A very cold start

Today ,with the temperature around 3 or 4 above at 11:00 am after a night hitting 4 below and over a foot of snow on the ground, I was outside feeding the horses and dogs. My old beat up Statesman utility tractor was sitting there in an open unheated barn with a half inch wind blown snow on the hood and seat. I dusted the snow out of the seat and sat down pulled the choke pushed the clutch in and hit the starter it cranked a few times and fired right up. I was shocked it even turned over let alone start. Then engine is a Briggs 17hp IC single cylinder an early 2000 model I think, its the one with the plastic shroud and intake. I think it has won itself some up grades like all metal shroud and intake a tune up, it don't even have the correct plug, and it will be my winter engine on my upcoming build this spring sharing the job with my 18hp oppy. Would like hear what you guys think.

I have never had a problem with a gas engine starting in the cold, diesel tho is a different story

When the temp drops into single digits its hit you with a double whammy first the batter has a lot less cranking amps second the oil in the engine get much thicker. I use 10W30 in my engines not SAE30,helps a lot. I usually have to boost mine in cold weather sometimes heat the engine. Never had one to start this easy means a lot too me I use my tractor to haul firewood from the barn to the house as well as other uses The 18hp oppy I have I haven't got it running yet not owned it very long and been too cold to work on the thing from what I read they can be difficult to start but loads of power so its not hard to swap engines one for summer and one for winter just my two cents.

I almost always have trouble starting once temps drop to 32 or less. I have had frozen cables, and not been able to start because of that, (could not set choke or throttle) but usually the battery is too cold and it won't crank.