gun cleaning

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I have heard about using carnuba car wax on your rifle to help keep water off..the outside that is..anyone ever use this idea? They say wax everything outside....sounds like good idea to me. Might keep water off the blue parts and wood and make easier to wipe down after day out.

[Adam Helmer]

skeeter,

As for wax, I'd say "yes" and 'No." For a wood stock, applying wax will prevent boiled linseed oil from EVER again penetrating into the wood. Applying wax to the metal may "make it easier to wipe down after a day out," but what about the water that got into the action under the stock? If I get a gun soaked, I detail strip it, dry the metal and reoil and set the stock near the woodstove for a day or two to dry out inside. All my stocks have a coat or two of boiled linseed oil inside and out.

Applying wax will not preclude detail stripping a drenched gun, so I never use wax.

Adam

[Jack]

I've used wax on gunstocks, but not on metal.
I have heard of the procedure of taking the action out of the stock, waxing all the metal, and then reassembling. I suspect it would work, short term, but I haven't tried it.

[skeet]

Works real well for getting the hair off..oops..wrong idea. I used to wax my ol 1100 on the outside....and waxed the ends of the stock and inside the forend. Not too keen on boiled linseed myself. Never seems to really get dry. I was guiding and we had lots of nasty weather. Helped a bit I guess. But when it got really nasty I always took it apart and cleaned anyway. But it did keep it from getting too bad. After cleaning with oil etc I had to re wax anyway. If it got dropped in the river or bay..once in the ocean..I detailed it and put an extra stock and forend on. A dry one. Lots of stuff happened while duckin..Friend dropped my 6 cell mag lite overboard one morning. It was on. Found it 30 mins later while movin some decoys. Still on. fished it out by the lanyard I had on it with a boat hook. It had been waxed and I still have it. Salt water too down on Assateague Island. I did clean it up a bit later that night.

A guy I hunted with some lost his Auto 5 in the Nanticoke river.. in 5 ft of water. Found it about 5 days later..on a really low tide..Nothing woulda helped it. Finish was GONE.