i always promptly clean my rifle after shooting. due to a job change i haven't had a chance to get it out as much this past year. the bore butter i had in it dried out and allowed some rust to form in the barrel. i am getting itout slowly using a lot of elbow grease. aside from putting a fresh coat in every couple of months what other products could i use to provide rust protection for a longer time frame? i usually keep it in a safe with desicant but failed to place it there last time and it was in a hard case behind my closet door for the last 6 months. i'm sure that didn't help either.

No offense meant, but if you're getting rust in the bore when using Bore Butter, you're not getting the barrel cleaned well to begin with. I run hot tap water thru the bore when I clean, a few strokes with a bronze brush, give it a twist at the breech to pull it back out if it doesn't have a removeable breech plug, rinse and wipe dry, then a few patches full of Bore Butter while the barrel is still plenty warm. I just cleaned a flinter that hasn't been shot since '94, I've wiped it down a couple times, and freshed the bore with Bore Butter, no rust in it at all, bore is nice and shiny as a roundball barrel should be. My firearms are stored in my "den", a room in the basement, it's plenty humid down there, but I've never had a problem with rust. If you want a good rust preventative, try Eezox, I've been known to use it in my muzzle loader barrels too, it's a synthetic and one of the best oils you can use on firearms.

I also store all my muzzle loaders muzzle down, that way any lube in the bore won't run into the ignition, saves a lot of frustration.

http://www.eezox.com/gun-care.html

http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html

it is a side lock and doesn't have a removable breech plug. i use hot tap water in the sink with some soap (dish), pull it in through the nipple hole with a patch wrapped jag, then brush several strokes and go back to the patch. i then rinse it in the shower with hot water and use dry patches til the bore is dry and then butter it up. it is entirely possible that i failed to get it clean last time out, its been a while and i can not recall how well i cleaned it. i usually so the same job every time til i get clean patches out but you never know, might have been overly tired, distracted, etc. any way getting rust in it sucks, i got it almost all out and will find out tommorow if is going to affect my accuracy.

i'm not familer with the oil you mentioned, where do you get it? sounds like something i might be interested in for my centerfires even if i don't use it for the front loader.


edit- oops didn't see the link for Eezox til after i posted the reply.

Finding Eezox locally may be a problem if you don't want to order it online, there used to be a mom and pop store here, but they went out of businessa couple years ago. Here's their dealer locator...

http://www.eezox.com/dealers.html