Question for Sarge and other gun owners

My roommate just moved out and left me two older guns. They are in pretty bad shape. Both barrels are rusted..not completely, but I'd say about 25-33% of the area is spotted with rust. I even think the inside of the barrel is starting to rust. Is there anything I can do to save them? I want to shoot them, but if that is out of the question (rust inside the barrel), I at least want to clean them up for a display or something.

If you're curious...

- WesternField M828 .22 Long Rifle
- Savage Firearms Corp 24J-DL .22 Rifle/20 Gauge OverUnder

Remington 4X Bore Cleaner.
Copper brush (proper bore size of course)
Hoppes#9
Lots of patches.
Finish with a very light coat of RemOil.

If the rust is on the exterior portions on the gun, use very fine steel wool ( 000 or 0000)to polish the bluing (I'm assuming here). If it is only surface rust, it will come off pretty easily. You can use a solvent or penetrating oil at the same time to speed up the process, but you need to keep wiping it clean and once the rust is removed, clean it and apply a good coat of oil (Rem-Oil is great, but about any typical oil will work, even 3 in 1 and such).

If it is pitted, you'll still see those areas, but at least it will stop the rust from getting worse.

Hope that helped.

let the bore solvent sit over night, run patches thru it till clean. steel wool will get the rust off use at least the 000.

The Westernfield was a store brand (Montgomery Ward ?) of, I think, Mossberg or possibly Savage. I happen to have a .22LR Westernfield that has a one inch (ish) thick target barrel, bolt-action, five or seven shot detachable mag. It is a flat out shooter. I bought it as a project gun for around $120. Completely stripped the bluing (which is a rust process, if you didn't know), and applied a matte black spray on finish. I stripped the wood (walnut, BTW) which has a beavertail fore-end, full pistol grip, no cheekpiece, and applied a satin (almost matte) finish just to seal the wood. I found some scope mounts that would work and put a low-priced variable on it. I fired off my back deck down the powerline to a target I paced out at 125 yards (max range for a 22LR, IMO). With Remington Target ammo, I was consistently shooting sub-MOA 5-shot groups with my best hovering around .75 inch and that was shooting off the handrail as a rest and at 125 yards! When I get a rifle to shoot that well, I do NOT mess with it further. It goes in the safe, and comes out to shoot...period. I bought all the Remington target (blue flap) ammo I could find too.

The Westerfield will not have any collector value, but they are a fairly well-made gun brand for consumers. It will be a great gun for years to come with just a little TLC now.

interesting to know a 40 grain .22cal bullet only drops 3 inches at 100 yards
i have taken many varmints at this range with a CZ452 LUX and my cutom 10/22.

just make sure the rust is removed from the inside of the barrel, you don't want some one you shoot to get tetanus.

What they said, and keep them up and maintain them. That's what I do and I rarely shoot my guns... Had not put a round through a single gun in a good 8 months, I really need to get them out.

When I got home I pulled out the rifle and took a quick photo of it. I also found the first target I shot for the original zero in 1994! I did mess up on two things when I posted earlier; I shot three round groups and used CCI green tag (but it shoots Remington Target the best).

I think the groups tell the story about the quality of Westernfield rifles. I shot four individual rounds, then fired three groups. First group was high and right, second group in the ten ring w/a flyer, and the last group was slightly low but centered. I felt that made it a good dead-on hold for all ranges to 125 yards.

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