Rifles for wet weather

[Guy Miner]

Mostly I hunt in eastern Washington, which is essentially high desert. We get some snow and some rain, but nowhere near the amount of precipitation in western Washington - not even close. Just spent a few days fishing up in Alaska. It rained, light to hard, most of the four days we fished. I got to thinking that such constant rain and wind might not be too good for many rifles, including my terrific .375 H&H Number One. I was doing a lot of thinking about my .375 and my .30-06 while I was up there, due to the near constant presence of bears.

Am thinking a 'glass stock of some sort would make a lot of sense.

Metal? Stainless? One of the new wonder-coatings? Both?

If you were going hunting for a week or two, in constant rain, for moose or big bear, what would you use?

Of my present rifles, if I was hunting moose or bear up there, I think I'd go with the .30-06 in the B&C stock, but would have all the metal coated with one of the great new rust-resistant finishes. Maybe the .300 WSM Model 70, which has a stainless barrel and a blued receiver and sits in a laminated wood stock.

Would the laminate hold up to constant rain as well as synthetic?

Does Nosler have The Answer in their Model 48 with the synthetic stock & coated stainless steel?

Your thoughts please!

Guy

 

[Mortis]

Stainless works well for harsh weather....

after dragging all sorts of weapons through all kinds of nasty environments over 23 yrs in the Corps.... good maintence works.

Laminate stocks are made to withstand all types of weather. Now, I have not put them through such as you are talking about, the laminate process is designed to withstand such.

Just my viewpoints..... but stainless and synthetic would be the sturdiest.

And from a machinist standpoint..... stainless will rust if ignored....

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Fiberglass all the way as far as stocks are concerned...nothing against a good laminated stock though.

Metal finishes...I wouldn't worry over it much...blued or stainless...just have something on hand to wipe it down with (CLP or similar).

 

[SJB358]

I am with Mortis here Guy. The Laminates will not move. With multiple layers of wood, glued in different grain directions, any movement is counteracted by the next layer. I love my laminates for just that reason, they have been rock solid, rain or shine.

The good fiberglass stocks out there really win the day up there though, along with a well coated action, whether it be stainless or moly. I am pretty sure my next rifle I build will be a stainless action in a good synthetic stock for hunting the exact conditions you spoke about. Probably have a 358 caliber hole in the barrel too..

 

[Guy Miner]

Nosler builds a .35 Whelen - glass stock & coated stainless... :grin:

Not sure they make stocks long enough for somebody as tall as most NBA players though... :mrgreen:

 

[shoots_5]

I'm a big fan of cerakote....can coat both the metal and the stock and scope. Pretty much impervious to the elements.

 

[DrMike]

For weather identified with a persistent post-nasal drip, it is hard to beat stainless and fiberglass. I do, however, like laminates, if for no other reason than aesthetics. Undoubtedly, Cerakote or other similar exteriors, are a benefit. Maintenance is still a necessity in a moist environment.

 

[Mortis]

OH.....let me interject this.....

When doing maintence on a rifle in such harsh environments...... DO NOT forget the ammunition. Just a quick wipe with a dry cloth helps keep the ammo in fighting trim.

 

[gerry]

Welcome back Guy, glad you had a great fishing trip.

The conditions you describe are exactly the kind of weather we deal with in western B.C. where I live. Stainless steel guns are great to use but can still rust so they need to be taken care of as well. On the goat and grizzly trip we did last September my 375 Ruger held up nicely but the stainless Savage 116 7mm RM our friend from Ontario used rusted pretty good. We have used normal blued (chrome moly?) steel guns that were either powder coated or teflon coated and they did actually quite well, we tape the muzzle regardless of what kind of steel the guns are made of. The 30-06 you mentioned with a good coating like cerakote would be a good choice, there is nothing wrong with buying the Nosler 48 in 338 WM or 35 Whelen or maybe find a stainless Ruger Hawkeye in the same 2 calibers. BTW we have seen laminates warp before but if sealed properly they stay stable, a good synthetic stock is pretty hard to beat in wet and rough conditions.

