I opened my Pelican case to a very rusted MK12 Mod 0 tonight while getting something off of it. The barrel, which has a rustolum coating on top of the Douglas black coat had rust on it that I can clearly see through the holes of the PRI handguard. The chamber has rust in it, and the inside of the barrel was coated. In my hast to get the uppper stripped to start treating the rust, I have two allen screws that cannot unscrew. i did not locktight these either. They consist of the one allen on the added straight top forearm rail, and the allen screw that holds the Ops Inc suppressor collar in place.
I’m not worried so much on getting these last two screws off as this will be going to the smith tomorrow afternoon to handle (home built). I am very frustrated and curious as to how I got so much rust on this weapon in the three weeks since I cased it after a quick barrel swab and some CLP put on it.
My last outing with it was with my neighbor shooting at some pest deer destroying a friend’s garden here in TN. We did this shortly after a rain soaking but the rifle was not uncased prior to that.
I have everything I thought has been right: keep it cased in a quality case, keep it lubed, and generally cleaned. I am mad beyond reason right now. What did I do wrong? Can my barrel be saved?
I’ve read that thing with pelican cases on a few different sites. Most advocate throwing some desiccant in before closing the lid for just that reason. IME I’ve just coated whatever was rusty with the lube I use (Militec), let it sit, scrub, and repeat. I’m sure there are better ways but its worked for me so far. Granted this was with pretty minor rust.
I’ve also found CLP to be less than ideal for both protecting and removing rust. During my weeklong FTX at AIT, I was assigned a SAW. It’d seen enough usage that much of the parkerizing had worn off the receiver. There was so much humidity at night that by day 3, at least half of the receiver was rusting. I performed the same process as above, but made almost no progress removing it. Got my ass chewed when I showed it to my DS because the pin for the pistol grip and FCG had been lost a week before and our ghetto rig wasn’t working (I had just ND’d because whatever solution the other DS had previously come up with had failed and the whole FCG and pistol grip slipped off the receiver. I think about 3 rounds went off before I slammed it back in place - luckily they were blanks). He didn’t say shit about the fact that the FCG was being held in place by a twig and 550 cord, just that I needed to clean the rust off as soon as possible. :rolleyes:
ETA: Sorry for the rant and your rifle man, that’s rough.
You know, i got the pelican cause I knew I was going to travel with it to do hunting, primarily yotes. I think once I get this fixed (God I hope my barrel is saveable), I am going to throw it on EE at 1/2 price and pick up a soft-shell case instead. I do like the idea of the desiccant, but I’m just going to sack the case. If not, i will just store it and have it available if I need to transport a rifle via train or air.
Sucks to hear about the SAW. I got to go to my College’s ROTC FTX and the let me run a belt through the SAW. Loved it. Watching them clean it, though, was head shaking. The unit we got them from did not clean the weapons that “they were suppose” to as carbon had built up on the gas piston and other places. Thick enough that they were scrapping layers of old brass off, and then finding more corbon to clean.
Course, I am not a big advocate of the Army’s 2 hour rifle cleaning regiment as, to me, it is over cleaning and taking a lot of the lube of the rifle and putting enough in. Saw this at said FTX I went to. Just a spray of CLP on the bolt and in the chamber and it was lubed. I told a few of my classmates that, “if I drop my weapon in puddle and it doesn’t look like the Exxon Valdez at Prince Williams Sound, it is not lubed enough.”
Pelican cases have open celled foam inside. Open foam is terrible for storing guns in because is soaks in moisture and as you found out, creates terrible rust problems. A Pelican is designed for protection during transport, not really for long term storage. If you want to store your gun inside then replace all of the foam with closed cell which will cost you $40-$50 for the large cases.
I am sure that it can be saved. I would try some Froglube. I have seen it do some really good stuff to some nasty guns. Mostly recently an old Enfield .303. It’s now a shooter.
After you let the Froglube sit, use a copper brush and scrub it gently.
Hose it with and let it soak with Kroil. The exterior can be cleaned with oil and some light steel wool. The interior maybe with some JB’s(lightly) or Iosso paste. Like some old military surplus, it may some pitting in the bore but still shoot fine. Keep it from the case and only use the case for transport. An idea to help is a soft case inside of the hard case without foam. Always make sure the rifle and case are dry. For what it’s worth and take it however–clean the dang thing before putting it up-properly and I don’t buy into the clean whenever and just dump more oil on it tuff guy approach. This is the sort of thing that happens.
No argument here, but even living in the deep south, I have never had an issue with long’ish storage of weapons in foam lined cases. What is most critical is storing in a cool/dry place…and letting a hot weapon cool before casing, a most-often skipped step. I’ve walked into my home with warm weapons (warmed by the sun), and immediately had a thin film of condensation build up on them.
Are you me? Our SAW’s were orange by the end of our FTX, spent the first 4 days of recovery cleaning bravos and 249’s 24 hours a day. CLP works fine you just need a bunch of scared and tired privates doing the work.
The rust rate of 416 stainless is about 2 mils per year. The only way to rapidly increase the rate is to compromise the passive layer on the surface with blood, sweat, salt water or halogens (chemicals that end in ‘ine’). Just about every “gun scrubber” on the market has something in it that is bad for your weapon. Is there any chance that the OP might have used a cleaning agent that contained a chemical that exacerbated the rust?
What is Rustolum on top of Douglas Black Coat? If this barrel is rusting through the paint the OP likely has a problem that can’t be fixed without refinishing the entire barrel.
Does this barrel really have a chrome lined bore? I wasn’t aware that you could apply hard chrome to a stainless barrel.
I know that Noveske did some 4 or 5 years ago, but I’m not aware of anyone currently doing it. It isn’t cheap by a long shot, so I’m very interested in knowing who else is doing it, and why (aside from just being different).
As has already been mentioned, you don’t need to ditch the Pelican case, just get some closed cell foam for it and maybe some desiccant too just to be safe. Or, you know, sell it to me for half price
You folks have probably never heard if this stuff…
BUT IT WORKS…it is lanolin based, safe for wood, plastic, rubber, paint, any metal…anything. Excellent lubrication and protection…not so much for cleaning though.
It doesn’t dry out either…I’ve even used for fifth wheel lube on a tractor trailer…it lasts longer than grease.
It’s called “Fluid Film”… Google it or look it up on YouTube…I’ve used it on my guns for 2 years now, nothing else compares.
Can be found at most any Case or New Holland construction or agriculture equipment dealer.
Caterpillar, Case, New Holland, John Deere, etc…they all spray equipment that gets shipped overseas with this stuff…even when shipped top deck and uncovered…they arrive rust free after weeks at sea.
Some say it will begin to get gummy…at about -10 F…I have not seen this though, I also use it on ratchet binders and it appeared to work just fine at -43 in North Dakota last winter…I haven’t had my guns out in weather that cold, I prefer to not get myself out in it either…but sometimes I have to.
My guns are always stored ready for long term…after deer season, I leave home sometime in the first week of January and most likely won’t be back until the middle of May.
I had to store my long range rifle in a pelican case for quite an extended time due to a move, If you keep some desiccants in the case along with the gun it can make a world of difference.
If you get the desiccants in the little altoid shaped containers they can be recharged and you can place a few of them in the case. It made all the difference in the world when I had to store mine.
