Strange, most of the CZ-52s out there are parkerized and were stored and shipped in cosmoline. This makes the nooks and crannies impregnated with grease and making it VERY rust resistant.Right. And then the first thing Joe or Jane Gunowner does when they get it home is hit it with brake cleaner to thoroughly degrease it.
I use Gunscrubber on newer guns like my M&P or 22/45 or stainless revolvers, but never on older parkerized pieces or old guns with a brown patina; in those cases, it's only the grease impregnated in the surface that prevents it from rusting away before your eyes like a cannon brought up off a shipwreck.
I've got some old, browned pistols that get handled a lot and taken to the range, and which have remarkably hardy finishes simply from getting wiped down with an oily rag regularly and not degreased. For old rifles that get left lying around, I like Butch's Gun Oil
or Break Free Collector, both of which are pretty viscous and don't have any cleaners in them to evaporate; by this point, I'd bet the top layer of the metal on my flop-top Springfield is probably 50% ferrous oxide and 50% dinosaur juice.
Leaves me to ponder: Why thoroughly degrease a milsurp (particularly one you intend to, you know, actually shoot!)? If cosmoline is intended as a preservative, and that Mosin was made before National Socialism and Karl Marx's wierd little cult got popular, don'tcha think it works? Cleaning off enough so that the thing works, and is not vaseline-sticky to handle is one thing, but boiling it in paint thinner is just ...... counterproductive, no?
ReplyDeleteOne that I intend to shoot will usually get the cosmoline baked out of the stock (using the old method of wrapping it in towels in the trunk of the car on a hot summer day) and cleaned out of the working parts, but that and a good wipedown is about it.
ReplyDeleteI used to obsessively degrease them, but I got better. :)
Giving it a coating of LSA then wiping seems to be working here in Florida.
ReplyDeleteLSA is great stuff. I use it on everything I own. You can tell you have enough when it starts dripping out of the mag well.
ReplyDeleteThe tower of London uses Petroleum jelly (aka Vasiline). Nice long chain hydrocarbons, nothing seems to have evolved to eat it, good surface tension, so it wets over any spots you missed.
ReplyDeleteAnother alternative is to keep a small block of magnesium in your gun safe. It corrodes, but in doing so it protects your guns.
For silverware, you can polish off the tarnish, and throw away the silver you polish away, or you can boil your silver with a wadded up bit of aluminum foil, which removes the tarnish, and plates the silver back onto your silver spoons. The finish is more random than if you polished it though.
WV: hoest- She was the hoest of the party...
I've been tossing around the idea of making up a gallon of Ed's Red, but leery of its rust preventive capability versus CLP (which I currently use - if it's good enough for mothballed battleships it's good enough for me).
ReplyDeleteI can't remember where I saw the tests that were done on the two. Anyone know?
gvi
wv: bilingl: I kin mispel wurds in too langwajiz.
The problem with CLP for long-term storage is the "C", which is why the .mil also gets the stuff without the cleaner in it, sold commercially as "Collector".
ReplyDeleteI've done pretty well at stopping incidental corrosion with a silicone-impregnated wipe, and not-cleaning-it-off.
ReplyDeleteWhich is nice.
One of my favorite articles on the sadly inactive Xavier Thoughts blog was his advice on how to use Vaseline to add corrosion resistance to a 1911.
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteThat's why I linked it in the middle of the post. ;)
Yeah I don't go nuts degreasing my mil-surps. I just give them a quick wipe down with a rag, and hose the moving parts out with M-Pro7, and then I run a bunch of rounds through the gun to scare away the excess goop.
ReplyDeleteMy my, hey hey,
ReplyDeleterock n' roll is here to stay.
No rust here. Just fadin'.
The local auto shop stocks inexpensive axle grease in one pound containers. Works nicely for rust prevention, as well as lubing high friction areas.
ReplyDeleteThis stuff works pretty good to hold back rust,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eezox.com/gun-care
I use it on the exterior and other goop on the inside. Somebody did a rust test a while back (can't find it) and this stuff was one of the top finishers.
I like MC2500 (the liguid version of TW25B). It doesn't dry out. Am trying Slip 2000 as its easier to find here.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points Tam, old guns DO require a different level/method of care! Personally, I'm a fan of RemOil.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a replacement barrel for an 03 Springfield. The barrel came packaged the old way; a solid cylinder of cosmoline wrapped in oiled paper. Anyway, I thought I would save my self some effort by running the mostly cleaned barrel through a vapor degreaser. It came out with a sparkling, white crystalline coating; That's what Parkerizing looks like without the oil and dye applied. I had to dig out a handful of cosmoline and apply it to the still warm barrel to restore the color.
ReplyDelete@ Village Idiot
ReplyDeleteI found this test at Brownells: http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=12616/GunTechdetail/Gun-Cleaning-Clinic-Knowing-the-Limits-of-Rust-Preventatives
Although it doesn't address Ed's Red, it's a good reference. IIRC, someone did a rust prevention test on ARFCOM or at least I remember seeing one there.
Personally, I wouldn't trust Ed's Red for corrosion protection or storage. (I mix it by the quart for gun cleaning)IMO, it's simply not heavy enough.
When I was operating in a "marine environment" we used diesel on our .50's and M60's. Didn't take long to impregnate the metal and make it absolutely impervious to rust. The .50 barrels used to smoke a bit when they got hot...
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall reading some oil tests. Might have been on the Box o Truth site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/sitemap.htm
Can't find a search function, though.