590 questions

[CLC]

So I always thought a parkerized gun was hassle free so i never oiled it. For a while now ive got a big old thumb print rusted on the upper part of the mag tube and cant figure why its there. Am i wrong? Do i need to oil it more? When talking to some guys at work that served long ago they said thats weird and never had that happen on their M-16s and thought it might be a factory problem. Any thoughts? Even the heat shield is a little dark like it want to rust. :confused:

[kx592]

Strange for sure, sounds like your skin oils penetrated it and rotted on ya.

Whats the harm of pulling in out every 3 months to give her a little wipe down?

[CLC]

Oh its really not a problem and that's what I have been doing I just found it curious that's all. I'll oil it and its not to noticable but it pops out every once in a while. It's my sd gun and I just got a ding in the beat shield that probably saved the barrel.

[the rifleer]

If its for SD i'd keep it in perfect working order :)

[Tortuga12]

My understanding is that parkerizing provides a porous layer that does not provide a lot of protection in and of itself, but does a great job of accepting oils/greases that do.

Thought I'd read somewhere of a guy taking a parkerized slide, slathering it in grease, and baking it in an oven to really get the stuff in there good. Don't know about that, but I've got a park'd vz.52 that I oil occasionally, and have never had a rust problem.

Hope this has been of some help!

[jersey_emt]

I don't care what type of finish is on my guns -- even if the manufacturer claims their finish is corrosion-proof, it's getting a light coat of Breakfree CLP or some other protectant. I advise that you do the same.

If it is just light surface rust it should be pretty easy to remove with some Breakfree or gun oil, cheese cloth, and a bit of elbow grease.

[CLC]

Yah I had to learn that the hard way :rolleyes: no but honestly I keep my guns covered in oil, I probably ruined my carrying cases with all the oil from the guns. When I shoot a lot of times ill get splatter on my glasses. Is it possible to cover your firearms with to much oil?

[BrownTrout]

Yes. If you're getting splattered when you fire it's probably too much oil.

The problem isn't really with the oil itself, but anything more than a thin layer will attract and store dust, dirt etc. and create an oil-based dirt slime that can really gum up the works.

Specifically, I've seen this gunk incapacitate an otherwise pristine Spanish auto pistol. The firing pin block assembly was CRAMMED with that crud.

[the rifleer]

Too much oil can be a bad thing. Too much of anything is bad. As BrownTrout said, you don't want to have dirt build up in the action, as this will actually cause more wear than if you don't have oil. In general, you don't want much oil at all. You want enough to keep things lubed up, but its not like a car engine that moves at thousands of RPM. just just a drop or two of the action and then put a light coat on the barrel. thats all you need.