Yesterday we ran the Miller rock trail here in Colorado.

Crossed one of the 'Streams' that was swollen from the recent rains and snowmelt. Water poured into the Jeep and soaked everything , including my 4" 686 and one of my 3" 65's.

The Jeep is fine, bedlined inside and has a snorkel.

I will change all the fluids and the dash did not get wet.

So a question for the sportsmen and LEO's - How to care for a stainless revolver after it gets completely soaked?

I know that stainless will still rust.

I pulled the grips and sideplates off of both of them, dried them off and blew out the lockwork with a computer air duster.

Then I pulled clean patches thru the bore and cylinder until dry.

Let them sit overnight to dry and then today wiped them down with break free CLP. Anything else I should do?

I would remove the grips, cock the hammer, and spray the lockwork down thoroughly with CLP or something similar, let it drain for a while, then blow it out with compressed air. Yes, you can remove the sideplate, but that's not absolutely necessary if you spray lube into it liberally because every last square mm will be coated.

You have pretty well covered it...blowing out the innards, drying, cleaning & lubing......I've got a 6" 28 that I bought back in 73, it has been my belt gun for many outdoor adventures, and has been rain drenched many times. I have a Ruger 45 LC SA that has been on my hip twice when I got dumped out of a canoe into a river & totally immersed. Neither rusted and both still ride the trails with me. Every duty weapon I have carried has been rain drenched and soaked at one time or another, just some TLC and they were fine.

Remove side plate, grips, remove cylinder/yoke assembly and disassemble. take lockwork out and clean. Then lube and reassemble.
Basically take it completely apart, clean it and put it back together with a little lube.

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Keep on Chooglin'

The best way I've found is to remove the grips, disassemble as far as possible...to at least the field strip level. Use a hair dryer or hand-held blow dryer to expose the parts and frame to hot dry air from the device. Parts should be heated to the "hot to the touch" level for a few minutes. This effectively drys all the water from the parts, including the holes and spring/plunger areas. After exposing to hot air, the parts should be re-lubricated and re-assembled. Water/moisture will remain on and in the parts....especially the subassemblies, if the parts aren't heated sufficiently to drive the water off.

If in the field, and alternative would be to field strip and lay the frame and parts in the direct sun for a few minutes. This heat will drive the moisture from the frame and internals.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

What snubbyfan said.

One little drop of water can remain if not taken completely apart.

I would take off the grips . Buy three or four pints of mineral oil and soak them . Then drip dry . My Seecamp gets wet a lot. This works well as any thing .

Jake

Years ago when I was young and dumb, I slipped in creek while
wade fishing. Was carrying my K-22, Blue, I went completely
under in 3' of water. I know it wasn't necessary but I took whole
gun apart. Cleaned whole thing in boiling water,then sprayed
until dripping with C-36 water displacer. Then took soft rag and wiped dry. Reassembled and oiled. It probably ended up cleaner
than it ever was. Grips didn't seem to be affected. I always use rig under grip panels, must have protected wood. I still have gun
with same grips and you can't tell I took it "swimming". I may
have over done cleaning but it made me feel better. I don't
carry my good wheel guns fishing since, use 422 lately.

I've soaked my 940 on many occasions. Generally only pull the sideplate and cylinder anymore, and let air dry with a light spray of oil before reassembly. Hasn't missed a lick yet and no signs of localized corrosion. Lots of wear on the outside, but looks new on the inside.


Photo's a few years old. but it hasn't gotten all that much uglier....

It also might be a good idea to remove the rear sight completely to get any water out from underneath and add some oil there. Just a thought

If you remove the stocks spray it with something like carb cleaner to remove the majority of the water and oil and then put it in an oven at 250 for a couple hours any water will boil off. No tempering will be affected at that low of temp. Nothing happens (steel tempering) till over 300f and revolver parts would need to get tempered at considerably higher temps in the first place. Springs temper at around 800. A very hard edged knife is tempered at 400f. The only things really hard in a revolver are the hammer and trigger. Regular bluing salts run at about 280f and don't effect temper.

