Project Appleseed

Looks like our Davilla AS will be in a tropical storm this weekend. I need some advice on how to protect my 10/22 and my M1A in rainy conditions. I have seen advice here for the blowing sand and dust, but have not found any for rain. Not drizzle or light rain, rain; we are looking at a possible 4-6 inches from Ike coming ashore in Texas through the weekend.

    You don't need a lot of protection from rain - you need protection from what happens after rain - which is rust!

     Doubtful with mucho rain that a tarp will protect much during intervals your rifle is grounded - it's going to get wet whenever you take it out to fire it.

    Best thing after you're done is take it apart, and dry it off - some guys stop where there's an air hose, and blow it dry. Then wipe down with oily patch, and you're OK again. Guess a blow dryer on "warm" would do the same thing at home - or even sticking in the oven on "low" and leaving the over door open (I wouldn't put the stock, wood or synthetic, in the oven - but that's just me...

     The stock if wood should be rubbed down with boiled linseed oil in anticipation of exposure to rain to protect and waterproof it - afterward, another rubdown with same wouldn't hurt.

     

If you are running an M1 Garand or M1a/M14/M14clone make sure you have it lubed in the proper places with a WATERPROOF GREASE!

That is why Lubriplate was adopted part way through WW II when they found that oil washed off and the M1 did not work well with the oil washed off.

Lubriplate and Plastilube are both waterproof and accepted for this use.  Most people say that the new Tetra grease is just as good or better for this use, but I have never used it, still using Lubriplate.

Water won't hurt a good rifle, but as Fred says, RUST WILL.

Buckshot

I treat all my rifles with respect and care, but I also use them and I expect them to be able to take whatever I am taking. I have a good coat of linseed oil on them, and then I have a coating of hand rubbed wax on them. Inside the stock and outside. It is like a shoe polish and I just coat every thing with a thich coating, then start wiping it off and finally shoe brush polishing it to give the wax an even keel.

Appleseed is where you find out what your rifle does in all different types of weather. How it shoots dry and hot, what it does cold and rainy. Dry and sandy, muddy and freezing. These are things you have to know, before you have to know.

Like I said, I don't mistreat my rifles, but I would not have any problem with jumping in the lake with my 100%. all matching, correct stock, H&R Garand strapped on my back. It was made to take that. It was made to be out in the field in the open for 60 years before I got it.

Also, Appleseed is a bit like the military in the way we don't really recognize weather as an actual occurence. We have always run Appleseeds rain or shine. We shoot in the rain as long as there is no lightning. We shot in 105 degree heat with a 128 degree heat index in June.

If it is just a light sprinkle that is passing, we cover up the rifles and step under cover for a moment, but if it is an all day thing, we just lay in the gras and continue shooting. I learned a lot from shooting my Garand in the rain at Jericho in Vermont.

When the receiver fills up with water and you pull the trigger, you get a BIG face full of water mixed with oil. Make sure your rifle's receiver is dried out if rain is coming. You can wipe water out of your eyes, but water mixed with oil or grease is thirty minutes of bleary eye. You won't want that if you need a second shot in a hurry.

But I would not have found that out if I had not shot a full distance AQT while swimming on the line at Jerich in storm conditions.

BigIceMan,
I forgot to say WELCOME!!! I look forward to meeting you.( make sure you are bringing a friend) Where are you coming from? If it is Houston, you might want to leave Thursday night, or Friday morning. If they start flushing out the Houstonians and don't have them stalled up on the freeway catching on fire and burning like last time, it will still be a mess trying to get out of there.

Bring enough gear and food that if there is a big bang from the storm, we can ride it out here. I have enough room for everyone in the storm cellar if it gets bad. 

 Back before the introduction of stainless steel in handguns, police officers routinely waxed their sidearms with paste wax. Remove the stock panels, warm the piece over the eye of the stove, and liberally rub the wax on every exterior surface (interior won't hurt, so long as you don't try to use wax in place of grease or oil).

I would also add that the interior of the stock should be treated, including handguards inside and out, and buttstock trap- you may want to remove the buttplate and seal the end of the stock in addition to the holes in the butt.

  TruOil works well for this application, and will give a nice, if somewhat glossy, finish. Several coats may be needed to completely seal the stock.

