What a shame

[Bindlestiff]

I drove over to have some work done on a rifle yesterday. A new gunsmith to me but one I hear good things about, a British shotgun maker trained gunsmith. While I was there he pulled out a DHE #1 frame, 16 ga. that someone had dropped off at the shop. He had the stock off and the frame and barrels on a table.

The bores were mirror, mint condition and the stock was well used but well cared for. but , the gun was trash! The outside of the barrels were rusted and had pits that looked to be a 32nd or more in depth. The frame was rusted to the point that no engraving was visible. He said that he had to hammer the barrels open because they were rusted so bad. He was parting it out; stock, skeleton butt, ... etc.

I asked how this happened, suggesting it looked like it was a boat gun kept at sea. He said the customer that dropped it off told him it was his mothers and she used it regularly but when she died they put it away for 7 or 8 years without looking at it. When the did, it was in the condition I described.

It was stored in a leather gun slip that was lined with lambs wool and by sitting in it for a long period had ruined the Parker. I had been told since I was a kid, never to store a gun in an air tight gun case or in a wool lined gun slip because it will rust the gun; this is the first time I have seen the results firsthand.

[Richard Flanders]

Wow. What a shame. My vhe20 sat in a gun closet in the original sheepskin slip case for at least 35yrs before it was bequeathed to me and suffered not a single spot of rust. In Michigan of all places too. Guess I lucked out.

[Kevin McCormack]

Two of the guys in our hunt club set out before daylight in the property owner's old aluminum jonboat to row down the creek and rig one of our water blinds about a hundred yards downstream. About halfway there, the more nautically-savvy of the two remarked about how much water was in the bottom of the boat in view of the fact that they had made sure to put the drain plug into its fitting before launching.

By the time they retrieved flashlights and checked it out, there was a full 4 inches of water in the boat, 50 feet offshore and moving with the tide. They "wisely" decided to return to the launch point, whereupon they pulled the boat up on shore to find that almost all the rivets in the bottom hull strakes had popped open from the many previous repairs made on them. They also discovered that the "less nautically-inclined" one of the pair had laid both of their guns in their cases on the bottom of the boat!

Suitably shaken by their recent adventure on the briney deep, they checked their guns and then set them aside without doing anything at all to them. A week later when they took them to a local gunsmith, he about fell off his stool when they opened the cases up. The repair bill exceeded the net worth of either gun; all this after only one week of neglect.

Reminded me of the time my younger brother and I returned from a shoot in a driving sleet storm. The last thing I told him was "clean your gun RIGHT AWAY and let it sit out for awhile before final oiling/WD 40-ing before you put it away." Seems in his tuckered-out state, blissfully interrupted by call from his lady friend, he left the gun zipped up in his synthetic-fleece lined case. When he "remembered" it the following Saturday, when he took it out of the case the entire surface of the metal was covered with burgundy-colored fleece, bonded to the metal by rust. Thereafter, we referred to the gun as the "Chia-Pet 870."

[Wild Skies]

Originally Posted by Robin Lewis

I asked how this happened, suggesting it looked like it was a boat gun kept at sea. He said the customer that dropped it off told him it was his mothers and she used it regularly but when she died they put it away for 7 or 8 years without looking at it. When the did, it was in the condition I described.

It was stored in a leather gun slip that was lined with lambs wool and by sitting in it for a long period had ruined the Parker. I had been told since I was a kid, never to store a gun in an air tight gun case or in a wool lined gun slip because it will rust the gun; this is the first time I have seen the results firsthand.

I can attest to this, too---and it doesn't take 7 or 8 years for it to happen. I had an English damascus barreled hammergun in a leather leg-o-mutton case lined with lamb's wool for only about 4-5 HOURS on a hot humid day and surface rust developed on the barrels. I was able to wipe the rust off with an oily rag, but marks were left on the barrels which required rebrowning to remove. We live and we learn.

[Jim Kucaba]

I bought the Charles Parker Maker #71 back action gun from a guy in Florida. The barrels have an even coating of rust except for where the forend covers them but the receiver is a little less rusty ... I'm guessing the gun was left exposed to Florida's humid climate for quite a while ... So the barrels will go to Dale Edmonds for refinishing soon.

Jim Kucaba ... AriZOOna Cactus Patch ... Email: JimKucaba@aol.com

[Greg Miller]

I do wonder whether the problem is that once lambs wool gets wet, it stays wet for a long time.

I am skeptical that dry lambs wool is a problem with a well oiled firearm.

[Dean Romig]

Natural unprocessed wool is about saturated with lanolin, an oil naturally produced by the sheep. In a confined area it does not allow for circulation and evaporation.