Has anyone managed to rust a stainless rifle?

manbearpig

manbearpig

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im quite meticulous about my firearms care, so i very rarely see even a tiny spot of rust on my blued guns, let alone on stainless (which i oil just like blued).

picked up a stainless savage 'beater' that i am deliberately not going to oil (aside from a light initial coat), just wipe dry to see how 'stainless' stainless really is. what does it take to rust one of these things?

anyone actually manage to rust a stainless gun? what did you do to it?
 
leupold ss rings and mounts get a bit of rust on them just tiny spots. my ss win mod 70 never gets rust anywhere. i hunt in the pissing rain on the coast and in the bush. i also sometimes have the rifle in a skiff on the chuck and it get's a bit of spray on it. never rusted yet. i usually wipe it down but sometimes just let it air dry. the ss is pretty good stuff if you're gonna get wet. i'd never want a hunting rifle that wasn't after this one.
 
i dont know of rifles........but i do work with carbon and stainless at work..
yes stainless will rust.
one of the worst culprits in making it rust(or giving it rust marks)is to rub carbon steel of some sort over it..its like your etching the carbon into the stainless..
but usally with a mild acid bath and a power wash the rust will be taken care of
 
Stainless will definitely rust. Some types more than others.

That's why it's called "stain-LESS" not "stain-FREE." ;)
 
manbearpig
My T/C Encore stainless will rust very easily but only the frame for what ever reason, it really pisses me off because even the dew on the grass in the morning makes it rust before I get home if its not well oiled. On the other hand my Remington 700 could be left in a creek oven night for a week and would not have a spot of rust on it. Good thing I dropped the extra cash on the Encore ss instead of the blued model eh!
 
fogducker said:
one of the worst culprits in making it rust(or giving it rust marks)is to rub carbon steel of some sort over it..its like your etching the carbon into the stainless..
Click to expand...

yeah i noticed something similar in the kitchen sink - leave a 'lesser' stainless that rusts leaning against a high quality stainless knife that ordinarily wouldnt rust and itll start rusting, like the rust 'transfers'.
same goes for carbon steel bolts through stainless steel knives, etc. if all the bolts and things arent rusty its like the rust starts to creep over... but it always seems to be just on the surface, never enough to etch noticeably.

you can really leave a stainless remmy in a creek? :)
this is one of those things that i have always wanted to TRY but i can never bring myself to do it since if the experiment 'fails' youve just trashed a $600-1000 gun.
im about to get 4 inches cut off my new savage barrel so i will just leave the piece of barrel in a jar of distilled water and see what happens.
 
Stainless will definitely rust! I have had two SS Model 70's get rust on them from being handled by certain people who have either salty perspiration or acid perspiration on their hands. It comes right off, but leaves a discoloration in the finish, which is not noticeable, unless you know it's there and where it came from. My hands are very dry, and I do not have to wipe down a rifle after I handle it. But, some people who handle your firearms can cause them to rust. I have found out about this the hard way! Always wipe down your firearms after being handled, stainless or not!
 
I seriously doubt a Rem SS 700 could be left very long in a creek without rusting. A SS 700 is not all stainless steel! The trigger assembly for instance, isn't stainless, nor is the bolt head. The only all SS production rifle is the Model 70, that I can think of. There was an interesting post some time ago on another forum, about a fellow who found a SS Rem 700 on a sandbar in Alaska. The stainless parts of the rifle were in great condition, unfortunately the rifle is not ALL stainless steel, and was essentially a piece of junk anyway. The Leupold scope was fine, except the external surfaces of the lenses were sandblasted to oblivion.
 
Stainless rifles will indeed rust, I've seen it happen, but usually only after quite a bit of neglect, often around salt water.

However, here is a good sucess story:

In July about 10 years ago, some kids that were partying down the road for the weekend followed the creek up to my land, climbed the hill and broke into my house. Only one rifle was out of the gun room, a stainless Ruger 77 MKII, which they stole, and I thought I woudl never see again.

To my surprise, one day in the spring, i see something funny, sticking out from behind a bush. Sure enough, poking out of the snow and mud is my rifle.

I took it inside, took it apart, swabbed the barrel and noted no rust. I washed off the mud form the stock and scope, reassembled, and in about an hour I shot a round. Leupold scope still held zero!:)

In contrast, my buddy had some rust grow on the bolt of his Savage after forgettign to clean it after a season and not using it for a couple of months.
 
My Stainless Mod. 70s never rust at all with very little care on some trips. I once cut 2 1/2" off my .416 barrel. It was a Douglas Stainless, I took the chunck of barrel and put it in the garden over the winter (about 3-4 months) when I picked it up no rust at all. I still care for my guns the same as a blued one but if I can't properly wipe and oil it no big deal. I also foul my stainless barrels at the range then just tape and go hunting even if its several weeks to the trip.
 
fogducker said:
i dont know of rifles........but i do work with carbon and stainless at work..
yes stainless will rust.
one of the worst culprits in making it rust(or giving it rust marks)is to rub carbon steel of some sort over it..its like your etching the carbon into the stainless..
but usally with a mild acid bath and a power wash the rust will be taken care of
Click to expand...
X2. At work, brushing SS material with a wire brush (carbon steel) would cause it to rust. In other applications such as the inside of a pump or the inside of a headbox on a paper machine, rough surfaces would have to be polished smooth and in some cases, the surfaces would have to be subjected to a picling process to stop bacterial action.
 
I tried using a M700, Stainless and Tupperware for a truck gun once. There was a lot of red on that one, in short order. The funny thing is my blued guns seem to thrive in the same conditions. Go figger.
 
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