I like to tell people "dust" is just one letter away from "rust". Dusty guns tend to rust in exactly the places where dust is accumulating. Recently I had a customer bring in a Browning BDM. The BDM was not a commercial success–– its super cool feature was the ability to switch between double action/single action and double action only modes of fire via a screw on the left side of the slide. Buyers weren't too excited about extra parts in the slide giving them the ability to experience a long, heavy trigger pull every time. Two years after its introduction the 1994 assault weapons ban was passed and the vast majority of BDMs were shipped with ten round magazines, further decreasing its popularity compared to guns with plentiful pre-ban magazines available. The Browning Dual Mode pistol was discontinued in 1998.

This customer noticed that his Browning was rusting in spots and wanted to know if I could do something about it. I inspected the gun and asked him when it was last oiled. He stared at me blankly. It turns out he was not aware that guns require oil and was not aware of the existence of gun oil. Obviously, he is not a shooter. The gun had resided in a sock or something for many years and he recently stumbled upon it and decided to take up shooting. He was shocked when I told him the gun, in good condition, could be worth up to $400. He had no idea pistols were so expensive and asked me if I could rescue it.

Lets see what we have to work with here:

Oh dear. Notice that the dust collected on the rear sight is just sitting there and hasn't yet turned into surface rust. That's because the rear sight is plastic. Everywhere else, the dust has settled into nooks and crannies and started the oxidization process.

I don't want to talk much about my techniques for rust mitigation for two reasons. First, some of my techniques will ruin various finishes instantly, and other finishes if improperly applied or applied too zealously. I don't want people ruining their guns because of something I wrote on the internets, and I have ruined more than a couple of finishes myself during the learning process. Secondly, it really did take me years to figure this stuff out and I don't want to give away too many of my secrets or nobody will pay me to wave my magic fix-it wand over their guns anymore. Sorry.

However, I will share one thing that I think is critical. I never see clean slide serrations on pistols that come into my shop, ever. If you think your slide serrations are clean, you are probably wrong. Take a dental pick and sand down the tip of it until it is smooth enough not to scratch your gun. Then use it as a scraper to scrape the forward edges of the serrations and you will see all sorts of brownish-grey crap come up from the tip of the pick. What is that crap? It is skin that has abraded off of your hands and gotten lodged in those nice sharp 90 degree cuts milled into your slide. And it is contributing to rust in your slide serrations unless you clean it off and oil your slide regularly. The finer/sharper the slide serrations, the worse the skin abrasion is. I've seen more than one beautiful blued 1911 with rusted serrations for this very reason.

I took the following pic to show that the stainless steel frame was rusting in spots. This is a place where the plastic grips interface with the frame, a tab on the grips fills that groove that is rusting away. Remember guys, it is called "stainless steel", not "rustless steel".

Here are the "after" pics. This is the same blued finish as before, I did not refinish anything. It is simply rust removal, cleaning, oiling, and optimizing what is left of the original finish. I was happy with how the finished product turned out, and so was the customer. He was also amazed at how much easier it was to manipulate the slide with the gun properly lubricated. LOL

Along the same lines, I recently had a special Ruger Single-Six come in. The owner of this old pistol is recently deceased and his wife wanted to present the gun to her son as a reminder of times he and his father had shared together. The gun was in similar shape to the Browning BDM although I didn't think to take any "before" photos. Surface rust was evidence in the sights, in the cylinder lockup notches, and especially on the polished bare metal parts like the trigger and hammer. Because of the situation, I really brought my best game to this one. Of course the gun was torn down to the bare frame and every part inspected and meticulously cleaned. The hammer and trigger were re-polished to an absolutely smooth mirror sheen. Each night for a week I applied a coat of tung oil to the gun's dry, plain grips before I left work for the night.

The woman's reaction to seeing the finished product justified my hard work. The gun is not only completely clean and rust free but timing, end shake, and everything else I know to check on a single action revolver are impeccable. It should be a hell of a shooter for years to come. I share these photos and ask you to contemplate the gift from mother to son that this gun represents. If you have a father or son who shoots with you, treasure every moment you get with them. And take some photos of your adventures together. One day a memento may be all that is left.