What in the world?!?! Remington 870 finish problems...

P

PAC

New member
So I go into Wal-Mart (I know, go ahead and cringe...I buy my handguns at a real gun shop though lol) a little over a week ago and buy a Remington 870 Express Magnum 12gauge (black matte finish and black synthetic stock). It looks perfect and the guy tells me it's brand new, it just came off the truck a day or two ago. I take it home, handle it for a few minutes, then stick it in the gun case.

We went on vacation for a week and just got home tonight. As I was bringing in luggage I walk by the gun case and the Remington 870 is now SOLID REDDISH-BROWN. The exterior of the gun is now completely covered in thick rust. All of the other guns are fine. I was told that the matte black finish on this shotgun is pretty much maintenance-free and that it does not need to be wiped with oil like blued finishes do. There's no fingerprints in the rust and the rust seems to cover the entire gun, not just the places I touched. The gun seriously looks like it's been sitting at the bottom of a lake for the past year.

What's the problem here? Was I supposed to wipe it down with oil? Or is the finish flawed? Should I take it back to Wal-Mart or send it to Remington?
 
I would contact remington and see what they tell you to do I would also include the serial number and a picture if you have the means to do so if they tell to to celan it with oil I would spray it down and let it sit for about an hour. Then wipe it down if that does nothing I would contact remington again.
Good luck,
Skeetin'870
 
I went to Remington's website and went to the Support>Repairs section and the only information it would let me give them was the model and my state. It then gave me the addresses of two gun shops (both of which are 2+ hours away) and a printable repair form.

Guess I'll give them a call Monday and see if that goes anywhere.

Might as well take it back to Wal-Mart and see what they say too...although their "No Returns Or Exchanges On Firearms Whatsoever" sign doesn't give me much hope...
 
The Express finish is somewhat more problematic than the higher grade Remington's.

The finish is a heavily bead-blasted blue, and many owners have complained that an unprotected gun does develop rust faster.

Whoever told you the Express finish required zero maintenance is full of BS and is at least partially responsible for this.

I'd contact Remington, who will have you return the gun to them for a re-finish.

You can protect the gun when you get it back by several methods.

One is to completely disassemble the gun per the owner's manual, including the magazine.
Spray the entire gun, inside and out, dripping wet with a good lube-protector like Rem-Oil, or even better, CLP Breakfree.
Let soak for 10-15 minutes to penetrate, then wipe off the excess and reassemble.

Whenever you use or handle the gun, reapply a thin coat before putting the gun away.
The Teflon and rust-proofing chemicals in the CLP Breakfree will "soak" into the rough finish and protect it.

Another method used by salt water duck hunters is to apply a heavy coat of Johnson's Paste Floor Wax, then melt the wax into the finish with a hairdryer.

The wax will give excellent protection and is easy to reapply.

Before contacting Remington, you might try applying a heavy coat of CLP Breakfree and see what the finish looks like.
Often the CLP will remove the rust and restore the finish, as long as the gun hasn't actually rusted enough to get pits started.

However, if the gun is really rusted, I'd return it to Remington. They're VERY good about taking care of things like this.
 
When you get it back clean out the finish with brake cleaner, make sure it is dead clean, and paint it. Gloss black if you like shiny blue, flat black if you like the color it was, camo if it suits you. The paint is more durable than wax and vasty superior to oil, protects the finish from rust even under very wet conditions, and you can touch it up for a lifetime with two cans of spray paint at less than $6.

Your gun case must have been damp. Storage in a case is a bad idea at any rate, and an invitation for this sort of thing to happen. If you don't have a safe store them in the factory boxes, cardboard is a lot less likely to hold enough moisture to be a problem than cloth and/or foam.
 
It wasn't a gun case like a plastic or cloth case that you transport guns in...it's a display case that's wood with a glass door that holds 6 guns...a gun cabinet, I'm not sure exactly what it's called...but it was inside the air conditioned house, no moisture
 
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For some reason there was no Owner's Manual in the box...and neither of the two sales associates who told me about the features of the gun informed me of how to maintain it...so newbie me thought that since it wasn't a polished blued finish like my other long guns that it didn't need to be wiped with oil.

Well I took it back to Wal-Mart. They couldn't believe that it was rusted so bad for just having been lightly handled and then stood in a gun cabinet for a week in an air-conditioned house...never even fired. Not only that it was rusted so bad, but also all over...even on parts I never touched and couldn't even reach to touch. They said that they wipe down all of the guns with oil on a daily basis, so it wasn't completely dry either.

They said they can either send it back to Remington for free and have them refurbish it...or I can wait until tomorrow when the manager returns and she will refund my money. I'm thinking I should take the refund and add more money to it for a higher end gun. Is there a such thing as a maintenance-free finish? What about stainless, or nickel plating like the Remington 870 Marine Magnum?
 
There is no such thing as a true maintenance-free firearm.

Even stainless and hard chrome can and will rust.

In your case there are some options:
Buy an 870 Marine Magnum.
These are built for use around salt water boats.
http://www.remington.com/firearms/shotguns/870mrmag.htm

The down side is, it's bright and SHINY.

Another option is a Remington Police gun, which has a military grade parkerized finish.
Remington says their parkerized finish is 60% more rust resistant than standard gun bluing.
http://www.remingtonle.com/shotguns/870synthetic.htm

Another option is to buy a new or used 870 and have it hard chrome plated, or coated with one of the new polymer gun finishes.

Last is as above, PAINT the gun with one of the bake-on gun finishes from Brownell's.
These finishes offer excellent protection, come in a variety of colors like black, parkerized gray, and OD green, and are easy to touch up or re-do.

Bottom line is, ALL gun finishes need attention to prevent rust.
However, all gun finishes don't give as much trouble as your Express.
After all, the other guns in your case didn't rust too.
 
That is just the xpress finish. They can rust on the trip back home from a duck huntin trip. The first time I took mine out after buying it was on a duck hunt(very wet hunt). I threw it in the back floor board on the trip home. I got to the house, one hour later, this thing was a solid rust, just like you explained. I oiled and rubbed the rust out. Since, I've camoed it with Krylon and no more rust LOL
 
I have a couple Express models here at casa del 9mm and I use CLP to wipe them down (after I clean them) before going into the safe. No trouble at all with the finish on these guns and they get shot rain or shine.
The CLP does seem to "soak" into the Express finish which is blue applied over bead blasted metal as someone else posted.
I sent another 870 to ARS and had metacol II (or is it III?) applied and it is holding up well. This finish seems impervious to handling marks and rust.
Good luck with yours,
Mike
 
Ideal in my opinion is a Parkerized finish; which is then given a top coat of flat/matt epoxy. Or the cheap way as suggested by HSMITH.
 
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