SmallCaliberCentral

Some help needed guys!

I have a Rem 700 SPS varmint and i am finding rust spots on the barrel and bolt? It is random spots and at first i thought it was from finger prints but they have appeard on places i haven't touched with bare hands ever and i regularly oil the barrel and bolt since day 1! It has that black painted finish so was wondering!
1 How to get it back to new finish?
2 Why it is doing this?
3 how to stop this happening in the future?

Thanks for your time.

Boomer

The biggest downside to the matte finish that is becoming more and more popular is that there is no way to deal with rust spots without "damaging" the matte finish. I say "damaging" because the affected area will end up not matching the surrounding area. With a polished blue finish it is rather straight forward when it comes to dealing with slight rust and there are many products on the market for that.

You might get away with a VERY stiff toothbrush and some rust inhibitors. You can make a toothbrush very stiff by cutting the bristles really short. Then soak the rust affected area and keep it soaked by wrapping it with some cloth or towel and then soaking that as well. After letting it soak for a long while go ahead and attack it with the stiff brush and see how much of it you can remove.

Aside from that... there are several products on the market that let us coat (paint) our own rifles. Cerakote, Brownell's Gun-Kote, ... etc. (Those do require an oven big enough to fit your barreled action into). Duracoat is another option. It is a paint on type coating that doesn't require the baking in the oven.

The gun community has done this to ourselves. The trend towards "tactical" and "varmint" firearms has allowed manufactures to produce firearms that are finished rougher and then they call it "matte finish".

Remington's dull finish is not a durable "parkerizing". The steel is sand blasted and blued, hence the poor corrosion resistance. My 870 shotgun I carried in my unmarked police car was the biggest PIA for rust while stored in the trunk. My "M4gery" had no such issues.

Tom

I don't know much about the finish you're talking about, but try using Viva paper towels and rubbing the heck out of it with Hoppes 9. Vivas are so soft you can use them to wax your car, so they shouldn't damage the finish. To keep it from happening, sounds like you've got moisture wherever you're storing it. Get some dessicant, might help.

I have seen all iron/steels rust including stainless steel parts on fly reels used in tropical super warm and humid salt water areas. You can almost see the rust forming on unprotected blued or even parkerized finishes in such condtitions.

I like to use BoeShield - a spray containing wax and oils. Boeing used or still uses Boeshield on the interior parts aircraft for corrosion protection. I wipe my stuff down with soapy hot water, clear water, 90% rubbing alcohol, dry then spray on a coat of BoeShield, then wipe off the excess the next day. (all harmless solvents)

BoeShield is not magic and would possibly gum up in cold weather and attract grit so it should not be used as a lubricant.

Another possible source of rust that I have found is foaming type bore cleaners that have been allowed to dry on blued steel parts. At least the red gunk inside a blued steel receiver looks like rust. The foam solvents seem to attack fouling, oils, and stock finishes leaving the surface unprotected. I would guess solvents containing ammonia if allowed to dry would also do a number on steel surfaces.

Try Kroil to clean up the rust. I hear CLP is very good in removing rust. I always finish cleaning up my guns with a coat of Eezox. It gets into the metal and leaves it less susceptible to fingerprints. I have not had any problems with rust since I started using Eezox.

Eezox sounds better than BoeShield and I can get a 4oz can for about $13.00 inc shipping from the Warren outfit in Ohio where I bought my ghost ring sights from. I like the part about salt spray.