Importance of gun maintenance

[PlayboyPenguin]

I almost learned a lesson the hard way. I was taking a pic of my firearms for one of the pic posting threads on here tonight and I though to myself "I should get the HD revolver out of the finger safe in the bedroom and include it". This is a .357mag Taurus 65 in stainless with a 4" barrel.

Now this is a gun I never really shoot. I shoot it like 2 times a years to keep used to the feel of it but the rest on the time it is in the finger safe in the bedroom. Afterwards i always clean it thoroughly before returning it to the safe. It had been about 7 months or so since I last fired it.

I went to get it out and unload it to take it down and take a pic of it and when doing so I notices the cyclinder was completely frozen up. It would not even allow the trigger to cock back using the double action method and when trying to use single action the hammer would not pull back because of the cyclinder refusing to advance. If I had tried to use this firearm in an emergency it would not have functioned.

After a good cleaning and lube job it functions perfectly again. I guess it could have been worse but I did learn once again that you still have to maintain your weapons even when they are not being regularly used.

 

[JohnKSa]

Was it rusted/corroded or had the old lube hardened?

If it's a lube problem, I would heartily recommend switching to something else. There are good products on the market that won't harden up to the point of rendering a gun unusable in 6 months.

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

It appeared that the old lube had hardened to an almost wax like consistancy. Once I cleaned it out and applied new lube it was like new.

 

[JohnKSa]

That's not good at all. I'd leave an SD gun totally dry if something like that were the only lube at hand.

 

[STAGE 2]

For a revolver, some evaporating solvent like hoppes is your best bet. For what you will need it for as John said its better to leave it essentially unlubed. If its in good condition, lube wont be a factor for the first 2 or 3 shots. After that you should be holding your 12 gauge anyways