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Stainless or blue? How hard on your rifles is your local weather when you hunt?

All my rifles are traditional gloss blue or satin black. Virginia weather isn’t too hard on them

Storage is more of a problem than use.

Except, I have a Wetherby Vanguard I bought in the early '80s.
Before there were multiple models, just the "Weatherby" look.

A couple rainy or snowy days, and that bastard will riust.
The floorplate is ruined, the rest I have always been able to clean up.
The only way to stop it is if it can be brought inside, warmed up,
cleaned and oiled every night. If camping or left in a vehicle, it rusts.
Even if wiped nightly.

Never have had that issue,

Well, an 870 Express Turkey.
But it's an ugly, cheap, POS, user that only gets wiped before being put away.

I agree with Dillonbuck. Here in E. VA I have to run at least two different types of dessicants in my safe. Humidity is my rifle's worst enemy. Many of my guns have been Duracoated or Cerakoted just for steel protection.

Thanks, Dinny

I don't own a stainless long-arm. I do have a few stainless handguns, but I got them not because of the fact they were stainless, but just because I liked the guns.

As long as its cold enough, it has always seemed to me that blued guns can be used outside, and for days or weeks on end, without rusting. That's long as they don't come inside to a cabin or something and get warm without getting dried off. If you get them warm and they stay wet, they will rust very quickly. That is my experience, anyway.

I'm all about stainless/synthetic. The weather here is too nasty for blue/walnut rifles.

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Okie John

I use to do a lot of coastal hunting around Alaska with everything from blued/walnut Pre-64’s to SS/Syn rifles. In my experience they all need care. What’s more important for me is a stable stock vs. the type of steel.

Soaked alotta guns here in the Old Dominion, strip clean after the season, no problems.

"Weather" is one thing - but overall care by the owner is quite another.. 95% of my firearms are blued.. The main one I've had for almost 50 years still looks as good now as when I bought it in '72... M70, blued/walnut, .264WM... And it's goin' hunting again in 2+ weeks..

My safe contains a mix of blue and stainless metal and stocks of walnut, laminate and synthetic. The blue/walnut Ruger M77 I started hunting with in 1982 and used exclusively for 20+ years is still rust free in spite of many times being in the wet and snow.

For this year's elk hunt my rifles will be a SS/syn Ruger Hawkeye and a blue/syn Ruger MKII. The MKII will be used by a SIL the first few days. I'll probably use both before the two seasons I'm hunting are over.

'l

I have blued shotguns used for salt water duck hunting that show no rust. When I hunt out of state we leave our rifles in the truck and don’t bring them in. If we have to because of rain they get wiped off after coming to room temperature. No issues with rust. FWIW I am on the coast (1/4 mile from the beach) and none of my firearms have rusted.

It's pretty humid here in AL/GA and in the winter it seems like I hunt in rain as much as in the dry. This is over a 4.5 month season hunting at least 1 day every week. I like stainless/synthetic (and coated) but do hunt with several blued guns (most of them have synthetic stocks) and they don't have rust, but I do fire them and then wipe them down after hunting in the rain. I think the smoothness of the finish on metal (either blued or stainless) can play a big part in how much a firearm rusts. Smoother seems to rust less, rougher finish seems to rust more...in either steel type.

One thing I notice rusts on most of my firearms is the scope ring screws. I degrease all of the screws before mounting and after a hunt in the rain they are going to rust.....sometimes I think the manufactures pack them in salt.

J, same here on the ring screws, hit the tops with Lucas Extreme, then wipe off, it clings to the torx/allen holes and around the head edges very well, no rust.

Can't go wrong with stainless for use, especially if you treat it as blue. Of the dozen of so rifles I have, one has a stainless barrel on ablued receiver- that's the only stainless I have.

Tearing down four rifles for without doubt cleaning and drying last fall after a 2 day fog and rain hunt was a PITA. Which admittedly, I would probably have done had they been all stainless, anyway.

If I was starting over, I'd buy nothing but stainless/synthetic. But then, I'm a hunter with, not a fondler of rifles..... . If you want eye-candy, it is wood and blue, all the way.

Only stainless for me. Spend most of our 4 month deer season wet.

Yep. Stainless if I have a choice.

I prefer stainless rifles with either laminated or synthetic stocks to hunt with because they require minimal maintenance, but I prefer to look at rifles with polished blued CM and walnut.