Pedersoli Brown Bess light rusting

[SmoothboreMurph]

I own a Short Land Pattern Brown Bess made by Pedersoli and I have owned it since March of this year. I have fired it and cleaned it many times but havent used it since May 5th so roughly 2 months since last use. I noticed it is starting to get rust forming on the lock screw, lock jaw and the lock plate, as well as some surface rust splotches along the length of the barrel. I tried Hoppes No.9 and that didn't fix the issue and WD-40 is useless. Has anyone else who owns a Pedersoli Brown Bess experienced this issue and has anyone used Birchwood Barricade Rust preventative to good affect to curb this issue ? I want to solve this problem before hunting season as I dont want to rust my musket the first time I hunt with it. Anyone who answers this thread is thanked for their input.

 

[Caniborrowsomeammo]

I use Hoppes #9 as a solvent and WD-40 to displace moisture in distributor caps.
After use, I wipe my guns down with a very light coat of 30 wt oil and ATF mixed about 75/25.
I use a soft shop towel or an old sock saturated with just enough of my concoction to leave an oil sheen on the metal, remove fingerprints and any dirt collected..
I have been using Barricade in my pistol cylinders and my bores lately and it seems to work well on preventing rust in there and not having to clean out cylinder or bores with heavy oil contamination.

 

[Alan O]

That is a fine fine smoke pole - just clean it up and enjoy it.

 

[hawkeye2]

Clean the parts with 0000 steel wool and WD-40. Clean that off, you can use alcohol, and then oil.

 

[Alan O]

exactly

 

[Britsmoothy]

Ah, the old chestnut of using mineral oil based products on black powder residue. Doesn't work!
Why doesn't it work?
Because mineral oil or oil out of the ground does not absorb the salts produced via combustion.
Only animal or vegetable oils/fats do.
I use beeswax and olive oil to protect my guns. No rust.

Short answer, if it comes in a can don't use it!

 

[TreeMan]

After cleaning any of my guns I give them a good coat of Howard’s Feed and Wax. Follow the directions, let it dry and buff it off. The Pedersoli Bess doesn’t have a protective coating (browning/blueing) on the barrel or lock. It will rust easily if you don’t clean well and protect it.

 

[skwerleater]

Try RIG gun grease. I started using it about 2 years ago. After a soap n water clean, dry and coat of RIG, I haven’t had any rust whatsoever, an I have left the long arms hanging uncovered in a cabin that is not heated and usually humid for many months. No rust at all. Stuff works great.
skwerl

 

[Grenadier1758]

RIG is a good Rust Inhibiting Grease that will protect your gun from rust. It will have to be cleaned from the bore with rubbing alcohol before shooting or the grease and fouling will make itself into a hard crust making loading difficult. Barricade leaves a very thin film of lubricant that will prevent rust from forming and it won't be necessary to do the alcohol wipe before shooting.

 

[skwerleater]

I have seen many posts regarding this. My experience has been the opposite. That doesn’t happen in my muzzleloaders. Just give it a wipe and load. No crust, no fouling.
skwerl

 

[satwel]

I've had good luck preventing rust on my muskets and rifles using a product called Eezox. I give all metal surfaces a wipe down with Eezox as a last step-including the bore. I buy it from Amazon. I've also used Barricade with no problems.

 

[Sudsy]

Has anyone tried this stuff ?
BIOKLEEN SOY LUBE SL-100



I've been using it to lube my fishing reels, figure a natural oil has to be less offensive to the fishes sense of smell than petroleum products
Misplaced my bottle of Ballistol last week and tried it on my rifle, seems to work well but two sessions and two oilings is a small sample size

 

[Mulebrain]

Rust that evil four letter word. I like some rust sometimes, enjoy the aging it does.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Has anyone tried this stuff ?
BIOKLEEN SOY LUBE SL-100

View attachment 83073

I've been using it to lube my fishing reels, figure a natural oil has to be less offensive to the fishes sense of smell than petroleum products
Misplaced my bottle of Ballistol last week and tried it on my rifle, seems to work well but two sessions and two oilings is a small sample size

Never seen it but it sounds like the right path to take for me

 

[SmoothboreMurph]

RIG is a good Rust Inhibiting Grease that will protect your gun from rust. It will have to be cleaned from the bore with rubbing alcohol before shooting or the grease and fouling will make itself into a hard crust making loading difficult. Barricade leaves a very thin film of lubricant that will prevent rust from forming and it won't be necessary to do the alcohol wipe before shooting.

I have no problems of rusting insde of my bess it is just the outside, I guess humidity buildup is causing the rusting so I ordered some RIG to see what it does thank you for the advice.

 

[mark_fare]

I recently purchased the exact same musket. I was a bit apprehensive about it getting rusty, but it hasn't happened. I have used Ballistol exclusively to clean and wipe down this musket and it works great and absolutely no rust. I use the Ballistol concentrate cut at a ratio of 7:1 with water.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Ah, the old chestnut of using mineral oil based products on black powder residue. Doesn't work!
Why doesn't it work?
Because mineral oil or oil out of the ground does not absorb the salts produced via combustion.
Only animal or vegetable oils/fats do.
I use beeswax and olive oil to protect my guns. No rust.

Short answer, if it comes in a can don't use it!

Olive oil and beeswax or just plain olive oil was used on the King's/Queen's musket(s) for more than a couple centuries. I remember using it on my Bess lock and barrel and then accidentally leaving it on the musket rack outside, overnight at an event, and there was a heavy dew that night. When I wiped the stuff off the next morning, the musket steel was still bright. Others who had not coated their musket had a lot of polishing to do.

LD

 

[Boston123]

Olive oil and beeswax or just plain olive oil was used on the King's/Queen's musket(s) for more than a couple centuries. I remember using it on my Bess lock and barrel and then accidentally leaving it on the musket rack outside, overnight at an event, and there was a heavy dew that night. When I wiped the stuff off the next morning, the musket steel was still bright. Others who had not coated their musket had a lot of polishing to do.

LD

Wont the olive oil go rancid after a while? Or does the beeswax stabilize it?

Will this mixture be okay inside of a barrel, and do I have to clean it out before shooting like I would with a mineral oil?

 

[Britsmoothy]

Wont the olive oil go rancid after a while? Or does the beeswax stabilize it?

Will this mixture be okay inside of a barrel, and do I have to clean it out before shooting like I would with a mineral oil?

I can't say I have ever had my mixtures go rancid and I have never noticed olive oil go rancid.
I don't use olive oil in the barrel on its own.
My current mix has olive oil, bees wax and some beef fat. May even be a hint of candle wax. I use the same tin and top it up as and when.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yeah I left a cake of the stuff on a shelf for more than a year, and it smelled slightly "musty" but was fine to use. I suppose that the beeswax has some preservative quality.

I've read journal entries where they were using "sweet oil" [olive oil] to prevent rust within a barrel. The problem with an oil is that it is often the custom to store the muzzle loader muzzle up, and thus slowly over time the oil would migrate down to the breech, and form a puddle of sorts. I have noted that in some old cabins there are pegs for holding the firearm over a door to the outside, and the peg arrangement seems to show that the muzzle loader was horizontal with the muzzle slightly lower than the breech..., so any oil would "flow" toward the muzzle. Makes sense that one would store a loaded ML that way to keep oil from contact with the live portion in the breech.

So the point of the previous paragraph was that grease is a bit more stable in the barrel, and a bit more forgiving of our modern methods. OH and YES I would swab the barrel to remove the grease after storage, before shooting.

LD