Rusty Tikka Thread

[Nine Banger]

I pulled a 22-250 barrel on July 7th, 2025. It had some marks on it, but it had never been rained on.

I stuck it in a bush off our driveway instead of the garbage can to see how fast it would rust.

We're in a warm moist coastal climate with a sea breeze.

So far, it's still looking pretty good.

I had to blow a dead bug out of it today, but the bore still has sheen.

It's shot out so I don't intend to put it back on an action and test it but it's tempting to stick a takeoff barrel out in the bush with it so we can do that.

Has anyone done anything similar?

Does anyone have rusty Tikkas?

 

[Nine Banger]

Update

 

[Dave Thomas]

The blued ones will rust pretty quick. I've had a t3 rust just from fingerprints. Don't know if the t3x is any different but I bought a stainless one when I bought my t3x.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Cant say I have ever been that bored

With the exception of leaving a wet rifle in a wet gun case for a while, I have not had issues with blued ones rusting. Little freckling now an then but that cleans up easy enough.

 

[freezerfull]

I’m actually pretty impressed with that one. Here in the wet northwest the matte stainless will be bright orange the next morning if I don’t wipe it down with BC barricade after a day in the rain, a couple more days without a wipe then I get the dark staining rust I see on yours. Blued have been worse but not by much, I always like the sweaty palm and hand print from holding onto the barrel that appears as a bright orange 6” section of barrel after an August bear hunt.

 

[Banana_Horn]

I rusted a chamber in a stainless tikka after I guess I loaded some wet ammo in it and didn’t clean it. I was also hunting on saltwater beaches, so maybe the humidity got to it. It was kind of a bummer.

 

[T28w]

I’ve have had 2 tikkas rust in the chamber just sitting in a closet, Sitting besides shotguns and another rifle with no issues.

 

[Dust Rider]

Stainless T3X .223 chamber rusted from sitting in the cab of my truck for three weeks. It might have seen a little snow. It was hard to lift bolt. Forcing open bolt and racking loosened it up enough to remove bolt.
Stripped it down and cleaned it good. Action will now be cleaned and oiled on a regular basis.