My primary AR has been soaking wet from several times. It was disassembled, dried and re-lubed as appropriate. I did not remove the red dot sight (or scope) or BUIS following the rain events. The red dot was subsequently removed off and on some time after the dousings but showed no ill effects. However, I tried to remove the BUIS recently to install it on a new gun and discovered considerable rust and had difficultly removing it. My question, should BUIS and optics be removed every time the gun gets wet. For those who operate in wet environments regularly, what do you do?
After it rains............
- Thread starter Sophie
- Start date
Yondering
Regular Member
I use compressed air a lot.
Normally I'll blow the water off/out of parts, disassembling the big pieces in a normal field strip to do so. Sometimes I'll spray mineral spirits or WD40 if the gun is dirty, and then blow it all off; it'll take the fouling and water with it. I do not like to remove a zeroed optic.
Maybe set the rifle to fully dry after this in a dry place, i.e. near a wood stove, nice dry basement, etc if possible.
After everything's dry I like to apply some rust preventative light oil, I use CorrosionX, and use compressed air to blow it into all the little crevices that could have corrosion issues. Lens caps on your optic are a good thing to use while doing this. I've never had corrosion issues after a treatment like this.
Also, sort of a tanget but sorta relevant - cleaning. Compressed air makes that really easy too. I use either mineral spirits or WD40 for cleaning this way (kerosene works too); spray it down, let it soak, then blow everything clean. We're not using the WD40 to lube, just as a solvent for cleaning; it does pretty well for that and a light film remaining after blowing off with shop air doesn't hurt anything.
Normally I'll blow the water off/out of parts, disassembling the big pieces in a normal field strip to do so. Sometimes I'll spray mineral spirits or WD40 if the gun is dirty, and then blow it all off; it'll take the fouling and water with it. I do not like to remove a zeroed optic.
Maybe set the rifle to fully dry after this in a dry place, i.e. near a wood stove, nice dry basement, etc if possible.
After everything's dry I like to apply some rust preventative light oil, I use CorrosionX, and use compressed air to blow it into all the little crevices that could have corrosion issues. Lens caps on your optic are a good thing to use while doing this. I've never had corrosion issues after a treatment like this.
Also, sort of a tanget but sorta relevant - cleaning. Compressed air makes that really easy too. I use either mineral spirits or WD40 for cleaning this way (kerosene works too); spray it down, let it soak, then blow everything clean. We're not using the WD40 to lube, just as a solvent for cleaning; it does pretty well for that and a light film remaining after blowing off with shop air doesn't hurt anything.
For my armory on Oki half of it was having the guns flushed of any water, usually by way of solvent tank. If you used a lube in an aerosol can like barricade or Breakfree it should serve well for that. The other half was an absurd amount of air conditioning/dehumidifying. Whoever converted the building we were in into an armory had the foresight to add in enough A/C that it was always somewhere in the low 60s and bone dry, even during the rainy season. If you had something like a heat gun, the $6 Harbor Freight one should do just fine, then you could evaporate the moisture on the rifle before cleaning and lubing for storage.