A very Un pleasant Surprise

[ac777]

Well I got home today and opened my gun case to do some pheasant hunting and Got a very un pleasant surprise My barrel was rusted all over, and the stock was a little damp, This was after duck hunting 2 weeks ago, but the gun never got wet, Only thing I can think of is maybe the case got a little damp.

Is there any way I can fix this for a decent price?

Any Ideas appreciated. Thanks

BTW the gun is a Benelli M2

Austen

[Dave S]

It appears the original finish was like it was bead-blasted and blued. They could repeat that process and have it looking like new. Not sure of the cost.

If your gun was warm from being inside or in the truck and exposed to cold air, condensation could have built up and caused the rust problem.

[BigWadeS]

I had that happen before and that season I got one of the self bluing kits and did that then I took it in and got rebuled, this was about 12-15 years ago and was about $175

[96trigger]

Steel wool and oil. See what it looks like after that. If you don't like it, have it reblued, but you might be able to live with it. A lot of that is going to be surface rust and won't be as bad as you think.

[sparcebag]

It'll never be the same without a GOOD reblue.When your duck hunting do you set the butt on ground,boat floor and grip the muzzle to hold it? moisture & salt chemicals from hand.its surface rust but the metal is now pitted and it will easily rust there again.

[ac777]

Yeah, It must have picked up a little moisture, I may try the steel wool and oil, but will look into a re blue. Thanks for the help everyone.

[youngie22]

FYI never store a gun in zippered or "sealed" case for long at all, it is very amazing how fast and easy things can rust! Rust sucks!

[Red Miller]

On the condensation thing. You got it reversed. If you bring a cold gun into a warm room, that's when you get condensation. Its like a glass of ice water on a warm day.

Some may disagree but I store my guns in cloth cases and they are wet with oil when I zip it up. Never had a spot of rust in many years.

When I bring a cold gun into the house, I leave it in the case and closed up for a few hours before opening it up.

[Dave S]

Red,

you're correct. I had my sequence of events switched around.

My cases also have a film of oil on the inside.

[youngie22]

had a problem a couple years ago w/ condensation. had gun in the truck overnight along w. all other gear ready for an early rise. needless to say gun got "ice" cold overnight, then the truck got very warm on the ride that cold morning. got to where we were going and hiked in, got to the spot, and noticed ice droplets here and there. there must have been ice in the reciever cause that gun did not want to function properly. Gotta keep learning from my stupid mistakes I have made over the years.

[GunDr]

If you do look into having the metal refinished, look into having a polymer teflon coating done. It will look exactly like your original finish, but resists moisture, blood, etc.

The cost is about the same as rebluing.

[ac777]

Gun dr, I actually ended up doing a refinish my self and it turned out pretty nice.

[deerminator]

I'd look at the cost of materials to reblue plus your time involved = how good of a job you personally think you could do. I got my grandpa's old rusty shotgun that had sat in my grandma's basement for 30 years reblued at one of the best gunsmiths in the state two years ago for less than $100. That was well worth it to me. They couldn't get rid of all the pits but they did a wonderful job and the thing looks great. Except for how I cleaned the case coloring off the receiver plate while trying to get the rust off it. The gunsmith told me that wasn't so great a thing to do. lol. Lesson learned. He said the case coloring would be a whole lot more expensive just for the littel receiver plate.

[analyzer]

my Brother in law borrowed me his father's old gun. It was very rusty, so I bought a kit from Fleetfarm for like $16. It gives you some stripper for the blue, which also works on the rust. Then a bunch of steel wool and elbow greese, and re-blue from the kit, and looks very good. It's still slightly pitted, but hardly noticeable unless you're looking for it. I probably could have put it on the wire brush wheel and shined it up completely before re-bluing, but it really wasn't that necessary.

[Big Dave2]

One year I made the mistake of leaving my shotgun, zipped up in the case, in the back seat of my truck during pheasant season so that I would always be ready to do some walking in WMA's on the way home from work at nights. Well, I didn't unzip it for a couple of weeks at one point and when I finally did I was looking at something similar to that picture only not quite as bad. I just used rem oil and some steel wool to clean it up. It is still a little pitted but you can't see it unless you look close so I just make sure to keep it oiled and never keep it in my truck where it can warm up and cool down twice a day!

[vister]

sorry, but gunsmiths love waterfowlers