Thread: Rusting Howa's

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Eezox or similar. It works. I treat my stainless Howas with this and keep up the treatment with use. I'm also diligent about properly drying the rifles after wet use - and they often gets used in drenching rain. I strip it down, dry it in front of the fire or in the sun in summer, and re-apply the Eezox. No rust. I have left my .243 on the bike overnight in the rain (long story) and it was fine.

Comments re Tikka are spot on, they do it too, though not to the same extent. Several stainless brands will rust if not maintained.

There's a really interesting YouTube video testing all the different coatings, you should see untreated stainless steel in the warm salt water spray after 12 hours. Looks like it's been on the bottom of the ocean for 12 years. Cerakote was mint!

Yeah, still get rust with Eezox (nowhere as bad as just oily rag treatment tho) I'm pretty pedantic about my rifles and never had any rifle as bad as this. Stainless on my tikka's and Remington are like new compared to the howa and had a far harder life.

Originally Posted by Dama dama

I'm the same @Hunty1

I love my .308 but that rust really annoys me. I'm contemplating getting a mini but will buy a blued one if they are cheaper. A quick wipe with an oily rag removes rust from blued steel, but the rust on my howa is stubborn as.

In saying that the stainless barrels seem to be fine and that what counts the most in the field.

How does the blued versions compare for rust protection though?

Originally Posted by Hunty1

Yeah, still get rust with Eezox (nowhere as bad as just oily rag treatment tho) I'm pretty pedantic about my rifles and never had any rifle as bad as this. Stainless on my tikka's and Remington are like new compared to the howa and had a far harder life.

Do you put on a generous coating and let it dry overnight?

I used to have a business doing fabrication in stainless steel. It is indeed stain-less not stain-nothing. What works best is not so much oiling it but rubbing. Rubbing helps develop a layer of chromium oxide which is the outer protective layer. If it has not been cleaned in a while a soft rag moistened with WD40 will polish it up, or a commercial cleaner used for SS kitchen ware. Never use Steel Wool or any steel abrasive. Steel wool will impregnate the surface of SS with particles that will quickly cause rust. If you want to work a blemish or scratch out use a synthetic (green usually) potscrub. These are available in different grades from coarse to fine. Apply the same logic as you would with sandpaper. Including going with the grain. However you will end up with a matt burnished finish, you will never get back an original foundry bright finish. Use WD40 on the potscrub. Stainless not regularly rubbed will always tarnish to some degree over time. Higher grades will tarnish less.

Alright ya made me look.
My Howa minis last 5 or 6 outings have been in the boat and the last time out it copped a bit of spray and wet hands handling.(salt water)
Home from last trip it went straight in the safe thinking I better give it a wipe in the next few days....that was two or 3 weeks ago so reminded by this thread I got it out for a wipe just now.

A few very small blemishes on the outside of barrel....nothing on action some salt crystals on scope.





A wipe with a patch covered in breakfree clp cleaned it up fine.

I haven't found it to rust anymore than Sakos orTikkas I have owned.

While the above may sound like I am a bit slack on the upkeep before and after any decent trip I would strip from stock and clean and then protect with breakfree or eezox or something.....drown it then wipe off as much as you can.
Thats what works for me.

breakfree seems to be working for me so far.

And a note on blued metalwork. Rubbing with oil or any petroleum solvent removes the blueing. Bluing after all is a form of rust. To remove rust from a blued barrel or action use fine DRY steel wool, ONLY. The steel wool removes the rust rust and redistributes the actual blue. Then when finished with the steel wool, wipe over with a lightly oiled rag. 3in1 oil is ideal. Or if you like expensive, your favorite gun oil. But ordinary 30-30 motor oil will do the same job.

warm rifle up and lanocote on all mine

For years I gave my firearms a hard rub with vaseline on the theory of sealing the pores and leaving a water repellant outer. This always worked pretty well. The kroil oil is meant to penetrate to a millionth of an inch pore so a good rub with that may give protection. Wear impermeable gloves when using it though.

