I have a matte blue Ruger Hawkeye I'm thinking of parkerizing for increased durability and rust resistance. I've heard parkerized guns absorb oils and offer very good protection from rust. I've had some old military rifles that were parkerized and I remember them being very wear resistant. Does anyone have any experience with a parkerized hunting rifle?

Parkerizing will hold up much better than blued but still not as good as nitride or hard chrome. I have a few parkerized rifles and use them quite a bit. At my buddies gunshop he will parkerize or send it out for a nitride finish, there is only 100 dollars difference between them and I think the nitride is well worth the extra 100 bucks.

A Parkerized hunting rifle? Why does that term remind me of a Garand?

I've owned a parkerized Remington 700KS mountain rifle for about 17-18 years. The finish is very tough.

Why not DuraCoat the matte Ruger? The existing finish soaks up the DuraCoat increasing rust resistance.
Cheers...
Con

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:
I've heard parkerized guns absorb oils and offer very good protection from rust. ...

Hey Scott, That is 100% correct for the outside of the firearm. Quite similar to Stoneybroke, I have a 7mm-08 M7KS which has Black Parkerizing on it from the factory. Might have gotten it around 1980 or so. It does have a few knicks and dings, but no Rust.

I wrote Remington after purchasing it and specifically asked if it was Parkerizing since the color was Black. They sent a nice letter back saying it was a "Proprietary Coating" that DuPont had developed for them(aka Black Parkerizing).

About once a year I remove the action from the stock, slather it down with Synthetic Grease and lay it out in the Hot sunshine. Leave it for a few hours and go flip it over. Normally all the Grease will soak right in. If it does it very quickly, I just repeat the process. Eventually the Phosphate Coating becomes fully saturated and then I simply wipe off any excess and let it set a couple more hours. Then back in the stock.

Only thing that really needs looking after at that point is routine maintenance on the Trigger Assembly(regardless of who made the rifle) and the Bore. Very easy to Over-Lube a Trigger Assembly, and my Bores normally carry a very light coating of Moly Grease. I put some Moly Grease on a Patch, give the Bore a few wipes and then follow with a couple of Clean Patches.

Rust is a very bad thing which will lessen the pride of ownership and create accuracy robbing pits in the Bore. Stainless helps fight it considerably. But, Parkerizing is excellent when it is re-greased at least yearly.

Best of luck to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Con:
Why not DuraCoat the matte Ruger? The existing finish soaks up the DuraCoat increasing rust resistance.
Cheers...
Con

If you parkerize it then apply DuraCoat finish it should afford the most in rust prevention and you can DuraCoat in any color you wish. Paul.

Here's a couple of pics of my parkerized pre '64 Model 70 Featherweight, 30-06. When I found it is had way shortened stock along with park'd metal (even sights were done). Wasn't sure if bore was affected. Got the gun pretty cheap whereby the action alone was worth the price.

Bed it in a High Tec spec stock. Scrubbed barrel but bore still had a bit of "rough" look from parkerizing. I shot 180g slugs prepared with Neco @ 5 #400, 10 #800 and 15 #1200 Neco. Now bore is smooth and doesn't foul for at least 50 rounds (I clean the barrel by then).

It now shoots wonderful 1-1.25" cloverleafs with 165g Sierra sptz & 1.5" w/165g Nosler Parts. Both almost same POI out to 300yds. It's pretty light (ie recoil) as set up so another shooter may be able to squeeze better groups out.

Now this is my rugged not so handsome workhorse hunter.

Pete A.

p17 enfield in .416 taylor...

I appreciate the feedback and the pics. I'm leaning towards a black parker finish. The pics help me get and idea f how it would look.