What to do when your rifle takes a bath?

[gatordev]

Spent a mostly enjoyable day at a 2-gun competition today, but because Florida is getting a bunch of rain, there was lots of wet. One stage had at least 4 inches of standing water to wade through, and it wasn't uncommon to be sloshing through huge pools of water throughout the day. I have to say, I'm now a 100% fan of my Vasqes that I got on sale from REI.

Anywho, at one point, we took a really big downpour and my MK18 got pretty soaked. So much so that in the 4" water pit, the first shot blew water out of the can and the back end. I'm not terribly worried about the internals, since it was shot for several stages after getting wet, but does anyone have some suggestions on specific points to address externally to help combat corrosion?

I plan to pop off the RAS rail and hit the barrel, just in case. I know VBSS teams will hit their gear with fresh water and then clean/oil, so I'm thinking there's not much to do, but figured I'd ask here to see if I'm missing anything.

Had my first grime-related PMAG failure today. I guess submerging it in swamp water and then trying to run it is a no-no. Who knew?

[alamo5000]

What is your normal cleaning product?

[schambers]

shoot enough to dry out internals, dry outside as much as possible. When you have a chance to stop and do a thorough cleaning, disassemble as far as you are comfortable with a hit everything with some kind of CLP. I usually put a drop on a toothbrush and hit all the surfaces. Then hit everything with a towel and or q-tips to remove excess oil. Make sure barrel and star chamber are free of moisture/debris before putting the gun in storage.

Most firearms already have enough coatings and chemicals on them to prevent corrosion for a good amount of time.

FWIW, with minimal preventative maintenance you can run most guns in corrosive environments for a week or two before any kind of rusting appears. Most common places I have seen get rust are the flash hiders, and front/rear sights and the barrel underneath the handguard. Thats usually because those are overlooked during the cleaning process.

[Former11B]

I'd be using Froglube paste and their CLP in that environment. Although I'd strip the rail, optics and stock off and coat any and all exposed metal in gun oil and wipe it down dry, checking for rust. Then I'd apply Froglube as directed, maybe a little heavier, if you know it's gonna get wet again.

Take the can off if it's a thread on and inspect the threads and rifling at the muzzle; inspect the mount if it's QD. Also inspect the can with a flashlight and I'd oil and dry the exterior (dry it well so the next time you shoot it, the oil doesn't smoke/burn off)

[Slippers]

Air compressor is nice to have. I blow out every nook and cranny, oil it up, wipe it down.

[gatordev]

Forgot to mention, the exterior is Krylon'ed, so other than some wear and scratches, most of the exterior has a layer of something to protect the aluminum. The barrel is obviously where lots of the paint wears off, so it sounds like I was on the right track in checking that. The interior is plenty dry, as it shot another two stages after getting it's bath. The last stage had zero water come out when I took the first shot, so I'm confident everything inside was dried out through thorough use.

Froglube is about the last thing I want to put on it, but the point is taken to put some sort of lube on it. I do need to pop the can off, though. Normally I do that when I get home, but the dog's "oops" on the floor distracted me. Good call on the reminder.

[Former11B]

What's wrong with FL? I use it with my suppressed rifles with no problem. I guess everyone has their own preference

[gatordev]

The more I hear you guys talk about it, the farther away I want to get from it. There's lots of great options out there (and I don't mean for this to be a thread where I defend "my" lube), but Frog Lube hasn't been proven to me to be better than what I already use, and has some short-comings I don't have to deal with currently.

[JGifford]

I've played with a lot of stuff, but FIREClean and MPRO7 LPX are my two picks thus far.

OP: I'd have shot it enough to deal with any water on the barrel/barrel-nut assembly and rail/gas-block areas. Then take it home and spray the lower out with gunscrubber to displace any water. Clean the rest as per usual, except remove/clean the buffer spring assy.

[SwissyJim]

Check this out - http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/141077-Results-of-gun-care-product-evaluation

Fireclean was not a part of this, but I thought the results were pretty cool. froglube was one of the best for rust prevention.

That said, I switched to fireclean myself as I had a spare BCM BCG that I added froglube to, and stored. Figured it was a great way to protect it, especially after reading that article. well, fast forward 8 months when I went to grab the BCM to use it, and it was sticky and tacky, to the point I had to strip it down, soak it in denatured alcohol, then re-lube it so it was smooth gliding. that and at -30°f it gets sticky/tacky too.

But for rust prevention and non-storage, regular use froglube it pretty damn good.

[WHSmithIV]

Air compressor is nice to have. I blow out every nook and cranny, oil it up, wipe it down.

You can also get some cans of compressed air for that if you don't have a compressor.

[Slippers]

Oh, another important thing: if you use hard cases like a pelican and you transported a wet rifle home in it, make absolute certain you leave it open so the foam dries out. Air tight cases are rust breeding grounds.

[John Hwang]

If you look at most tech manuals, they tell you to use solvent and then lube. Most of these lubes are just lubes. Where people make a lot of mistakes with Frog lube is that they are not using the solvent first to clean the surface areas completely. Once it's totally complete, you put FL on then wife off.

As long as you are following these directions, you should be fine. We handle alot of calls from most people and 99% of the time, it's because they didn't use the solvent to clean off what was on there before or they left too much lube on.

[Aberration79]

Hornady One Shot. This stuff is great. I found this test http://www.dayattherange.com/?page_id=3667 and started using Frog Lube based on it. But then found that darn frog lube dries out and gums the hell out of things. And their 'solvent' doesn't even dissolve their lube. Wut? So I said screw it, I will try this dry lube thing. I found another forum that did a lengthy test on it, because of the dry lube bias. Anyways the stuff seems great to me. Has AMAZING rust prevention, AMAZING friction.

Also with FL you can't mix with petroleum based. I am wondering if its a d-limonelene or (whatever it is) based, and I can get some of that to mix use as to break it up. But FL aint very open about it.