I have a thompson center omega with weathershield barrell and i finally got around to shooting this thing after it has sat in the gun safe for a year. I shot it 3 times and then took it back home and gave it a good cleaning. When i got it back out of the same to start my scope leveling process i pulled the breech plug out and looked down the barrel and it was rusted. So i took my cleaning kit again and used the brush and broke everything loose swabbed it and oiled it again. a couple weeks later (this being last night) went down and looked at it again and it was rusted again. Now when i oil the barrel i was just oiling a swab and running up and down it. Some one told me to hold it with the muzzle down and oil it until it runs out on the ground. Is this true or is there another way i can get the rust to stop coming back. Its more of a surface rust cause a couple passes with copper brush and its clear. Also i store it in a good gun safe with a moisture sitck. thanks for the help
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Rust in my barrel
- Thread starter jd3020
- Start date
jaguarxk120
New member
First what did you clean the barrel with?
Second use RIG in the barrel.
Second use RIG in the barrel.
FrontierGander
New member
What powder did you shoot in it the last time?
TC cleaning/rust protection products are junk, especially the bore butter they try selling people.
I'd get some jb bore paste and run 50 passes to remove anything in there, then give it a good light coating with a GOOD quality gun oil like Barricade, RIG, Montana Xtreme gun oil or their bore conditioner.
TC cleaning/rust protection products are junk, especially the bore butter they try selling people.
I'd get some jb bore paste and run 50 passes to remove anything in there, then give it a good light coating with a GOOD quality gun oil like Barricade, RIG, Montana Xtreme gun oil or their bore conditioner.
yes its a dusty powder that is brown. to me it looks like rust but a couple passes witht he brush takes it out. i was just wondering if the oil will keep it from coming back. I dont know if this is a good idea or not buy a guy i work with told me to use atf (automatic transmission fluid) on a swab and put on the inside of the barrel.
With Black powder or pyrodex water and some soap are the cleaning solvents to use. The corrosive salts and compounds in BP/P and especially in the percussion caps are NOT soluble in solvents but are Water Soluble.
Not sure what you can do now that the barrel is rusted [corrosion has already occurred] Suggest you try with hot water and dish soap and see if it helps at this point.
Normal cleaning:
dismount barrel from stock
remove nipple
Hot water and a bit of dish soap in a bucket.
with your jag on your rod, use a tight fitting patch
submerge the breech and nipple drum in the water
use the rod/jag/patch as a hydraulic piston sucking the water up into the barrel and forcing it back out through the nipple seat
In your case switch to your bore brush and see how much crud you can dislodge.
You might want to wrap some of a 0000 steel wool pad around a spare bore brush and see it that helps to remove some of the rust.
Back to the patch piston until the water you are pumping out is fairly clear.
Have the tea kettle on the boil and now rinse the barrel by pouring boiling water down the muzzle and out the nipple seat
WARNING!!! wear gloves or something to hold the barrel for this step it's going to get HOT!! and that's part of the idea as it will assist in the drying.
clean patches down the tube to dry.
and finish with a light coat of oil
Hope you can save the barrel but it sounds like the corrosion has got quite a head start.
Mike J
Not sure what you can do now that the barrel is rusted [corrosion has already occurred] Suggest you try with hot water and dish soap and see if it helps at this point.
Normal cleaning:
dismount barrel from stock
remove nipple
Hot water and a bit of dish soap in a bucket.
with your jag on your rod, use a tight fitting patch
submerge the breech and nipple drum in the water
use the rod/jag/patch as a hydraulic piston sucking the water up into the barrel and forcing it back out through the nipple seat
In your case switch to your bore brush and see how much crud you can dislodge.
You might want to wrap some of a 0000 steel wool pad around a spare bore brush and see it that helps to remove some of the rust.
Back to the patch piston until the water you are pumping out is fairly clear.
Have the tea kettle on the boil and now rinse the barrel by pouring boiling water down the muzzle and out the nipple seat
WARNING!!! wear gloves or something to hold the barrel for this step it's going to get HOT!! and that's part of the idea as it will assist in the drying.
clean patches down the tube to dry.
and finish with a light coat of oil
Hope you can save the barrel but it sounds like the corrosion has got quite a head start.
Mike J
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im not quite sure its rust. looking through the barrel i see no pits where its ate the metal. but when you run the brush through it a dust like powder comes out with the brush. do that a couple of times and the barrel is clear again. As i thought it was rust its more of a dust then a build up.
I had exactly the same issue as you with a new BP rifle that had sat unassembled for 30 years. At first I supposed it was light non-pitting surface rust, reasonable assumption given the 30 year delay in being fired.
I cleaned with hot soapy water, rinsed with hot clean water & dyed with a hair dryer till it was bone dry. I then lubed the outside & inside generously with gun oil. (I'll remove the gun oil before firing & use a BP lube).
