I realize that proper care goes a long way in preventing rust etc. My go to gun in bad weather is a stainless /synthetic marlin 22 mag. One day I was going down the riverbank and slipped, it was raining and slick, spotty snow on the ground. I carry the gun muzzle down in those cases, and when I busted my rear sliding down, the muzzle rammed into the mud for 8-10 inches and then into the sand. When I got up the barrel was plugged, and sand all over. I removed the magazine, unloaded it, hung it upside down from the sling in a riffle in the river for a few minutes. I cut a willow switch and used it as a ramrod to dig the dirt out of the barrel to make sure it was unplugged and then put the gun underwater and sucked water through the barrel until it looked clean. Put a cartridge in and fired one, no problem, back in action. Spent the rest of the day in the field, not on an hour plus round trip back into the house. The gun sat in a corner for 2 days until I had time to get to it, I washed it out with very hot water, let it dry, sprayed WD40 copiously over everything, and hung it in the rack. Things like that happen not infrequently. I could see myself sticking a completely stainless handi action in top rack dishwasher if it had sand etc in it. My blued ones.... not so much. I have noticed very tiny rust particles here and there on some barrel surfaces, even though I wipe them down occasionally even when just setting in the rack. Not on my old winchester or browning though. I dont expect the blue job to be comparable, just getting suggestions on what is better than wd40.
