# Cold Weather Effects!



## cjb4u (Nov 11, 2012)

Just a quick question. I see a few references on cold weather effecting band performance, I was wondering in what ways does cold weather effect the bands and what kind of temperatures are we talking about 40 deg F, 30 deg F, -15 deg F. Also is the effect different for different kind of bands example flat band vs tube. or strength. 
OK that is a lot of questions on but on just one subject. I do like detail and being prepared. Thanks,


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

LOW-TEMPERATURE PROPERTIES
Rubber becomes harder, stiffer, and less resilient with decreasing temperature.
These changes are brought about by a reduction in the "free volume" between
neighboring molecules and a subsequent reduction in the mobility of the elastomer
molecules. When approaching the glass transition temperature (Tg), its rubber-like
characteristic is lost and the rubber becomes leathery. Finally it changes to a hard,
brittle glass. The glass transition temperature is a second-order transition as
opposed to crystallization, which is a first-order transition. A first-order transition
is accompanied by a abrupt change in a physical property, while a second-order
transition is accompanied by a change in the rate of change.


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## bullseyeben! (Apr 24, 2011)

Bill hays, and joerg sprayed have demonstrations of the effects on YouTube..


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## cjb4u (Nov 11, 2012)

bullseyeben! said:


> Bill hays, and joerg sprayed have demonstrations of the effects on YouTube..


I will have to try and find those, I do enjoy watching joerg's videos


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## Knoll (Nov 10, 2011)

Hrawk said:


> LOW-TEMPERATURE PROPERTIES
> These changes are brought about by a reduction in the "free volume" between
> neighboring molecules and a subsequent reduction in the mobility of the elastomer
> molecules. When approaching the glass transition temperature (Tg), its rubber-like
> ...


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## cjb4u (Nov 11, 2012)

bullseyeben! said:


> Bill hays, and joerg sprayed have demonstrations of the effects on YouTube..


 Ok I have looked and done a few searches and can not find the Vid,s would you happen to have a link you could share?


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## bullseyeben! (Apr 24, 2011)

Now I think about it, bill did a test on how velocity is lost by having the bands sketched for a long time before releasing the shot, not the temperature affect.. but I do remember joergs vid where thermal camera shows how the rubber heats as stretched and gradually cools resulting in loss of energy... same thing really as bills vid, but prob not the answer to your initial question







think hrawkapedia got there though


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Simply stated.The cold slows the bands down. Will shoot slower. I had a warm day of shooting recently followed by a cold day. On the warm day I couldn't miss. The next cold day I kept dropping the shot short because of decrease velocity. I know from experience that larger diameter tubes perform poorly in cold.Almost unshootable due to erratic velocity. I believe it is due to the larger air space being heated and cooled. You have to drain the air before attaching tubes.


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## capnjoe (Jun 3, 2012)

Bill Hays just posted a video in which his speed increased 100fps after the ambient temp increased by 30 degrees.


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## mopep (Mar 13, 2012)




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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

You can do the same experiment low tech by holding the rubber band against your cheek un-stretched, then stretch it and hold it against you cheek again. I did an air conditioning experiment once using a large rubber band to see if you could transfer heat from one side of a cardboard to the other. The rubber band was stretched much tighter on one side than on the other in a continuous motion. It works, but probability takes more energy than the work it delivers. -- Tex


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## Berkshire bred (Mar 4, 2012)

basically to put it simply if you go and shoot on a 30 degees c day in the middle of summer and you shoot at 300 fps on a cold day in the middle of winter you might only manage 240 _250 fps.


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## cjb4u (Nov 11, 2012)

Berkshire bred said:


> basically to put it simply if you go and shoot on a 30 degees c day in the middle of summer and you shoot at 300 fps on a cold day in the middle of winter you might only manage 240 _250 fps.


Thank you this is more of the answer I was looking for. Which leads me to the question can you hunt and kill cleanly in below freezing weather?


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## Bill Hays (Aug 9, 2010)

Yes you can hunt and kill stuff in the winter... yes cold kills bands and tubes, but if you normally shoot at 250 fps on warm days with decent sized ammo... then on cold days you'll be shooting around 200 fps.
If you normally use .375 lead ball or larger then anything over 180 fps will kill a rabbit pretty easily.
Today (early morning) the temperature was in the upper 30's and I decided to check and see what kind of fps I can get... with single gold theraband per side (1" straight cut) I was shooting .44 caliber lead at 210 fps. Silver theraband was barely 200 fps with 7/16 steel.

I have customers in Alaska using some of my slingshots on much colder days than here as well... they generally use doubled up theraband gold and .44 lead... and are able to take rabbit on down is sized game.


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## msasso (Nov 7, 2012)

Not an expert by any means but I do also shoot and hunt with airguns. In particular I have a custom CO2 pistol I built and love to hunt with. In the cold winter months I loose quite a bit of of velocity when the gun is out in the cold. One of the things I did was purchase a shoulder holster and keep it under my coat next to my body and only take it out when I am going to shoot a squirrel or rabbit.My body temp keeps it at average temps and it shoots great. I imagine if you were hunting you could do something similar by keeping the slingshot in your coat. However the bands would get cold pretty quickly Just a thought


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## cjb4u (Nov 11, 2012)

Hey Bill that is more the answer I was looking for thank you. And I promise as soon as I can I will be ordering one or your SS.


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