Rust cleaning

[LaserSpot]

WD-40 did well in this corrosion test: http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html

However, they have some other comments about it:

Despite its good results, I would not use WD-40 for firearms unless I had little other choice. The "WD" stands for "water displacing," and WD-40 does that task well. That means it is good for hosing down and flushing out that duck gun that fell overboard, at least until you can get it home for a proper cleaning. However, WD-40 tends to gum and turn into a varnish with time. So WD-40 may be fine for an external wipe down, but it is potentially devastating to moving parts that require lubrication. In my experience, WD-40 has little, if any, lubricating properties, and is best left for its designed tasks.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

LaserSpot,I would agree with 90% of that but I completely reject the "tends to gum and turn into a varnish with time''. You would think that if it was a real problem I would have seen it at least once in the last 40 years.

 

[LaserSpot]

It can be a real problem for some people; I've seen that brown, sticky film on bicycle derailleur gears and other things that I used to hose down with WD-40 many years ago. I'm sure that this can happen with any light oil, including Break-Free CLP; WD-40 is just notorious because it's been around the longest and it's been squirted on more things. Now if you squirt some more WD-40 into the mechanism every year or so, it would never dry out and get gummy.

For corrosion protection in long term storage, I suspect that Eezox would be the best product, at least for the internal parts of a firearm; it's designed to dry to a lubricating film, so it should never gum up the works.

A thick coat of heavy grease like RIG would give maximum protection on the outside. I wouldn't go that far unless I was going to leave the gun in a garage or a storage locker.

 

[jogonmd95]

Gunzilla!