Rust on 870!!!

[Ziggy91]

Hey everybody,

So I let my friend borrow some money and in exchange he gave me his Remington 870 Magnum as collateral. This was mre than enough to cover it, but he didn't mind. I noticed he had some little rust spots so I told him I could clean it up a little bit if he didn't mind. So I took it home, and just tried to clean it but........ nothing's coming off. The rust slots only make marks on the rage and nothing comes off the reciever. I've never seen anything rust like this. He never really cleaned it and it was kept in a typical padded case, in a closet, in the garage. Rust seems to be on the receiver and the shell tube. Luckily nothing is rusted in the barrel or the inside of the reciever. I tried CLP, CLR, rubbing alcohol, even water and nothing would come off. What gives??

Any help is appreciated, as always.

[CenterX]

At this point it is 'patina', kind of like age spots.
Unless you want to fully re-blue, I'd just keep it oiled.

If you owned it you could use 4-ott (0000) steel wool , nothing heavier, to lightly polish out the spots, wash with a very little bit of soap and water, dry immediately and "Cold Blue" from a bottle - but it isn't yours so be careful. ASK first. And if so start on a location under the wood for practice and so you can see the results.

Best of luck.

[killathrilla]

...

[Gunhacker]

You need to try the old standby "WD-40", spray it on and let it marinate to soften the rust. Then the copper penny trick... find a couple of real copper pennies (1981 and earlier), spray on more WD-40 and then use the edge of the penny to scrape and work the rust off the surface. The key to this is patience, if the rust isn't breaking apart or hard to scrape, stop. Spray on more WD-40 and let it set longer.

The softer copper will not remove the bluing, but it leave copper smears, but that comes off with cleaner.

If it is only surface rust, it will come off and the surface should look like it never happened. But... depending on how deep it is, you may end up with some discoloration.

Throughout the many years, I've successfully used this technique many times on the vintage S&W revolvers I collect to rescue guns that I thought they were done for.

It worked out great on my Remington 1100 that had a fine layer of rust on the receiver when I took it out of it's soft case and finding that case must of absorbed moisture in the trunk of my car the last time I went to the skeet range, It didn't take long for the surface rust to form.

[compulsivegunbuyer]

That bead blast blue finish rusts when you look at it wrong. I have been thinking of sending mine to get parkerized.

[GunDog]

Actually, the best treatment for minor surface rust on a firearm is to gently rub the surface with some very fine bronze wool and Brownells' No. 2 Rust Preventative. The use of steel wool is not recommended because tiny bits of the steel wool can get lodged in nooks and crannies of your shotgun and ultimately attract more rust.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1124/Product/RUST-PREVENTIVE-No-2-trade-

[NYCShooter]

The absolute best rust remover, IMO, is Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner. http://www.bluewonder.us/BlueWonderGunCleaner.html

[NSR500]

Not surprising. 870s are known rust buckets.

[BigDogatPlay]

Storage inside a padded case = corrosion pretty much every time. My late father in law's late 1960's vintage 1100 got some pretty bad rust spots on the barrel and pitting on the receiver from spending a week in soft case after duck hunting in foggy weather and I was never able to get it all.

There are some good remedies above, but if it's an Express your buddy is probably going to be just as well served by having it bead blasted and either parkerized or phosphated.

[cntrolsguy]

Sounds like a perfect time to try your skills with do it yourself refinishing at you buddy's expense.

[Ziggy91]

Sounds like a perfect time to try your skills with do it yourself refinishing at you buddy's expense.

Honestly that's what ended up happening. I'm not proud of the results, but they are results. I'm sure he'd be happy as the majority of rust is gone. I took a light padded sand paper, idk what grit but it looked soft and came with my headlight restoration kit, and scrubbed the rusty parts with a very small dab of water. I don't see as much, but of you look close you'll still see some.

Padded case was probably the issue in this scenario. It's been stored like that for a while and it's all I can think of for getting such random spots of rust. I'll be letting my friend know about his "storage" issue, and I've learned a good thing about storage myself.

Thank god I decided to keep my weapons out in plain view a long time ago

[ElvenSoul]

I heard Remington's Quick Fix to get the 870 to fire SS Shot was to add more Carbon to the steel. This has/will cause the 870 to rust like no other gun. Best thing for them is Park or re blue.