Several years ago I made the decision to purchase a Ruger Compact for stalking and up close thick woods hunting. When I got the first thing I did was pull the barreled action and apply multiple coats of Johnson's Paste Wax to the whole of the stock and all metal I could polish it off of.
Since then I did have the stock painted camo, but I still pull the metal out once a year and reapply the wax to it all after hunting season. It has held up well through several years of hunting and when it rains on it, is simply beads right off. Most times I simply shake it off real good and hang it muzzle down by the strap to dry. I cannot say how well it would hold up in snow, as we rarely get it this far South, but it has endured hours of being rained on while still hunting and stalking, and even spent a couple of nights in the rack of my 4wheeler, out in the crappy conditions. Not intentionally but sometimes stuff happens when you got a big cleaning job.
Might not be the proper thing for the application, but it has worked fine for me.
