Rifle care in Sheep country

[Murtfree]

I’ve been wondering how hunters maintain and care of your rifles while on a backpack hunt for sheep. After reading many posts on hunts this year, it seems like rain is a constant factor while in the sheep mountains. While I’ve been on many hunts over the years, those hunts always ended up back in camp at the end of the day, with at the very least a cabin where I had tools and supplies to clean up a rifle if things got soaked. It seems that a backpack hunt won’t give me those luxuries. What do most do; or do you just do a basic wipe down and hope for the best, being that rifles are mostly stainless?

 

[cbeard64]

Basically yes to your last question. Today’s synthetic and stainless steel rifles are wonderful things. I do carry a small vial of RemOil and lube the bolt face, bolt, and trigger on occasion. Blued rifles require more TLC during the hunt.
Make sure it is properly lubricated just before the trip.

 

[Wapiti1]

Wax it with a couple of coats of good car wax before the trip. Stock and all. Take an oiled rag in a ziplock for later wipe down.

Tape the barrel with electrical tape to keep water and debris out of the bore.

One issue is the ammo. If it's in a buttstock carrier, check it through the hunt. It will corrode in the carrier. Or just keep it in an easy to get to spot in a smaller ammo wallet that stays dry.

Ammo is not waterproof if it isn't sealed. Almost no one seals ammo except the military.

Jeremy

 

[USMC-40]

Use q tips to apply Vaseline in scope ring screws, oil well before the hunt - keep in vestibule of tent. I don’t bring any extra gun oil. Just wipe the water off when it’s wet with my extra shirt

 

[william schmaltz]

Bring a few of these:

Robot or human?

 

[Marine4life]

I sprayed a small piece of cotton material, 6x10 piece of cut up t-shirt, with rem oil so it was soaked. Put that in ziplock sandwich bag and wiped my gun down almost daily. My rifle is an older Abolt blued so it will rust. Kept elect tape over muzzle and scope coat on as well.


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[Murtfree]

A lot of good info here so far, things I hadn’t thought about such as ammo corroding or scope screws which are steel. I was concerned about water getting into the bolt and rusting the firing pin spring or worse yet freezing and causing a misfire; I have had that happen in extreme cold. I plan on using my Kimber so bolt tear down in the field is a snap; no tools needed. Water in the magwell and rusting the steel box was another concern. Several mentioned things like Ballistol or a pre oiled rag with Rem oil. I hadn’t thought of that but that made me remember the tub of Rem-Oil Wipes that I have; not sure if Remington still sells them but they came in an easy pull out tub. Probably 3 or 4 of those in a zip lock should last for a hunt. As for prewaxing, I definitely could see that on all metal parts; do you have any problems with the synthetic stocks becoming slick? I’ve been using small black finger cots as barrel covers for about 30 years so that was the only thing I really had covered

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Neglect. Love my rifles, but built to withstand back to back to back wet hunts. Stainless or titanium action with stainless barrels all cerecoted, manners carbon stocks and aluminum alloy mounts/rings. Typically shoot fairly often, and will clean then foul bore within week of hunt, tape the barrel with quality electrical tape (3m or scotch brand) and put extra pieces onto my scope so I can retape after firing during hunt. Past that, my rifle gets nothing but neglect and them expect it to like it.

All that said, the screws of scope rings and on two of my rifles the action bolts have surface rust. Note that next build those are parts that need coating too.

 

[Marine4life]

A couple additional ideas. My scope coat cover lays over the sides of the stock and covers the action so I didn’t get any water in the action. I also seen a few guys with the solo hunter rifle covers, or similar, but haven’t used them personally.
I wrap about 12 inches of both electrical tape and duck tape just below the handles on each of my trekking poles. Comes in handy when needed and easy access.

As far as the stock goes, I carried my rifle on the side of my pack in a Kifaru gun bearer and the stock got pretty scratched up busting through brush. My $600 Abolt basically has a plastic stock and for me it is no big deal. I think if I had a $5k custom rifle I would try to protect it a bit more.

For the ammo, I carried 8 rounds in my hip belt pouch on my pack. While doing a float trip for griz the hip pouch was submerged in water for several hours. When I realized this I swapped the ammo with other ammo I had in my pack. I carried a total of 16 rounds so you might consider keeping two batches separate and at least some in a waterproof bag.


