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I got a 7mm Mossberg from my Uncle a couple years ago who got it from my grandpa many years before that. When I received it the blueing was thin in areas and there was one spot on the barrel that was pitted and a few light rust spots. This last year i decided to reblue it myself with some Birchwood Casey metal refinisher. I went through each step very thoroughly starting with cleaning and degreasing, blue and rust remover, sanding, cleaned and degreased again, made sure it was completely clean and dry before starting the blueing and went through each of the bluing steps meticulously as well and in the end added the Birchwood Casey Rust Protection. It looked great, with its shiny dark blue coat, great as you could expect from a guy that just dove into his first blueing job! I was proud of my self! A week or so later rust started to appear... Did i do something wrong? Is the Birchwood Casey cold blue garbage? Now I'm wondering which direction to go with it, do i attempt to reblue again, get it cerakoted, or do i clean it up again and this time rattle can it?? Any thoughts or tips? Its just an old hunting rifle that will continue to be an old hunting rifle in wet and cold climates. Doesn't have to be crazy fancy, just not rusty!

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Cold blue does that at times....
I would take a rag with a little oil....rub the rust off the barrel....
Then hit the whole barrel again with cold blue....then after about an hour...lightly rub down the barrel with a rag that again has a little oil on it.
Andy
 
In my experience, cold blue will never approach the durability of a real gunsmith hot blue. Some work better than others, and there are some tricks to making it work OK. Like Andy said, try it again, and oil it when you're done.
 
I've never used cold blue for anything but random small touch up but followed up with a nice oil coat and have not had any rust issues. Maybe you either missed or slackened up on any requirement to neutralize the rust action, maybe a water rinse?. After a generous amount of oil has been on the part without rust for a week or so (I feel this is important), wipe it down and use a light coat if oil albeit I use Birchwood Casey gun stock wax on the part, it does a nice job of protecting blued metal parts for me. And wood too !

Slightly different, I have used Belgian Blue* to good success which may be somewhere between cold blue and traditional salt hot baths, but unfortunately does require a container big enough to provide continuous boiling water, carding with steel wool between applications. But even then, the part must be boiled for some time after reaching the color you want to stop (neutralize) the rust action (or in the next months it will turn a not unpleasant brown color) then generously oiling after, using steel wool.
After a week I then use the gunstock wax as stated above. Whatever process you use, the finished texture and or shine, can only mirror the finish of the bare steel you started with. (And oiling using steel wool is important component)
* original Herter's Belgian Blue formula, now owned by Art's Gun & Sport Shop is or was available from midway. Larry Potterfield has a video on bluing a barrel.
 
Thank you all for your input, I'll probably try what the consensus is here. Steel wool out the rust, re blue and coat it with a good oil. Somebody mentioned to me to sand it down good to bare metal, and rattle can the barrel with Rustoleum primer and black paint, is that a bad idea?
 
Got her all finished and i think it looks good! Thanks to all for your information. I probably could have gotten away just with what Joe13 said with the 0000 steel wool and oil but i went on and restarted back down to bare metal and redid the whole process again. This time around i did as thorborg suggested and oiled everything real good after i was finished and let it sit for about a week and came back and wiped it down and then applied a few coats of Birchwood Casey gun stock wax. Thanks again for the help!

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After the re-bluing, mainly you just need to keep a barrier going between the bare steel and the air, because moisture lives in the air. On my black powder stuff, I actually use a rag with some Bore Butter on it sometimes, (inside and out on the barrel) only because it hangs on to the steel a little better than just oil. But...I'm also old as dirt so you might not want to listen to me. :)
 

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