Quote from: Spatulaman on September 11, 2008, 12:25:29 AM
Back before the introduction of stainless steel in handguns, police officers routinely waxed their sidearms with paste wax. Remove the stock panels, warm the piece over the eye of the stove, and liberally rub the wax on every exterior surface (interior won't hurt, so long as you don't try to use wax in place of grease or oil).

I would also add that the interior of the stock should be treated, including handguards inside and out, and buttstock trap- you may want to remove the buttplate and seal the end of the stock in addition to the holes in the butt. 

Exactly. I use Howards "Citrus Shield" Premium Color Paste Wax. It has a nice orangy scent and it also has an added color, so it colors in any scratches. Dries nice and hard and can be polished. I use it on wood and metal parts. When it dries, it is not slick, even when wet. All it takes to polish it back up is a vigorous rubbing with a T-shirt. I  coat all the stock screws, all the screw holes etc. end of stock and inside the buttplate and butt plate holes so water can not seep in to the stock via the butt plate holes.

Quote from: Scout on September 10, 2008, 11:56:21 PM
BigIceMan,
I forgot to say WELCOME!!! I look forward to meeting you.( make sure you are bringing a friend) Where are you coming from? If it is Houston, you might want to leave Thursday night, or Friday morning. If they start flushing out the Houstonians and don't have them stalled up on the freeway catching on fire and burning like last time, it will still be a mess trying to get out of there.

Bring enough gear and food that if there is a big bang from the storm, we can ride it out here. I have enough room for everyone in the storm cellar if it gets bad. 

I am coming down from Fort Worth so it should not be a problem getting down the road to the AS. I am really looking forward to it. I have been trying to make it since I first learned about the AS Project last year.

I will be bringing a Ruger 10/22 for day one and both the 10/22 and my M1A on day two. I can hardly wait to get there.

Back home in Alaska, the wet part, we used Johnson's Paste Wax to coat the entire exterior of our firearms.  It's a little messy but it keeps the firearm from rusting.

I have been useing tetra grease  I have not found lubraplate yet,,,We get abit of rain in Washington I also use abit of oil  and after a rainy day of shootting I completly field strip my M-1 and dry and clean and relube it,,,,.but then again if its been a Full day of shooting I do that anyways.


Wade

Quote from: Wade on September 11, 2008, 09:02:49 AM
I have been useing tetra grease  I have not found lubraplate yet,,,We get abit of rain in Washington I also use abit of oil  and after a rainy day of shootting I completly field strip my M-1 and dry and clean and relube it,,,,.but then again if its been a Full day of shooting I do that anyways.


Wade

Your local General Motors dealer may have lubriplate #1050109 in a 1.75oz tube. Should be only about $5.00.

One thing that I didn't notice that is possibly a bigger issue than rain is sweat.  It was really hot at our Appleseed and I didn't realize how much sweat dropped onto the rifle.  I did a normal cleaning, but didn't flush out the inside of the rear Tech Sight.  Today, while doing some dry fire practice, I'm seeing some rust spots in various places. 

I use paste wax on all my woodworking equipment, but didn't think to use it on rifles.  I think that would help with both rain and sweat.

I use a couple of tooth brushes to put it on. One puts it on and gets it into all the hard to get to spots, the other gets the excess off and polishes it. Then I use a shoe brush and finally a t-shirt to polish it.

The paste wax I use has a brown color added to it, instead of white, so it does not leave a white crust on it, and it fills and colors any scratches in lke wood stain.

Also, this wax has kind of a gripping effect to it. For me it works kind of like the stuff they spray on footballs to give you a better grip on it. Not sticky, but grippy.

Quote from: bigiceman on September 11, 2008, 12:58:04 AM

I am coming down from Fort Worth so it should not be a problem getting down the road to the AS. I am really looking forward to it. I have been trying to make it since I first learned about the AS Project last year.

I will be bringing a Ruger 10/22 for day one and both the 10/22 and my M1A on day two. I can hardly wait to get there.

bigiceman,

Welcome!!! It sounds like you have the spirit of a Rifleman already.

Good advice here. I learned a few tricks myself. I have been leary of taking my rifles out in the damp weather, let alone all out rain and storm conditions.

Thanks to all who posted.

