Rhody Hunter

what is the best way to store your gun for extended periods of time? should i coat the inside of the barrele with bore butter or is that not a good idea ? tell me what you do

lemoyne

Bore butter is a good patch lube NOT a long term preseveritive.
If you are planning on not cleaning and oiling at least once a month I would suggest that you scrub it absolutly clean and use something like Rig or Cosmoline and coat it good inside and out. Lee

gelarson

I use the soap and boiling water to clean it (after every shooting) and I do the same for the end of season clean up. Then I put a liberal dose of bore butter down the barrell on a patch when the rifle is still too hot to touch. Then in a month or so when I go to shoot again all I have to do is run a dry patch down to take out the excess. Oh and I then store the rifle with the muzzle pointing down so the excess runs out onto a cloth.

Things to note are:
- This works the same way as seasoning a frying pan and the butter gets into the little pits etc when it is hot.
- It has been my experience that you can not mix natural and petroleum based lubricants and that you should stick to one or the other and same goes for using solvents when using natural lubes.
- rusting (oxidizing) happens when moisture and oxygen meet on metal and coating of lube prevents this.

My 2 cents
Eric

lemoyne

I have used it ever since TC came out with it, I use it only in my PRB guns when I talked to the tech at TC he said its fine for short term and even though some people here do not believe in seasoning I know better for my own experance. I also know that if use for long term storage that it dries and sets up in the pours of the metal and will then build until it spoils the accuracy of the gun. I went through some *ell to get that hawkens back to shooting 2.5 to 3 inch groups again,Know if I know I am going to be laid up by an operation or such for a long time I do it right once was enough. Lee

wabi

I've used bore-butter (and my own concoction of neetsfoot oil & beeswax) with no problems at all - when shooting Black Powder! With sub powders I got some slight rust colored residue a couple of times. Not sure if it was actually rust, or just a reaction between the bore-butter and the powder residue, but I switched to Rem-Oil and never had the discoloration again.
Since I don't shoot BP exclusively, I just use Rem-Oil anymore. I do check my bore a few days after I shoot, clean,& store the gun! I then re-oil and have let them set for up to a few months with no problems.

wis_bow_huntr

I clean mine rigth in my tub submerge and pull the cleaning rod with a steel brush through it to cause a suction. this will force the water and soap through the barel. I let dry for an hour or so, run a couple patches through the barell about 5-10 times. The run abore butter covered patch through about 4-8 times. The I oil all moveable parts and evenwipe bore butter on the outside of the barell.

eldeguello

I don't know what you mean by "extended period of time". Assume to begin with that the gun is perfectly clean, and you are going to store it for several years. I would use the product called R.I.G. in the bore and on the outside steel parts. I would NEVER use COSMOLINE, even if I could find it. R.I.G. stays soft, and is easy to remove. Cosmoline gets very hard, and is nearly impossible to remove from steel surfaces except with gasoline! The military gave up using cosmoline ages ago, and now for long term storage, they store gunswrapped in VPI (vapor-phase inhibitor) paper inside sealedplastic bags. This is by far the best method for storing anything made of steel. You can get these bags and the VPI paper from Brownells.

For storage of several months to a year, with the possibility of perhaps someshooting during that time, I start with a spotlessly clean bore, then use a patch saturated with Birchwood-Casey SHEATH to swab the bore and exterior metallic surfaces. Then I place the gun in a gun safe. You can shoot it next time without having to even swab out the bore, because SHEATH dries in the pores of the steel, and leaes no oily residue at all.

I don't trust bore butter. The only time I've ever had any significant rust in a stored ML bore in the past 40 years was when that crap was in it! All it is good for is for lubing bullets, and then in VERY SMALL QUANTITIES!

lemoyne

I guess you need to define what you mean by long term, to me that means being layed up link for a hip replacement or setting back a gun for someone in the family to get when you are gone. I had an experance similar to eldeguelloand hes right if you used cosmoline and it sits for 3 years it would take white gas and a good brush to get it off I useR.I.G or RIG as we call it, to presever the guns that I am not presently shooting.
For normal use on the guns I shoot every month I use Sheath, or as its called since they changed the name Barricade , its made by Birchwood Casey. Lee

Rhody Hunter

what i meant by long term is several months to a year not years. kind of like you are describing be in the hospital with a long recop time or other family stuff or other sports you are active in that makes it hard to shot for a while

ReDoT

lucas automotive ( they make the the "cure all" car oils ) accuallymakes a gun oil too. now i dont use any of their automotive products, but this stuff is great!its in a little 2oz. bottle and its a red thick gun oil. I love this stuff! best gun lube ive ever come across.Perfect for long winter storage. it leaves a nice coat on the gun that doesnt evaporate or smear all over the place. a few drops on a rag is all thats needed