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[snowcamoman]

I've found that a a good coating of Eezox and a drop in each scope cap screw head does wonders. I've used all of the other types of corrosion inhibitors and Eezox has beat them all.

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[XLR]

No matter if you are speaking about bows or rifles they should be built to be as "mountain proof" as possible. You have to come to an understanding that these are tools that will get wear and tear. But if you use specific components, and accessories you can defiantly help prevent your weapon of choice from failing you in the field. I personally do not worry to much about water in regards to rust.. more about water freezing and causing malfunctions, water causing issues with ammunition, dirt/debris causing feeding issues.

As mentioned above I will use tape, and even a small balloon tapped to the muzzle. I personally use a sunrise tactical rifle cap. https://www.shortactionprecision.com/products/sunrise-tactical-rifle-cap
Extremely light and allows the entire scope and action to be covered. There are plenty of other options but this has proved to work the best for me on not only keeping everything dry, but also preventing twigs, dirt, etc from getting in my action. Also large enough to wrap completely around a magazine if you are running a DBM.
Not the best picture but you can see the cover wrapped around the scope/action. Depending on the trip, pack and rifle I am running I will also just fold the butt stock up and place the entire rifle in the pack to be completely contained. Not going to be able to do this if you are running a long barrel, and traditional stock but that will keep it very secured.

 

[Yellowknife]

My rifle just lives wet and dirty. If the guns worth a darn as a sheep rifle, you won't have problems.


I do pay attention to keeping the scope clean and covered and the muzzle stays taped. If a stainless gun needs more than that, I'd be shopping for a new one.

Blued can be a different story. My dads blued 700 had the bolt stop rust up solid on a particularly wet sheep trip a few years ago.

 

[Gadjet]

I have been on a dall hunt in Alaska for two years in a row now. On both hunts I've been in some pretty bad rain storms. I hunt with a synthetic stainless rifle, and all I do is make sure to keep the end of my barrel covered with electrical tape and my neoprene scope cover on. I haven't had any issues.

 

[rayporter]

for many years i have carried the same wool rag soaked in oil in a zip loc along with a piece of weedeater string for pushing a patch through the barrel. i spray the wool with rem oil every year and add a couple of those sealed rem oil foil packs to the zip loc along with a couple patches for just in case.

the rem oil wipes are nice but they are awful small and once used seem to be useless.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Man, I don’t really do anything at all. All are stainless/synthetic, I use scope caps, and if it’s really wet, I’ll wipe the water off before going to bed. Not all my rifles look new, but none of them have any rust.


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[Murtfree]

Thanks everyone for the input. There is a lot of good information here from doing nothing to things a little more elaborate. It’s given me a lot of different ideas to contemplate and I’ll probably end up somewhere in the middle. I can buy a rain cover for my pack which has a hole for the barrel to protrude and the rest of the gun would be covered if I was in heavy rain; I would think that should keep the majority of rain off. With a little common sense I should be able to make some of the other ideas work.

 

[rayporter]

on my first elk hunt i fell and filled my muzzle full of ice.

it took a lot of picking and heating with a bic before i could get a string with a piece of shirt tail pulled through the barrel.

lot of lessons learned real quick. tape up and carry something stiff enough to push through.

as well as dont fall---yea right..

a few years ago we had a lot of rain and snow the first two days of elk -then the cold snap dropped the bottom out of the thermometer and i sat in the tent for an hour with my bolt and trigger held over the fire to get the ice out. check and recheck.

 

[kaboku68]

I have taken blued /walnut rifles many times. Johnson paste wax on outside of action. I put electric tape over barrel and clothe tape over wood and spray paint a clear coat acrylic paint over the top of it. I have been taking stainless/ Syn for past couple of years and just spray paint it with clear coat acrylic paint. Most of the time this is in the Chugach or the Wrangell Mts so it rains and snows almost every day.

 

[Outdoorsman12b]

Tape barrel with electrical tape and go stainless/synthetic. You generally don't want oil kept on your bolt as it will pick up any dirt. I take a wire pull through in case I pick up a blockage and a few patches soaked in oil in case I need to wipe it down, but never have.

Cerakote makes it look nice but sheep country is unforgiving and generally does not stand up to rocks very well. I have not noticed any improvement in weather protection for my rifles with it.

 

[Snyd]

Kimber MT, Leupold scope. Nothing but a scope bikini and electrical tape over the barrel. No problems and it's been in the sheep mtns probably at least 150 days.