doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun barrels rusting

Why would one particular gun have more of a tendency to rust?
I have a JP Sauer sxs that will rust for no particular reason.
I noticed it about a year ago and every time I open the safe I give it a quick check and I usually find a small spot of light rust starting. Yesterday I took it out of the safe and gave it a quick look over without breaking it down and then I thought I had better break it down and look more closely. I was shocked to see a heavy coating of rust under the forearm. There are 14 other guns in that safe and none of the others had any rust at all. Why would one of them start rusting so easily?
Pete

I think it is due to the character of the steel. Brownings, such as the Superposed are the same deal. If you don't keep some sort of rust preventive on them, they will rust in a New York second too.

were the barrels reblued???....could be the person that did the job never neutralized the barrels after he finished.....fill a bucket 3/4 with hot water from the faucet....add a bunch of baking or washing soda...wash the barrel in solution with a soft bristle scrub brush....do this for about 5 minutes....rinse barrels off with hot water dry well and oil well....don't forget to put some oil in the barrel rib drain hole.....

Don't forget also to wipe the entire gun metalwork down with a slightly oily rag after handling the gun. Human sweat contains salts and acids that will rust steel very quickly.

I repeatedly hear about Belgian Browning Superposeds being so quickly and easily forming rust. And yes, I believe the reports as they are from people I believe know what they are speaking about. However, having owned and used multiple Superposed for over 40 years I have never had a rust issue of any sort with them. All of them are/were hunting guns subjected to normal field use and weather conditions. I do nothing different maintenance wise with them or store them any differently. A fair amount of the years were also spent in relatively high humidity areas. So what gives? Not wanting to start any arguments, just curious.

I wore out two supers, both 4 barrel sets and they would rust by the time I would drive home from a match. I am talking about at least 200 shells a day and quite often 500 in a weekend. I carried a can of WD 40 and sprayed the chambers ASAP a match.
bill

Weren't the Supers rust problems due to salting the wood to dry it more quickly?

I know my miroku Brownings would rust in the bores pretty easy.

That could very well be part of it or the problem. Hot, humid seems to be a problem with a super of mine in the past. I haven't had any recent problems with them for many years, but I'm careful to keep them well oiled and do my best to avoid the salt wood guns. Maybe when I did have problems, they were salty, but one I remember in particular was a 20 ga skeet gun, pre 65 round knob long tang. I don't think it was salty, but when I owned it, I was ignorant re the salt problems, so never checked it. It's long been sold down the road. However, the salty guns were mor of a problem where the wood met metal, around the action and forearm. So, if rusting elsewhere, I doubt if salt wood would play much role there.

Now that we are discussing salt wood, Browning weren't the only guns that fell prey to salt wood. I owned a pigeon grade Model 12 Winchester made in 1964, a 1,900,xxx gun with A-carved wood that was salty too. It shipwrecked the action where wood met metal. I know this statement is a bit off topic but I thought people might be interested. Point is there are some Winchesters out there that are salty too, not just Brownings!!