Rust forms extremely quickly in a rifle barrel and is probably the most insidious affect of being out in the rain. But it is also the easiest to fix. When you get home or back to camp, wipe down your rifle, punch the bore, and that's the end of it. Now, it's what you can't see that will hurt you. If there's moisture in the air, stainless steel metal and synthetic stocks are the way to go. Rust can form in a matter of hours in the nooks and crannies of blued carbon steel--under the barrel channel, around the bolt, in the magazine box, any place you haven't looked.

The same moisture, given a bit more time, will do nasty things to wooden gunstocks. Cosmetics are the least of it, but I've had several really nice walnut stocks bleached white after a few wet days. More insidious is swelling, which, if it's in the barrel channel, will quickly alter accuracy.

Many years ago I had a Savage 110 in 7mm Remington Magnum, the first left-handed rifle I ever owned. Like most Savage rifles, it was wonderfully accurate, but the barrel channel was unsealed and a bit too tight. I got it really wet on a caribou hunt, and it shifted right nearly a foot because of pressure on the barrel. It became the first rifle I ever owned with a synthetic stock.

When my uncle wrote "Let It Rain" there were a few stainless steel barrels out there, but the rustproof metal finishes and synthetic stocks so common today were unheard of. If you live in or are going into rainy country, there is simply no question: Stainless and synthetic are the way to go. Add good scope covers, and tape the barrel.

There have been many times when I've followed my advice and many times when I haven't. Most of the time a good cleaning has fixed my folly but not always. In 1997 I took a beautiful .416 Rigby, one of the last London-made Rigby rifles, on a forest hunt in Central Africa. I got my bongo at midday on the tenth day of the hunt, and then it began to rain. It rained in torrents all through the afternoon and into the evening, and when we finally got back to camp at midnight I'm not sure I'd ever been so wet for so long.

I oiled the rifle before I went to sleep, but mild rust was the least of my problems. By the morning the stock had swollen and split at the pistol grip, not so badly that I couldn't get through the safari but badly enough that an irreplaceable piece of English walnut was useless. Yeah, I still take nice rifles in bad places, but when it's wet I try to keep with stainless, synthetic and a thin strip of electrician's tape.