Middle of rifle season your rifle spends all day in snow then rain

DMTJAGER

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Nov 25, 2020
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Looking for a cheaper alternative than using my very expensive ($27/can) Horandy One-Shot Dry Spray Lube.
How do I get the water safely out of the trigger assembly collected under the stock and NOT harm my synthetic stock or other synthetic/plastic parts? and NOT flood everything with lubricant?
Yes I can use a spray straw and flush out my trigger assembly areas concealed under the action and stock with all kinds of spray firearm lubricants but now I have a rifle flooded with lubricant that will attract and hold dirt and other gunky stuff that I can not displace with gun scrubber for fear of damaging the finish on my synthetic stock
It's the middle of firearm deer season and I can not remove the barrels action from the stock to properly spray it down with action cleaner as I will lose my zero and I do not wish to lose a day of hunting re-zeroing my rifle.
All of my rapidly evaporating action cleaner will absolutely attack plastics and plastic finishes.

Looking all over the internet for a affordable plastic safe spray to flush out my rifle but not even WD-40 is listed as plastic safe.

I am most concerned with the trigger assembly as I do have foul weather specific rifles who are either all stainless or Cerakoted but I know there are multiple unprotected steel parts in my trigger assembly that will need immediate attention after being exposed to precipitation and get wet.
If I have to use my Hornady One-Shot dry lube so be it $27 isn't that much VS a $700+ rifle when it comes right down to it.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
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Try to keep it warm overnight so it dries out a bit and the moisture in the trigger assembly doesn’t freeze and rock on.

Lots of folks flush out their triggers with lighter fluid. I never have but I’d look into it.
 

nphunter

WKR
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Jul 27, 2016
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Oregon
Lube it up if it’s going to be that wet and just disassemble and clean after the season. This time of year it’s very unlikely you’re going to have dust issues. People have been using fun oil on triggers for years with very few actually having issues from grime. I’ve pulled apart and cleaned rifles that haven’t been disassembled for over 50 years and still worked fine. A few week or a month of dusty conditions isn’t going to cause any issues on a freshly oiled gun.

Water= Ice/rust, I’d be much more worried about that than the accumulation of dust over the course of the season. Ice will make it instantly malfunction and rust will ruin it. Years of dust and grim can be removed in 2 seconds with a shot of brake clean.

Have you pulled your action and retightened it before to check zero? Probably worth doing just to see, my 280AI in a bedded HS keeps its zero when pulling it apart, at least at normal hunting ranges for me.

Air in a can or an air compressor works well, hair dryer, etc.
 

Formidilosus

Super Moderator
Shoot2HuntU
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Oct 22, 2014
Messages
10,039
Looking for a cheaper alternative than using my very expensive ($27/can) Horandy One-Shot Dry Spray Lube.
How do I get the water safely out of the trigger assembly collected under the stock and NOT harm my synthetic stock or other synthetic/plastic parts? and NOT flood everything with lubricant?
Yes I can use a spray straw and flush out my trigger assembly areas concealed under the action and stock with all kinds of spray firearm lubricants but now I have a rifle flooded with lubricant that will attract and hold dirt and other gunky stuff that I can not displace with gun scrubber for fear of damaging the finish on my synthetic stock
It's the middle of firearm deer season and I can not remove the barrels action from the stock to properly spray it down with action cleaner as I will lose my zero and I do not wish to lose a day of hunting re-zeroing my rifle.
All of my rapidly evaporating action cleaner will absolutely attack plastics and plastic finishes.

Looking all over the internet for a affordable plastic safe spray to flush out my rifle but not even WD-40 is listed as plastic safe.

I am most concerned with the trigger assembly as I do have foul weather specific rifles who are either all stainless or Cerakoted but I know there are multiple unprotected steel parts in my trigger assembly that will need immediate attention after being exposed to precipitation and get wet.
If I have to use my Hornady One-Shot dry lube so be it $27 isn't that much VS a $700+ rifle when it comes right down to it.

Brake cleaner, wipe it off if it gets on the stock.
 

E.Shell

FNG
Joined
Jun 8, 2024
Messages
87
Try to keep it warm overnight so it dries out a bit and the moisture in the trigger assembly doesn’t freeze and rock on.

Lots of folks flush out their triggers with lighter fluid. I never have but I’d look into it.
I've used lighter fluid a lot to clean triggers. Works well, leaves the lightest coat of film that seems to inhibit rust. Never used it with plastic stocks.
 

Wrench

WKR
Joined
Aug 23, 2018
Messages
6,240
Location
WA
Yellow bottles of heet work good at pushing out water and drying quickly. I poke a small hole in the foil to squirt a stream if needed and it's good to make ice melt. I keep a little bottle (eye drops bottle filled with heet) in my oh shit kit as it's good for fire or frozen trigger....but mostly if my gun is wet when I get home I just blow it off with my air compressor.
 
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DMTJAGER

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Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
71
If you use brake cleaner make sure it is non-chlorinated.

Thanks for the replies thus far. Forgot about using charcoal lighter will give that a try.
Unfortunately all my brake cleaner like gun scrubbing sprays both chlorinated and non chlorinated I thankfully long ago tried them all out on plastic before using on my firearms on all different types and grades of plastics and it all attacks plastic like a fat kid let loose in a cupcake factory. Stuff is for non-plastic firearm items only like barrel bores, receivers, trigger groups and barreled actions removed from the stock and scope rings and bases.

Yes they do make plastic safe and gun finish safe scrubbing sprays but stuff is $25-$28 a 10oz spray bottle VS <$10 and I shoot and clean a lot of guns, A LOT.
Only cheap semi-safe plastic spray cleaner I found so far has been WD-40 but it will attack and dissolve some synthetic camo finishes and I have no interest is testing it out on the finish of my camo guns to find out.
 

Formidilosus

Super Moderator
Shoot2HuntU
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Oct 22, 2014
Messages
10,039
Thanks for the replies thus far. Forgot about using charcoal lighter will give that a try.
Unfortunately all my brake cleaner like gun scrubbing sprays both chlorinated and non chlorinated I thankfully long ago tried them all out on plastic before using on my firearms on all different types and grades of plastics and it all attacks plastic like a fat kid let loose in a cupcake factory. Stuff is for non-plastic firearm items only like barrel bores, receivers, trigger groups and barreled actions removed from the stock and scope rings and bases.

Yes they do make plastic safe and gun finish safe scrubbing sprays but stuff is $25-$28 a 10oz spray bottle VS <$10 and I shoot and clean a lot of guns, A LOT.
Only cheap semi-safe plastic spray cleaner I found so far has been WD-40 but it will attack and dissolve some synthetic camo finishes and I have no interest is testing it out on the finish of my camo guns to find out.

What plastic is non-chlorinated brake cleaner melting from spraying on, and wiping off?

It’s gets used hundreds of times a year by everyone I am around, and zero issues.
 
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