Sam Shade Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Alright Howdy Gentleman. I'm a western enthusiast. I believe that a man's sixgun is the epitome of holding onto a piece of the old ways. As such I saved up and bought my first single action six shooter, A .357 Ruger Vaquero(stainless). I've done a whole bunch of research but still need help understanding a few of the basics. 1. How do you polish the stainless steel? I bought some Rem wipes from Walmart, but have yet to open 'em. As I'd like some opinions first. 2. How can I protect the steel, or seal it? 3. Is Mothers Mag worth using? 4. I looked at a set of Buffalo Horn grips. Any opions as to the quality of these guys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korupt Karl Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Stainless Steel doesn't require a lot of maintenance. I guess my question is: Are you gonna shoot em or put em on display? I'm not tryin to be a smart a$$.....if you shoot em, clean em like you would a regular gun and wipe the gun with a cloth and you are ready to go. I know some guys will buff em and get me real purty, but that isn't necessary. KK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I. M. Crossdraw, SASS# 8321 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Alright Howdy Gentleman. I'm a western enthusiast. I believe that a man's sixgun is the epitome of holding onto a piece of the old ways. As such I saved up and bought my first single action six shooter, A .357 Ruger Vaquero(stainless). I've done a whole bunch of research but still need help understanding a few of the basics. 1. How do you polish the stainless steel? I bought some Rem wipes from Walmart, but have yet to open 'em. As I'd like some opinions first. Flitz polish. Anything more abrasive than this is a no, no. 2. How can I protect the steel, or seal it? No need to. Stainless steel is great. Wipe with oil rag will do fine. 3. Is Mothers Mag worth using? Not familiar with this, but probably you don't need it. 4. I looked at a set of Buffalo Horn grips. Any opions as to the quality of these guys? I use Eagle grips Buffalo Horn Gunfighter grips in all my six shooters. They are great. Overall, Stainless steel NRV is low maintenance. Just clean and oil. That's it. Shooting this NRV is fun, go out and shoot it, that's what it is for. Adios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I've had many a stainless gun (mostly Ruger) and just cleaned as normal be it high gloss or satin from the Ruger factory. As to............... 4. I looked at a set of Buffalo Horn grips. Any opions as to the quality of these guys? I've owned more than my share of these (Ajax mainly) and unless handled carefully, they tend to scratch so just be careful in their cleaning, but they are made of pretty tough stuff and will hold up well throughout their shooting life. Smithy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Shade Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Stainless Steel doesn't require a lot of maintenance. I guess my question is: Are you gonna shoot em or put em on display? I'm not tryin to be a smart a$$.....if you shoot em, clean em like you would a regular gun and wipe the gun with a cloth and you are ready to go. I know some guys will buff em and get me real purty, but that isn't necessary. KK Right on I appreciate the advice. I reckon I'll stick with basic maintenance, as I cannot help but shoot this gun I love so much! Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Harley, #14153 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I'm glad your mindset has shifted to shooting the gun and accepting the fact that there will be some signs of wear on the gun. It comes with the turf. I second the notion of using a Flitz cloth to clean your gun. It does a fabulous job of taking powder residue off stainless guns. Do not use on blued guns as it will take the blued finish off too. A friend of mine had a Redhawk, (a stainless double action pistol) that he cleaned exclusively with a Flitz. It did take on a mirror finish after a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Bandit Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Where abouts do you find these Flitz cloths? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Pony Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hoosier you should be able to pick up the cloths or a tube of the stuff at any good auto parts store or motorcycle dealer. Its been a std for cleaning chrome, like bike exhausts for a long time. You could also try simichrome as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck D. Law, SASS #62183 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Regarding the grips, take a look at this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Howdy I agree with the others, the whole intent behind Stainless steel is a steel which requires less maintenance. The military designation of what we call Stainless steel is Corrosion Resistant Steel. Often abbreviated as CRES. Notice the definition is resistance to corrosion. Not Corrosion Proof. Yes, treat it badly enough and Stainless steel will corrode (rust). There are many, many different alloys of Stainless, each formulated for different characteristics. The one Ruger uses is just about perfect for firearms. You have to treat it pretty badly to get it to corrode. Trust me on this, I shoot a lot of Black Powder, and my stainless Rugers have no