Rust on your gun ?

[rebs]

I am quite fussy about caring for my guns. When I am done shooting any of my guns at the range, I take out a Hoppe's cloth and wipe It down before putting it back in the case. If I didn't wipe it down and went home and set it in the safe how long would it take to for rust to start or damage to the bluing ?

[Roughedge]

Depends on many things, could be a week or could be a month or a year. Do you have a dehumidifier in your safe?

[Gunplummer]

A lot depends on your body chemistry. When I was still making tools, I worked with a guy that would put rust on steel over night by handling it.

[745SW]

I also know of a person that would cause rust. This non gun person would touch areas not normally touched. Wiping down after use/handling appears to be good enough for my area.

[tobnpr]

Is the safe in a conditioned (de-hunidified) area of the house?
Got a container of Damp-Rid in there?

It's all about humidity....
That's why they store aircraft in the southwestern deserts (or so I'm told). No humidity= no corrosion.

[burrhead]

For eleven years I lived on an island. Hot and humid. Whatever didn't mold rusted. Now I live in the desert. Nothing rusts. Depends on where you are.

[rebs]

Yes my safe does have a Golden Rod in it as well as a container that absorbs moisture. Also I live in western NY where some days we have a lot of humidity and some days hardly none at all. I have not had an issue with rusting but asked because I seen a used rifle at a gun show that has slight rust on the barrel where you could actually see three finger marks where the person handled the rifle. I am guessing he or she held the gun by the barrel when placing it is a safe or else where and did not wipe it off.

[Clark]

Oil has a high vapor pressure and will be gone in a few months.
After that it is a question of dew settling on cold guns.

If you want a rust war laboratory, try keeping large surface grind cast iron in an unheated space near Seattle. Like a table saw, mill, lathe, shaper, drill press, band saw, etc.

Cosmoline has components that evaporate, but some don't. What is left is hard clean. It is easy to clean if it is a recent application:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmoline.

If one can keep just a couple degrees above ambient, the dew will never settle. In 50 years with an unheated but attached garage with concrete floor, we had enough heat leaking through the walls to keep any rust from ever forming on a hammer. One night in a dirt floor unattached tractorhouse will make a hammer rust.

But a mill would easily rust in that same garage, having enough thermal mass to stay cold as warm wet air moved in with the weather. One solution was to cover the mill with an old sheet. This reduced circulation until the mill warmed up.

Guns are more like the hammer. All they need is a couple degrees above ambient and they do not rust. Thier stock will form mold first. Air circulation or a couple MORE degrees will prevent mold.

[Tinbucket]

For whatever reasons the most guns I've seen with rust were stored in soft gun cases.
I suppose the adsorbed some moisture.
Our bodies exude salts, in sweat. Just handling them may put rust in thsoe sports.
Storing in any hot humid case or location will rust guns pretty fast. If the storage goes through hot and cold cycles it will rust as cold metal makes moisture in the air condense on it.
Wipe down with oil will remove most or all of the salts etc. but not always.
I have waxed my firearms. It seemed to work pretty well for a while.
I prefer a grease on gun when in the gun cabinet.
I have been using synthetic Ezzox or however it is spelled. It dries on the surface until it gets hot again and does perhaps the best.
Rig and Rig+P worked well. I found the Rigs left on r surfaces over a very long time gets more solid. Have to wipe it off with oil. I'm talking years.

[Clark]

50 years ago my father told me about a guy who he was hunting with that took his new shotgun out of his plastic gun case and it was covered with rust.
The guy was so upset he got physically sick.

I have never fallen for that moisture trapped in the plastic gun case trick.
But I have put a barrel of surplus stocks in the car port and had them get covered with mold.
i have leaned a gun against a concrete basement wall, came back a month later, it is had a big rust spot where it touched the concrete.

I have bought a rusty gun at the gunshow and rubbed oil on it every night for a month. That was silly.

[¤_Ozark_¤_Hunter_¤]

I know this post is rather old but I think I should share the info. If you ever have a gun that gathers rust or want to buy a gun that has rust just take a copper penny (Make very sure it's made 1972 and previously after this America started using copper coated pennies) and some oil and a napkin. Put your oil on the gun don't be conservative with it then just scrape the rust off don't be gentle but don't use a lot of pressure either. Also you can use a copper bristled brush. Just used this method the other day.

[Unclenick]

You can also buy bronze wool to avoid scraping.

Back when corrosive primers were more common, it was found the humidity had to exceed 68% for the potassium chloride residue to initiate rusting in them. I've also seen it written that rust is hard to form by any means in less than 40% R.H., and impossible below 30% R.H.

I've applied Gunzilla to rusted steel and left it and had the rust slowly fall away from the surface. Takes a number of weeks.