Hey Guys, need some help.

Went to Africa with my Dakota 76. Had rain and of course I cleaned and oiled it upon our return to camp that evening. The next morning there was rust on the front site "island", just along the crease, where the barrel meets the seam of the sight. I then oiled heavily, and sanded extensively with fine steel wool.

This seemed to take off the rust, but of course left discoloration of the blueing.

Next day, more rust in same spot- repeated the procedure, 3 more times.

Upon arrival home yesterday---I see the rust is back again.

Any suggesitons? What is it re-occurring. I seem to not get at the root of it, does it require more sanding? A sealant?

Thanks for any input.

I suspect that there is rust under the sight itself, and that it keeps spreading to that seam. You might have to remove the sight and clean the rust out from under it.

If it was mine I would use Brownells OXPHO blue on it.

Clean a small area on the barrel under the woodline with alcohol or acetone. Try the Oxpho blue to see if it discolors your existing blue. On my matte rifles it merely darkens it a tiny bit if anything.

Then clean the rusty area with acetone and Oxpho blue it. It will probably make the area that you sanded match the rest of the rifle better. Working the Oxpho blue in on a hot-water-heated rifle with light pressure and 0000 steel wool makes it darker.

I do this to the entire blued surface of all my working rifles. Oxpho blue is a better rust preventive than any other blue I know. It darkens the areas where handling wears the blue.

And it "deadens" rust and works through thin layers of existing rust.

This works for me, but I am a barbarian.

If this a brand new rifle, it might be blueing salts seeping out from under the sight base or, island, as you call it.

The bluing salt "Blooms" I've seen are whitish not rusty. I think Oxpho is floric acid, and converts the rust to a stable material.
Good Luck!

It sounds very much like salt bloom, which is exactly what eddie mentioned and it can be a devil to get rid of. If the rifle has been dry up until your hunt the salts have been in a crystalized state and inactive. When it rained the salts were reactivated and caused rust. This is a common problem on parts like sight bands, samll diameter blind holes and the like.

You will need to dissolve and wash away the salts by immersion in boiling water for a minute or two. Working quickly blow the water out from under the sight with an air nozzle. The heat of the barrel will dry itself very quickly for you. You may need to do this a couple of times until you get all the salts out. Then while dry yet hot, use a light oil on the seams and it will get drawn in under the sight base.

Correction of a misstype; It is phosporic acid.
Good luck!

I believe Dakota uses a tin/silver solder, I think it might be Brownell's Force 44. If that be the case, I would strongly suspect some of the flux used is under the sight and is leaking out. That "Comet" flux is very toxic and will rust anything in short order, including Phyllis Diller's underwear.

Anyone, besides me, wanna know how Jim knows so much about Phyllis Diller's underware?

She's my sister.

quote:

Originally posted by eddieharren:
Anyone, besides me, wanna know how Jim knows so much about Phyllis Diller's underware?

There was a time when I would have dated Phillis Diller... Of course, I was hanging upside down by my seat belt in a mangled car suffering head injuries and what not.

Get a pot of boiling water and stick the end of the barrel in it. Let it roil for 5 minutes or so and all the salts should be dissolved out of the seam. When you take it out it will dry in a half a minute, and while it is still pretty warm use your cold blue, then start oiling the sight, as it cools down it will draw the oil into the seam.

Actually, my favored cold bluing recipe is to first use oxpho blue, which is very durable but looks goofy IMHO, and after it is blued with the oxpho go over it again with T4. You get a very nice looking and yet also durable blue this way.

Many thanks to all that contributed. I appreciate your input.

404Jeffery,

I like to work Tetra lube into the metal on my BT99 before I have to shoot in the rain. To date, I have not had a problem with rust.

I also want to try Flitz which I'm told works like car wax to protect for months.

Just some ideas.