Ouch. Thst is not easy on the eyes.

I've never soaked a handgun, but I have many a shotgun. I bring them home, stand them in the corner until they dry, spray in some WD-40, or something like it, and go hunting the next day.

I've never seen any rust, on or in my guns. And those guns were all blue.

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John 3:16 .

As mentioned above, this is one of the times WD40 is OK for a firearm, it is a water displacement lube. That being said after a good soaking in WD40 for say 24 hours, flush it out,blow some high pressure air through it and then apply, Break Free,Rem-Oil, or what ever your normal long term lube is. Had a couple soaked over the years and they are still rust free after the TLC listed above.

Actually looks great. Looks like it's been used for its intended purpose. .....for a long time

Another vote for WD-40. The WD stands for Water Displacement and that's what it's best at. It's not a very good penetrating or lubricating oil although it seems to get used often for these chores. I use Rem Oil or G96 for a gun oil and Kroil, PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench for a penetrant.

As soon as I could, I would take off the grips off and get as much water out as possible. If I had WD40, I'd spray it into the action to get rid of any moisture and prevent damage. Then when I had time, pop the side plate, clean and re-lube.

+1 , lots of folks bad mouth WD40, and it does have limitations, but I like it and use it alot.
I would take the grips off, hose it off with WD40, or even dunk it. Let it drip dry for awhile. Take it complete apart and clean and lube. CLP and Kroil are the ones I use the most.
If no WD40. I use to competely take apart and clean my competition 1911 in a pan of kerosene with a tooth brush a couple times a year to get the crud out of all the hard to reach places,, lube and reassemble.

Thanks for all the replies!

Grips were still off, pulled the side plates again. alsopulled the cylinders. Don't really want to disassemble the lockwork, so I used the blow dryer like armorer 951 suggested on both revolvers.

Did not see any more water come out but sprayed completely inside both guns with WD 40 anyway and soaked under the rear adjustable sight on the 686 with WD 40 as well.

Will let them sit a day or two and then blow out any remaining WD 40 and reassemble.

Don't want them ending up like this one I traded for!

Model 18-4 Left in a holster :(


Thanks again all!

Yeah, I call that, "honest wear."

I have used Mineral Spirits to clean my pistols by removing the grips and letting them soak in a coffee can of the stuff.

On breaking the pistols down, they are as clean as if I'd taken every part out and brushed it off with Hoppe's or CLP. If my pistol was dunked I'd do that ... if a can of spirits was available!

Would the protocol be the same for a blued gun? I fish a lot and may occasionally take a dunk

Along with the water may have come some gritty sediment so complete clean out of the tiny assemblies will be important as mentioned by Armorer951 such as spring plunger holes.

For future reference if anyone is unfortunate like this with an unexpected 'plunge' but wouldn't have access to clean up or disassemble the gun for a few days you could put the gun in a Ziploc bag full of water, yes full of water. Keeping the gun submersed will minimize the amount of oxygen present that would start corrosion. This is a trick I learned long ago with camera equipment, my repair guy said if it goes under then 'keep it under' until I can get it back to him

Also a bag of rice actually does a good job wicking moisture out of things like this too.
I am sure you will be fine with that gun, glad to hear the Jeep will be fine too.
Karl

My routine when I get dunked->
1) Remove grips and wipe down. Set grips aside to air dry for a couple day.
2) Spray revolver down with non-chlorinated brake cleaner. Re-oil as best I can until I get back to civilization.
3) Remove sideplate, spray down again with the non-chlorinated brake cleaned, and blow dry with the air compressor. Cylinder, parts and barrel too.
4) Inspect and re-oil to my satisfaction. See how the grips are doing. Grips air dry usually for a week. I have rubber Pachmayr or Hogue for most revolvers even if I don't use them.

