It’s important to understand that not all hunters prefer making the long-shot with an AR rifle and still use bolt action or low magazine capacity high-caliber rifles with various choices of wood or polymer buttstock and forend, optic systems rifled barrels. You’ll want to consider the finish on your rifle, the material of the barrel and parts, as well as your maintenance practices.
Types of Finishes
Anodized Type III Hard Coating
For most who typically use an AR15 platform rifle on their hunting trips protecting an upper receiver or lower receiver and barrel means providing the gun a thorough cleaning before and after a hunt. The main reason for this is that most of the AR15 rifles, parts, and accessories come from the factories with Type III Anodized coatings. To a DIY AR15 builder, this means the finished product will be as tough as nails, resistant to most atmospheric conditions, and compatible with most adhesives.
Cerakote Finish
While a Cerakote Finish is relatively simple to apply, it does require a few additional steps other than just applying it yourself. You’ll need to completely disassemble your rifle, sandblast each piece, or use liquid sandblast products such as Eastwood Dustless Liquid Media Blaster to ensure your rifle parts have the correct mechanical profile to ensure proper bonding.
Then you’ll need to bake each piece for several hours to ensure the Cerakote finish bonds properly. Although the process is simple, it requires patience and the right equipment and skill to get it right.
Lamination
Most laminated stocks and forend handle the elements easily and are as solid and hard as rocks. In the early days of laminated wood, most companies glued large slabs together, and the stock and forend were then shaped, sanded, and polished to give the rifle a very appealing finish.
These days, the laminations are extremely thin and soaked in epoxy solutions to create the same appealing finish and protect the stock and forend from even the harshest elements.
Types of Materials
Polymer
Another option that works exceptionally well and withstands most degrees of harsh elements is replacing the stock and forend with a synthetic polymer. You will not only up the life span of the rifle, but you’ll also lessen the weight considerably.
Suppose you’re a die-hard fan of wood stocks and forend and are looking for a middle ground solution that allows you to keep the historical legacy of the rifle. If that’s the case, consider laminated stocks and forend.
Wood
While wood stocks and forend make an attractive rifle for the die-hard traditional hunter, even the best-made stocks and forend on the market can succumb to harsh weather conditions if you don’t routinely maintain them.
There are differing views on the best way to preserve rifles with wood stocks and forend, such as coating all the exposed wood with a sealant, including any instances of end grain.
The problem with wood is that the buttstock or forend may degrade over time, even with a healthy sealant coating.
Maintenance
Oil
Back in the day, the rule of thumb about gun oil was to use just enough to do the job but not too much because the oil was sure to gum up in cold weather operations and turn into sludge. Nowadays, most of the best gun oil products are synthetic, eliminating the need to apply oil sparingly.
One of the best products and approaches is to break your rifle down where all metal parts are exposed, then give each a heavy treatment of BreakFree LP Gun Oil.
Be sure to apply liberal amounts of BreakFree LP to every aspect of all metal parts, including every crease, and work the oil into even the smallest nook and crevice.
Let all the metal parts of your rifle sit overnight, wipe off the excess the next day, and then reassemble your rifle. Not only should this type of cleaning be added to your maintenance routine, but at the end of hunting season, it’s an essential step to take before returning your rifle to the gun case.
Using gun oil on bolt action rifles, pump-action shotguns, and even lever-operated guns has taken a paradigm shift in application since the arrival of the AR15. Most AR15 rifles thrive on ample supplies of gun lubrication and grease.
For example, the trigger systems of most conventional firearms have very little tolerance to oil, especially when subjected to extreme cold situations. The firing systems and triggers on most AR15 rifles, in contradiction, require copious amounts of oil and grease lubrication to function well.
Regardless of whether you consistently apply the right kind of synthetic oil and gun grease, cold weather and moisture-laden atmospheres will create significant amounts of sludge that could foul the action portions of your rifle.
Before you clean and lubricate your rifle, consider de-sludging all the moving parts with a can of Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber and give them all a good bath.
While you will want to keep your hunting rifles free of sludge, dirt, and grime with routine cleanings, you’ll also need to consider a few more steps to keep your hunting rifles protected.
Harsh marine saltwater atmospheric conditions or when hunting in near-freezing conditions and snow can wreak havoc not only with the external finish of your rifle but can degrade the internal operating parts to the degree your rifle becomes unusable.
Ammunition
This one may be a little challenging as market prices for ammunition have been on an escalator trip to the top floor, but it’s worth mentioning. Any round and any caliber of ballistic that uses potassium chlorate, or sodium chloride primers will pepper the internal operation of your rifle clog up your barrel with highly caustic material.
The chemical salts produced from firing ammunition with these types of primers will coat your rifle’s insides and exterior and are solid magnets for attracting moisture and splotches of rust.
Conclusion
It stands to reason that cosmetic blemish of rust can destroy any aesthetic appeal of your rifle, especially if you’re hoping to sell it and upgrade with another gun. Exterior blemishes may not look attractive, but splotches of exterior rust probably won’t keep your rifle from functioning as you expect.
However, once rust begins to accumulate on the interior moving parts of your rifle, such as a bolt carrier group or trigger system, be prepared for a complete operational shutdown. Again, there are a few opinions on how to keep your rifle protected.
While some of your hunting friends may suggest having all the parts of your rifle blued to keep them safe, bluing will unfortunately not prevent rust from attacking both the exterior and interior of your rifle.
Protecting your rifles from the elements isn’t difficult, but it does require attention and a few bucks to apply Type III anodized or Cerakote finishes to your rifle.
When money is your primary focus, there are still a few things you can do to guarantee years of dependable service from your favored hunting gun.