My poor Shield! Went for a swim!

N

Nathan

New member
My poor Shield went for a swim in the river in my fanny pack. It is soaked.

Do I have to clean it tonight? I'm beat!

What should I do? A normal wipe and clean or something else? It has plenty of weaposhield on it, but how to dry it? Oven on low? Low humidity safe over night? Other thoughts?

To me drying it seems like top priority....right?
 
Nathan said:
My poor Shield went for a swim in the river in my fanny pack. It is soaked.



Do I have to clean it tonight? I'm beat!



What should I do? A normal wipe and clean or something else? It has plenty of weaposhield on it, but how to dry it? Oven on low? Low humidity safe over night? Other thoughts?



To me drying it seems like top priority....right?
Click to expand...



Take it all apart and let it dry.
Is it muddy too?


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Take off the grips, slide and barrel. Dry it best you can with a rag, shake out the rest, spray it down with wd-40 to displace any residual moisture and clean/oil it tomorrow.

Not my preferred way but it'll do in a pinch.
 
I'm not a big fan of WD-40 as I find it can be sticky. I'd use Gun Scrubber or any non-chlorinated brake cleaner on the metal surfaces and then relube afterwards.
 
Do you have a means of blowing it out? Like a high pressure air hose? Heck, even a warm blow dryer would work. I'd probably take the striker assembly apart to ensure it's all dry and free of debris. Leave it with the very slightest film of lubrication. I don't think you'll have any worries in the long run.
 
WATER DISPLACING 40!
It's what WD 40 does best. There is nothing "sticky" about it.
WD 40 will get where you can't, it will displace the water, and leave corrosion protection.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
 
The Wd40 is what I would do to displace or remove the water. It will do a much better job than a rag or anything else. The WD40 will evaporate and turn sticky if left on the pistol too long. Use the WD40 remove the water to prevent rust damage and then as soon as you can do complete disassembly, clean, lube and protect.
 
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
Click to expand...

Weirdly enough I know what WD stands for. I still would rather use a degreaser and a separate lubricant. I would use it if I had nothing else, but I'm not in that situation.
 
Remember, he doesn't want to have to clean/lube it tonight. Hence the basic tear down, dry it, displace the water with wd-40 and do the rest in the morning.

My preferred way would be disassemble, dry with rag, use wd-40 to displace any hidden or residual water, sit in the sun for a couple of hours (it's 95 here), degrease with brake cleaner, coat with whatever rust preventing oil you prefer, wipe off the excess, lube with whatever you prefer to use, assemble it and try not to take it swimming again...
 
Doubtful that it has to be disassembled tonight. I've dropped more than one gun into water (a few times it was me that got dumped into the river/lake and the gun just went along for the ride), and I've never had a problem.

I'd just field strip it and wipe down the parts, then spray everything with WD-40, which should be fine until tomorrow or even a couple days like that wouldn't hurt it.

In a pinch, you could take the field stripped gun and drop it into a small bag of dry rice. The rice should pull most of the water out of the gun by tomorrow morning.
 
I've run a couple guns in warm water to remove cosmoline and then thoroughly sprayed then out with WD40. Spray some oil in it and good to go.

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The only problem are I have found on a shield is the magazine release. Mine likes to rust, so a drop of oil on a regular basis is called for. It will be fine until morning. If it was a blued Pistol I would want to clean it right away.
 
Spray the gun- you don't have to even disassemble it.
The WD 40 will get in ALL the nooks and crannies that you can't get to-even when it's disassembled. It will leave a protective coating in those places.
When I use brake parts cleaner to clean a gun (it will remove all lubricant,) I then flush the gun with WD 40 to relube and protect those same nooks and crannies. I then wipe the gun off, and apply a heavier oil in the spots where necessary.
The WD 40 WILL NOT EVAPORATE AND TURN STICKY!
 
I agree with the use of WD-40. I grew up using it to oil my guns and spray the case liners. I don't still use it for that purpose, but decades of it's use did not leave sticky residues or varnish on my guns.

Like Bill says, the WD-40 will get into the places you can't see or reach. Clean and lube sooner rather than later.
 
I assume you already did what you did, but I'm with Bill. Field strip, wipe down, hit it with WD-40, reoil, reassemble, good to go.
 
The Shield is stainless steel with a nitrided finish and a polymer frame. I'd be shocked if you had to do anything but let it dry out. I swim with a Glock 26 and I just let it dry out and wipe it down with CLP.* I think the worst thing that ever happened was the sights got a little rusty in the groove one time when it wasn't tended to immediately.

Nitrided stainless steel will tolerate environmental challenges much better than blued or parked steel. The main thing you have to watch for is the little springs and parts that may not be so corrosion resistant (particularly if they are aftermarket "upgrades").

*If saltwater is involved, it needs to be hosed off with freshwater thoroughly before being left to dry.
 
Never dropped a pistol in the toilet but one of my cell phones took a dip, fortunately after the flush. A blow dryer and two day charge it was good as new.
Back to the pistol in the lake, blow it out with compressed air and worry about cleaning another day. I cannot estimate the times my uniform hand gun was soaked in the rain, rescuing drunks that knocked over a fire plug or other human induced water sports that went south. Cleaned it when convent and detail cleaned it at a later date.
 
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