 

[gerry]

It would be neat to see what kinds of guns you use in nasty weather, hope you don't mind seeing these pics again.

Stainless laminate 375 Ruger.

Sako L691 35 Whelen blued action teflon coated, stainless barrel, Brown precision stock.

Rem 700 blued action, stainless barrel, everything powder coated, McMillan Edge stock.

New 35 Whelen, stainless barrel Rem 700 SPS action McMillan Edge stock. The action will need to be coated at some point but for now it will be used as is.

 

[Guy Miner]

Pretty uninspiring after Gerry's grizzly, moose and mountain goat, I present my 2011 TROPHY BUCK! :grin: Hey, it's actually a mini 3x3, even though it looks like a spike...

This Remington seems to bounce back and forth between a heavier McMillan and this lighter HS Precision stock. Blued receiver is painted, as is the stainless Krieger barrel. It's likely my most weatherproof rifle and the .308 has been dragged through the snow, rain & mud plenty of times.

My son has been using the old M1917 .30-06 for bear and deer hunting. Yes, his buck was bigger than mine... The B&C fiberglass stock seems impervious to wet weather. The blued finish has held up well so far, but could be improved.

And so far the .300 WSM Model 70 has tolerated soaking rain well, with a stainless barrel and laminated stock.

Those are likely my three best inclement weather rifles.

Guy

 

[gerry]

Nice deer and guns Guy I forgot about your 300 WSM, load a 220 Gr Partition in it at around 2700 fps and you would have a pretty decent bear stopper.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty used to hunting in the rain...this year I think I've hunted in the rain more than the dry! The M48 is holding up to the treatment pretty well- a really nice foul weather rifle. Up here it's not only the rain, but walking in wet brush is almost like submerging the rifle!

I also hunt a lot with a Ruger Alaskan...impervious with only minor maintenance.

 

[JD338]

SS is the only way to go. I also agree that a glass stock would be the preference.
As of now, my wet weather rifle is a M700 LSS in 338 RUM. The laminated stock is pretty durable and I would not hesitate to use it up in rainy AK.

JD338

 

[BK]

If I were going to pick an out of the box wet weather rifle, it would likely be a Remington XCR II in .280 and/or .338. From what I understand, Big Green got the formulation right on their Trinite finish. One of these days I will get a .280 for the McMillan I already have.

Were I looking for something a little more custom, I'd likely look into a Winchester Extreme Weather, and either send it for a Black T coating by Birdsong, or Cerakote. And (surprise surprise) a McMillan stock.

 

[usmc 89]

I am a huge fan of cerakote and synthetic stocks ie McMillan and manners. mortis my Smith here in billings has shown me several guns that were taken to Alaska and brought back rusty, stainless and chromoly.

 

[Mortis]

mortis my Smith here in billings has shown me several guns that were taken to Alaska and brought back rusty, stainless and chromoly.

OK....let me pin my rockers back on for a moment.

When I see rusty firearms being dealt with by a gunsmith, that tells me one thing. The owner was lax in maintenance.

OK.... before anyone starts throwing boulders at me.... let me qualify that statement.

Now I know this is the Jarhead coming out in me.....but when your life depends on the function of your firearm, maintenance is a very high priority. Clean and oil it every chance you get.

I've been from SouthEast Asia to Iceland. From NTA Okinawa to Mountain Warfare School in the Sierra's. And all kinds of places in between. Even tho it is not always possible to preform maintenance daily, it still has to be done when possible.

The only people who thinks stainless steel will not rust is either an uninformed individual or a sales clerk tryiing to make the sale to a noob.

A common mistake when leaving the field, and in this I use the generic term for troops and hunters alike, is that they clean and oil the firearm, then put it up till needed. Ignoring it for a few months, based upon their masterful skills with a borebrush and oily rag, they return to find a pile of rust.

It must be attended too daily over several days to insure all contaminates have been removed and it is ready for long term storage. Now back in the day, we cleaned our weapons daily for a minimum 3 days upon firing or returning from an FTX. And our unit armorers inspected all weapons daily to insure they were in a ready condition while in storage.

