[Zoom.Golly]

I've gotten to where I just really hate shooting in the rain. If it is a cold rain my aging hands suffer. But I really hate getting the guns thoroughly soaked.

I got the 1100 soaked recently. I got under an outdoor pavilion and tore it down, wiped it off with newspapers and paper towels and would normally give it a lusty spray of WD-40 and put it in the soft-case. At home it comes out of the soft-case gets a better cleaning and the soft-case is held open with clothes pins and placed where it can get a good drying out before it is used again. This has worked for years.

But this gun was really soaked, so I pulled the bolt and dropped the trigger group. They were both shaken well to remove as much water as I could get off that way, wiped with newspaper and paper towels, then wiped again with a rag with WD-40. Inside of receiver was dried with a paper towel wrapped around a screwdriver. No, I don't stick my fingers inside of the receiver.

Another guy recently retired from USMC was cleaning his gun at the other end of the picnic table. I mentioned that I could see the trigger group still had some moisture in it, but I hated spraying it with WD-40.

The retired Marine said to try what he was taught a long time age. Since I was only a long hour from home I could just wipe the trigger group with a paper towel with a bit of WD-40 and take it home without putting it back in the gun. When I got it home, run it under really hot water. Hotter than my hands could stand, and do that for long enough to heat up all the metal. When the metal was hot, give it a serious shake (compressed air would be better, but I don't have that at home) and let the residual heat in the metal dry it out. After it was dry, wipe it down with an oily rag. He suggested RemOil or BreakFree CLP to WD-40. I have both of those. It seemed to work and I just put the trigger group back in the 1100.

But hot water. Who would have thunk it?

 

[rhymeswithorange]

Makes sense, that what you use to clean a black powder rifle.

 

[jhoward]

If you don't have a compressor, you can buy canned air in the electronics department of almost any major store. It works very well for cleaning and drying triggers.

 

[twoatlow8]

To clean my 1100's I disassemble and use Hot water and Simple Green cleaner.
I rinse with very hot water and then re oil.
This has worked great for me for the last 15 years.

 

[Jim Zee]

put in a 125 degree oven, its a good way to dry out scopes also.

 

[9point3]

I use a wet/dry shop vac to suck the water out after doing the hot water treatment. I sometimes use a heat gun to warm the steel as well.

 

[SF SGM]

Just as the Retired Marine said, we would take our M14s, strip them down, take them to the shower and rinse them. When clean, we would use rubbing alcohol to insure all the water was off, light coating of LSA, put them back together and off to the arms room and turn them in.

When I was a Civil War reenactor, cookie would put on a huge pot of hot water and when the company came back from a hard day of shooting Yankees, we would clean our muskets, pistols and shotguns. Would also use a mixture of peroxide, alcohol, and Murhphy's Oil soap. This mixture worked really well if no hot water was available ..

Van

 

[Brian in Oregon]

If I can make it home in a reasonable amount of time, I just strip my guns down and put them over my forced air gas heating grate. The guns are elevated off the floor with a couple of 2x4s on edge.

If you know the guns are going to get wet, strip and wipe them down with Birchwood-Casey Barrier (formerly known as Sheath).

Keep a can in your vehicle and carry their small sealed wipes with you in the field.

Sheath is much more gun friendly than WD-40. It won't leave a gummy residue on the surface either.

And when drying an 1100, don't forget that if one gets really soaked that the staked in latches trap moisture behind them. This is where using hot air really helps.

 

[travisalfrey]

My mentor- a top shooter and 1100 fanatic also says he cleans his trigger with soap and water...then blows it dry and light coat of oil and blows it again.

 

[N. J. BOB]

How about a hair dryer. It works for me...

 

[Bvr Tail]

Retired

That's why my Dad said the military chow always tasted like it was cooked in motor oil!?! (LOL)

RIP Dad.

 

[SPACE GUN]

In Viet-Nam I took many HOT showers with my M16! Then just a very little (or not) oil on the trigger group. Sand was our biggest problem, then of course the hot, wet weather. Never had a problem with jamming or rust!

 

[slayer]

I tried the warm oven thing with a seriously fogged scope one time. Melted something inside it. Open sights for the rest of the season. Bill

 

[Sky Buster]

I agree with MAH66. Rem-oil liberally. Then compressed air.

 

[halfmile]

Canterbury voice call control box, acting erratic after being out in the rain.

Take circuit board out, put on rack in oven, st to "warm" for a few hours....problem solved.

HM

 

[Bob Schultz]

Careful with the Canterbury control box board...some customers of ours (who shall remain nameless) put their wet control box in the oven at 250 then started drinking Jack Daniels and playing poker! Someone finally smelled the melting plastic and found the box sort of fused to the oven grate. They sent it to us to see if we could salvage anything, the board actually still worked, however the box needed replacement.

If you have a hair dryer or a heat gun set on low you can normally dry out a CVR board and they'll be fine. Be careful with the oven!

As an old 1100 shooter, I would scrub the action in the stationary tub in the basement with liquid dish soap and very hot water. Then dry with a heat gun and lightly oil. Guns always worked fine.

Bob Schultz

 

[Zoom.Golly]

N.J. Bob's idea of a hair dryer sounds like a good idea. Thank you Bob. I'll try to remember that.

 

[196thlib]

Spacegun, never saw a hot shower in the Nam out in the bush.