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Rusted 870, ruined?

9K views 36 replies 29 participants last post by  Tom_R 
#1 ·
Folks,

I was disappointed today when I picked up my Remington 870 today after shooting it a week ago. When I released the action and pulled the pump it felt like there was sand trapped in it. I wish that's what it was because instead of sand it was good old red corrosion. The forearm tube rusted pretty well along with the barrel clamp and other places.

I shot it last weekend in the rain, brought it home, dried it off (or so I thought) and coated it in Rem oil. Still couldn't avoid the rust.

Where do I go from here? I know rust happens often especially with blued steel but it was just so sudden and only from rain! I'm upset because the thing is less than a year old. It's been riddled with some other issues too, front sight lost first time out (replaced on my dime), extractor lost soon after (replaced on Remington's dime) and now this.

Help. Oh yeah, is Remington capable of manufacturing anything half decent these days? Seems like their quality is eluding their prestigious moniker.

Thoughts...
 
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#3 ·
Cosmetically? Yeah, maybe. Functionally, no, as long as you got to it and really dried it off this time. The wood fore end may be saturated with water from the inside next to the tube. The butt stock may have water infiltration near the receiver. Best to do a complete teardown to really inspect it well. Once the wood is dry, seal it well with a water resistant finish.
 
#4 ·
That just makes me so sad. I have an 870 Wingmaster that is about 35 years old. I have many thousands of rounds through it. I usually just wipe it down, and once a year or so take it apart for a good cleaning. Every year the action gets a little smoother, and it is still a very pretty gun. I hate to hear that a new one doesn't wear that well.
 
#5 ·
ruined !! NO. My never look as nice again . Throw the rem oil crap away. Gone. Buy a clp. pro-shot one step to g96clp. Take your remmy apart as far as you are comfortable with . Wet the parts well and let set over night. Try to wipe clean in the am and see what results you get. With its not wipeing clean a old piece of leather can scrub surface rust at worst a white 3M pad works well oiled . If you get it smoothed up and controlled , wet the parts with a clp , place them on aluminum foil and heat all metal parts with heat lamps for a few hours around 200 -225*. The clp does soak in to the surface pores of steel and aids in long term rust control. The breakfree clp out there today is not a great product any more. Try G96 or pro-shot, or ? I have always hunted wet conditions. Grew up huting in south florida swamps in the rain or snow up north and nc mountains and have blued firearm used for hunting that are 36,37 years old and there rust free. Ugly , not much blueing left on some but rust free .

Your 870 should work back in smooth . It may never look as good again , but it should function fine. Keep it will lubed with a clp with not hunting from now on and life and learn.
 
#6 ·
samvswild, I'm going to be pretty hard on you here, hopefully you will receive it as constructive criticism. Your shotgun didn't rust suddenly, it took a week. It had water inside it. And what do you mean "only from rain"? Moisture causes corrosion, it's inescapable. Your gun rusted due to your negligence, not some shortcoming on the part of the manufacturer. You can't shoot a gun in the rain without coming home and immediately stripping it down and going over every individual part, drying it and oiling it. Wiping down the outside of the gun isn't nearly enough, as you've now seen.
Good luck,
L.
 
#7 ·
This is about the long and the short of it.



Now you know.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Really fine steal wool and a good gun oil which remoil is not. This will help to clean the surface rust off a blued finish, I don't think this will work for a parkerized finish. If the wood is still wet leave it off the gun until dry and then water seal it as was already suggested. Now that you have a rusting problem you will need to keep it coated in oil while in storage and wipe the oil off when you use it. Good luck.
 
#11 ·
Unless ya have some serious acid rain , it's probably not structurally damaged. Cosmetically , lesson learned , perhaps. 870's are very tough durable guns , having withstood the rigors of military combat and police use/abuse. Take it down , spray the parts with Kroil , use steel wool or a bronze toothbrush to loosen any rusty scale. If it's got pitting , send it out for glass-beading and Parkerizing.
 
#12 ·
As stated earlier the finish on the Express models is not great. It must be kept oiled. A friend of mine has Super Magnum Express (3 1/2") he uses for duck hunting. It looks horrible. But it still works after years of hard use.

Clean it up as best you can. Keep it oiled and shoot it.
Personally I think of my 870 Express as an inexpensive utility shot gun. Usually used as a backup to my other shotgun.
 
#13 ·
I understand the criticism and accept it humbly.

I'm no novice to firearm care and treat them as tools not show pieces. I'm just alarmed at the rate this thing accumulated rust. It's 10 months off the shelf with less than 500 rounds through it.

When I cleaned and oiled it last week, yes it was a half hearted job but it wasn't like it got soaked or submerged.

I just found it odd that I also had my AR on me all day and it actually got water in it, so did my 1911 and my Glock 19. None of those firearms experienced any rust except for some blued 1911 mags that were in my range bag.

This wasn't so much to bash Remington I am just disappointed with this shotgun so far and the fact that it has rust started on it kind of twisted the knife a little.

I got rid of most of the rust stains with oil already but the majority of the rust is in the forearm tube which can be replaced easily. Unfortunately it's also on the magazine tube under the forearm.
 
#14 ·
... Oh yeah, is Remington capable of manufacturing anything half decent these days? ...
I bought a new 11-87. It's the cheap one, the Sportsman Field. While the mechanics of it are robust, the attention to detail and quality of finish are (to me) quite disappointing.
 
#17 ·
I didn't criticize you, I don't know enough to criticize, but I did give you solid advice that I hope you use. Let us know how it turns out. Try the steel wool, you'll be surprised, and a week I don't think would be enough time to pit. Keep it covered with oil and it will be OK. Good luck.
 
