Waldo Pepper
Member
Just thought I would write a short report on a long term (11 yrs) storage of a Ruger Mk I 22 caliber pistol. The Ruger was dissassembled after last outing in fall of '96 and oiled with Mobil 1 5W-20 synthetic oil and it has been in a gun rug in a wooden gun cabinet in the master bedroom ever since. It has been taken out and had a surface oil wipe down maybe 1/2 dozen times over the years, mainly after showing the pistol to someone, the last few years it has been serface oiled with Mobil 1 spray synthetic general purpose oil.
I decided last night I would take it out and pull it apart to see how it looked inside and out, clean, re-oil and store the pistol again. I guess I was bored without the grandson around wanting to either watch cartoons or have me playing cars or something with him.
The old (50 years) Ruger had no dried or thickened oil inside the barrel assembly, on the bolt, or inside the frame. No rust on the gun anywhere to be seen and before I disassembled the gun I did a function test by cycling the action and it was as smooth as butter. I think I have just proved that no fancy expensive gun specfic oil is needed for storing your guns, the Mobil 1 motor oil that I was using was $5 a quart at the time and about $3 for a 2 oz bottle of gun oil at same time. The 2 to 4 oz I took from the bottles of Mobil 1was never missed by any of my cars.
Before I reassembled, I sprayed the bolt down with disk brake cleaner as well as the frame and barrel to remove any old oil or dust. I then let dry for about 10 minutes (had a mother nature call) after that I re-oiled with the Mobil 1 Synthetic General Purpose oil (kind of like a synthetic spray can of 3 in 1 oil) and put the Ruger back in the gun rug and stored in bottom of the gun cabinet again to wait till grandson is old enough (2 yrs 9 mo's now) to start shooting with me.
I decided last night I would take it out and pull it apart to see how it looked inside and out, clean, re-oil and store the pistol again. I guess I was bored without the grandson around wanting to either watch cartoons or have me playing cars or something with him.
The old (50 years) Ruger had no dried or thickened oil inside the barrel assembly, on the bolt, or inside the frame. No rust on the gun anywhere to be seen and before I disassembled the gun I did a function test by cycling the action and it was as smooth as butter. I think I have just proved that no fancy expensive gun specfic oil is needed for storing your guns, the Mobil 1 motor oil that I was using was $5 a quart at the time and about $3 for a 2 oz bottle of gun oil at same time. The 2 to 4 oz I took from the bottles of Mobil 1was never missed by any of my cars.
Before I reassembled, I sprayed the bolt down with disk brake cleaner as well as the frame and barrel to remove any old oil or dust. I then let dry for about 10 minutes (had a mother nature call) after that I re-oiled with the Mobil 1 Synthetic General Purpose oil (kind of like a synthetic spray can of 3 in 1 oil) and put the Ruger back in the gun rug and stored in bottom of the gun cabinet again to wait till grandson is old enough (2 yrs 9 mo's now) to start shooting with me.