WE must be out own armorers. Especially if our firearms have been exposed to an environment in which the moist air contains traces of salt, such as will be found along the coastal regions of Alaska.

Now to make a short column longer.....

I was given the mission of assisting an old Mustang Captain in teaching Mortar Fire Control to a group of reservists doing their 2 weeks annual training. During a break, the Captain got into a discussion with one of the Sergeants concerning blued verses stainless 1911's.

The Captain was adament about blue over stainless. His main reason........ maintenance. He said with a blued firearm, it should always be in your mind to keep it maintained. But with a stainless, you tend to let things slip.

His key example were Police Officers. His reasoning was that one fo the biggest reason LEO's carried stainless sidearms was because they were either too lazy or too stupid to keep them maintained. And that if you inspected 10 LEO's sidearms, you'd probably find 8 that were filithy and possibility 2 that would not function due to lack of maintenance.

They get off duty, go home, take off their duty belt and stick it onto the upper shelf of the closet till the next days duty.

At this point laughter erupted in the class room....... it seems the 2 of the NCO's in the back room were LEO's. And they had a very PO'd look on their faces. The Captain challenged them on the condition of their service weapons. The look changed from PO'd to embarrassed. Break was over.

I accuse no one.....just stating my personal observations and yes, mistakes. If a stainless firearm is rusty to the point of needing a gunsmith....... you know where I'll put my money on the fault. 99 times out of 100 I'll win...... but that 1 time....it is the material. Because even stainless can have a chemical flaw in it's makeup which allows rust to take hold in a spot and will not let go. This is rare, but can happen.

Sorry for the lengthy comments.... at times this old Jarhead M/Sgt tends to get up on a soapbox.

 

[DrMike]

To be certain, it is important to stress that stainless is rust resistance and not rust proof. It is not impervious to rust, only resistant. Good points, all, Mortis.

 

[PJGunner]

I find this interesting because of an incident with wet weather that occurred maybe 30 years ago. I was hunting with a Ruger #1 in .300 Win. mag. up in the John Day area of Oregon with friends. IIRC the specific area was called desolation. Well, with a bull elk tag naturally all I saw were cows. However, one day while climbing up this his it started to rain and then it seemed that all hell broke loose. Irt was like multiple buckets were all upturned and once and even with rain grear I was soakded to the skin and my rifle was dripping wet. I made my way back to camp, got me and the rifle dried off as best I could and at out the storm. We later learned that they recorded 120 MPH winds at the John day airport. :shock: Well, no bull elk seen and soon the hunt was over and we headed back to Nevada. We then stopped off at a ranch where one of the hunt party managed a pheasant hunt operation to shoot a few birds. As we were getting ready to do that hunt we spotted a coyote running off with a pheasant in his mouth and the only rifle handy was my .300. I missed 4 times before he got out of sight and no one saw where my shots were hitting. I was positive I was holding proprerly to make the kill. A few days later after I got home here in Arizona I took my .300 to the range. I couldn't even get a shot on the paper and my shooting buddy notice the shots were hitting at the top of the berm and some may have even gone over it.
About all I can figure out is it took almost 6 years for that stock to dry out enought so that I could sight the gun in again. I collect Ruger #1 rifles and there isn't a single one tht has the wood sealed on the inside. Checking the few Ruger M77s I have and it's appears too be the same thing, raw wood. I haven't bought any of the newer #1s so I don't know if any changes have been made regarding sealing the wood but not I treat all my #1s as fair weather rifles only. If it looks like rain, they stay home.
Paul B.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I recently worked on a rifle that the owner had purchased used from a friend. The rifle happened to go on a deer hunt many years ago when owned by the previous owner.

From casual observation it looked beautiful.
Inside the stock, under the rings, anywhere that you could not easily see it was rusted.

Don't forget to remove the stock and check every nook and cranny when a firearm gets wet or sees nasty conditions.