[Bigjake]

Ok, suppose i have a remington 11/87 thats a little bit rough on bluing, and i wanted to make it look nicer, would beadblasting it be an option? i have a beadblaster that i use regularly at work, but the thought of doing a gun never really occured to me until i tried it on my paintball gun, which now looks great now. so say i blasted the shotgun, what would i need to do to keep it from rusting to beat the band the min it came in contact with any sort of humidity? any suggestions would be great, thanks in advance!

[dfariswheel]

Unfortunately, there's not much you can put on bare steel that will keep it from rusting. Waxes or liguid lubes aren't durable enough, and either rub off, dry up, or wash off too quickly.

About the best solution short of re-bluing or another gun finish is to apply a couple of coats of clear finish of some sort.
Clear lacquer or a clear polyurethane might do, but it won't be very durable.

If you can live with the idea, the best home gun finish is one of the baked-on finishes, from ordinary Rustoleum enamel paint to one of the gun-specific bake-on finishes from Brownell's.

[Sunray]

You could have it phosphated or parkerized. There's a stove top recipe at www.jouster.com. Phosphating usually comes out flat black and parkerizing a shade of grey. I suspect that any lacquer or plastic would melt and/or smoke like blazes if you were shooting it with just that on. Plain old oil would keep it from rusting until you have a finish put on. The cleaning dip will remove any oil should you go the phosphating route. Cold bluing is another option, but it usually doesn't come out even and can look like crap. Engine paint is another. Assuming you want black or orange. At least it's made to withstand heat.

[Traveler]

Look in your local yellow pages under Metal Finishing. If you prep the metal in your blast cabinet they should be able to offer you bulk rate for either bluing or phosphate (parkerizing). I doubt the total cost would be more than $50.

[redneck]

If you go the bead blast route, keep a close eye on the gun till you get to the next step.
The rougher the finish on metal, the more prone it is to rusting. Dirt/moisture gets trapped in the tiny pores/divots in the surface. A coat of light oil will keep the rust at bay unless your handling the gun alot which can rub the oil off and introduce more dirt and moisture.