Old guns been sitting need to clean? Rusty?

parrisw

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Hey new to guns. I just got my firearms licence, and have acquired my dads 3 guns. But they've been sitting in the garage attic, not a good place, so there is some light surface rust on them. What should I do leave it and use it? Buff with brass wool? steel wool? re-blue them? Kinda disappointing, last time I saw these guns they weren't like this. I need to make sure the bore is clean before test firing. One is a nice Husqvarna .270, the other is a FR.WILH.HEYM 30-06, which seems like an interesting gun?? Any info on these? What info can I supply.

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I'd suggest you start out with a good scrub down with 0000 steel wool liberally soaking with oil. That'll scrape away most of the fuzzy rust and leave a light black remainder that is stopped by the oil. That's about the best you can do without getting into a bunch of expense I'm afraid.

The amount of rust blooming you have means that there's some significant pitting in the surface and that's just not going to be fixable easily. And any fix at this point is going to involve a filler or solder and then painting with Gunkote or similar. There's too much damage for a nice re-bluing to work in these cases.
 
That sucks. Can't believe he neglected them like this. What kind of oil?

I'd suggest you start out with a good scrub down with 0000 steel wool liberally soaking with oil. That'll scrape away most of the fuzzy rust and leave a light black remainder that is stopped by the oil. That's about the best you can do without getting into a bunch of expense I'm afraid.

The amount of rust blooming you have means that there's some significant pitting in the surface and that's just not going to be fixable easily. And any fix at this point is going to involve a filler or solder and then painting with Gunkote or similar. There's too much damage for a nice re-bluing to work in these cases.
 
I agree with BCRider, 0000 steel wool is the best for removing the surface rust and not damaging any finish that is left. Any oil will work, I usually use whatever gun oil I have the most of at the time.
 
You can use 4 zero or 3 zero, but no coarser. Take them out of the stocks to ensure that the moisture hasn't left deeper pits under the wood. After you've cleaned them with the steel wool and oil, wipe them clean and wrap a strong magnet in a piece of linen and pass it over the entire firearm. This should pick up any fine residual particles of steel wool. As mentioned, without some major work you will still be left with the rust pits but at least you'll have stopped any further deterioration of the metal. The shotgun isn't worth a lot of money, but the Heym and the Husqvarna are well worth some elbow grease and time. What a shame to see nice rifles left in that condition. When you're done, post some pics of them cleaned.
 
I have two guns like that. One was left in a closet in a swimming pool and the other was found in a old house that had been vacant for 20 years. They both shoot fine but look ugly as hell. What kind of scopes do those guns have on them.
 
Thanks! How to take out of the stock? The two screws in the trigger?

The shotgun is a Coey 410, and its in good shape, since it wasn't with the others in the garage.

Will

You can use 4 zero or 3 zero, but no coarser. Take them out of the stocks to ensure that the moisture hasn't left deeper pits under the wood. After you've cleaned them with the steel wool and oil, wipe them clean and wrap a strong magnet in a piece of linen and pass it over the entire firearm. This should pick up any fine residual particles of steel wool. As mentioned, without some major work you will still be left with the rust pits but at least you'll have stopped any further deterioration of the metal. The shotgun isn't worth a lot of money, but the Heym and the Husqvarna are well worth some elbow grease and time. What a shame to see nice rifles left in that condition. When you're done, post some pics of them cleaned.
 
The HEYM has a bushnell, the Husqvarna has a Boush & Lomb, 4x I believe.

I have two guns like that. One was left in a closet in a swimming pool and the other was found in a old house that had been vacant for 20 years. They both shoot fine but look ugly as hell. What kind of scopes do those guns have on them.
 
BCrider and Lawrence gave you some good suggestions. You have more than light surface rust. Without sanding, polishing and rebluing, steel wool & oil are the best you could do at the present time. Any oil will work, but in cases that look like yours, I'd use ATF it cleans pretty good as it removes the rust & grime.
 
If you have a bench grinder, a light touch with a fine, brass wire, wheel(eye protection is mandatory) will be faster and do a bit better job than 0000 steel wool. Use light oil(sewing machine oil or 'gun' oil) if you use the steel wool. Take the stocks(yep the trigger guard screws) and scopes off first too. There will likely be rust under the stocks and scope mounts.
 
The one time I used a brass wheel on a blued part I ended up with the brass color in the bluing. But there's so many different brass and bronze wire alloys that it'll require testing on a hidden spot to find out if you have a wheel you can use or not.

Magellan mentioned sanding and polishing. The issue with that is that you have to remove metal around the pitting to lower the whole surface down to the depth of the worst pitting in order to remove the pitting and be ready for new bluing. It's like a farmer cutting down the whole field to remove a ditch vs filling in the ditch. With very light pitting this is not that bad. But the rust your guns have is way past that point. By the time you remove enough of the metal to permit rebluing your engraved lettering will be all but gone and the metal parts might become compromised for strength from the amount of metal removed.

Which is why I posted that you're pretty much stuck with living with the dark rust after oiling and wooling then or you need to consider filling the pits and one of the gun coating finishes to give them a fresh look and hide the damage.

The oil and wool trick is just about free. So start with that and see if you can live with the results. Then look up the cost of the work needed to re-do them on one of the gun coatings and I suspect that the rubbed over rust won't look all that bad after all.

As my dad used to say "A man on horseback at a fair clip would say it looks just fine". :d And if it's to be used for hunting at least you won't have any worries about another little handling ding or two.
 
Thanks. Yes it's what I'll do. They'll be working guns. Hunting.

The one time I used a brass wheel on a blued part I ended up with the brass color in the bluing. But there's so many different brass and bronze wire alloys that it'll require testing on a hidden spot to find out if you have a wheel you can use or not.

Magellan mentioned sanding and polishing. The issue with that is that you have to remove metal around the pitting to lower the whole surface down to the depth of the worst pitting in order to remove the pitting and be ready for new bluing. It's like a farmer cutting down the whole field to remove a ditch vs filling in the ditch. With very light pitting this is not that bad. But the rust your guns have is way past that point. By the time you remove enough of the metal to permit rebluing your engraved lettering will be all but gone and the metal parts might become compromised for strength from the amount of metal removed.

Which is why I posted that you're pretty much stuck with living with the dark rust after oiling and wooling then or you need to consider filling the pits and one of the gun coating finishes to give them a fresh look and hide the damage.

The oil and wool trick is just about free. So start with that and see if you can live with the results. Then look up the cost of the work needed to re-do them on one of the gun coatings and I suspect that the rubbed over rust won't look all that bad after all.

As my dad used to say "A man on horseback at a fair clip would say it looks just fine". :d And if it's to be used for hunting at least you won't have any worries about another little handling ding or two.
 
CLP is BreakFree Clean/Lube/Protect, good stuff.

0000 steel wool, used gently, after letting the CLP work. Go circumferentially, not along the bore axis. Imagine you have an open wound with dirt in it and you have to clean it out with 0000 steel wool - be that gentle.

When you wipe on CLP after the cleaning, use enough to make it look 'wet' and shiny. Let it sit and work away for a week. Rub down with a rag.

Oh, and BTW, those are nice quality rifles.
 
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