I've always resorted to "poor mans parkerizing". Take your rifle out of its stock and then give it a good coat of gray primer and follow it up with some ultra flat black spray paint. Rustoleum seems to be the perferred paint but I have had no problems with krylon. You can stay with flat black or go with any of the camo colors. A nice side benefit is that you can remove all of the paint with carb cleaner or break cleaner. It seems to be more durable if you let it "bake" in the cab of your vehicle on a hot day. I have used this on a Ruger 77 and a T/C encore barrel in flat black and have gone to camo painting for a 12ga 870 and a Marlin 17v. It works great for protecting it from moisture. You want to make sure that you also use a really good lub/protectant on all the internal parts of the rifle also. Its a heck of a lot cheaper than having one of the moly/teflon/dura coat finishes put on and you can always remove it or touch it up later.

I would like to second this technique. I've got an 870 12 ga., with a wood stock, that has got a nice coating of black + green Rustoleum. I've used it duck hunting and turkey hunting for going on 6 years and it is only showing minor wear - and very little corrosion. I think the trick is to get ALL the dirt and oil off before application - with a good wiping down with acetone. I do clean it and wipe it down occasionally. I'm going to be trying the same with a Remington 700 ADL .300 Win Mag for a trip to Alaska in 2006.

try cleaning your guns when you finish shooting them. And keep after it.

I have great luck with Armaloy Coating. Some of my rifles were done 20 years ago and show no signs of rust.

try a synthetic spray on called rusty duck. works well on duck guns.

The AR forum, technical pages, has some stuff on rust preventitive measures. When you first enter AR 'world', where they list new / old forums, videos etc.

I believe Saeed did the research. Abu Dhabi and the UAE would be a good testing ground. It has high humidity and salty air on the coast. School chemistry lessons tell you chemical reactions go better with heat.

The AR 'scientists' got hold of an old gun barrel, stripped off the bluing and scribed the barrel transversely, marking off zones where different chemicals were tried on the barrel.

The best results were obtained with Shooters Choice Rust Preventer. I do not know how old these tests are and if better products are now on the market.

I am having a rifle black chrome coated / plated. The weather in the UK, especially the West coast and Highlands of Scotland is hard on rifle finishes.

We coat several of our downhole tools with Zylan. These are Oilfield components that have been subjected to more than 15,000psi at +350 degrees F in close proximity to explosive detonation and in heavy brines like Zinc Bromide. The Zylan is a really tough coating that is very thin and attractive when new. Of course, a firearm would never be subjected to the rigors these tools endure. I had considered having one of my older guns bead blasted then Zylan coated. If I do, I'll post the evaluation on it.

quote:

Originally posted by eraser:
try cleaning your guns when you finish shooting them. And keep after it.

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That can be hard to do and stay on top of while on a 10 day hunt when the rain never quits and most all stays wet 24/7.

Rusty duck works.