Dead rust spots and polishing marks on stainless 4506 mags

[marcus99]

Some older 4506 orange follower mags I acquired had active rust spots. I removed them using 3M scotchbrite handpads equivalent to 00 and 0000 steel wool, soaked in Kroil. The active rust is gone and only dead rust spots remain. Unfortunately scrubbing the rust away left behind abrasive polishing marks too. See below, I specifically took the photos at the worst possible angle to demonstrate what I’m referring to. Any recommendations for how I can further buff these (dead rust spots & polishing marks) out to make them less noticeable?

 

[Racer X]

next step is oiled OOOO equivalent scotchbrite and do the entire mag. Or use it as a range mag.

 

[Alk8944]

The only thing to do is polish the entire magazine, lengthwise. Or it could be glass beaded with very fine grit. The issue with this is once done wear from using the magazine will be apparent quickly. You can do nothing about the residual rust in the pitting except for beading. Fortunately you are only dealing with cosmetics, not functionality of the magazines.

For future reference "Scotch Bright" is not equivalent to "steel" wool, which is actually soft iron. No matter the grit or color of Scotch Bright it is an abrasive, in short, sandpaper. Unless you intend to remove the finish from a gun do not use Scotch Brite.

If you don't already know, do not use Scotch Bright on glass either.

 

[chief38]

If this were mine I'd take the magazines apart, use fine grit sandpaper and work up to very fine sandpaper. I have had great success using Gray (very fine) Scotchbrite for a final finish. As stated above, always and only go in the long direction (top to bottom). The pitting is deep and so I do not think it will be completely removed, however at least it will not be as obvious.

After getting the finish to where you can live with it, clean out all the grit and debris form the inside, spring and outside. Oil the parts and only leave a thin coat of oil behind.

BTW, when removing rust or refinishing, always go in the way the metals grain is oriented. In the case of a magazine, top to bottom is the correct way - never across the width. To minimize rust reoccurring, get the final finish to something relatively very fine. This will minimize crevices for rust to start in. Always keep them lightly oiled when not being used or carried.

 

[stansdds]

Wow! That looks like rust pitting. It takes quite a bit of neglect to get stainless to pit. With pits, you are not going to get them out and if you sand the rest of the magazine down to the deepest pit, you will have a very flexible magazine body. Given the condition of that magazine and that it will never look like a factory mag again, I'd media blast it. A matte finish will help to make the pitting less obvious.

 

[marcus99]

Thanks all. Yes I’m aware 3M scotchbrite handpads are abbrasive, even the finest white one. However there wasn’t much choice. The rust was active and as you can see from the dead residue rust it was pretty bad. I do have another 4506 mag just like this however that I haven’t worked over with the 3M pads yet, so if anyone has an alternative suggestion I’m open to it.

These will be range mags on the rare occasions that I shoot my 4506s or 645. I have plenty others in much nicer condition for storing with the guns and their original boxes & paperwork. Having said that, 4506 mags aren’t exactly cheap nor plentiful anymore, so I’d like to preserve these as best I reasonably can.

It takes quite a bit of neglect to get stainless to pit.

I’ve seen a fair number of comments to this extent when it comes to S&W stainless mags, but my experience has been a little different. I got into 2nd and 3rd gens last summer, since then I’ve been amassing a collection of mags to support my growing collection. I’ve acquired mags from at least a dozen different sources from all over the country. The above are definitely the worst, but I’d estimate about 25% had spots of rust to varying extents. All were spots, perhaps very minor pitting, but none (including the above) exhibited signs of heavy carrying nor abuse. Which lead me to tentatively conclude that these mags rust fairly easily compared to other mags.

 

[Sevens]

I just have -NOT- experienced what you just said. My first S&W magazines came to me in 1995 with my S&W 1006. I've been amassing them ever since and from all sources. I've got single and double stack 9 mags, double stack .40 mags, lots of .45 mags in every style they've made (645, 745, 4506, 945) and of course a slew of 10mm mags and I just do not find rust like you've shown and reported.

My guess would be not so much that the magazines sat somewhere and began to decay... I would guess they were laying up against something for years and that something was under full bore decay and the magazines fell victim to that decay.

As to comparing S&W stainless mags to other mags on the market for their ability to avoid rust and decay?! Nowhere close, current production Sig magazines have an exceptionally awful finish that will rust if you carry IWB. Ruger magazines aren't much better.

You've shown something very interesting and irrationally rare.

 

[stansdds]

I have several 5906, 6906, 645, and 4506 magazines, bought used, zero rust on any of them. I have a couple of 39-2 magazines that have some rust spots, but they are blued carbon steel and prone to rusting if neglected.

 

[hemiram]

I have a lot of old S&W 5906, 4506, and a few old 6906 mags. None have any rusting on them at all. All were bought used or they came with police trade in guns. All I did was replace a lot of falling apart followers and wipe them off with CLP back when I got them. After that, they mostly just got wiped off with a terry towel.

 

[Racer X]

I just have -NOT- experienced what you just said. My first S&W magazines came to me in 1995 with my S&W 1006. I've been amassing them ever since and from all sources. I've got single and double stack 9 mags, double stack .40 mags, lots of .45 mags in every style they've made (645, 745, 4506, 945) and of course a slew of 10mm mags and I just do not find rust like you've shown and reported.

My guess would be not so much that the magazines sat somewhere and began to decay... I would guess they were laying up against something for years and that something was under full bore decay and the magazines fell victim to that decay.

As to comparing S&W stainless mags to other mags on the market for their ability to avoid rust and decay?! Nowhere close, current production Sig magazines have an exceptionally awful finish that will rust if you carry IWB. Ruger magazines aren't much better.

You've shown something very interesting and irrationally rare.

Ruger went from actual stainless magazine bodies to electro-less nickel plate.