~SS

Back in the beginning of time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we used WD40 on our match rifles if we got caught in the rain.  If you kept them regularly (and lightly) lubed with Sheath (now Protector?) or some other water displacing protectant, or RIG (Rust Inhibiting Grease), you could wipe them off with a towel, after the match, and spray (using the little red hose thingy) WD40 into areas where water collected.  To avoid long term gunking problems you needed to clean the WD-40 out with powder solvent when you got home.  An air compressor is very handy for displacing solvents from recesses.  WD-40 was popular because it was a) cheap, b) came in a spray can. 

 Johnson's Paste Wax, melted with a heat gun and painted on with a brush. It gets into every crevice and protects everything.

When I went up to Winchendon to help get their first Mini AS to a good start, I loaned one of the shooters my stainless/synthetic LTR... I admit it, I'm a wuss. Didn't want to rust up my blued LTR.

CLP before. CLP afterwards. Bore is most important - clean it ASAP.

My favorite way to dry a rifle out it to shoot it - a lot. 

I swear by "Break-Free". 

I moved from the mountains to the beach fourteen years ago.  I live on a harbor, off a bay, off Long Island Sound.

I always kept my guns oiled but I have never seen anything like the rust and pitting that happens here.  There are days when the moisture content of the air is 20% with a high salt content.  Kiln dried lumber is 7% moisture.  You don't see kiln dried lumber here because it gets wetter from the air.  Needless to say, July is a tough month.

I wipe every gun down every quarter year with a rag moistened with Break free and I store them "wet", I don't wipe them down "well".  I throw a patch through the barrel before I go to the range.  The rifle is not greasy and not dry.  Kind of like Goldylocks...just right. 

I've got no rust.  No pitting.  No oxidation.  Supposedly it has Teflon in it.  The Teflon fills in the voids in the metal.

Quote from: spider on September 11, 2008, 09:36:08 PM
I swear by "Break-Free". 
I wipe every gun down every quarter year with a rag moistened with Break free and I store them "wet", I don't wipe them down "well".  I throw a patch through the barrel before I go to the range.  The rifle is not greasy and not dry.  Kind of like Goldylocks...just right. 

I carry a box of "Barricade" cloths, 25 individual, disposable cloths to a box, couple of dollars at Walmart. I can put one in my gun case and It has all the Break free stuff in it. I just wipe my rifle off before I put it in the case to go home. That way, if I get preoccupied when I get home, I don't have to worry about rust sneaking up on me.

Quote from: Wade on September 11, 2008, 09:02:49 AM
I have been useing tetra grease  I have not found lubraplate yet,,,We get abit of rain in Washington I also use abit of oil  and after a rainy day of shootting I completly field strip my M-1 and dry and clean and relube it,,,,.but then again if its been a Full day of shooting I do that anyways.


Wade

Wade,

A usable version (may not be exactly to milspec) of Lubriplate is available at ANY outboard motor repair place.  It comes in squeeze tubes like some kinds of caulking or a giant toothpaste tube.

Like I said, Tetra seems to be waterproof enough to work fine, and it is definitely slick enough.  I just like the Lubriplate because it is white and I can SEE it.

Buckshot

Quote from: Buckshot on September 11, 2008, 10:52:04 PM
Like I said, Tetra seems to be waterproof enough to work fine, and it is definitely slick enough.  I just like the Lubriplate because it is white and I can SEE it.

Yep, but Tetra's white, too.

Brownells sells the real Lubriplate, #311-130-014. Comes in  14oz. can.

Like SS, I learned a lot of little tricks.

Thanks
smle

 You can occassionally find Plastilube(?- the "brown" riflegrease) on Ebay in the butt-trap sized pots. That way you've always got some with you.

Most likely  the 10/22 will go down with prolonged firing in the rain.  Not
so with the M-1A.   Use Sta-lube Hi Temp Disc Break Bearing Grease on
cam recess and a dab on contact metal shine spots.   Has Moly in it and
doesn't seem to dry out like Lubraplate.   Also use Break Free after using
a moisture displacer like WD-40 or Break Free Powder Blast followed by
Break Free CLP or Collector when cleaning after range use.  I would also
throw a tarp or plastic sheet over it between strings if allowable.   The
ARs I have seen do not like wet and need to put the lube to it to keep
them running.   Sometimes that doesn't work on some of them.
   Fred's right on about after range cleaning.   Never Never leave firearms
in a case during any slight bit of damp.   Transport and get them out of the
case or rust will be a certain

Thanks for all the good advice. I will be able to put it to use this weekend. I can hardly wait.