corrosion at all. When it does show up, corrosion on Stainless may not look like rust, it is usually just a dark stain. But shooting Smokeless in a Ruger, you are never going to get that, no matter how infrequently you clean it. Stainless does not need to be sealed or anything because it is 'self healing'. The reason any steel corrodes is because it combines with oxygen to form iron oxide, or rust. The Chromium content of Stainless is what makes it self healing. An invisible layer of Chromium Oxide forms on the surface of Stainless steel and prevents atmospheric oxygen from reaching the steel. If you scratch it, the layer of Chromium Oxide forms again at the scratch, again protecting the steel, Pretty cool, huh? Yes, it will scratch, but if you carefully polish the scratch out, the Chromium Oxide layer will form again and you will get no corrosion. Not true with regular carbon steel. It rusts just fine. That's why the blue is there, to protect the steel from oxygen. If you try to polish out a scratch in a blued gun, you will polish away the blue, exposing more of the steel to the air. Enough lecture. I personally do not worry about a few scratches on my Stainless guns. I just leave them. They are signs of honest wear. One other thing though. When you have fired it with Smokeless ammo you will see dark rings form on the surface of the cylinder. That is natural, it always happens. The steel has been discolored by the high pressure gasses blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap. These rings are tougher to remove. They will hurt nothing. You can use a lot of elbow grease and fancy cleaning methods if you want the gun to look virginal again. Personally, I never bother about the carbon rings on the front of the cylinder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pulp, SASS#28319 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 You could treat the entire gun with SweetShooter. Good stuff, but expensive. It will help prevent the carbon rings Driftwood was referring to, and make it easier to clean them off. http://www.sweetshooter.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangler Jones, SASS # 64178 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 One other thing though. When you have fired it with Smokeless ammo you will see dark rings form on the surface of the cylinder. That is natural, it always happens. The steel has been discolored by the high pressure gasses blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap. These rings are tougher to remove. They will hurt nothing. You can use a lot of elbow grease and fancy cleaning methods if you want the gun to look virginal again. Personally, I never bother about the carbon rings on the front of the cylinder. I beg to disagree: I've found the cylinder face carbon rings remarkably easy to remove. Just shoot a box of black powder cartridges, and when you clean the gun, you will find that the rings will be gone, the cylinder face spotless. Most shooters, of course, don't want to fool with black powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Branch Louie Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I care for my stainless about like everybody else here. One note about polishing. I'm a toolmaker by trade, Rugers are far from "mirror" finished, and they need to stay that way. Remember, the more you polish something, the easier it is to scratch. If you use it, you will scratch it, and then try to polish out the scratch, and so on. They sorta look nickel out of the box, with fine suface scratches and toolmarks. Leave it and enjoy 'em. Mirror polishing is for safe queens.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 One other thing though. When you have fired it with Smokeless ammo you will see dark rings form on the surface of the cylinder. That is natural, it always happens. The steel has been discolored by the high pressure gasses blasted out of the barrel/cylinder gap. These rings are tougher to remove. They will hurt nothing. You can use a lot of elbow grease and fancy cleaning methods if you want the gun to look virginal again. Personally, I never bother about the carbon rings on the front of the cylinder. A pencil eraser will remove the cylinder face marks if they bother you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I beg to disagree: I've found the cylinder face carbon rings remarkably easy to remove. Just shoot a box of black powder cartridges, and when you clean the gun, you will find that the rings will be gone, the cylinder face spotless. Most shooters, of course, don't want to fool with black powder. You will notice that all my comments were about shooting Smokeless. None of my Cowboy pistols have any carbon rings on the fronts of their cylinders, because I only shoot them with Black Powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart Solo Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 You will notice that this group is all about using the Ruger, not looking at it. For us Ruger NMVs are tools and need to be properly maintained for their safe and reliable use as tools. A little honest wear from a holster or shooting is expected and appreciated. Some, but not many, of the guys and gals have safe queens they pull out every few months to admire, but the guns they admire usually have the name Colt, and are usually older guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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