doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Butt up or down ?

Yes. I have restored too many guns where the head of the stock has almost turned to mush from all the oil that has soaked into them for over 100 years. Please store them flat, disassembled in a case, or muzzle down. The future owners of your guns will appreciate it.

I have seen it more than once as well.

That's exactly how I store 'em.

Is there a downside to this?

Jim:

I've restored a large number of customer guns over the years and I've found many that had very soft wood at the head from over oiling, some so bad that new wood was required.......it is true that our lubricants are "much" better than 100 years ago, but any petroleum based lubricant/solvent will soak into the wood over time....including grease, which melts and soaks into the wood as the temperature rises (except the high temp lithium greases)......

Even when the stocks are refinished and have a 'modern' protective layer of finish covering the unseen interior areas, petroleum products have a way of finding their way into the grain, especially as the temperature increases.....

Any smith can tell you that they have personally soaked stocks for long periods to remove quantities of oil from the wood, all the result of over oiling, accumulation and setting butt down for long periods........

I stored some butt down in the past, never had a problem and never over oiled anything....but common sense dictates muzzle down IMO......

EEZOX is a synthetic and leaves a protective film after the carrier agent evaporates.....it will not damage wood like any of the petro oil/grease/solvent based gun products.....EEZOX is all I use now days, especially during assembly of rebuilt guns.....

To each his own though........

No dealer or gun shop that that I've ever seen, here or abroad, stores their guns butt up. Maybe some do, but I've never seen one.

That's like saying: "I've never seen a Used Car Lot that stores their used cars inside"..........Collector car stores keep their vehicles inside BTW......

To a gun shop/dealer guns are ONLY sale items waiting to earn revenue, not their personal collection....what do they care, handling marks everywhere, finger prints everywhere etc.....they sure don't shoot them regularly and clean them regularly either, do they.........?........

Good points Doug:
However I think we're dealing with a lot of over lubricating that occurred in the past when people frankly didn't know any better. With the information available today I would think most gun owners would know better. I will say this again. I have guns I've owned for close to half a Century and none of them have stock issues but then I've never excessively lubricated them either.
Jim

Right Jim.

Who uses 'oil'?

Besides, in theory wouldn't the 'oil' just run down into the forend wood anyway?

It's not necessarily a result of overoiling. Any amount of oil on the receiver will eventually migrate downward due to gravity.

Butts up, for me.

SRH

I was taught by my shooting student and doublegun mentor Joe Wood to put the barrel down. But because of the geometry of my safe I have to have one butt down in order to use all the slots (I have more guns than slots). I rotate the one with the butt down after three months in hopes it will reverse the migration of the oil to the action.

I have seen lubricant wick up into the space (with the barrel down) between the barrel flats and the water table when I have been too generous with the oil in the knuckle area.

Best,

Mike