WD 40 WAS DEVELOPED TO PRESERVE THE PPER THIN METAL EXTERIOR SHELLS OFROCKETS TO BE SHOTINTO SPACE.
THE PEOPLE THAT MADE IT FOR NASA stated using it for a whole heck of a lot of other purposes.
I strongly believe in limiting the amount of water admitted into the barrel andWD 40 gets rid of any thatsnaeks by. either self inflicted or ambient humidity.
I attempt, successfully. to saturate the steel of the barrel with WD 40, smoking it into the molecular structure of the metal.
As fr s the difficulty in removing its coating from the bore of the rifle. The preforming shot takes care of that quite nicely.
The last time I cleaned both of my rifles ws with the almost totally waterless method I had discovered and the the two barrels were stored inhumed St. Louis for over 15 years and when checked after that length of time showed NO rust or black schmaltz in both sweet, clean well preserved barrels.
I would never use WD $0 as a lubricants in bolt actionrifes. The complaints people make about WD 40 are exactly the things that make is very useful.
I am sure it would gum up the inner workings of a lock, but that same gumming up would be an easy removed rather long term block against any moisture getting to the steel of the barrel. Water really likes to attack steel as all the old navy paint chippers can well express.
Dutch Schoultz
I don’t know about shop tools, but WD40 works great for me for a short term bore preservative. Dutch Shoultz’s early systems reccomends using it as such. I was already using it before I got my copy. Now I have a question for you, when smithing how do you actually A) know exactly what was used as a cleaner or preservative? B) how do you know exactly how long ago the said cleaner or preservative was applied? C) how do you know that it wasn’t accidentally mixed with somthing and it caused that effect? I’ve never experienced the effects of WD40 such as your describing.