I got lazy - but never again

[choochboost]

After shooting about 600 rounds through my Buckmark pistol last weekend, I got lazy, broke my own rule, and didn't clean it afterwards. I pulled it out of my range bag today and found just a bit of rust on the magazine and the slide (USP and Bersa were OK). I know its not a major problem but I've never had to deal with rust before and want to do something about this. So what do I do? Just a regular clean and re-lube? FYI, I use M-Pro7 to clean and Break Free CLP to lube.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Some 0000 steel wool and some oil. You are good to go.

 

[choochboost]

Won't the steel wool thrash the finish on the slide?

 

[redneck2]

Use the steel wool VERY, VERY, lightly and VERY well oiled. I'd use a real good oil (Kroil). Move it a lot, and push VERY little.

You can also VERY lightly use toothpaste with a little warm water.

I had a muzzle loader that I put back into a padded case while it was damp. Next morning it was covered with light surface rust. I did the steel wool thing (0000 ONLY!!) and it was fine. That was maybe 10 years ago and it still looks great.

 

[sparx]

If using 0000 steel wool gives you the creepies, there's also a lead removal cloth that you can find in most places that sell gun cleaning accessories. It's impregnated with a very light abrasive that will remove lead from barrels, slight rust, powder rings on revolvers, etc., and works very well.

As in a previous post, just use light pressure and you'll be fine. I've also used it to remove heavy rust on an old .22 rifle given to me that had previously been through a plumbing flood and forgotten about. To remove all the heavy rust I used hard pressure and it lightened the blueing quite a bit (though it took some time to do, even then), but I still need to have a gunsmith straighten the bolt channel and then plan on re-blueing that piece anyway.

An example of a lead removal cloth can be found at: http://secure.armorholdings.com/kleen-bore/product174.html

HTH

 

[hksw]

Huh. I think I've (fully) cleaned (i.e., disassembled gun) my Buckmarks a total of 2 or 3 times in the number of years I've had them and never had any problems with rust. What ammo were you using? (Though I doubt it is ammo related and more than likely the environment it was stored in.)

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Won't the steel wool thrash the finish on the slide?

Four-ought won't, just use plenty of oil, as mentioned above.

 

[aaronrkelly]

The rust had nothing to do with not cleaning your gun after shooting, atleast I dont see how it could. It must have something to do with the environment, ie humidity or something.

My point is if your not going to clean your guns after shooting them you should probably wipe them down with an oil rag.......that would prevent any rust from forming after use.

 

[choochboost]

I think the rust had more to do with the amount of handling than the number of rounds. We were shooting out in the desert shooting with very sweaty hands, maybe even wet hands as we kept dipping into the ice chest. Whatever the case I'm sure cleaning it afterwards would've prevented the rust as I've never had this happen before. I have 2 buckmark mags and only the mag we used developed rust and both were kept in the same range bag since the weekend.

 

[Don't Tread On Me]

Don't sweat it. Do what the guys say with the steel wool and oil and you should be 99% fine. If it rusts again in the same spots, next time be more abrasive with the steel wool and cold-blue it. Wal*Mart sells that birchwood-casey stuff. Works great for touch-ups. Just follow the instructions. Some people complain that it's junk. I've blued entire rifle case-gauges (for handloading) as well as done some touch-ups on firearms including an AR-15 front sight base that I chopped down to turn into a gas-block-only for use with scope.. and have had zero rust and zero problems. I think the stuff is great.

 

[wally]

I rarely clean my guns, but I always wipe them down with an oily rag as soon as I get home, before putting them up. The salts from your sweat can be very corrosive and this is probably what did it. I doubt anywhere has as much heat and hummidity as we do in Houston.

--wally.