ago... he visited the dentist, so he left his gun in his "tiny" Subaru, 30 minutes later there was a big bang from a car that ran into his parked car at 60 mph! ...followed by a little bang once the car was fully engulfed in flames.

If you want to read an interesting story about ammo stored in a car in the desert for 5 years, follow the link below, then scroll down and read the post by "Bear Craap". Also, notice his remark about firing heated ammo.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110715075335AAT0nua

Damn good info. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Atticaz]

Only 100 degrees?

That would be a nice cool day here!!

Tell me about it. Lol.

 

[Neumann]

The glove box is the hottest place in the car, other than the back window shelf. It would be better to put the Gunvault under the front seat and fasten it to the frame in some way.

A hot gun could be very uncomfortable to touch or hold, at least for a short time, even resulting in 1st degree burns. (The summer sun in Phoenix is hot enough to fry eggs on metal.) The gun and it's components, even plastic parts, will not be harmed.

Extended exposure to high temperatures could cause lubricants to separate or run, affecting reliability. Lubricants should be chosen with environmental exposure in mind.

Temperature also affects internal and external ballistics. Some powders burn at different rates, depending on the ambient temperature. Pistol ballistics are well within the "envelope" of allowed pressures, so temperature is unlikely to be a significant factor.

Cook-off occurs at much higher temperature (e.g., 400F or more), and is a problem with machine guns (which approach red heat after a few seconds of continuous firing). Gasoline will ignite long before ammunition. If you feel compelled to unload your pistol because of heat, consider draining the gas tank as well (and fill it with water).

 

[Biscut]

For me, here in the Northeast, my ammunition is faced with a yearly cycle of -10F to well above 130F inside a vehicle on those burning hot days.

Nothing to be overly concerned about in a handgun shooting SD distances (I say that because if you handload for longer distances you know ambient temp can make a bif difference the farther you are shooting) BUT this is also one of the reasons to shoot your SD load yearly and replenish with fresh boooolits!

 

[PHolster]

On more positive note, once you gun has been sitting in the hot car long enough, you could throw the gun at the BG instead of shooting him.

 

[dullh]

It would have to get hot enough to melt the inside of your car before it would hurt the Shield...if it got that hot you and all the rest of us have bigger problems...

 

[shawn mccarver]

My place of employment prohibits CC so I have to leave my Shield in my vehicle. The summers get pretty hot in south MS so it's not uncommon for the temps inside the truck to exceed 100 degrees. I keep my gun out of direct sunlight, locked in a Gunvault NV300 with a spare mag in the glovebox. What adverse effect can these temps have on the gun or the ammo? Thanks in advance.


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My belief is that if the temperatures get hot enough to cause a problem, you have other things to worry about besides your pistol and ammo, such as, you know, the end of the world. . . .

Prolonged exposure to high temps is probably worse for the ammo, so why don't you just leave the pistol in the vehicle lock box and take the mag in your pocket?

If you do that, you need to guard against repeated re-chambering of the top round, as doing so will cause the bullet to be driven down into the case, compressing the powder, driving pressures crazy high, resulting in an exceedingly dangerous condition if you fire a round with the bullet driven too far into the case. Any only a tiny distance is required to create a dangerous condition.

An easy check is to remove all rounds from the magazine, line them up in a straight line, and lay a straight edge across the top of the line of rounds, discarding any that are noticeably shorter than the others.