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Bluing on a gun, storage and rust?


TRJ

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Friend showed me an older gun he got from his late grandpa's house, eastern European PPK clone type. He's been keeping it in his cold basement in a open cell foam lined handgun box. Whenyou look straight at the side it looks slick and blue/pearl black...but when you look from an angle at the grain of the metal you see what looks like rust running deep in the grain. Also looks like that, but blotchy around the beavertail. It's not scaly, or blistered or pitted.

 

Is that rust?

 

How to fix?

 

how to store?

 

I've only ever had guns with modern finishes, this thing is out of my league. I asked him to oil it up and store it in a ziplock with no air to prevent further damage, if it is indeed damaged by rust.

 

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Not sure on whether or not it's rust, sounds like it, but open cell foam is the worst possible way to store guns. That stuff plus moisture plus metal = rust.

 

My friend had rust develop on a blued gun over night by keeping it in a case with that foam. Craziest thing I've ever seen. Literally in less than 24 hours, there was flash rust all over the gun and it even worked its way inside. We had to take it apart and try to remove it, then used Renaissance museum wax to protect it. It was an old blued gun also.

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Not sure on whether or not it's rust, sounds like it, but open cell foam is the worst possible way to store guns. That stuff plus moisture plus metal = rust.

 

My friend had rust develop on a blued gun over night by keeping it in a case with that foam. Craziest thing I've ever seen. Literally in less than 24 hours, there was flash rust all over the gun and it even worked its way inside. We had to take it apart and try to remove it, then used Renaissance museum wax to protect it. It was an old blued gun also.

 

Yup, had a newish blued rifle get a few drops of rain on it at a covered outdoor range. Thought I dried it off. Put it in a hardcase with that foam and when I pulled it out 2 days later it was covered with surface rust.

 

I've never done anything with bluing, but I sanded down the rust spots to bare metal with some very light grit sandpaper, applied several treatments of gunblue in those areas and rinse, then sprayed it with ballistol.

 

Wasn't really going for looks, just wanted to stop the rust.

 

I'm curious what the right way is.

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The simplest way to remove light surface rust, is by wiping it down with oil and 0000 steel wool. Then making sure there's always a light coating of oil on it while in storage.

This is an established good way to treat it. I have also had some success carefully using Flitz polish. Very carefully though.

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You can pick up silicon gun socks online. I have a few from Midway and Cabela's, but mostly Allen. They are just a few bucks on Amazon. For a while I was buying them as add-on items to get me to the minimum for same day shipping.

I've purchased a bunch from Bore Stores.

 

I have 4 for large frame pistols, 1 for my 3 gun shotgun with the long tube, and 1 for my AR. Haven't had any issues with rust.

 

I will say this though.....don't rely on the gun sock to keep rust at bay after you've been shooting in the rain. Take the gun apart, and clean it, or at the very least hose it down with some CLP spray, or whatever spray oil you have until you can clean it.

 

The socks will keep a wet gun from rusting from the range to your home, but don't let the gun sit there wet overnight.

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The best way to store/handle and not worry use Microcrystalline wax (Renaissance) it's what I won't say all but most museums now use if they've moved away from hot wax.

Yes it says it's for wood but it's a non-abrasive wax, you can store/hold it and not have to deal with re-oiling it or whatever. I've put whale oil on the inside and wax on the outside for antiques that sat for 20+ years without great attention to them. RemOil would be a good choice for the inside of modern, I'm just old...

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You can pick up silicon gun socks online. I have a few from Midway and Cabela's, but mostly Allen. They are just a few bucks on Amazon. For a while I was buying them as add-on items to get me to the minimum for same day shipping.

 

I've purchased a bunch from Bore Stores.

 

I have 4 for large frame pistols, 1 for my 3 gun shotgun with the long tube, and 1 for my AR. Haven't had any issues with rust.

 

I will say this though.....don't rely on the gun sock to keep rust at bay after you've been shooting in the rain. Take the gun apart, and clean it, or at the very least hose it down with some CLP spray, or whatever spray oil you have until you can clean it.

 

The socks will keep a wet gun from rusting from the range to your home, but don't let the gun sit there wet overnight.

True. I left that part out.

 

I shot a shotgun-only match at NPCCCC a few years ago and it rained the entire time. When I got the gun home I broke it completely down, wiped it dry, and applied CLP or FP-10 or something. I put it in a sock after that. I have had zero issues with rust so far.

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