Official thread on actual lessons learned on protecting firearms from natural disasters

[hso]

Instead of a batch of similar threads on how to help your firearms and accessories weather the storms that have hit and are about to hit mixed in with all sorts of general hurricane/flood precautions, looting stories, or self defence information lets try to keep one thread for everyone to look in on about what was actually learned about protecting your valuable firearms and firearms related equipment.

Here are a few lessons from former threads where hurricanes and flooding might occur that I can remember off the top of my head-

Video all firearms and other related valuable equipment and send to your insurance agent. Keep copies on your person and on the cloud so if your property is damaged or destroyed or stolen you have a video log of it for insurance purposes and for law enforcement.

Oil all firearms and seal in water tight containers that you can transport or secure onsite. This may be firearms storage bags or PVC pipe or even ammo cans you've checked that the seals are good. Storage in safes may keep people out, but few safes are waterproof so consider getting safes up off the floor enough to keep the door seal above minor water accumulation from failed sumps or just overwhelmed systems. Flooding that isn't expected to destroy the structure may motivate you to move the firearms and related valuables onto a higher floor or into an attic space. Hurricane winds that can rip off roofs, not simply shingles, will require an entirely different approach.

Evacuating with large firearms collections can be very difficult due to the size, but don't forget to oil and seal them even if you're trying to leave a direct path of a storm since outlying flooding can occur. Keep in mind you need to secure these firearms while transporting and when in hotels or other rental space. Consider cable with sheathing through trigger guards and secure padlocks to bundle your guns up and make them challenging to move all at once. Conceal the firearms under bags and boxes if they're in vehicles that people can see into.

What else do members remember about how to keep your firearms safe against the weather?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Most often you will not have time to do what you think you can. When we flooded here in south Louisiana last year the water came up fast. Areas that had never flooded had four to eight feet of water. 80% of the homes in my home town were flooded. My mother bought her house in 1970 and had never even came close to flooding. But last year at 9 am she had water at the doors. At 10 am she had 2 or 3 inches in the house. By 11 am there was over 3 ft in her house.
I live three quarters of a mile from my mothers house, I didn't flood, but I was unable to go anywhere for two and a half days. Could go more then a quarter mile without getting into two to four feet of water.
What I did when the water kept coming up, I started putting guns in the attic. After an hour of that I said the he'll will it, no way I was going to save everything. So I made a pot of coffee, sat out side and waited on the water.
This is what it looks like when you are in a hurry to put guns in an attic .

 

[ilbob]

You can seal just about anything in vacuum seal bags if you have a vacuum sealer. If you have the bags that come in a long roll you can cut them to length and put any length rifle in them you want. Also keeps them from rusting during normal times and if you throw in some of the vapor phase change paper it'll probably not be rusted 100 years from now when somebody finds it and opens it up

 

[Wisco]

+1 on vacuum seal bags.

I used a food saver to store my pistols while out of the country for 6-12 months at a time.

Clean pistol and lube lightly. Seal pistol in foodsaver bag with desiccant pack. Put sealed pistols in a pelican case.

Rifles might be possible, but may also use too much bag to be economical.

 

[Sam1911]

What else do members remember about how to keep your firearms safe against the weather?

See that bolded part? THAT right there is the point of this thread. Not talking about deciding where to live, stockpiling food, or how to clean up your carpets after a flood.

Thanks for keeping on track.

 

[Art Eatman]

If your gunsafe is water-tight except around the door, get a caulk-gun and clear silicone caulk and fill the seam. Easy clean-up, after it's all over.

 

[hso]

Good point, Gunny. Some preparation is needed to keep from banging up the firearms that you're getting above expected water levels, but how much time do we have and what do we have on hand? You can soak paper in oil and make your own oil paper or resort to sheets the same way to wrap guns after they're well oiled stored in the attic.

A weird one, but ... your dishwasher is watertight. Make sure any oily firearms or accessories are sealed up in air/water tight bags as a precaution anyway.

