How should i store my guns (4 years)?

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rugerdude

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I did a quick search and didn't pull anything up so here goes.

I'm shipping out to boot camp in a few days and I'm putting my guns away because my father won't use them. I have an 8-gun locker and several hard cases. Will simply oiling the finish on the guns and storing them in the locker or their hard case prevent them from rusting for very long periods of time?

I really don't have the money for a proper safe so if theres anything I should buy to help prevent rust, it needs to be pretty cheap.

Thanks in advance.
 
I've heard that the foam in cases can hold moisture and cause rust, but I don't leave mine in long enough to know if that's true.

If you oil them well and store them in the locker I think they will be ok.

Would your dad be comfortable re-oiling them once a year or every 6 months? That should be plenty.
 
"RIG" has worked well for me, use a toothbrush to get it into the nooks and tight spots, a thin coat on the exterior metal surfaces will suffice. I'd store in the locker and not in the hardshell foam cases, and I would have the locker in a dry, temp. controlled place in the house, perhaps in a closet. Avoid attic or basement storage.

Best of luck to you as you start your military career.
 
It depends alot on what the climate is like where you live. Any where w/ high humidity, I'd reccomend using a dessicant of some sort. You buy cans that work pretty well at most storage places.
 
For as long as you are going to store them, the thicker the better for rust protection. Make sure you get it down the barrel really well too. RIG is good.
 
Midway, or Natchezs should carry Cosmoline, I have seen it SOMEWHERE. Pull the grips/stocks and paint EVERY INCH, inside, and out, with it. They will be good 100 years from now. DON'T pack them in foam.
 
If they are being stored on the main living floor of a house with normal patterns of heating and cooling--wipe them down with oil and they'll be fine. As said--stay away from cases, too. Unless they are in a humidity controlled safe--you need and want air circulation to prevent moisture build up.

Good luck and don't worry about your hardware. You WILL get leave/vacation time, too.
 
I stored firearms in a sheet metal Stack-On type "safe" for over two years when I was stationed in Japan. This was in hot, humid Jacksonville, Florida, too, at my mother-in-law's house. She's an old time "born and bred" Floridian and doesn't use the A/C much so I didn't have the benefit of the A/C unit not only cooling the air, but drying it as well. She prefers "open window" living. I used a Goldenrod in the "safe" and nothing rusted. As said, give them a good oil bath before you leave.
 
Ditto on the Mobil 1; it is cheap and gentle on plastics and (most) woods. You can buy a quart for 5 bucks and put it in a 1 dollar spray bottle (sold near the hairsprays and such at drug/ 'dollar' stores) with an adjustable nozzle and spray your gear down. You could remove the stocks/grips and store them off the weapons as a precaution, but not essential unless you have VERY old/delicate guns to worry about.
 
I use RIG and saran/plastic wrap for my long term storage. Some of my firearms have been stored for +14 yrs with nary a speck of rust. Put a coat of Rig on all metal surfaces with a tooth brush, then wrap the firearm in the plactic wrap. I then put them in hard cases or stand them in the safe. The nice thing about Rig is it doesn't run nor soak into wood nor does it affect finishes.
 
Store them at a trusted relative's house that will take care of them...occasionally use them and then clean and oil them. Unless you go to extremes with doomsday like packing and storage hysterics, you are going to get a little bit of surface rust on some of them in 4 years time. the kind of rust that looks like someone just sprinkled a little bit of red dust here and there.
 
Why four years? Last I checked, basic and your follow on schools will be less than a year. After then, you might have to live on base for a while, but you can store your guns in the armory on base which is climate controlled, secure, and you still have access to them 24/7 (took me about 2 min to sign them out each time I went to shoot during the short time mine were in the armory). You'll have a receipt with make, model and serial number (for you and your guns. :) ) so there are no mix ups.
Thats a lot easier than hoping you got the storage right and coming home to a bunch of iron oxide, imho.

I've heard that the foam in cases can hold moisture and cause rust, but I don't leave mine in long enough to know if that's true.
Click to expand...

for the record, I'm TDY right now and my rifles are stored in their carrying cases. I threw a handful of desiccant packets packets in there to keep the moisture content down. It'll only be for a few months so I don't know about long term
 
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There's a VERY good preservative/waterproofing product called 'Boshield T 9'....it's wax like, developed for the aircraft industry and has some really spectacular corrosion resistance claims....comes in a spray can and is available (at least hereabouts) at marine product stores....last can I bought ran about 12.00.

