Help, what's ruining the finish on my fire arms

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Red Mike

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I am having an issue with the finish on my firearms. The blueing is turning to a brown color and when I wipe them down I get reddish brown on the rag which I assume is rust. I tried to research the issue but I didn't have much luck. Also one is parkerized the specifics are as follows:

Marlin XS7 new never fired but I cleaned the grease off of it and oiled it this one is the worst offender I get a lot of the reddish brown which I am assuming is rust and the blueing is a brown color

Mossberg 500 with two barrels both are brown but not as bad as the Marlin, leaves some "rust" on the oily rag

Benelli Nova is parkerized but has a light brown tint and leaves very minor residue.

They are kept in a safe with a golden rod and a dehumidifier with other guns that are not doing the same thing. It started after I moved cross country and had to transport them in hard plastic cases. They were in the cases for almost 2 weeks.

What's causing this? Can it be repaired? Do I have to worry about it contaminating my other guns?

Sorry so long thanks in advance
 
Chlorine may be the culprit. Is there a swimming pool, hot tub etc around? Any chemical plants in the area? Washing machine?
 
No none of that. The washing machine is on the other side of the house. It's only those firearms the rest in the safe seem to be ok
 
I'm in western Washington. I've been here about a month,I was in central Texas prior to this and had no issues
 
When wiping down a new Ruger SBH , the bluing started comming off. My gun rag and the protective coating Ruger put on the gun interacted some how. Look up the msds on your cleaning product. http://www.mpro7.com/msds.html See whats in it. Note the 2 Discontinued Products
 I wonder why they were discontinued??
 
Well, I'm in western WA as well and have never heard of a problem like that here. Except for military time, I've lived here my whole life too... as my guns have. Nothing like that. I'd love to see some pictures if they can show what's happening.
 
Saturate a clean hunk of cotton T-shirt with ATF or motor oil and wipe them down. Run a patch through the bore using ATF or motor oil (synthetic if you wish).

I was born and raised in the Great Northwest and still have a son living in Seattle.
 
RIG GunGrease. Google it. Also the RIG Rag is a great applicator. Always wipe down your firearms, then apply RIG and wipe off the extra. It will protect blueing.
Remember, blueing is not a rust preventive, only a finish which is actually a rust process. Parkerizing is similar. If your hard cases had foam lining, either the foam trapped some moisture during transport (likely) or the foam is degrading and releasing something reactive (also likely). There's also a product called Barricade that might help you once you get the rust cleaned off. I think it's made by Birchwood- Casey. In any case, you should clean the rust off before further damage. Saturate with a good oil and polish it off with very fine steel wool while wet with oil. It will make the bluing shine! Then coat it as described above. Good luck.
 
Welcome to Western WA you will notice that there is always moisture in the air.. What i recommend is letting your safe and firearms air out and dry out than use a good medium weight gun oil like clp to wipe down every surface. I do this once a month Because all my remingtons turn orange from just sitting around.
 
Thanks everyone. I have actually been trying to find rig or eezox locally but seems to be out of stock every where. I guess what I'm wondering is could the blueing application on the rifle be defective or done in coreccetly? Is that possible or does it definitely have to be from moisture? I have some other firearms in the safe that are blued and they don't seem to be having this issue? I'm also starting to think it may be from the m pro 7. I found that their website says may damage some cheaper blueing.

Should I pull everything out of the safe and try to let it dry out? It has a golden rod and a dehumidifier
 
The safe has to be in a room when the temperature/humidity is constant , never changing. That means that climate controlled locations are better for protecting guns from humidity and temperature.
 
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Your Golden Rod just isn't enough in that climate. You might go to a high wattage light bulb or some other heat source, but I suggest a whole house dehumidifier. They are a PITA, but in a moist climate your guns will probably be only the first items to rust or suffer moisture damage - others will follow.

There is nothing you can do about the rust that is already there, but one product you can try on your guns is "Blaster" Corrosion Stop (blue and white can) from Home Depot; it is a spray can and has worked pretty well for me under damp conditions.

Jim
 
Ok I've got some rig grease on the way. Is it safe for hand guns? If so what about carry weapons?

I'll have to look into a high wattage light bulb, a whole house dehumidifier isn't feasible at this time
 
RIG is safe for any firearms, but it can harden over time (years), so use it sparingly on or in actions in long term storage. As with any grease or even much oil, I can't recommend it for a carry gun; there is too high a possibility of losing your grip from recoil or simply having the gun slip in your hand at the wrong time. The better answer would be to go to a stainless carry gun.

Jim
 
a friend of mine had too much acid in is body so when ever he handled any metal if he didn't wipe it off good would turn to rust. most all is gun had rust on them.
 
GUN BRITE - made by IOSSO.

Tetra bore conditioner for inside the bore.
 
It could also be that the bluing solution was not properly neutralized. If that is the case, then do the following:

1) De-oil.
2) Immerse in boiling water that has baking soda added to it. This will neutralize any of the bluing solution that may have been left onto it.
3) After removing the object from the boiling solution, hit it with a heat gun or WD-40.
4) Remove the WD-40 (just wipe it off) and treat with regular gonne oil.

For long term treatment, use RIG. If it's an heirloom that won't be used, then use Renaissance Wax. Rennaisance Wax may be applied to metal, wood and leather. Like Rig, you hand rub (buff) it in.
 
tell us about the "De-humidifier" does it use electricity or chemicals?

I also live in Seattle, my guns are in a safe with a heating rod, nothing more and I have never had a problem.

my educated guess: This started as a result of moisture being trapped in the plastic containers the guns were in during transportt
 
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