[SGL]

Hello All,

I have been looking at this website for a long time, and I even came here to find more out about the KSG before I bought one about four months ago. I have only fired the shotgun once (but I put 70 rounds through it) because there are not any shooting ranges near me that allow shotguns. I have disassembled the KSG regularly to properly clean and oil the firearm. Each time I have noticed a brown/rust colored substance/stain on the CTG Stop Accuator. At first, I thought it was simply grease, as some has come off at times and I have heard the KSG magazine tube is coated with a brown colored grease. Also, I know other companies like Glock have "rust" colored grease placed on certain points of their handguns when they ship from the factory. I have no other issues. I have attached pictures.

Has anyone else seen this? Know what it is? Any help is much appreciated.

 

[TonyN]

looks like they did a bad job on the coating and if it is what I think it is then it is steel and that is rust.

 

[SGL]

Thanks for the info. If anyone else has any ideas please feel free to share.

 

[jonnin]

Its your gun, in-hand? It should be easy to tell. If its rust, it will be rough to the touch, or you can give it the old "cotton test" with a q-tip. If it comes away dry with red dust and snags on it leaving cotton strings behind, its rust. If it comes away greasy, its grease.

If it is just surface rust, you can handle that by removing it and applying some sort of protection. If its deeply pitted and flaking, you may need a new part.

 

[SGL]

Thanks. I am a bit new to having to spot (and deal with) possible rust. Also new to the KSG in general.

I'll scrubbing it again and update, but it isn't rough textured, its smooth. Which is one of the reasons why I though it might be a stain instead of rust.

Also, since people are willing to help on this forum (thanks again by the way), how often do you all clean your magazine tubes? Also, how? I don't have the equipment to take off the mag plugs, so I am curious if anyone has any advice.

 

[jonnin]

Rust can be smooth, if its very, very light (this is a good thing, if you have to have rust, this is the early stage and a good time to catch it!). Try to figure out what it is. I still advise running a q-tip or white rag or something over it, see what it looks like when it comes off. Then describe that here. Bad would be if it looks like dry dust. good would be if it just wipes off the metal and seems to be greasy.

 

[SGL]

Will do. Appreciate the help. Wont be able to update until Friday. I'll post then.

 

[SGL]

Was able to get to it tonight instead of Friday. I think both of you were right. It is coming off pretty easy with a q-tip and brush, which is weird because I tried scrubbing it off the other day and not much was happening. I am almost positive it is rust now because when it comes off the actuator it leaves behind bare or stained metal. TonyN is probably right, the coating was probably not applied correctly. I have contacted Kel-Tec to get them to replace per the warranty. I attached some better pictures. Thanks TonyN. Thanks jonnin.

 

[TonyN]

Just bad QC as I suspected, not enough coating and your getting the early stages of rust. That part is eady to take ofg so when you get the replacement part it won't be hard. While you are in there I suggest you Polish the actions/contact points of the gun to help it run smoother.

 

[SGL]

"offdcs"? Do you mean it would simply be easier to buy the part and replace it myself or by a gunsmith?

Also, it runs pretty smooth as is. Only FTC I had was when I first got it and I short-stroked it when I was getting used to its mechanics.

 

[CharlieB]

Personally...

For about ten bucks you can get some black GunKote from places like KGCoating, or Midway, etc etc.

Pull off the part. Clean it well, hit it with some phosphate (aka Naval Jelly) to derustfy the part, then coat it. Everybody needs a bit of phosphate around their abode anyway, and having some GunKote is a handy item too. After that the part won't rust no more and you've got a nice bonding relationship with your KSG.

 

[BlakeHanson]

Personally...

For about ten bucks you can get some black GunKote from places like KGCoating, or Midway, etc etc.

Pull off the part. Clean it well, hit it with some phosphate (aka Naval Jelly) to derustfy the part, then coat it. Everybody needs a bit of phosphate around their abode anyway, and having some GunKote is a handy item too. After that the part won't rust no more and you've got a nice bonding relationship with your KSG.

That's better advice than mine.
I'd just smear some 3%-5% molysulfide grease on it with a q-tip and move on. It wouldn't rust anymore until your grand-kids are grown.
Spend time finding a local "Sporting Clays" club to invade instead.

 

[SGL]

That might be better idea than sending it back to Kel-Tec for repairs. I made a "ticket" in their system last week and they haven't got back to me yet, even though it said I would only have to wait a day for a response. Is that part relatively easy to replace? If not, I might just take to a smith. Never worked with naval jelly, will that remove the finish off the part?

 

[TonyN]

"offdcs"? Do you mean it would simply be easier to buy the part and replace it myself or by a gunsmith?

Also, it runs pretty smooth as is. Only FTC I had was when I first got it and I short-stroked it when I was getting used to its mechanics.

Sorry, I should have proof read my reply before going to bed. What I ment was that part is very easy to replace if you watch some of the tutorial and while the gun is apart I would suggest polishing up the contact points laid out in other post on here, it will help smooth out the racking. If you Polish up the ejector then it will help with feeding and ejection also. Look for "Bubba notch" and you will see what others have done.

 

[TonyN]

Just some of the things I have done to smooth out the action of the gun. The casting is very rough from the factory and you can see this once you take the gun apart, polishing up the action and contact point will make it that much smoother, other high end shotguns like my Baretta Semiautomatic outlander is very smooth from the factory because they are polished from the factory.

 

[TonyN]

http://www.thektog.org/forum/f92/getting-ready-modify-plastic-slide-rail-my-ksg-259455/index3.html

First 3 pages has lots of good info in how and where to clean up some of the interference

 

[SGL]

Update: Kel-Tec got back to me and is just going to ship me the CTG without charge. I was almost hoping they would do that considering it is only $8. Any advice on the actual replacement process? Is it easy?

Thanks for the pictures and suggestions for bubba notch, but I don't have the tools to carve out something like that right now. I'll keep it in mind though.

 

[CharlieB]

That's better advice than mine.
I'd just smear some 3%-5% molysulfide grease on it with a q-tip and move on. It wouldn't rust anymore until your grand-kids are grown.
Spend time finding a local "Sporting Clays" club to invade instead.

The anal retentive part of me would never rest knowing there was still rust under the moly-d!

 

[CharlieB]

Never worked with naval jelly, will that remove the finish off the part?

It will remove oxide finish (bluing). It will remove rust. It will leave a thin phosphate coat, not really a finish. It will also very lightly etch metal, but on that part you'd never see the etching. Only seen on mirror bright metal.

Its basically "jellied phosphoric acid" at a low, low concentration. Its been lawyer'd down over the years. Used to work on heavy rust in minutes, now its more like light rust in tens of minutes.

GunKote - clean part, preheat if desired. Apply GunKote in thin layer. Bake for an hour at 350F. Repeat with another light coat. Done. Parts like slides or slide stops and such, I give a third coat.

I did up a Ruger 10/22 in royal blue GunKote, and put a blue/grey/black laminated stock on it with a dark stainless Clark barrel (with the hammer forging marks left on the outside!). Not quite ready to shoot, as it needs a Kidd trigger for completion, and I need to use some stainless filled Accraglass to mate the barrel to the receiver. Just a work in progress, but... that GunKote sure is pretty.

 

[jonnin]

Can't remember if N-jelly eats plastics or other things too, but it goes without saying that when using destructive cleaning compounds, take it apart first and clean only what is needing it.