(MamaLiberty, this one is kinda for you, given the "so what are you wearing right now?" conversation from comments a few days ago.)
I can now confirm personally that the Kahr CW40 suffers nearly nothing from a ten-minute total immersion in 40-degree seawater; one small bloom of orange surface rust just inside the muzzle came off easily 12h later with a cleaning, and shows no signs of return yet. Nor does a Safepacker "un-holster" suffer from the same fate; it launders normally and should now be salt-free once again.
The gun's owner, by contrast, was much grumpier about the whole episode, mostly because he lost his new eyeglasses, and because he held up the kayaking group, with an unexpected roll in choppy water. (Apparently he felt the need to prove his noob cred in grand style.)
Of related interest: the kayak guide was understandably worried about the possibility of hypothermia, but fortunately the Wiggy jacket performed exactly as advertised, and to my considerable satisfaction the cold simply was not an issue. I suspect he figured out that I was exhibiting absolutely no signs, and was far more irritated than scared or compromised. I wrung myself out and was back in the water in what was probably less than half an hour. (I suspect he would have been far more freaked about the contents of the Safepacker, had he been even remotely aware of them. :-)
Helluva first-kayak-trip, really. Other than the loss of the glasses and the irritation of being caught off balance by an admittedly rough-conditions day, I'd say it was all win: lessons thoroughly learned and home in one piece!
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5 comments:
Mostly I'm irritated for not having thought of the possibility of losing the glasses in the first place. I mean: pistol, light and blade were perfectly accounted for, I had the performant jacket on, and hell, even my hat stayed on because of the chin strap. You'd think I'd have thought of keeping my eyewear with similar care, but apparently not. Sheesh. Sure, I'll probably never make that mistake again, but them things ain't cheap.
Hell, just to have worn my backup pair, with the old prescription, instead of the new one...Grr....
I'll have to look in to this Eezox stuff. I've been meaning to try "Frog Lube", about which I've been hearing a great deal of good things, and I'm still quite happy with the Tetra-Gun stuff I've been using back since that was new and fancy. Thanks for the heads-up.
Don't know why I didn't see that the "guy" who got dumped... was you! OOPS, sorry about that. :)
Yes, many life lessons like this are expensive. And life keeps handing us new ones all the time. It is certainly wise to think of everything we can imagine ahead of time, but our imagination (and sometimes even past lessons) occasionally fail us - thus, new lessons. Seems to me it's a win if we survive it, but the hurt (and expense) is not always trivial, by any means.
Had a gentleman at the range the other day who was complaining his carry gun was not feeding properly. Seems almost every other round was failing to extract, and we tried a good number of different kinds of ammo with the same problem. I noted that the gun seemed exceptionally dirty, so we broke it down and cleaned it seriously. He was telling me that he used this "frog lube" stuff, and I was not impressed. Gunky, sticky, and the stuff had attracted considerable amounts of dirt and lint.
Put it together again, this time only with the Eezox. Ran much better, but still had occasional extraction problems and I recommended he take it to a gunsmith. Then he said the gun had already had two new extractors, and he was fairly convinced the piece itself was a lemon. Now he tells me. LOL But he was impressed with how much better it ran and how clean the thing looked.
He will be looking to sell this junker (good luck if he discloses the problems) and wants to buy a better gun. I won't mention the brand he had, but he had an opportunity to fire both my XD .45 and the 9mm, and he enjoyed shooting them both very much.
Anyway, so far that's my only experience with the frog stuff, but I sure wouldn't buy any.
Some fellow did extensive testing of lubes in poor environments a while back, and Breakfree CLP did best for rust protection so that is what I used. I think Eezox came out well too. Might be able to find the study with some searching.
I have managed to get stainless guns to rust. It was a Keltec P11 in a sweaty IWB holster. Just surface rust though; came away easily.
Thank you both for the Eezox anecdotes. I'll definitely give it a try, especially if it turns out to be readily available up here.
Here's an example of some of the positive press I've seen about Frog Lube--which I'll now have to see about for myself. ML, I wonder if your gentleman may have committed the common blunder of grossly over-lubing his piece, which can certainly cause the grimy gummies with nearly anything.
"I wonder if your gentleman may have committed the common blunder of grossly over-lubing..."
Of course, but the point is that it is impossible to overdo it with Eezox, since it is a thin liquid that dries completely. There is no way for any excess to accumulate, far as I can see... and it is never sticky, tacky in any case. It can't attract and hold dirt.
CLP is great for many things, and I use it too. There are lots of great products, but I've found that the final lube and protection best for my guns and other fine equipment is Eezox. No waste, and a little goes a long way.
The one downside for Eezox is that it is not generally available locally, far as I can see. I've seen it at gun shows, and some gun smiths and gun shops carry it, but mostly available on line. I bought a 4 oz can several years ago, and am now about 3/4 into it, so need to start looking for more. Going to a gun show this weekend and hope I can find it, but will order on line if not.
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