My Girlfriend Has a Dirty Shotgun.

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Deer Hunter

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So here's the story.

My girlfiend's dad was a HUGE duck hunter. Had a Benelli SBE that he had to sell at one point for some cash. He doesn't hunt like he used to (read, every single day. No exageration.), but when he did he made sure the whole family hunted. My girlfriend once said that every time duck season came, he bought them all a new wardrobe of camo. He even bought her a youth model Remington 1100.

When they were going shopping for it, they were in Gander Mountain and he asked her, who was around 8 years old, what kind of shotguns he wanted. She replied with, "A Black One!"

So she's got a black synthetic youth model 1100 20 gauge shotgun she was shooting ducks with. It was front-heavy for her, so she couldn't hold it up right, but it was hers and she hunted with it. So fast forward. She's 18 years old and they no longer live on the ranch. Their guns have been locked up for a while. Hers was in the back of a closet since the time she was a little bitty girl. The house they are at now flooded at one point. The floodwaters were very high, and all the guns in the house are kept with their bolts opened and locked back. They managed to save a good deal of their things, but that shotgun was knocked down into the water and forgotten about. It HAD been cleaned and oiled (drenched like it was an AR15, from my guess), but that water did a number on it.

Well I spent two days with their family just recently, and her little brother showed me a borrowed rifle that he was gonna go shoot a big buck with this weekend. They love making fun of me for shooting "bambi" recently, a large, old spike that needed killing. He's 10 and this is his first hunt, and he's extremely excited about it. I asked my girl to go grab her shotgun, that I wanted to see it.

What she brought to me floored me.

It was the nastiest, dirtiest, bolt frozen up-edist, 1100 I've ever seen. It looked like it was left in the mud and completely FORGOTTEN. I felt like chewing her dad out for this! Except that it was her dad, and I really liked this girl. :) I think I made the right move by keeping my mouth shut.

So here's some pictures of this gun, partially taken apart.

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The bolt was locked back, and I couldn't get it forward. The release wasn't working, so I had to take the barrel off, take a screwdriver and push down the little mechanism back and have my dad bang on the catch with a blunt object to get it to slide forward. And when it did finally slide, it creeped along very slowly. The O ring looks completely shot. I havn't taken it appart completely yet to make sure everything's functional, and I'm hoping there's no rust in the barrel. The safety button feels like there's syrup all inside of it, as does the trigger mechanism.

As soon as it was handed to me, I asked them if I could take it home and clean it completely for her. They gladly agreed.

I assured my girlfriend that this wasn't for her. This was for the gun. That poor, poor tortured gun. :neener:
 
i would do the same thing. You need to start soaking that gun in oil. Then it looks a little pitted. If i were you i would clean it up totally. Then oil it down. Then take it to a gunsmith to get it properly checked out. Make sure you let them know what happened to it and how it looked. You know the gunsmith will take it completely apart and check your work. Along with this they will make sure its reliable so you will not have any problems.
 
I repaired and refinished a Marlin .22 that a young lady had left lying on the floor behind her sofa with the action locked open after she had cleaned it.

She forgot about it for a while and her cat was drawn to the ammonia smell from the solvent she had used and over several weeks time it urinated directly into the ejection port.
After lying un attended for weeks with its daily baptism of the rankest cat pee imaginable the finish had peeled from the receiver and the bolt had a thick crust of rust and crystalised cat urine. Luckily none got in the bore.

BTW
I have a Remington 1100 super lightweight walnut stock and fore end here, the owner dropped dead before he could pick it up after I refinished it for him.
 
I repaired and refinished a Marlin .22 that a young lady had left lying on the floor behind her sofa with the action locked open after she had cleaned it.

She forgot about it for a while and her cat was drawn to the ammonia smell from the solvent she had used and over several weeks time it urinated directly into the ejection port.
After lying un attended for weeks with its daily baptism of the rankest cat pee imaginable the finish had peeled from the receiver and the bolt had a thick crust of rust and crystalised cat urine. Luckily none got in the bore.
Click to expand...

I think this may cause me to have night mares. :eek:
 
She forgot about it for a while and her cat was drawn to the ammonia smell from the solvent she had used and over several weeks time it urinated directly into the ejection port.
After lying un attended for weeks with its daily baptism of the rankest cat pee imaginable the finish had peeled from the receiver and the bolt had a thick crust of rust and crystalised cat urine. Luckily none got in the bore.
Click to expand...

Reason 3,047,468,375 of why I hate cats.

I'd recommend a good soaking in Ed's Red. (both the gun and the cat)
 
I mostly took it appart today. It still has the buttstock on, which is not budging at all, and I havn't taken appart the trigger mechanism. I know I'll have to, however, since every little part is encased in a thick greasy mixture of mud and God-knows-what. While doing some prep-cleaning before a good bath, I kid you not I could have scrapped most of it off with a knife. It was bad. I gave the mag tube, gas plug-thingy, receiver, bolt, and all inside the receiver a good scrubbing, but it still needs a bunch of work.
 
Good for you.

It shouldn't be too much to get it working again. I have seen worse and they were salvaged.

My buddy has an old 1897 Winchester that had sat in his Dad's closet for nearly 15 years with the muzzle up. The bluing was completely gone and their was an 1/8" thick pile of dust on the bolt face. We soaked it and then cleaned everything. He has been shooting it for nearly 20 years.

Be careful when you get it back together. Take it outdoors at a range and shoot it to make sure if functions correctly before letting anyone use it.
 
I think I'd try to soak and flush the trigger group clean enough. Maybe find an ultrasonic bath. Remington trigger groups have some riveted parts.


