How often do you oil your stored firearms

I've known guys, most of them older men who very seldom shoot, who found their rifle or shotgun had gained surface rust after being left in a closet or some other place for months if not years. And most of the time, these guys claimed they oiled their gun the last time they put it away.

Now I'm sure most, if not all of you, are like me and have firearms that you seldom if ever use, and just keep them stored away.

It brings up the question, how often should you get them out and re-oil the surface, and perhaps run a patch of something down the barrel?

Only gun's I oil/whipe down are my OU's after each use

Ou bores have all been treated with ultra bore and outside with Wd-40 ultra specialist silicone stuff.

Rifles I dust off and grease looking lugs once a year

Maybe once every 3-4 months I'll run an old t-shirt w/ a little CorrosionX on it over the metal..

This /\ /\ /\

I leave a thin coat of bore conditioner oil in the bore, slip them in a silicone gun sock and store in safe muzzle down,

Since I've started using Renaissance Wax, the periodic gun-oiling activity has died down quite a bit.

The wax protects the metal better than oil, and it's good for the wood, too.

My 12 ga pump by the night-stand used to get dusty-looking and dry after just a month or so. After waxing it, it's always looked shiny as if I had just cleaned it.

Try Renaissance Wax, the same stuff they use at the NRA museum.

No, I don't own stock in the company, or sell the stuff. - I just bought some and found that it really is as good as they say.

Not as often as I should probably. But the safe/dehumidifying box seems to work fine so no issues.

Never. Oil it before you put it away and don't touch it. If you touch it, oil it again. I've never seen a need to oil them between uses.

Some of the ones in my safe never get used so they get oiled once a year. The ones I use get oiled when I am done using them. The ones that I use daily or weekly get oiled every month or two.

^^^^ this, except the ones I use daily get cleaned weekly

Thanks Charlesb for suggesting Renaissance Wax. I just read reviews on Amazon and seems to be great stuff. I will be trying it.

Also just ordered Renaissance Wax. Should have about 10 different uses for it around the house.

I've seen many what would be otherwise perfect and beautiful shotguns look horrible because of an oil soaked/stained stock from coating the action and receiver down with oil and then standing it in the corner of the closet year after year season after season. Over time the oil has run down and saturated the end grain of the stock where it meets the receiver. I know many collectors that will stand guns muzzle down in the safe if they feel the need to oil them. I for one oil very sparingly but will check everything in the safe a couple of times a year if I haven't used some of them in that time frame.

Another job for wax. As a gunsmith, it would hard to say how many .22lr autos I worked on that were soaked in oil, which in turn attracted powder residue and dust to make a mud-like substance that gummed up the works. This happens on autoloading shotguns a lot, too. The owners mean well, but they're doing more harm than good with all of that lubrication.

Clean on the inside with a light oiling, wax on the outside does the job. - I'll never oil the outside of a firearm again, it's waste of time and often returns the results noted in the post that I am responding to.

I wipe mine down with Eezox and call it good until I use the gun again. Eezox is hard to beat in the the rust prevention category. It also isn't oily after it dries so it doesn't run. It is marketed as a 3 in 1 but I don't care for it as a lubrication or solvent.

I guess I'm the negligent owner in the group. I never oil my guns unless they get wet and somehow none of them have rust. There are guns that I literally have not shot in 10 years and they have never been oiled, so far no issues.

I'm right there with you. My father was a "less is more" kind of guy when it came to firearms and I'm the same way. And, being incorrigably lazy may play into it somehow.

In Soviet Russia, gun oils you!

Nothing like a little cosmoline if you're really worried about rust. That stuff can't be beat! But if you're really concerned about inhibiting rust, I think the environment your gun is in matters a whole lot more than what's on your gun.

Moisture is definitely the enemy, and oil provides a barrier from the moisture, but even more effective than a barrier would be to eliminate the problem source altogether. If your storage environment isn't naturally maintained pretty dry, a good dehumidifier would probably be a better bet than oiling at set intervals.

wait.... so you guys take your guns out that havnt been used... to clean them...

OCD much