Protecting Case Colors

[LtCol Henderson Marriott]

A good high Carnauba content paste wax has worked for my other Fox and LC Smith shotguns.
It may also be carefully applied to the barrels-avoiding the rib pattern. It may be re-applied.
The advantage is that it is not semi-permanent and usage will remove it.
Lastly, it protects without altering the appearance in any way. I use a British high
quality wax. (A furniture pure wax or similar, not floor wax is recommended.) Test a small portion on a hidden area if you so choose.
{Also insure that any vehicle wax has no rubbing or polishing compound included-use only PURE wax, minimum additives. I avoid auto wax for a number of reasons including purity.}

[Jim Thynne]

I always used tru oil on the reproductions I personally owned. After a while, I would wipe it off with a solvent and then re do it. I thought it helped, as the chemical colors would come off easily!

[ssgross]

The NRA museum uses Renaissance Wax.
https://www.nramuseum.org/media/1007...20wicklund.pdf

For my 2 cents, one should start with the question of what do you anticipate "normal" use to be.
Renaissance wax might be the absolute best for long term display in a museum, but not ideal for frequent handling with bare hands. I think RiG is a good balance. When handling, skin temperature will melt and redistribute it.

For color case finishes that get used frequently (like, say, my SAA repro I take hiking all the time) I use RiG when I take it out and pack up. I keep a tiny pot of RiG in my kit when camping to refresh nightly. For my original SAA which only gets take out to shoot once every couple of years, I used an airbrush to apply lacquer to the frame. After shooting and cleaning, it gets wiped down with renaissance wax and stored away. When it gets taken out to shoot, the wax is wiped off along with any dust from storage, RiG goes on and we go shoot.

Brownells did an experiment a while back on rust prevention. The link I bookmarked is dead. Here is a new one.
https://www.ncowestbranch.com/docume...g%20Clinic.pdf
As you can see, #1 and #2 are WD-40 and RiG, followed by cosmoline which stained the degreased steel.

See NRA's notes about oil based products evaporating, eventually. One can write volumes on the subject of rust preventatives and how they can affect bluing, and the mentioning of WD-40 is sure to incure some wrath. Naked (in any degreased state or fresh from the tank) bluing is very delicate and treated much differently from normal maintance.