Overheating parkerization?

[Dr.Zubrato]

When i visit the range, I put my rifle to use and by that i mean I've had times where smoke comes up from underneath the handguards, and I figured it was just the oil cooking off.
It's a new rifle, taken only twice to the range so far, both times it's gotten hot enough to smoke a little from underneath the handgoards. Now, when I took apart the handguards to see what I've done i noticed what looked like rust! I oiled it down, and i can no longer see it, but it gave me a good scare. I can't imagine I've already cooked off the park by firing 120 rounds, sustained fire 15-30 rounds a minute! It's a LW barrel but even so!
Any input would be appreciated, I'm wondering if this is normal.. especially for a BCM barrel

 

[RustHunter87]

well parkerization is more like primmer than paint in that it is porous, its made to be saturated in oil the finish is there to hold oil.
When you cooked off all the oil, you cooked off the protection and water moved in, just keep it well oiled and it should be good.

 

[Ramone]

#1.

The Sustained Rate of Fire of the M16A2 is 12-15 rounds a minute, so you are on your way to burning out a LW barrel.

#2 "Oil Buffing" is repeatedly soaking the rifle in CLP, Ideally while letting it heat and cool, wiping clean, and repeating until the metal is impregnated with CLP. This should be done with all new Parkerised Weapons.

 

[Dr.Zubrato]

I can see the need to add oil to parkerization, but burning out a barrel?
I was eventually planning on taking it to a carbine class, how often do guys burn out their barrels there, as the round count is pretty high and way above sustained ROF.

How often do you guys have to oil underneath the handguards?

 

[JustinJ]

well parkerization is more like primmer than paint in that it is porous, its made to be saturated in oil the finish is there to hold oil.
When you cooked off all the oil, you cooked off the protection and water moved in, just keep it well oiled and it should be good.

Parkerizing itself is designed to protect the metal. Oil will give additional protection but parkerizing is not just to hold oil.

It may be that the rust looking color was residue from the burnt oil. If it were real rust it would probably require a little bit of scrubbing to remove.

 

[adelbridge]

chances are the smoke you noticed was coming from the gas block. The rust was probably already there and unrelated.

 

[dfariswheel]

Many new guns are coated with Cosmoline or other protective lubricants.
Many of these look like rust if you wipe it off, especially after it gets hot.

That's one reason you need to clean a new gun to remove the factory preservative.
Remington used to coat their Police shotguns with hot Cosmoline for long term storage.
The recommended that a new gun be field stripped and sprayed dripping wet with something like CLP Breakfree and allowed to soak 30 minutes to dissolve and flush off the preservative and leave a protective coating of CLP.

It's very possible what you saw is nothing more then the factory lube that got hot.
Try cleaning it off as above. If it's burned preservative, you may need to use a solvent to remove it.

 

[Boattale]

The interchangable barrels on M-60 machine guns were made with a parkerized finish. They got a lot hotter than your barrel over and over again. You are not going to hurt the finish on a parkerized barrel by getting it hot as the hubs of hell. Don't worry about it.

 

[Dr.Zubrato]

Thanks everyone!
Come to think of it, it did wipe off pretty easy and didnt leave any rough spots.. so I'm inclined to say it's burned oil.
Thinking back, i did give it hell though and will reconsider how I treat it in the future. I went out to the range, cooked off the rest of the oil under the handguards, left it in the garage in winter, then took it indoors.
Gave me a pretty good scare, tell ya what.
I'll keep an eye out for it, but at least now I know it wasn't rust.

But one things continues to bother me..
People attend carbine courses and put through massive round counts, and I dont hear any news of burned out barrels and whatever.
And yet I've read on many forums two theories: One is that if you exceed sustained ROF you'll burn out your barrel, and the other is that with a semiauto you couldnt fire enough rounds to burn out the barrel.
Can anyone care to clear up the haze?

 

[762gunr]

The interchangable barrels on M-60 machine guns were made with a parkerized finish. They got a lot hotter than your barrel over and over again. You are not going to hurt the finish on a parkerized barrel by getting it hot as the hubs of hell. Don't worry about it.

What he said. I got my 240b barrel so hot last time I had heat waves coming off the barrel.

 

[Ramone]

Thanks everyone!
Come to think of it, it did wipe off pretty easy and didnt leave any rough spots.. so I'm inclined to say it's burned oil.
Thinking back, i did give it hell though and will reconsider how I treat it in the future. I went out to the range, cooked off the rest of the oil under the handguards, left it in the garage in winter, then took it indoors.
Gave me a pretty good scare, tell ya what.
I'll keep an eye out for it, but at least now I know it wasn't rust.

That's not ideal conditions for any kind of equipment! But it sounds like it was burnt oil/cosmo/whatever, so hopefully, no harm done.

But one things continues to bother me..
People attend carbine courses and put through massive round counts, and I dont hear any news of burned out barrels and whatever.
And yet I've read on many forums two theories: One is that if you exceed sustained ROF you'll burn out your barrel, and the other is that with a semiauto you couldnt fire enough rounds to burn out the barrel.
Can anyone care to clear up the haze?

well, in a lot of cases, a lot of shooters don't notice their barrels are shot out, as even with a shot out barrel, the rifle is more accurate then Rifleman.

There are a lot of variables- what ammo you are using is a big one, and even ambient temperature plays into it.

I didn't mean to say your barrel is shot already- but a lightweight barrel really isn't a good choice for that kind of firing.

Notice that whenthe USMC spec'd a 'Recon' Carbine, they went with a pretty heavy contour- while that was driven by a desire for accuracy, I think that durability was a factor as well.