I've fell in serious water 4 times while carrying a revolver. Every time the gun has fared better than me. Even the blued ones. And never Hoppes #9 on my blued guns.

Well, it's not plastic so just stick it in the oven at 215 degrees... all the water will just boil itself off...

Really though, it's not that hard. Take the grips off and hose it down good with Carb cleaner, Gun Scrubber, or WD40, wipe it off good, then give it some lube. Working guns get wet a lot.

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Plastic has no soul

Let me tell you a little story that happened to me.
It was the middle of April 2015 and I was flyfishing for Steelhead in Oak orchard N.Y. I like to carry my 3" m60 38 special in the front pocket of my waders when swatting at trout. I took one step foward and went to the tops of my waders, the gun got soaked. When I got home I took off the stocks and side plate to hose it down with WD-40. When I got the side plate off I discovered the hammer stud was broken. I sprayed the water out and the next day applied some white lithium greese and put it back togather.
I called S&W, told them what happened and they sent me the info to return the gun.
Fast foward to Friday, I go to the mail box and discover a sales quote for $121.94 to repair the broked stud. I called S&W to find out that my m60 manufactured in 1993 will not be covered under warranty due to "normal wear and tear".
I don't even know how long the stud was broken because it still operated and I don't remember the last time I had the sideplate off.

It took almost 8 weeks just to look at my gun and decide not to warranty it. From what I have been reading on the net (I don't believe everything) S&W workmanship is slipping, now customer service seems to slipping also. I have other S&W revolvers and really like all of them but this left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Any one had to deal with S&W customer service lately?

Mike

Sorry,,,, I don't want to hijack this thread.

Mike

That's a good reason to have a 686 over a 586.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

To my eye, there is a lot of beauty in that honest wear.

I dunked many a revolver in my time when running rivers and canoeing.
Remove the grips and lay it in a pan of some sorts and cover it with diesel fuel and allow to soak overnight. The diesel will get into every nook and cranny displacing the water.
Remove, wipe, and blow out the excess with a compressor.

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Tennessee

Now that's a S&W that has and does serve day in and day out!

She's a keeper...

Took my 686-3 swimming in the Colorado River one day 6-8 miles downriver from Kremmiling back in the 1990's. (My buddy Mike and me sucked at canoeing in pretty good rapids!)

Field dried as good as possible overnight. Fired the ol' gal the next day w/about 100 rounds. Water made exits in a lot of non structural places. Opened her up at home sveral days later with oil, hot air etc. She's only been open once again since.

Dead *** on accurate and no corrosion...

Alaska fly fishing procedure after dunking even a blued handgun (or long gun for that matter): Shake all the water out and off possible, dry with a cloth, take wood off, spray every opening and construction joint with WD-40 until whole firearm drips with the WD-40. Spray wood with WD-40 lightly and wipe off. Reassemble. Go home and take wood off again. Warm metal with a hair dryer until very warm to touch. Spray again with CLP or equivalent or soak in diesel (today, I would use Kroil). Warm again with hair dryer. Wipe off and reassemble. When possible, shoot until good and warm. This worked on my M 29, my Rem. 870 and a FN Mauser .308 Mountain Rifle. ............ Everything gets wet in Alaska.

And to update some more......today I would be using Renaissance Wax on everything including the wood. .........Forgot to add; While in Alaska back then in the mid '70s, the best water repellent I could find for the outside of my firearms was "Pledge" the furniture cleaning polish/wax. I discovered the use of "Lemon Pledge" on the plexiglas windshields of my airplanes and translated that into the use of regular Pledge on the outside of fine metals subject to snow and rain.

AT LAST, A LEGITIMATE USE FOR THAT CAN OF WD-40. I THINK THE OP HAS DONE A GOOD JOB. JUST RE-APPLY YOUR LUBE OF CHOICE ON THE BEARING SURFACES AND RE-ASSEMBLE. YOU SHOULD BE GOOD TO GO.

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.