I took one of my older ARs out of storage the other day and noticed that it had developed a little rust on the 6" barrel portion. Anyone have ways to deal with this that does not effect the firearms finish?

I noticed the same thing on the barrel of the AR my dad owns. It's a colt lightweight 16" as I was quite surprised when I pulled it out of the cabinet and discovered the rust on a colt. How severe is the rust? The rust on my dad's barrel came off with some oil on a cloth.

Not too severe at all, but plenty enough to notice. I took off the handguards and it's even worse all the way down the barrel. I took a toothbrush and a bunch a CLP to it and gave it a good scrubbing. Looks like some of it came off, but I'm concerned about it returning. Last time I shot it was over the 4th of July. I deployed, and it was stored in a hard side case (bad move) until a few days ago.

A purple pad is softer.  Bronze wool is good too.

perodically, i remove the handguards from my AR's and spray down the entire barrel/FSB with a heavy coat of WD40. i then wipe it down with a very oily rag, and pop the handguards back on when i'm done. i've never had any rust even though my basement gets VERY humid sometimes.

remember, the phosphate coating used on firearms isn't "rustproof". what makes it that way is its' ability to hold oil.

I'm just curious for my own reasons, how long did the rifle go without being touched/cleaned/looked at?

I know a few guys who put guns away in safes and didn't touch them for years and sure enough rust found it way.

You could Gun Kote it or Duracoat.

I think what did it, was keeping it in the hard side case for a few months. I was too stupid to think that the foam inside the case retains a lot of moisture. Bad idea. We just moved south to FL, so the extra humid air probably didn't help either. From now on, they get a nice coat of CLP or WD40 before getting put away in the gun closet...

It's really humid here in Indiana and I really have to keep my guns oiled so they don't rust. Just a couple of weeks to a month without oil and my M14SA started to rust. I had my father take care of a pistol while I was deployed. Even though I told him many times to oil it, he didn't. There was rust on the grip and it keeps coming back easily. I really need to get a safe and a dehumidifier. The ARs are a lot easier to maintain, just oil the FCG parts and the barrel. Is there any kind of oil that sticks better, lasts longer, or prevents rust better than CLP or oil?
Dustin

Slip 2000 EWL

It's more work to remove, but grease sticks better than oil. That's why old milsurp guns were packed with it...........

I've used OO steel wool soaked in hoppes to remove rust off of cheap guns I've gotten good prices on because they were rusty.  The trick is to not use a lot of pressure.  A green scouring pad is courser, and can remove the finish.  Bronze wool is a good idea, I don't know where to buy that though.  
For the guns I own  that don't see a lot of action, I put hoppes gun grease liberally on all of the metal before storage.  I also use the gun grease on the hidden parts of guns I use more regular - underside of barrel between stock, all over barrel under handguards, etc.  I stored a parkerized MAS-36 for 5 years in a foam rifle case in humid northern AL with no damage - but, I'd completely disassembled the gun and coated everything, down to the inside of the bolt.  Hoppes gun grease is the closest think I've found to cosmoline for long term storage.  If I could buy cosmo at walmart, I'd use it since I don't mind cleaning weapons anyway.  Only downside to hoppes gun grease is your semis smoke a lot more under rapid fire as the grease cooks off from under the handguards.

Try using Eesox. You put it on and let it dry, any parts that need lubricating you do so after it dryes.  I don't know about long term, you might want to use grease.  I use eesox on all of the metal parts after every cleaning and thats probably overkill.  So far it has worked on my duty weapons and the guns in my safe.

You must be kidding me. What Marine Corps were you in...the Chinese Marine Corps? Lube your freakin weapons with CLP before they go into the safe, closet or whatever and you will not have any rust on them. Remember doing that prior to shoving your kill stick into those little windows at the Armory?

If you were a pogue that only saw your weapon once a year for the KD I apologize.

This is suspect. A Marine that does not know how to take care of rust on a barrel? If you are a Marine then Semper Fi. If you are not then promptly remove yourself from this site or start a new account with a different screen name.

hmmm.......



i was kind of thinking:

"SCRUB!"

"harder, faster aye, aye sir"

that seems to work for me.



the hard case is a weapon killer. i've had some guys bring in what they thought were some nice rifles only to open the case at the counter and discover rust. guess what just happened to your value. it sucks but it seems like you may have caught it in time.

i spray down everything in my safe every month or two. my 11-87 is very fond of rust so i have to keep on top of it. i'm going to have it sprayed with a ceramic coating some time this winter, that should fix the problem.

Well, thanks to some of you I guess. I guess the Marine Corps way is the only way and there is none better.

you know how long it took me to stop scrubbing my weapons so damn much? after i got into the gun business i realized that what the armorer wants and what is good for the weapon are two different things.

small rust should just scrub off, larger pitted areas are another story but are still fairly easy to fix.

Which is exactly why I asked the question in the first place. A borebrush will get the rust off in a big dam hurry, but I don't feel like taking the finish with it. Don't plan on spending 14hrs with a toothbrush and CLP either.

Careful though, you'll get accused of never being in the Marines at all....

i guess at first glance it would seem strange that a Marine would need to know about getting rust off of his weapon. i know it seemed kind of odd to me then i remembered un-learning how to clean a weapon and it made more sense.

i also realized that most Marines have never seen a rusty weapon. it's amazing that an M16 with absolutely no finish still don't rust. i know i've abused an M4 in some particularly bad environments and never saw one speck of rust. if you "work" with your rifle it's cleaned enough to keep this from happening. if you don't work with it you get a rifle that is "checked out" once a year and is kept clean and oiled down to prevent such things from happening.

you could soak the barrel in vaseline and heat it up in the oven to help it absorb. well, that's what an old timer told me anyway. i've never done it but he claims that it works.

in all honesty i scrub the rust from a weapon then treat the affected area to prevent it from returning, thus my "SCRUB" comment. i, for one, apologise if you took anything i may have said as calling your service into question.

No worries. I'm not the type to get spun up over a forum.

This, CLP and your AP brush is all it takes. I about shit when I picked up my SR15E3 the other day that I got off the EE, It had light surface rust on it but a couple minutes with the CLP,brush and rag and it was GTG.