Welcome back blackbear,

There should me no aluminum on your gun. I think we bought ours about the same time this year. This is what I have done to my Merkel double I took rubbing aclohol and cleaned the exterior of all oil and grease. The applied gun wax (waxlene) over the entire surface, wood and metal - several layers. After each time I shoot it take a gun cloth and soaked it in silicon spay and wipe it down. This will sorta waterproof it without the problems of oil. The metal parts are hardened steel and will turn greyish over time. Don't try to polish this out.

Finally, never oil anything on you gun. Use gun grease; I use brileys choke tube grease as it has very high viscosity.

This is where I might get in touble and am willing to take advice. Don't even try to oil the action, you'll probably over oil it. This is what I plan to do with mine. Shoot it untill it breaks, then send to merkel to be fixed, period. I have heard of people recomending putting a drop of singer oil on each trigger and letting it work in. Problem there is, if the action has been greased at the factory, the oil will desolve the grease and wear will happen. I will probably send it to merkel to be torn down, cleaned relubed and freshend up every five years.

B.