I just got this 686+ 3 months ago and have been carrying it ever since. I guess it's the combination of sweat and rubber grips, but I'm getting rust under the grips. The pitting is light, but can be felt with a fingernail. I'm not anal about cleaning the gun, but I have been wiping it down about once a month.

What should I do to clean this up and stop/slow the rust? Wax?

As ugly as the stock grips are, they fit my hand and shoot pretty well so I'd like to keep them. My stainless model 67 with magnas didn't have this problem when I was carrying it before the 686. Should I switch to wood grips?

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629 686+ 586 67 10
M&P45

Some CLP, 0000 steel wool, and a lil elbow grease will knock that off. Afterwards, rub some CLP on those areas, wipe off the excess, clean the inside of those grips, also with CLP, and put them back on. About every other gun cleaning redo this and it should take care of the problem.

3 months, stainless, call Smith & Wesson

I have bought a few used cop guns in the past which wore the old wooden grips. They all had a lot of corrosion and pitting under the grips. Trust me, it's not the rubber. Moisture gets in there. I wax my guns -- both the guns and the insides of the grips. I also buy holsters with "sweat flaps" that get between my tee-shirt and the gun.

My first experience with this was after wearing a fairly new Model 60 on my hip for a few weeks of hiking in the Summer. When I finally pulled the gun out of the holster I could barely get the cylinder open for reloads. It was a mess.

Stainless is rust resistant, not rust proof.

If your grips suit you , please continue to use them. As noted include removing the grips and wipind down the grip frame into your maintainence regeme.

I'd clean it off as other have suggested, then give the parts under the grip a then coat of grease before putting the grip back on.

I've been waxing my firearms since I was a kid - which was a long time ago. I use whatever car wax is at hand, and usually apply at least 2 coats about every 6 months or so, and I've never had even a speck of rust on any of my firearms.

Regards,

Dave

Dylan I like those new factory grips but I have noticed on a couple new guns that the same issues happen, we have a sometimes humid climate up here and I am sure you do also in FL. Or even is you are located near the ocean with the salt air. I ended up changing to the wood grips as the stock rubber grips I believe to attract the moisture. Just my .02

Pete

A CCW should be cleaned more than monthly. In fact you should oil guns at least monthly that don't don't even leave the gun safe.

My sp101 gets a wipe down each week, and any day that I feel the gun was covered in sweat or exposed to dirt.
I remove the grips and clean underneath at least every other week.

You can contact S&W and see what they say, but in the future improve on that cleaning or it will occur again.

Dylan
Remove grips, soak grip frame in CLP, scrub area with brass or copper wool, wipe clean, repeat if needed. Finish with a good coat of silicon spray.

To keep this from happening again, wipe revolver down once a week, you can use a silicon cloth if you wish. Once a month remove grips and treat, as needed, with silicon spray.

Enjoy your new revolver.

That wouldn't be too practical for some collectors. I can't imagine digging out several hundred (or more) guns for a monthly wipe down. I use RIG grease for long term storage.

Don't use steel wool, use a copper or brass wool.
Steel wool will leave behind small particles that will cause rust.

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John

Pull the grips when you clean it once a week. This keeps my blued CCW in great shape as well as ready to go at all times.

If you're going to scrub with steel wool or bronze wool or whatever, make sure you do it very, very, very lightly so you don't make a mess of the finish. I had a similar issue with an old S&W 10-5 and some solvent and a few super light strokes with 0000 steel wool took care of the problem w/o causing me any regrets.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll pick up some steel wool or brass wool if I can find it.

For those of you saying to clean it once a week I think that's silly. A carry gun should be low maintenance and 100% dependable.

I've been using the Hoppe's cloths that have the wax in them on all of my guns that sit in the safe and they seem to go for months without a speck of rust. They are too slimey afterwards though for my carry 686. I just been wiping off the sweat marks on it at the end of the day with my t-shirt after I remove it from my holster. The mother's mag polish seems to gun the rest of the gun clean enough. The only spot I'm having a problem is under the grips. I might try a thick coating of paste wax under the grip or some grease. I've been using synthetic brake pad grease on my 1911s and it seems to stick for several months.

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629 686+ 586 67 10
M&P45

3M makes an adhesive clear film that is very durable, it's also used on rocker panels or dog-legs of cars and trucks to protect the paint from stone chips.
Maybe you can contour cut a few pieces to cover the area of concern. There is still 'steel' in stainless steel and those particles can rust, used to see it happen on stainless steel boat propellers occasionally, seems one way to eliminate was to highly polish the stainless but I don't think you want a real shiny CC gun

Karl

For longer term frame protection use a non-car wax.
Car wax is not intended for this type of use.

Buy a good wax like Johnson's Paste Wax, or the excellent Renaissance Museum Wax.
You can buy big yellow cans of Johnson's in most hardware stores, some grocery stores and Walmart's.