My anecdote:
We had a lady trapshooter hereabouts. She shot an 1100 for some time and did very well with it. Then she started showing up with a Ljutic Monogun. Over $6000 now, but hers was engraved and gold inlaid. Probably a $15000 gun, if not more. But her scores dropped off.
A friend said: "That single barrel is beating you to death. Why don't you go back to your 1100 that you can shoot comfortably?
She replied: "Charles (husband) said he would quit taking me shooting if he ever had to clean another 1100."
Her friend said: "Honey, you could afford to pay the boy down at the store to clean your gun every week and quit hurting and start breaking more targets."
 
Deer Hunter,
As said above that gun need a good soaking but that will cost a lot of cash with "normal" solvents.

Go out and buy a can or two of Automatic Transmission Fluid. ATF will clean anything without going damage to metal or rubber. It will loosen and dissolve that muck you are reporting. It works very well on rust too. It will also rehydrate the rubber parts. Put all the parts in a bin and cover them in ATF and let them sit for a few days. That will help a lot in getting everything ready for inspection and repair.
 
Thanks for the tip, AACD. I'm going to grab some either today or tomorrow, but I have a question. Would the ATF hurt the plastic parts in the trigger assembly?
 
ATF is like a wonder oil. Just think about it, there are metal parts, rubber parts and plastic parts in a transmission, all are kept clean by ATF. I spent 27 years as a truck mechanic and never saw ATF hurt any parts, just clean and protect then. If you look inside a good transmission you will see all the parts are very clean and all the metal parts shine. Only when a transmission fails you will see black fluid and muck and that's not the fluid, it's clutch material.

BTW, try and find Dextron ATF, (not a name brand, a type of ATF) it will work best. Some of the new stuff isn't as good but will still work.
 
I mostly took it appart today. It still has the buttstock on, which is not budging at all, and I havn't taken appart the trigger mechanism. I know I'll have to, however, since every little part is encased in a thick greasy mixture of mud and God-knows-what. While doing some prep-cleaning before a good bath, I kid you not I could have scrapped most of it off with a knife. It was bad. I gave the mag tube, gas plug-thingy, receiver, bolt, and all inside the receiver a good scrubbing, but it still needs a bunch of work.
Click to expand...

Are your shots up to date? :D
 
thats an ever loving shame.

i may not clean my gear right away after a shooting session but i dang well know better than to put it away wet. or store it unprotected.

ATF or soak in kerosene for a few days. only the metal parts. take that stock off first.

then scrub the barrell inside with a bronze brush. a lot.

the flitz it and forget it.

damn thats a shame.
 
This would actually be a good time to use WD-40 on a gun.

I generally never use WD-40 on a gun because it is not a real oil - but in this case it's penetrative properties (along with the fact that a can of it is cheap, and it looks like you're gonna need more than one can) would actually help you clean this thing up, with the addition of some OOOO Steel Wool.

After it's clean, finish it up with some 20W-50 Mobil 1 oil.
 
Can I just point out that on the main page when this is the most recently commented article it reads:

"My girlfriend has a dirty..."

And that makes me want to click on it every time.
 
In my day we'd court a girl with flowers, dinners, dances, and such entertainment as we could afford. On beautiful nights we'd stroll hand in hand and say wonderful things under the sky.

But this is the first guncleaning courtship I've ever seen. I wouldn't have missed it for the world and I wish I'd had the brains to think of it when I was your age.
 
I've heard of irresponsible dogowners and irresponsible parents. I guess I can add a new one to my vocabulary. "Irresponsible Gunowners".:eek:
 
Alright guys, I believe it's all done.

I cleaned it, put it together, took it appart, cleaned it again, took it appart more, scrubbed, scrubbed, then soaked in some nasty stuff that'll kill your nosehairs for a while, then scrubbed it some more. After I put every piece of it back together, it seems like it'll work. I'm testing it out tomorrow on some clay pidgons.

My only worry is that the O ring may be too battered to work right.
 
ya might just wanna single load it for now til ya get a replacement O-ring; if yer girlfriend has 'sentimental' value attributed to the gun, then help her out and have a gunsmith do a complete overhaul/inspection from muzzle to recoil spring assembly in the buttstock...hell, you can even have it beadblasted and refinished while yer at it to bring it back to life like new
 
She hasn't shot this gun in a long time. Not much sentimental memories right now. It WAS left in the bottom of a closet to die and all... But I'll make sure that it gets shot again.
 
Congratulations Deer Hunter. That was truly a labor of love.

Did you use the Automatic Transmission Fluid as suggested above? If so, how did you use it and what were your impressions of it?

I don't have any experience with it so these questions are at least naive, and perhaps just plain dumb. How would it work in an ultrasonic cleaner? Is it a fire hazard and flammable? Does it evaporate quickly? Is it hazardous indoors?
 
Robert,

While my mom was taking a few puppies to the vet, she decided that she would pick up some brake cleaner at an autoparts store, since I had mentioned I needed to go to town and pick some up. She got me some "Penetrating Catalyst". This stuff had some bizarre packaging.

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Pretty cheesy advertising, but it worked. Took off every bit of grime that was left on the shotgun. I used it outside, but even then the fumes were STRONG. I was wearing rubber gloves and safety classes, just to be cautious. This stuff is DEFINANTLY flammable, and you can't store it in anything plastic because it will eventually eat it completely away. It felt like a very strong basic solution when I rubbed my gloved fingers together after touching some of the immersed shotgun parts.

As I was sloshing the barrel around, dad lit a cigarette while standing three feet away. Wonderful.

After I let them soak thoroughly, I filled a bucket full of water and put the smaller parts in the water. I washed the barrel and receiver out completely with the waterhose. After I dried them off, they were DRY. I oiled everything and put it all back together. Seems to be working fine now. Just have to wait for the weather to clear before I test it out.
 
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