If you have a 2-4 level parking garage you can use it will generally withstand any flooding or hurricane forces. This may allow you to load firearms into a vehicle to park above the ground level to protect against flooding. The challenge will be in making sure the vehicle and firearms are secure against theft before and after the storm hits.

If you use ziploc bags for guns, receipts, etc. double bag and duct tape the ends and edges against leakage.

 

[Doc7]

I thought this thread after Hurricane Sandy provided some real emergency advise:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-corrosion-ballistol-a-survival-story.751644/

In November 2012 my home was inundated by salt water from Hurricaine Sandy. I was able to move all of my guns save for one that I forgot from harms way. Sadly I had a complete machine shop with Bridgeport, Lathe, and five full Kennedy machinist tool boxes of precision tools, fixtures, jigs, and cutting tools as well as 2 large mechanics tool boxes that went completely under salt water. There was 8 feet of it thru my shop... everything got fully soaked with salt water.

The day after the storm I surveyed my shop, and it was a disaster (the house was gone...). I had 10,000 things to do, so was only able to do the very bare minimums before I needed to seek shelter elsewhere. Fortunately we still had running fresh water (!!) so I hosed off the milling machine and lathe, sprayed them with 2 gallons of WD-40, then sprayed on a half case of white lithium aerosol grease and hoped for the best. Of far more importance to me were my tools and tooling. Much of it is made of high carbon steel (read that "easy to rust steel"), and there was about $15,000 worth of it.

I happened to have two things floating in the muck (mud, salt, diesel fuel, sewerage, etc.,) in the ruins of my shop that I saw "might" be of use: A half dozen commercial fish-shipment tubs, and a case of Ballistol. Ballistol, for those who don't know about it, is the WW-I and WW-II German CLP, and when mixed with water forms a white emulsion that looks like milk.

I tipped each box of precision tools and tooling, as well as my mechanics tools, into the fish tubs, filled each with water to nearly full, and dumped in two quarts of Ballistol into each. Stirred it with my hands, snapped on the tops of the boxes, and walked away.

18 months has now passed and I have finally opened up the boxes today.

In one, the plastic fish box fractured, probably due to a freeze. The water emulsion leaked out, and the box was filled with a mass of rust, with tools literally falling to pieces. Drills were actually gone, and it's all a 100% loss. Naturally this is the one I opened first. I was literally sick...

Opened the other boxes, and guess what? Under an oily slimy brown layer on top of the water I found my tools, fixtures, jigs, micrometers, and all of my other tool-steel items as shiny as the day they were made. Oily, to be sure, but everything is in 100% perfect shape.

The next job is going to be to remove the oil, which I will accomplish by running them thru the dishwasher, spraying with WD-40, and then sorting them all into new Kennedy boxes.

The lathe and milling machine survived as well.

Moral to the story: IF you ever need to preserve firearms after this sort of horrific trauma, USE BALLISTOL with about 2 quarts to 20 gallons of water. Immerse them, and if you can't deal with them right now, LEAVE THEM WET and forget about it.

Ballistol... it's the stuff. The key is not how it works when undiluted (it has 1000 uses like that), but how well it maintains it's emulsion when mixed with water. I'm sure glad I had a case of it, as I use it regularly mixed with water for cleaning black powder arms.

Should be able to easily put all metal parts of rifles and other firearms in a sealable plastic tub with water and ballistol in it.

 

[hdwhit]

Doc7 wrote:
...sealable plastic tub with water and ballistol in it.

Just have to make sure to have an entire case of ballistol on hand well beforehand because you're certainly not going to have a chance to run out and buy it when the storm sirens are blaring.

And I think that's the lesson.

Whatever it is you are going to do to save your firearms has to be something you sit down, think about, and make out a plan for in the HERE AND NOW. And then once you have a plan, start gathering the materials you need (preservatives, boxes, vacuum seal bags, etc.). Find a place to store them where they won't deteriorate and you'll remember where they are a year or two from now when the storm is bearing down on you.

 

[hdwhit]

hso wrote:
If you use ziploc bags for guns, receipts, etc. double bag...