Apply a medium-thick coat of wax to the area covered by the grips and DON'T wipe it off. Allow to dry for 30 minutes and reinstall the grips.
If the grips are wood, you can wax them too, but NOT rubber grips. Wax is not good on rubber.

The coat of wax will seal the metal from moisture and prevent rust.
It lasts a good while so maintenance is not necessary that often.
Unlike grease or oil it won't soak into the wood or run off, and moisture leaking in won't wash it off.

I swore off Pachy's many years ago because of rust. In my particular cases the metal insert had poked through the rubber, scratched through the bluing and caused rust. This happened to me on a 1911 and a Revolver.

I no longer use any rubber grips and each and every time I shoot a gun the grips come off when being cleaned. Not only do I make sure there is nothing adverse going on under the grips, but it also keeps the grips from getting full of solvents and oils.

I use Rig #2 Oil which evaporates quickly and leaves a wax coating behind - protecting the metal under the grips and will NOT harm any grip material I have ever used. As suggested above, Renwax will also work but is just another step I choose not to do. The Rig #2 Oil has never let me down.

Don't know the grade of stainless in the revolvers, but look up crevice corrosion for a reference to what you may be seeing.

Stainless forms an oxide on the surface which prevents further corrosion. Remove that oxide and you remove the protection from the surface.

S&W firearms are not pure SS ( and there are many reasons for that )
If you carry a firearm against your body sweat can make its way under the grips and or into the action.
When salty sweat sits on a SS handguns surface for any extended period of time it will rust.
While rubber grips do not "Attract" sweat they will trap it under their surface ,

Options include changing your carry holster, carry method, removing the grips after carry use and wiping it down or coating the metal to block the moisture with the above mentioned ideas....

Back in the early 90's I began carrying a SS Walther PPK in an IWB holster wiping it down daily , After about 3 weeks I disassembled it and was shocked to find rusting trigger mechanics from the sweat that made its way into the action and sat there.

IMO if you use an IWB holster in a warm humid climate and do not remove the grips and spray the internals with a good penetrating oil daily to displace any sweat ...expect corrosion .

That might be the reason why you got rust dude.... I actually do carry, I carry everyday, you're going to get lint, dust, and in this part of the great state of TEXAS, sweat on your gun.

You say you wipe your guns down with that silicon cleaning cloth? Thats fine but what you're not cleaning is that little part just under your grips, you know, that little part where moisture collects that is now turning rusty, that is the part your cloth obviously didnt get...

What I would do, is to gently buff that area out with the most finest steel wool you can find. #0000 if you can find it and then wipe the entire gun down with Rem oil then reinstall the grips.

And if you really do carry this pistol daily, then yeah, clean it once a week and you should be fine.

I remember a VERY hot night in June of 1984 in NYC when the temp was still over 90 degrees at 11P. I was carrying IWB. The next morning, I found some tiny rust spots on the blued frame between the trigger guard and grips. Just from my perspiration.

It would not hurt to give any carry piece a daily gentle wipedown with a silicone cloth or an oily rag, as I do. Even if you pocket carry in the desert as I do, you will find a powdery dust on your piece that can be easily wiped off. It's not just a carry piece, it could be your life.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5%[1] chromium content by mass.

Stainless steel does not readily corrode, rust or stain with water as ordinary steel does. However, it is not fully stain-proof in low-oxygen, high-salinity, or poor air-circulation environments.[2] There are different grades and surface finishes of stainless steel to suit the environment the alloy must endure. Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and corrosion resistance are required.

Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium present. Unprotected carbon steel rusts readily when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film (the rust) is active and accelerates corrosion by forming more iron oxide; and, because of the greater volume of the iron oxide, this tends to flake and fall away. Stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to form a passive film of chromium oxide, which prevents further surface corrosion by blocking oxygen diffusion to the steel surface and blocks corrosion from spreading into the metal's internal structure, and, due to the similar size of the steel and oxide ions, they bond very strongly and remain attached to the surface.[3]

Passivation occurs only if the proportion of chromium is high enough and oxygen is present.

I have no idea what grade or percentage of Chromium S&W uses but I'd bet it's towards the lower end to keep galling to a minimum. I have seen minor surface rust on many many Smith Revolvers - usually under the grips or inside the gun. Remember there are also carbon steel parts inside a stainless gun". That's why they call it stainLESS and NOT stainPROOF Steel.

After removing the "rust" treat the area with a product like Birchwood Casey's Barricade (used to be called Sheath) this has a wax in it that stays on the metal and under the grip. A good grade of automotive paste wax will also stay put. I use Mother's California Gold pure Brazilian Carnauba paste wax, but even Johnson's Paste Floor wax will work !
Gary

My blued 1911 when sweat on would rust nightly if not attended to.

A weekly wipedown would be a reasonable minimum. It only takes a few minutes...

The B/C Barricade is good stuff! I kinda like the smell too!