The brown stuff you describe reappeared. It seems to be an after effect of Pyrodex, rather than rusting bore metal as the bore is slick & smooth, but the brownish-red stuff reappears even through a layer of gun oil.
I say this because my other BP guns are treated in the same way & have zero red stuff, the difference is that they have never had Pyrodex in them.
Do oil thoroughly & clean well to prevent actual rust & bore damage, but look to other possibilities as well.
I cleaned with hot soapy water, rinsed with hot clean water & dyed with a hair dryer till it was bone dry. I then lubed the outside & inside generously with gun oil. (I'll remove the gun oil before firing & use a BP lube).
The brown stuff you describe reappeared. It seems to be an after effect of Pyrodex, rather than rusting bore metal as the bore is slick & smooth, but the brownish-red stuff reappears even through a layer of gun oil.
I say this because my other BP guns are treated in the same way & have zero red stuff, the difference is that they have never had Pyrodex in them.
Do oil thoroughly & clean well to prevent actual rust & bore damage, but look to other possibilities as well.
No subject generates as many different responses as cleaning a black powder gun. Everyone has their own 'best' method and products. And most of them are right. Or at least adequate.
Commercial bp solvents are water based and will - repeat, will - dissolve bp fouling residue, salts and all. The only knock against them is that they cost more than plain water, which works just as well.
Some folks use mineral oil based commercial bp rust preventative products for cleaning; perhaps that's where the idea that bp solvents don't dissolve salts comes from. Ballistol, for instance, is not a bp solvent and is not intended as a cleaner, although many people, myself included, have used it to clean when good water wasn't available. It does do an acceptable job of carrying away bp fouling.
Likewise, Bore Butter is a lubricant, not a bp solvent. Thompson Center is guilty of some marketing excesses early in the life of Bore Butter (for instance, the barrel 'seasoning' claim), but they no longer claim it is a cleaner or a rust preventative.
Technically, rusting is the process of oxygen reacting with iron to create iron oxide. This chemical process is accelerated by the addition of heat. Using hot water to wash or rinse your barrel does indeed heat the metal and promote drying, but it also promotes the rusting process. Using hot air or heating the metal to dry it will result in flash surface rusting; this is not necessarily a problem if the surface becomes thoroughly dry and is then coated with a good rust preventative; the coating process will remove the flash rust while laying down the protective barrier.
Commercial bp solvents are water based and will - repeat, will - dissolve bp fouling residue, salts and all. The only knock against them is that they cost more than plain water, which works just as well.
Some folks use mineral oil based commercial bp rust preventative products for cleaning; perhaps that's where the idea that bp solvents don't dissolve salts comes from. Ballistol, for instance, is not a bp solvent and is not intended as a cleaner, although many people, myself included, have used it to clean when good water wasn't available. It does do an acceptable job of carrying away bp fouling.
Likewise, Bore Butter is a lubricant, not a bp solvent. Thompson Center is guilty of some marketing excesses early in the life of Bore Butter (for instance, the barrel 'seasoning' claim), but they no longer claim it is a cleaner or a rust preventative.
Technically, rusting is the process of oxygen reacting with iron to create iron oxide. This chemical process is accelerated by the addition of heat. Using hot water to wash or rinse your barrel does indeed heat the metal and promote drying, but it also promotes the rusting process. Using hot air or heating the metal to dry it will result in flash surface rusting; this is not necessarily a problem if the surface becomes thoroughly dry and is then coated with a good rust preventative; the coating process will remove the flash rust while laying down the protective barrier.
What has me a bit confused is the reference to "dust" or "powder" coming from the bore.
That indicates a dry (unlubricated) bore which is not a good thing. I get a reddish-brown residue, but it is not dry because I use a layer of oil as a bore protector when the gun isn't about to be fired, so anything coming from my bore is "muddy" or wet, not dry as dust.
Are we missing something here maybe?
That indicates a dry (unlubricated) bore which is not a good thing. I get a reddish-brown residue, but it is not dry because I use a layer of oil as a bore protector when the gun isn't about to be fired, so anything coming from my bore is "muddy" or wet, not dry as dust.
Are we missing something here maybe?
like i said i cleaned the gun right after i shot it with the t17 kit i had gotten. After i post on here they told me that it didnt have any protector in it like the package had said. after i noticed this i cleaned again and then i found the gun to be the same way. i have it all cleaned up now just waiting to see if any thing re appears
Theres gotta be something missing. I field clean all my weapons clean with only hot soapy water, patch dry and run bore butter down it and dont have that problem in my smooth bore, rifle barrel or handguns. I don't clean immediately ether, only when I can get to them all at once. Sometimes a day or two after a weekend full of shooting.
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