I have used the stuff on an outside stored outboard engine and housing with extremely good results. A light coating on a firearm results in water just sheeting off....If you were to use it on a firearm in regular use tho, go light as it does tend to build up.

As an aside, when I joined the Army way, way back when I coated the bbl and bore of a custom M/98 in .257 and left in in a gun rack at my parents....when I got out three years later I found the bore of that rifle (a really nice Douglas tube) had pitted!............My fault, I had neglected to remove all of the copper fouling and apparently galvanic action had occured........similar to the sort of thing you see on the sacrificial attachments on outboards!......Moral is to give your guns a REALLY good clean up prior to storage.....Then too,climate in my case was an issue as Florida's is really conducive to demolishing anything metal!
 
Get you some auto polish, the kind with no grit in it. It goes by the name of Turtle wax, nu-ribw. etc. Wipe down your guns on the outside, inside, bore, and stock. Wipe on wipe off. Then put them in your gun cabnet and don't worry about them anymore, they will be in perfect condition when you return to them. It is also inexpensive to use. I have used this method for years in wet and dry climate and I have never had a gun rust.
 
I'd 2nd jhco50, but add that any product with the word "polish" on it should be avoided. These nearly always contain an abrasive of some sort or chemical solvents to remove oxydized paint, road film and the like.

Waxes and polymer "protectants" work very well. We started using the old silicone car waxes on our CCW and hunting weapons back when I was a kid and SS, hard chrome, etc. were almost unheard of for firearms.

It takes a little work to apply thoroughly, but will last indefinitely if the storage conditions are within a relatively 'house-normal' range.

Two more specialized products I've used with great success are "Renaissance Wax" and Blue Wonder's "Armadillo" polymer. The former has been used by museums on display and stored artifacts for many years and the latter formulated specificly for the purposes you describe.

Being a "suspenders-and-belt" type myself, putting the treated weapons into a Bore Store case along with a Bull Frog or similar VoD device or a dissicant pack would be my choice for long haul peace of mind.

FWIW though, my rifle and shotgun came through more than 3 years in my father's closet during my Navy "A" school and VN tour with just the silicone wax. No rust or deterioration that I could see.
 
You'll be coming home on leave now and again. You should get out and do some shooting while you're home. Also, down the road you'll have the option to keep them with you while on active duty.

Stored indoors in a heated, ventilated area -- they should be just fine.
 
I use RIG and saran/plastic wrap for my long term storage.
Click to expand...

+1! I have some heirlooms stored this way and they have remained rust free for almost 20 years. And get the RIG while you still can, its great stuff, but unfortunately recently discontinued.
 
I have a couple handguns in foam, however they are wrapped in a oil soaked cotton diaper. Only thing is when i get to shoot a lot, I go through a lot of oil lol. I don't take any chances i want em to stay shiny.
 
As an experiment, I took anold revolver and put it in a plastic hard casewith the interior foam. I oiled the piece just as I normally would, but sprayed Dextron on the foam, wetting it not quite to the point of dripping. Two years in front of the swamp cooler and there was no rust on it. The grips were sure "slimy" when I first took it out, though. :D

Pops
 
There was a period when i went about 5 years without shooting a single gun. i didnt even touch them. Funny thing i knew it was coming. it was just i had just got married and was too much into my job then starting a family. Then i started fishing with my brother in laws and doing a lot of wood working and working on cars. So here is what i did. For my handuns i had the soft type of cases the zipper types. i cleaned them up and over oiled them. Then i took regular gun oil and soaked the insides of the case and zipped them up. For the rifles i cleaned them up like crazy. on the small action parts i coated them with vasoline then i heavily coated them with oil and wrapped them in plastic and put them in soft sided cases.



Well when my boys got older and i got tired of fishing i hung up the poles and pulled out the guns. That when i found that they were all ok. They looked good. The handguns looked like i just put them there. Of course i still had to clean them up with all the oil over them. But in the end it was regular gun oil that i used and nothing else.
 
I went on a three year deployment to Germany and had to leave my firearms in a non-temperature controlled storage shed in the back yard through 3 of Georgia's humid summers and wet winters. When I got back I couldn't find a speck of rust or corrosion on any of my firearms.

I cleaned, lubricated and coated them with Eezox before I left.
 
Two words: Vacuum Sealer.

You can pick up a good one online for under a hundred dollars, and a 20 foot roll of plastic runs under $10. Lightly oil the firearm as normal, place in bag, vacuum seal it. Sucks all (or nearly all) of the air out of the bag, makes an air (and water) tight seal. A gun sealed in one of those bags should last a couple of centuries in any temperature or humidity as long as the plastic isn't breeched.
 
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