I recently rust blued a barrel from a Parker Trojan and ran into some pretty bad corrosion on the exterior of the barrels near the muzzle when water from between the ribs leaked out during shipment. After rust blueing I was trying to reinstall the front sight and I snapped the post off in the rib. I couldn't get it out so I wrapped the barrel in bubble wrap, placed it in a section of 4" diameter PVC pipe with end caps and sent it off to the gunsmith that does my barrel work. The gunsmith got the post out and installed a new sight, repackaged it in the same bubble wrap and the PVC pipe and sent it back within just a couple days.
When I got it back I opened the package and to my surprise the area around the sight and the first 2 inches of both muzzles was badly corroded to the point where I had to refinish the barrels again. There was no sign of any moisture that leaked from the outside of the package in. My first thought was that the gunsmith got some liquid on the end of the barrel and then package it but after talking to him we agreed that some water got between the ribs during rust blueing and leaked out past the new sight during shipment back since the sight thread was not sealed.
So, I redid the rust blue job yesterday. I was going to put a solution of soda ash between the ribs by using a syringe and putting it through the sight hole but can't seem to get it to drain in. As of now I have the sight out and the barrel sitting muzzle down in front of a dehumidifier going full blast. I'm hoping to pull any moisture out to prevent corrosion.
One other thing. On the bottom rib there is a small round circle about the size of a small pea that looks like solder. It didn't take the blueing at all. It's silver colored and very shiney. Is this solder? Was this used to drain water in the past? Should I drill a hole through here to get the solution of soda ash in and then resolder?
Any suggestions?
This is only the second barrel I have rust blued and it came out perfect the first time. Needless to say, I was not happy when I opened the package and saw the rust and corrosion. The second rust blueing also came out pretty good and I am hoping it stays that way for a while. It sure does take a long time to do this.
