Rusty Bolt Carrier

[rightisright]

So I was rummaging around in a box of (what I thought was) scope rings/parts in my basement and I came across an AR BCG. Don't remember how it got there. Is that a sign of early onset Alzheimer or a gun-related disease?

Anyhow, the carrier has some surface rust and slight pitting in places. The firing pin channel chrome surface is in fine shape. And the bolt seems fine. Ejector and extractor are "springy".

So I plan to hit the exterior of the carrier w. a little Naval Jelly. I assume that will take off the carrier's finish, too.

I don't have a bead blasting/parkerizing set up and don't plan on getting one. Would gun blue last on the carrier? Or should I not even worry about the finish and just keep it lubed?

[D5CAV]

I'd hit it with cold blue just so I don't have to watch it for rust as often. Yes, it will wear with use, but you can touch it up. Besides, if you are shooting and cleaning it , it won't rust

If the bolt doesn't fall out when you point it down, you should be fine.

If it's been sitting long enough to get rusty, you should disassemble, clean and lube the extractor

[rightisright]

Thanks. I've been meaning to get a bolt extractor/ejector tool to keep little bits from flying. Any one you recommend?

[D5CAV]

IIRC, I just put my thumb on the extractor and pushed out the pin with the firing pin. That's the habit I got into when cleaning M16s with my rich uncle's name stamped on them. I still do it that way.

I'm sure there are better ways to do this when cleaning expensive POFs, but someone else will have to chime in.

[randy]

IIRC, I just put my thumb on the extractor and pushed out the pin with the firing pin. That's the habit I got into when cleaning M16s with my rich uncle's name stamped on them. I still do it that way.

Yeah, that's the way I was trained to do it. I think we had the same uncle.

[rightisright]

If it's been sitting long enough to get rusty, you should disassemble, clean and lube the extractor

Good call. The extractor spring was rusty and had almost no spring to it. I ordered a BCM upgrade kit.

[Aesop]

You should be disassembling and lubing the extractor anytime you clean it after you've fired it, and anytime you're giving it a semi-annual lube job.


Rust never sleeps.

The M-16/AR-15 series was designed to be detail stripped for ordinary maintenance and cleaning using no tool except the tip of a round/cleaning rod section tip, at most.
Otherwise, just your boogerhooks alone will do fine, as thousands of GED graduates in several generations of Uncle's service can attest.

The geegaws sold to disassemble one for cleaning hail from the same provenance as most of the crap sold on the Golf Channel to tune up your golf game: they are primarily designed to separate a sucker and his money. (The only possible exception being the squeeze wrenches to remove handguards from M-4geries until the retaining ring spring gets a little bit broken in and easier to manipulate.) This is less of a problem on military rack-grade weapons that get taken down and re-assembled about 52 times a year, or more.

When it comes to completely assembling or disassembling one to parts piles, however, a number of jigs and such come in quite handy.
But unless you're building uppers and lowers, you can comfortably live an entire lifetime without so much as one, and never notice the lack.
Removing the extractor, extractor pin and extractor spring is considered normal operator maintenance; disassembling the bolt to the point of removing the ejector in the bolt face has crossed into armorer-level tasks, and certain jigs and tools will make your life easer at that point.

I wouldn't use anything harsher than Simple Green, a minimally/(non) abrasive green plastic pot scouring pad, and elbow grease, to take rust off (certainly not naval jelly!), and I'd put on a good Teflon-based lube to protect it after a thorough cleaning or three.
If you're still worried, have a pro hard chrome that sucker if you must. (Easier to clean and maintain, but shinier when the dust cover is open.)
Guys who shoot their irons a lot more use nothing more complicated than a good common automobile engine oil, and report performance that's absolutely spiffy, since it's expressly designed to reduce friction on hot metal moving parts cycling 5-10X faster than even an M-16 switched to Rock & Roll Happy Speed.

[rightisright]

I was thinking of something like this for complete bolt disassembly: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/231625 ... viewHeader But then again, do I really need to take out the ejector?

It's been sitting in a Hoppes bath for the past few days. The surface rust scrubbed off w. a bronze brush. I'll hit it w. some scouring pads before I resort to naval jelly.

You should be disassembling and lubing the extractor anytime you clean it after you've fired it, and anytime you're giving it a semi-annual lube job.

I'm not too anal about cleaning... after a few ranges sessions, I hit the barrel w. some CLP and a boresnake. Spray the BCG w. some brake cleaner then follow up w. a good lube. But yours is a good point. I have been neglecting my extractors.

[MarkD]

I get in trouble every time I say this, but I've had good luck using WD-40 as a rust remover, rust preventative, and solvent. NOT as a lubricant!

When my CMP Garand came the trigger group looked like someone wiped a cows ass with it, a spray of WD-40 dissolved all the old grease and crud with minimal effort, then I lubed it and away I went. I also have a buddy who's a machinist, his company makes dies for injection molding of plastic. They send a lot of stuff overseas, and they don't want to use a "heavier" rust preventative because they're not sure what solvents they may have to remove it, so they just spray stuff down with WD-40.

Let me put on my flame retardant underwear now.

[Denis]

I get in trouble every time I say this, but I've had good luck using WD-40 as a rust remover, rust preventative, and solvent. NOT as a lubricant!

WD40 is basically kerosene with some esters added to make it smell nice. No reason why it wouldn't work pretty well as a solvent and Water Displacer. Rust removal - well, the kerosene makes your abrasives slippery, so that works well. Rust prevention? Well, any oil is better than no oil for that. Certainly, if WD40 is what you have, use it and well wear! I always have a few cans of it round the place.

I made up a few gallons of Ed's Red years ago (equal parts of automatic transmission fluid, mineral spirits, kerosene and acetone, plus some lanolin), and it's still doing sterling service. Not as convenient as WD40, though, harder on the skin, and doesn't smell as nice either.