Yes. Ziploc and similar bags are generally watertight against liquids that are not under pressure. Add pressure - like rain driven by hurricane force winds - and they will allow water to penetrate, so double bagging is a great suggestion.

 

[hdwhit]

hso wrote:
What else do members remember about how to keep your firearms safe against the weather?

Oil them, thoroughly.

Willie Sutton, the OP of the post quoted by Doc7 in Post #7, had solvent-resistant sealable containers, available fresh water and a case of ballistol ON HAND already before the storm arrived. Someone thinking about this for the first time in Miami today as Irma bears down is unlikely going to be able to find all those things on short notice.

But, most people aren't going to face 500 year floods that persist for a week or more like the people in Houston.

Most people won't face a salt-water tidal surge like the people in New Jersey.

And, most people won't find themselves being given warning to evacuate or make preparations a week ahead of time.

What most people will face are the regular 100 year floods resulting from normal weather patterns bringing shallow inundations of muddy fresh water for a day or two. In those cases, having the gun well oiled, getting to it, washing the mud off it and getting the coating of oil refreshed is going to be important since the clay fines in the mud can get into even the smallest, tightest joint and make moisture cling to the metal thus promoting rust.

Plastic bags, Sealed Boxes, Watertight containers are all useful, but a good coating of a high quality oil is the first line of defense against rust and deterioration; particularly for blued steel.

 

[hso]

And be generous about oiling or greasing firearms!

If you run out of the "good stuff" get Mobil synth and automatic transmission fluid and drown the guns in it. Kroil and PB Blaster are more widely available than "gun" oils so may be in ready supply, but Mobil 1 synthetic and AFT fluids are plentiful.

In the same vein as watertight dishwashers, front load washing machines do a good job of keeping water in and should do a good job of keeping water out (still lube and bag).

And now from NSSF Guidance on Ammunition That Has Been Submerged in Water
and
Guidance on Firearms That Have Been Submerged or Exposed to Extensive Amounts of Water

 

[hso]

Insurance - As we all should know by now your homeowner's insurance may cover NONE of the guns or firearms related gear or it may only cover a limited value ($2,000 is a common value reported in discussions here). So what do you do?

Get a rider from your insurer to cover your firearms and related gear, but be prepared to provide details on them.

Here is one of the best dedicated insurers for guns and knives. http://www.collectinsure.com/

 

[FROGO207]

FYI none of the dishwashers I have worked on have watertite doors. The bottom of them is always open and there are vents near the top to let moisture out (and in as well), even on those high end models like Bosch, Fisher & Paykel, LG, and Miele. The stuff might be still in there but the inside will be wet if it floods any above the bottom of the tub at all! Same goes for front load washers as well They have several vents at the top.

 

[hso]

FROGO,

Thanks for pointing that out. When you say that the bottom of the dishwasher is "always open" can you give more details since it seems the tub of the dishwasher has water held in it while running until it drains/pumps out. The vents make perfect sense, but the other seems counter to what we see when we open the door during the wash cycle.

 

[CapnMac]

A person's RSC is still probably the best answere for secure storage is you have to evacuate.

However, there are openings in all RSC & safes (clearances around bolt-down holes; holes for electrical cords. These are places which are seldom caulked; and would be difficult to waterproof even if caulked. So, water is likely to get in your RSC/safe. Many RSC use gypsum sheet material in for heat/fire protection. This is likely to be toast after immersion in flood waters. The fabric covered particle board shelving certainly will be. So, it might be mete to insure the RSC, specifically,

Flood waters have large amounts of suspended silt in them. It will deposit out of the water once it's inside something--walls, safe, cabinets, etc. So, you will see a layer of silt after the water drains away. So, if you have time before you evacuate (and have room) put something under the butt plates of rifles to get them above the floor of the safe, so that they do not sit in wet silt until you can get back.

Back when I was closer to the coast (and very likely to be called away towards the storm) I had a couple of 4x4 scraps that would go in the floor of the safe. Paper records and software disks were in freezer bags as near the top of the safe as possible. I also had a tub of cosmoline. It was an imperfect plan, but it was a plan.