I miss Cosmoline.

[vzenmn]

I was digging around some boxes a found a an old mosin oil bottle with the inside stuffed with the gunk.
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Wish I could go back to when you couldn't go down a single aisle at a gunshow without getting a whiff of that smell. Walk in with $200 dollars and walk out with a Mosin , 440 rd spam can of ammo and still have enough money left for Whataburger meal and a case of beer and still have change.Then spend the whole night and most of the next day trying to get just half of that greasy goop off your new milsurp. With failure. The first time or two you shoot it the gun sweats cosmoline like a hooker in church.

Wish I had a 55 gallon drum full of the stuff just so I can dunk random guns in it and clean it off again.

 

[sarduy]

Yes, those were the good old day.

 

[troy fairweather]

My dad got a hold of a 55 gallon drum of it when I was a kid, don't know what ever happened to it. Definitely a smell that triggers good memories.

 

[MikeInOr]

~30 years ago I bought 2 Turkish 8mm Mausers... $50 for the pair. I cleaned one off and played with it. The second one went into the gun room in the attic... in original arsenal condition... beat to hell and covered with cosmoline! I will sell it to you... but it is worth a pretty penny considering the original aresenal condition with a wealth of cosmoline!

lol!

 

[vzenmn]

~30 years ago I bought 2 Turkish 8mm Mausers... $50 for the pair. I cleaned one off and played with it. The second one went into the gun room in the attic... in original arsenal condition... beat too hell and covered with cosmoline! I will sell it to you... but it is worth a pretty penny considering the original aresenal condition with a wealth of cosmoline!

lol!

I remember them going for $40 in the Shotgun news in the early 2000's. I'll take it for $45.

 

[yzguy87]

A couple thoughts:
1) “Then spend the whole night and most of the next day trying to get just half of that greasy goop off your new milsurp. With failure.”
Failure has never been as fun as this and...

2) “The first time or two you shoot it the gun sweats cosmoline like a hooker in church.”
I was never really that good at getting all the cosmoline off so it was more like the 1st month or 2 of shooting for me!

But regardless, yes good memories!

 

[wiscoaster]

Amazing how well that miserable stuff works for what it's supposed to do, though.

 

[MikeInOr]

~30 years ago I bought 2 Turkish 8mm Mausers... $50 for the pair. I cleaned one off and played with it. The second one went into the gun room in the attic... in original arsenal condition... beat to hell and covered with cosmoline! I will sell it to you... but it is worth a pretty penny considering the original aresenal condition with a wealth of cosmoline!

lol!

P.S. I will clean the second one off after I get the cosmoline from the first one out from under my fingernails.

 

[MikeInOr]

2) “The first time or two you shoot it the gun sweats cosmoline like a hooker in church.”
I was never really that good at getting all the cosmoline off so it was more like the 1st month or 2 of shooting for me!

But regardless, yes good memories!

Remove the stock, put it in the oven at 150 degrees for about a half hour wiping it off now and then with a rag and mineral spirits. Soak it pretty well with thinned boiled linseed oil as it is cooling down so the wood sucks the BLO into its grain. Let the BLO dry in the sun for a couple of days.

 

[yzguy87]

Remove the stock, put it in the oven at 150 degrees for about a half hour wiping it off now and then with a rag and mineral spirits. Soak it pretty well with thinned boiled linseed oil as it is cooling down so the wood sucks the BLO into its grain. Let the BLO dry in the sun for a couple of days.

Putting a cosmoline soaked stock in the oven is advise for a single man or a man with a VERY chill wife.
I do not fall into either of those categories

But your advise is sound and if I ever do another I will try applying heat in another way.

 

[MikeInOr]

Putting a cosmoline soaked stock in the oven is advise for a single man or a man with a VERY chill wife.
I do not fall into either of those categories

But your advise is sound and if I ever do another I will try applying heat in another way.

LOL!!! Yes, I was single at the time!

 

[Deus Machina]

I did find the best way to get cosmoline out of the oil bottles or various other containers, FWIW.
Pour in some mineral spirits and a handful of BBs or shot. Shake well. Pour out, rinse. Done.

 

[indy1919a4]

. The first time or two you shoot it the gun sweats cosmoline like a hooker in church.

.

Now that is one hell of a visual that you stuck me with

 

[hq]

Cosmoline. Oh joy. I hate that stuff. The best way to get it off has proven to be wrapping the metal parts in paper towels and putting them in sauna at 200°F+ overnight. Most of it just runs off and is soaked in towels and the rest comes off easily with solvent as long as the parts are warm enough.

In my youth everything stank of either cosmoline, Ballistol or both until I discovered CRC gun oil. It wasn't much of an improvement but at least it smelled (relatively) nice.

 

[Pat Riot]

Okay...So I am not the only one

 

[crestoncowboy]

CRC gun oil.

I bet we stock 50 different cans of crc products. From different contact cleaners that are 50 bucks a can down to mass air flow or intake cleaners. Never saw a gun oil though. They have a vast catalog

 

[hq]

Never saw a gun oil though. They have a vast catalog

Maybe there are different products for different markets? This has been a mainstay around here for at least 40 years.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

I do NOT miss cosmoline, but I do get your point. I miss the 90's!

 

[Robbins290]

You can still buy some of the original cosmoline.

Brownells has there brand
https://www.brownells.com/gun-clean...ants/rust-prevention/rust-veto-prod26344.aspx

and there is this brand

https://www.originalcosmoline.com/shop/original-cosmoline-rust-veto-342/

 

[crestoncowboy]

Maybe there are different products for different markets?

Quite possible. Ive never seen or heard of it. And thats after years of browsing gun stores and mags. Plus being management enticed by crc reps. We have brakeclean. 3-36 corrosion inhibit. Super screw loose..Qc-82 degreaser. Qd and many other contact cleaners....... Just all kinds of stuff. Even crc compressed air in a can. Never seen the gun care. A quick grainger search didn't show it either and they they carry most if not all crc products stateside. Their stuff is usually pretty good stuff. How is the gun care?

 

[hq]

Their stuff is usually pretty good stuff. How is the gun care?

More or less like any lightweight gun oil. Except that it smells nice and every supermarket and gas station carries it.

 

[rust collector]

Here's the CRC Gun Care from their site: https://www.crcind.com/crc/CRCprodu...0000000XbJrMZV18F0000nvaE4Jh78PrchdWIiX9w8A-- There is also a translated Russian video on you tube.

Cosmoline was like the room full of horse poop you dove into to find the pony. It was a necessary evil to get to the fun stuff, and now its aroma reminds us of those surprise packages that were waiting on the porch after work. It was wonderful for importers, because by the time you removed it there was no way the gun was going back, no matter the sorry state of the wood and metal hidden beneath.

 

[wiscoaster]

.....no matter the sorry state of the wood and metal hidden beneath.

Except if it's been hidden under Cosmoline all these years, underneath it all it's probably in a lot better shape than even the importer thinks it is.

 

[Robbins290]

I agree Wiscoaster. all the mil surps i got that were covered in cosmoline looked brand new underneath. I have a Enfield that looks like it just left the factory. Brand new wood and not a scratch. It was covered in cosmoline so i gambled at $300 a few years ago. Glad i did. Same with the YUGO sks's about 10 years ago.

 

[MosinT53Hunter]

If you really want a nice gooey project, just get one of those drill Enfields from J&G Sales. I think they are around a $100, plus, they are really neat No, MKIII's. Still cleaning the brown goo from the nooks and crannys...