Originally Posted by Woody

For years I gave my firearms a hard rub with vaseline on the theory of sealing the pores and leaving a water repellant outer. This always worked pretty well. The kroil oil is meant to penetrate to a millionth of an inch pore so a good rub with that may give protection. Wear impermeable gloves when using it though.

yep, i understand
years back a mate of mine got confused between Y2K and KY gel.........................his hands fell off his clock

Originally Posted by Jhon

And a note on blued metalwork. Rubbing with oil or any petroleum solvent removes the blueing. Bluing after all is a form of rust. To remove rust from a blued barrel or action use fine DRY steel wool, ONLY. The steel wool removes the rust rust and redistributes the actual blue. Then when finished with the steel wool, wipe over with a lightly oiled rag. 3in1 oil is ideal. Or if you like expensive, your favorite gun oil. But ordinary 30-30 motor oil will do the same job.

Ah no, never use steel wool dry. It will remove rust and but also mar the bluing. Always with oil. Use 0000 steel wool only.
For spots only the tip of a fired cartridge case will remove rust, along with a bit of oil.

Have refurbished many old rifles using 4 naught steel wool and oil and have never damaged the patIna.

If rust is more deep seated a more invasive removal method is needed maybe back to the white and then a refinish be it blueing cerakote or whatever.

As far as "stainless" goes people confuse the stainless used in barrels etc for true stainless 316.

Originally Posted by hamsav

My boat was covered in stainless fittings ,and none of them rusted , neither have any of the urinals Ive had the pleasure of pissing on . Im not suggesting you should piss on your rifle and keep it in the boat, but theres something fishy going on . I think its probly that some manufacturers put in just enough "stainless " to be able to call it stainless ........sorta like sizzlers, you wont find the word "sausage" anywhere on the packet.......because there aint enough meat in it to be allowed to call them sausages....... My k77 .22m ss ruger never rusted .......thats about the only nice thing I could say about it .

Highly stain resistant grades of steel that would be found on boat fittings (eg 316 stainless) have higher amount of chrome for stain resistance, but have a lesser amount of carbon. This makes them highly stain resistant, but by comparison, soft and malleable, and therefore not ideal for rifle barrels compared to less stain resistant forms of steel.
Its all a balancing act between stain resistance, and hardness / wear resistance.
Someone could make super stain resistant barrels but the trade off is they would be be soft and have poor wear resistance (or be crazy expensive for a super exotic grade of specialty steel).

Originally Posted by zimmer

Ah no, never use steel wool dry. It will remove rust and but also mar the bluing. Always with oil. Use 0000 steel wool only.
For spots only the tip of a fired cartridge case will remove rust, along with a bit of oil.

Have refurbished many old rifles using 4 naught steel wool and oil and have never damaged the patIna.

If rust is more deep seated a more invasive removal method is needed maybe back to the white and then a refinish be it blueing cerakote or whatever.

As far as "stainless" goes people confuse the stainless used in barrels etc for true stainless 316.

Well each to their own. Not going to tell you you're wrong but I did a lot of research on it and the net was NEVER use oil or petroleum products with steel wool on blued steel. It removes the blueing. I've used dry fine steel wool on a number of restoration jobs now and it works superbly. No scratching, excellent finish result. Then wipe with oily rag to protect. I guess we will differ and folk will do their own research and trials.

I have treated every stainless rifle I've ever owned more or less the same way, and Howas do seem to be more susceptible to rust than others.

Further to the discussion above, here's one of the research notes.I saved...

"Use 0000 steel wool DRY.

The removed rust is an abrasive, if you put oil on the metal surface or on the steel wool, the removed rust is retained and rubbed on the surface which can damage the finish.

If you use the steel wool DRY, shake it out frequently and keep the surface of the gun dusted off the removed rust doesn't get rubbed around on the finish. Keeping the steel wool free of rust particle will minimize damage to the remaining finish.

You can oil the metal surfaces AFTER the rust has been removed but you want them to be as dry as possible while you're actually using the steel wool.

I'm posting this because I see a lot of people recommending the use of oil and steel wool to remove rust and I know from experience that is much harder on the finish. I used to have a friend with a gun shop and I would go over all the used guns each week to keep them oiled and rust free. Since they were out in the customer area, not behind the counter, they had been handled and some would build up light surface rust. I would oil them if they weren't rusty and remove the surface rust if they were rusted. It was easy to see the difference between using the steel wool with oil and without."

So yes, there lots of recommendations out there to use oil with the steel wool. Using it dry is counterintuitive..but there are good reasons to do so. But go do your own research, don't take my word for it.