Spittin rain all day while bird hunting got me thinking-should stocks be removed from a gun when it gets rained on? Seems like quite a process and something ive never done, but was wondering hoe much water sneaks down in there between the stock and receiver. Ive never had one off-do they typically have some rust in there?
This was a nice over/under. I broke it down into three pieces , dried, and oiled the crap out of it.

Best way to clean a gun is strip it down.
If you have it waxed good before taking it out in bad weather a wipedown should be good until end of season.
Hunting seasons are normally very wet weather here.

You can probably find a disassembly/reassembly video on you tube.

Wet Gun? Spray it down with WD 40 (WD stands for water displacer) and let it set for a while. Then wipe the WD 40 off and oil down with regular gun oil.
Try to keep the WD out of the internals; trigger, bolt, safety etc. Makes a nasty gunky mess if allowed to build up.

I always take down a shotgun, but a deer rifle is postponed until season end. Sometimes when a rifle is removed from its stock then reinstalled (without a torque wrench), it’s point of impact might change. Shotgun is no problem.

What kind of shotgun? Not that it really matters, but yeah, always strip your shotgun when it gets wet. Heck when we hunted saltwater I’d take mine in the shower or rinse it off in the fresh as soon as we got back to fresh water. That’s one thing I love about Benelli’s…even a kid can field strip one.

I wouldn't take the buttstock off it. Break it down, wipe it down and lightly oil it. Store it muzzle down. There's always the temptation to oil the firing pins and triggers. Good idea of course but over time the oil leaches into the head of the stock and also gums up the works. Oil lightly.

I just lean mine near the woodstove and then oil it the next day or so, never had an issue no matter how soaked the gun was...................

Just watched a u-tube about oiling guns. Guy's handle on there is GunBlue490. He was an armorer for several factories ,says the only thing he uses is food grade mineral oil on stock and metal. Grease on any internals that need lubed , says he never uses oil..

I thought you meant when you lose them in a boating accident!

Its a Browning Citori.

I do exactly what victor#0 does... works for me.

An O/U? Break it down completely and dry it out.

Makes sense. I've heard that a lot of gun oils use mineral oil as a base. And mineral oil is a petroleum base anyway so why not. Anything you can put on the finish to keep a gun from rusting is good enough. I've heard of people using Johnsons' Paste Wax, good for the stock and the metal too.

When you say break it down, are you talking take all wood off too or just forearm and barrels like Ive done?

All my double guns have had the stocks taken off and the fore end metal removed. Quite often you will find the end grain on them has not had any finish applied after they have had the final fitting to the metal. If they have had some finish applied it is never as good a coating as the rest of the stocks. Because it is end grain it takes a lot more to soak in. This also applies to pumps and autos. I coat the end grain with several coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-oil. My crap weather gun is a Remington 1100 Competion Synthetic so I don't worry too much about water seepage. Though I did take off the butt and add a light smear of grease when I got it, even though it's a "plastic" stock. I also use Johnson's on the wood stocks. If you have a stock cut to add a recoil pad I can almost guarentee no finish was added to the fresh end grain.

My only concern is the OP said his gun is a Browning Citori. For some years Browning was in a hurry for stocks. They started using wood that was put through a salt process to draw the moisture content of the wood down so they could start making stocks sooner. It was seen as a cost cutting measure. It caused all kinds of rust problems as the salt could never be completely drawn out. These guns are rather common and are known as salt wood guns. They are to be avoided. Just another reason why a Browning will never see the inside of my gun room much less my safes.

'The Cree who hunt geese for groceries on the saltwater flats of Hannah bay rub their guns down with goose grease.
That is even better than wax for those conditions.

Never heard that about Browning. Any idea what the years were? Mine is a 1991.

The Browning salt guns were made in Belgium during the late 60s and early 70s. Mostly shotguns but some rifles as well. Never heard of salt wood in a Citori.

Pete

My favorite rifle is a Browning "Hells Canyon .243 Speed " super accurate and easy to hold .