When you fondle your collection...

F

FoghornLeghorn

New member
...what do you do to protect it from fingerprints? I use silicon impregnated cloths, one on each hand. Pretty much the only time I touch a firearm with my bare hand is if it's a Sig or Glock with wraparound rubber grip or if I'm headed to the range.

I've seen videos of gun museum employees wearing white gloves. Are these simply military parade type gloves? Source?
 
Rubber/latex/nitrile gloves will leave fingerprint marks, there just won't be any sweat/salt/water in the marks.

Cotton gloves won't leave any marks unless there is an oil layer on the gun and they smudge/dry it where they touch it.

When I handle my guns, I just handle them--I don't use gloves. If the guns are blued, I do try to avoid touching the metal and handle them by the grips/stock.

Sometimes I will go rinse my hands and dry them first to make sure there's no salt/sweat on them.

If I do touch a blued finish and I think there's a chance that my hands were sweaty/salty, I just wipe down the finish with a silicone rag or something similar.

Then again, I don't have any collectors items or unusually rare/valuable guns. I might take a different approach if things were different in that respect.
 
I don’t typically worry about it, just wipe them all down periodically.
I will admit that maybe I should looking at the lever on a little Henry .22 a couple of months after a friend of my oldest son handled it.
God love the kid but he’s kind of one of those little greasy kids and it pretty well ruined the bluing, luckily only on the lever.
I kind of wanted to order one of the large loop levers for it anyway.
 
Most of my collection is in 'excellent' shape in my estimation.

But (and that's a really big butt)

My brother and I agree, my second-hand, older, holster-worn P226 is cooler than a new, perfect one ... if those wear marks could talk...
 
Or you could google "white cotton gloves"...
Click to expand...

Hence, my question to the forum. Google is not always accurate. Or reliable.

Like, when I ordered my jeans that were advertised as 100% cotton. When I got them they were 50% synthetic.

I'll just stick to my current protocol, viz. not touch the blued firearms unless I'm using silicone cloths.

I don't have any collectors items or unusually rare/valuable guns.
Click to expand...

If by rare you're talking about guns like the Colt Walker that just sold for $1.8 million, no, I don't have any rare guns either.

My rarest piece is the S&W 25-2 of 1955. It was one of the lot that S&W had a batch of mismarked barrels and S&W was too frugal to throw them away, so they put them on the 25-2 frames. The barrels are marked "model of 1950."

That's maybe the "rarest" piece I've got. But I don't think it's all that "rare."
 
In the country we use yellow farm chore gloves soaked in motor oil. ;)

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None of my firearms are museum quality so I don't "sweat" it :D . I did for many years but don't any more . My most commonly used and or touched firearms are either SS , Nitride or have some other anti corrosion coating on them .

Either way I handle my firearms bare handed and just wipe them down before putting them away . Now I do use a special rag to whip them down with . I keep and use and old gun cleaning rag to whip down my guns before putting them back in the safe . This rag has years of multiple gun oils on it and is just a tad moist to the touch .

On the other had if I handle and or shoot a firearm that I know will not be used again for many months or even years , that's a different story . In that case they get a deep cleaning and then practically drenched in either

Corrosion X https://www.amazon.com/Corrosion-X-...UTF8&qid=1524239690&sr=8-2&keywords=corrosion

Hornady Oneshot HD Extreme https://www.amazon.com/Hornady-9993...39717&sr=8-1&keywords=hornady+oneshot+extreme

WD-40 Specialist https://www.amazon.com/WD-40-300038...id=1524239745&sr=8-1&keywords=wd40+specialist

And that's how I handle the issue . It doesn't hurt that my safe stays a consistent 70 degrees @ 40% humidity . I believe that's right around perfect but think 50% humidity is best .
 
Large pill bottle with a small automotive chamois rolled up in it that is lightly saturated with WD-40.
I've got a few of those around in different spots for the periodic wipe down.
I know I know... but I believe in the stuff and it hasn't failed me yet.
 
Cerakote on the .50, a wipedown once in a while.
Light oil on the rest after a cleaning.

Otherwise, no other special treatment.
 
If I'm just fondling it to fondle it, and won't be doing anything with it any time soon, I avoid touching metal.

Otherwise, or if I reach the point of, "I've messed with too many of these lately, I need to wipe everything down again," I grab the closest appropriate option.
There's a (bagged) silicone rag on top of one of the safes.
There's a Hoppe's #9 rag somewhere with the cleaning supplies.
And I have both RemOil wipes and Slip 2000 (EWL?) wipes available if I really want to leave an oil residue.
 
Museum employees wearing white gloves are handling irreplaceable collector grade firearms. Not a Sig or a Glock, both of which have protective finishes.
Anyway, unless your hide oils are particularly caustic, you have nothing to worry about. Your firearms are not going to dissolve or instantly rust because you touch 'em.
 
I don't do anything special other than I rub them down occasionally with a slightly oily rag. They seem to do just fine but my oldest one is only 70 years old.
 
I've seen videos of gun museum employees wearing white gloves. Are these simply military parade type gloves? Source?

No, they are not military parade type gloves but rather light to medium weight plain cotton gloves. Just about any industrial supplier should have them, for example McMaster Carr or similar. You wear them a few times and trash them. In industry they are worn for handling things like precision gauge blocks and weights. They are also very inexpensive. Heck you can likely find them at your local drug store in addition to latex gloves and similar.

Ron
 
i keep a lightly oiled rag around and simply give them a quick wipe down before going into the safe. Carry guns are no different, a quick wipe every day. Never any problems or issues to be had.
 
Lightly oil gun cloth, with an accumulated collection of oils, greases and who knows what, wipe them down after handling. Geeez, this why I love stainless steel and hardly buy anything not stainless and I wipe them down also. Years of guarding blued guns from rust in humidity or soaking in a rain, who needs all that fuss.
 
After I fondle my treasures I load em up go to the range and throw some copper jacketed lead with em. The burnt powder usually covers up the finger prints. If not, I throw some more lead. It covers the finger prints long enough for me to get home, clean em up and back in the safe they go.
 
If it's a blued gun I wipe it with a silicone rag or oily rag every time it's handled. If you don't it'll rust. Some, maybe most, of the newer finishes don't seem as likely to rust as the nice pretty blued guns.
I keep a gun wiping cloth on top of the safe, the gun is wiped off before placing it back in the safe.
 
I don't fondle my collection. Actually, I don't have a collection; I sold off the unusual stuff and kept the shooters.

I dryfire and gymnasticate my firearms for practice in shooting and operating. I then wipe them with a cloth that has a bit of every lubricant that has passed through the shop.
 
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