How well does Parkerizing protect a shotgun?

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Without being loaded with lube, it's probably worse than a good polished blue, with lube aboard, especially baked-in grease, its VERY rust resistant.
 
I can't say for sure but my parkerized 870 has to be coated with oil frequently. I've had very light surface rust on the receiver if left to sit in the safe for more than a few months. The rust buffed right out with a little Rem Oil and 0000 steel wool, so it was nothing to worry about. Since my shotty is for HD and won't be exposed to the elements I would prefer a blued finish like the Wingmaster.

YMMV, though.
 
I think oiling Parkerizing is a waste of time, you'll need to reapply way too often, especially if the gun gets hot, and the protection is limited unless the gun is basically dripping with it.

Grease is the way to go, my Parked 870 has never seen rust, except a little around the unprotected barrel ring, despite being outside for hours at time in hard rain. I've had to reapply it once, and that was more because I wanted to try a new type of grease than out of necessity.

I'd have to say that grease properly applied is at least as rust resistant as stainless.
 
Good gun paint over a freshly parkerized finish is about as low maintenance as it gets after stainless.
 
Ballistol has actually worked really well for me. I had some muskets stored in the garage (long story) one winter about ten years ago. There are a lot of temperature swings and metal often gets condensation on it. I wiped them down with Ballistol and crossed my fingers. I should mention that these are carbon steel, bright metal repros that rust if you look at them cross-eyed. Several months later I brought them in and they were spotless, same condition as when I'd put them out there.

I'm not sure I'd rely on Ballistol if I were keeping a gun on a fishing boat to deal with sharks, but for more or less normal conditions (and the ones I had were probably worse than normal), it has worked very well for me.
 
Not to hijack the thread, but what would be the most durable, rust resistant finish (other than stainless steel)?

Stainless steel rifles are very popular at this point. Why not stainless shotguns?
 
Expect to pay about $200 (before shipping costs) for a good paint-over-park job that involves full disassembly of the gun.
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Most people I know who would go the route of painting would do it themselves...it's simple and easy to paint a gun!
The FN49 was basically a painted gun despite the high cost to manufacture it.
 
klineia said:
Stainless steel rifles are very popular at this point. Why not stainless shotguns?
Click to expand...

Cost.

I've gotten tired of loading my park finish with oil. What kind of grease is good for this? Where do I get it?
 
I've gotten tired of loading my park finish with oil. What kind of grease is good for this? Where do I get it?
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Just about anything will work, as long as you take the time to bake it in.

I'm currently using industrial gear grease, which is as much a really thick oil as a typical goopy grease. The stuff seems to absorb much more readily and be more protective than the generic lithium grease I'd used previously.
 
I've heard of this before but isn't there a risk to damaging the parts if you were to heat them in an oven?

Is there any risk from the fumes that are given off by the park finish if a household oven is used?
 
I've heard of this before but isn't there a risk to damaging the parts if you were to heat them in an oven?

Is there any risk from the fumes that are given off by the park finish if a household oven is used?
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People have been doing this for a long time with no ill effects, if you're not comfortable using your dinner oven then another heat source like sitting on a heater guard or even enough direct sunlight can do the job. You don't actually need a lot of heat it's more the duration of it.
 
In my informal testing, if properly prepared, I found it 53.778% more effective, but 87% of the statistics you see are made up on the spot. Or so I read on the internet... ;)

I've heard of this before but isn't there a risk to damaging the parts if you were to heat them in an oven?
Click to expand...

Steel or aluminum parts, no. Plastic, possibly. So if you spray & bake a trigger assembly, you better know what's inside.
 
Not to hijack the thread, but what would be the most durable, rust resistant finish (other than stainless steel)?
Stainless steel rifles are very popular at this point. Why not stainless shotguns?

There have been stainless steel shotguns.
Winchester made the Model 1200 and the Model 1300 in stainless steel "Marine" versions.
Strangely, Winchester said that the stainless barrels rusted and pitted inside more than the nickel plated models so they changed to satin nickel plating. Most other makers use satin nickel on their Marine guns. Remington has a new black Marine Magnum gun with some type of durable black finish.

Other than stainless steel, probably the most durable finish would be to have the gun hard chrome plated, including inside the bore.
 
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