#18 ·
I have an 870 and a 1911 R1. The 870 is a beast, it is so robust and still may be the best shotgun at the price with the upgradability and decades of knowledge and experience with the action and design. Where Remington has fallen apart are the little things that kept it as the runaway best not "one of" the best. I had to polish my chamber and replace the extractor from their MIM to what appears to be milled (Called Remington and told them how dinged up mine was and offered to replace it myself if they sent the part, just needed some time with an Arkansas stone). I was in the process of buying a new 308 rifle and had my heart set on the R700 but decided against it because of my issues with the R1 and 870
 
#19 ·
sam you may own firearms aang have stumbled your way around some of them but you are a novice at heart or you would never have let your 870 rust. Humidity alone can rust a firearm. Does not have to be rained on. So when it comes to maintaining your firearms in the future continue to be humble and remember the criticism. If you use a gun safe ?? Buy dehumidifier. A little moisture in a safe can cause your rust issue on it and others.
 
#21 ·
For the most part, I treat them as tools also.



But I do not neglect my tools.
 
#22 ·
Finish on the mag tube usually wears off anyway.
Dura-coat it or better Cerakote it and it'll look better and better handle the abuse.
FWIW mine's over ten years old and that matte bluing rusted sitting in the closet in interior AK which is one of the more arrid places in NA, I positive it started its short storage slathered in CLP. Other blued firearms came thru unscathed.
 
#23 ·
My Son was basically given an 870 express (traded a guitar amp that was just about shot for it). The thing was pretty much covered with surface rust and the wood was beat to hell. Thankfully the internals all looked pretty good, just needed a thorough cleaning and oiling.

What we did was remove the surface rust and most of the factory bluing starting with oiled 0000-steel wool, then oiled green scotch brite, then oiled white scotch bright. After a thorough de-greasing, applied several coats of cold blue, lightly steel wooling with 0000 between coats. After the blue was too our likeing, we heavily coated it in CLP and gently heated with a heat gun. (My wife said no-no to the oven)

We replaced the beat up wood with a Choat full length stock and forend. That was about 5 years ago. Since then all he has done is normal cleaning and maintenance. (Keep in mind, our normal would probably be considered pretty excessive to a lot of folks)

I know I'm probably gonna take a beatin' here, but I've always had good luck with cold bluing for helping fix beat up guns. I'm not talking about restoring here or even making real pretty. I'm talking about making them serviceable.

I've had good results with "44-40" cold blue, Brownell's "Oxpho-blue", and even BC "Perma Blue"

VR,
Harry
 
#24 ·
Around here we even have a great Hillbilly fix.

For a gun with little or no value other than strictly utilitarian. Black high temperature stove paint works great.
 
#25 · (Edited)
My .02 cents is that maintenance aside, some guns/ knives/ swords, rust MUCH faster than others when exposed to the same conditions. I've now onwed several Albion swords, which are untreated carbon steel. Some of them have accumulated rust spots way faster than others. On a similar note, I've had exposed carbon steel on some of my SIGs that have never rusted, and yet I've had S&W "stainless" revolvers that developed rust very quickly.

My 870 is a Police model, which is park'd, not the Express finish. I've had zero rust issues with it, and I'm not anal about maintenance. The 870 Express models I've had and seen in the past had horrible rust issues, worse than any other gun I remember owning, including many carbon guns. Their express finish really is aweful. I have mixed feelings about Remington QC over recent years. I'm very happy with my 870 Police, but my 700 XCR Compact Tactical was a very negative experience (the bolt knob literally fell off in my hand while I was closing the bolt with routine pressure when new).

I'm not as frightened by rust as I once was. I used to be OCD about it. After owning several swords that develop rust specks from time to time I've realized how simple it is to remove surface rust with nothing other than a little love from some steel wool and Breakfree. Now rust to the point of pitting is no good.
 
#27 ·
kid with well used shotgun

here's an interesting photo of a kid in Guatemala or El Salvador? with a well used pump action shotgun with lots of finish wear

when ever I shoot my guns out in the rain I leave them out in a dry heated room for a whole week or more before I put them back in the safe , even if they have been cleaned and well lubed

if you put a gun back in the safe after using it in the rain it will tend to rust easily even though it appears dry, all it takes is a little moisture in the mag tube to cause rust
 

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#28 ·
We have a gun shop and buy guns in any condition imaginable especially since many are old Colts & Winchesters from the 19th Century. We get some 75-100 yr old guns in that appear unfired. We also get some 10-15 yr old guns that are real dogs. Depends on how you take care of them. Rust with no pitting can be removed easily with 0000 steel wool after being soaked with oil. Unless you go nuts with pressure, it will not hurt bluing. Brownnells sells a type of steel wool that looks like tiny ribbons. It is the best! After you use the wool, wipe off the red fluid and oil properly. ALMOST anything that says GUN oil is good (but not Remoil). NEVER use WD-40 on a gun. It is a water replacement and not a lubricant. It gets sticky and grabs dirt. It is a penetrating fluid and will ruin wood. Nasty stuff. Water is the enemy of steel. Humidity, ditto.

Pete
 
#30 ·
+1. If the rust bothers you that badly, send it to Wilson. Now, be warned that the conversion that they make, appears to modify any shotgun (hunting configuration) into a defensive use gun. If this is not what you're after, maybe you need to go another route. Many local companies offer refinishing service, from parkerizing to cerakote, that leaves your gun in its original configuration. Cerakote finish would end your worries about rust again.
 
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