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I remember that stage. Double rifles aren't target rifles, and I'm not a collector...so mine have been through the worst. After a while, I just quit worrying about it.

My medium bore in particular seems to draw heavy rain wherever I take it. I used to think that a bad soaking indicated a relatively quick complete strip and clean, but after doing that a few times, I realized different.

Hunting spring bear in Idaho back in '94, I got caught in the most violent, torrential thunderstorm I've ever experienced in my life. When the worst of it blew through, we were a couple of miles and on the other side of a mountain from the truck, running through a thick, mature forest. Having been through a number of hurricanes, I'd guess that the wind was gusting to 80 mph or more, and trees were falling all around us. The torrential rain was hitting hard enough to sting like hell, and our faces and hands were bright red from it afterward. The Evans got a thorough soaking, and not the first of the trip. I just wiped it down, and ran a couple dry patches through the bores. I had the next complete strip and clean done 6 years and numerous showers and thunderstorms later. Later that year I took it to Colorado on a mule deer/elk hunt. They'd had a bad drought that year that broke on opening day. I hunted with it through five straight days of heavy rain until I scored and went home. Of course, it's been rained on a number of times since. I finally had the next strip and clean done earlier this year, 7 years since the last. I watched over my gunmaker's shoulder as he pulled it apart. Everything inside is as pristine as the day it was made. An ex-India gun, it's 80 years old, and I can find no evidence of corrosion ever having formed anywhere in it or on it.

Lately, on a pro's suggestion, I've been smearing the metal with white lithium grease, letting it sit a bit, then wiping it off. He says white lithium bonds to the grain of the steel, protecting and lubricating even when it isn't visible, until removed with a solvent, such as WD-40. Dunno if that's true, but it seems to work as well as anything I've tried. I've used a couple of different waxes on the wood, but can't recommend anything in particular.

Sidelocks are certainly easier for the hunter to dry out, but for some reason, I see far more sidelocks with corrosion inside than I do boxlocks.

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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."