I went out for 3 days in the western Wa area hunting bear and now the Bullberry steel base and 4 Burris Z rings are totally covered in rust. The barrel is a 35 whelen AI and has eaten a few scopes but seems to be tamed with this setup so are there any alternatives to steel for HARD recoilers?

Have the rings and base duracoated, or black teflon.

Hard Chrome?

KYODE??? you know more about this than I do, what do you think of it?

i'd try a weaver base and leupold rifleman vertical split rings for a rust free aluminum setup. probably be cheaper than shipping off for a coating, and pretty good rep for considerable recoil. duracoat and metaloy hard chrome(same as SSK krome) are at least 2 coatings that would work if you had to stay with steel. plus there are probably others.......

http://www.originalmetaloy.com/

Should have protected the metal at the start. A good coat of paste wax works wonders as does Birchwood-Casey Sheath or Barricade. Gun oil does not cut it.
LPS-3 will keep steel like new.
Surface rust can be removed with 0000 steel wool and Hoppe's and in most cases the blue is not harmed unless the steel has pitted. Blue is only rust anyway.

I started out with a aluminum weaver type base but kept having failures not sure if it was the base, rings, scope or combo of all. I did call JDJ and he said he would install a aluminum T'SOB base w/3 rings that would hold up and not rust so I may have to go that route.

As 430 man says, the paste wax works.....

I use a product called Boeshield that was originally developed by Boeing for aerospace use. It is sold commercially by Brownell's. It leaves a dry film that protects against rust. I used this on a blued steel SAKO .375 H & H when hunting from a boat for bear in Alaska a few years ago. After a week of salt spray-no rust. I also use this on my SCUBA diving knives, and have no rust after a week in the Carribean. Birchwood-Casey "Sheath" also works well, and is available in single use wipes that are individually packed. Try using a little WD-40 with the steel wool for rust removal.

thanks for the feedback.

May want to look at this process??

http://www.burlingtoneng.com/melonite.html

Here is how it compares Corrosion wise--Looks very good

http://www.burlingtoneng.com/corrosion_resistance.html

It basicly will never wear out