How Do You Store Your Guns

How do you store your handguns?

  • In a holster?

    Votes: 19 15.2%

  • No Holster?

    Votes: 97 77.6%

  • Wrapped in a water proofed rag? (Grease or silicone)

    Votes: 9 7.2%
  • Total voters
    125
  • Poll closed .
I store most of my guns in socks or cases in my safe, largely to keep them from scratching each other. My carry guns are stored in a quick-access lock box uncovered. I keep a dehumidifying pack in each safe, which I can bake to recharge every now and then.

I really like the looks of those racks, ZEBRARANGER.
 
Are gun socks safe for long term storage? I know they have nothing to do with leather as discussed here but it seems as though a gun sock would soak up the preservative oil that I use.
 
Gun socks,,,

Supposedly the good ones are permeated/treated with a silicone based substance.

According to the guy selling them at a gun show,,,
The silicone treatment prevents moisture absorption from the air.

I dunno if that's true or not,,,
After all he was trying to sell me a six pack of the things.

But, the logic seems sound enough.
 
I have stored pistols for years in leather holsters with no problems at all. I once had a Bianchi, John Wayne commerative holster and gunbelt that I used as a decoration really. I kept a Mitchell Arms SSA in that holster for ages with no special treatment at all. I'd take it out once in while, wipe the dust off, sometimes with a silicone rag, mostly with a dry cloth, and put it back. That gun never had a speck of rust on it. Right now my Ruger bearcat hangs from a nail, in it's leather holster on a belt, ready to go. No problems at all.

Should you do it? Probably not. I'm not saying it's a good idea even, just that I never seem to have a problem doing it.

Most of my handguns rest in my safe, wrapped in old cotton socks, more to prevent scratches than anything else. I don't do anything special to them other than take them out from time and check them.

Shotguns and rifles, are just wiped down and put in the safe. No problems ever.
 
ZebraRanger~love those racks (I never thought I'd say that to another man, lol) Thats a great idea and I'm going to look at building a set for my safe.
 
I like the silicone socks for my rifles, a few pistols have them as well. Wiped down and in racks works for the rest of them.
 
Holsters absorb all the dirt from the whole days shooting. I remember my old IPSC holsters looked pretty dingy inside. So, other than all the other reasons not to store a gun in one, it seems you would be wiping all the firing residue back on the gun that you just spent all that time cleaning off of it.

For long term storage, I wipe them down well with Rusteprufe or Rig and then wrap them in wax paper and store them in a hard case. They live in a safe with a Goldenrod. I also have a bunch hanging on hooks on the door of the safe, just wiped down with Rig.

I am paranoid about anything porous being in contact with my blued guns. Carpet, foam rubber, old T-shirts, whatever.

Either oiled and wrapped in something the steel can't react to or allowed to breath seem the best options I have found.

This is really old school, but good stuff: http://www.rusteprufe.com/
 
I store most of my handguns without a holster, mostly because I don't have hoslters for each one, just holsters that work with with multiple guns.

The handgun I keep next to the bed is kept in a Fobus holster just for the convenience of being able to quickly slide the clip into the pocket on my jeans in case I need to check something out in the front or back yards.
 
Cleaned, light coat of oil, ziplock bag in safe.

Regular non-firearm specific safes are lined with a substance to reduce liklihood of heat damage to paper contents. This stuff tends to give off moisture. Also, the safe is in a basement. So the ziplock bag keeps the humidity away from the metal.

Stainless pistols are in gun rugs; I feel they need less protection from the humidity.
 
Bob.a -- I stored some precision tools in a zip-lock bag for several years and it left a gray coating on them which I couldn't remove with any kind of solvent. If using a plastic bag I would be sure to use moisture absorbing bags inside. When you zip the bag shut you're also sealing any ambient moisture in there with them. Plus, some plastic bags can "breathe" and allow moisture in and out.
 
Yeah, I thought of the moisture issue. I try to keep most of the air out, and I'm usually into the bags once a month or so anyway. I thought that a little moisture trapped in a bag would be better than keeping them loose in a safe.

There were some blue bags made by Bianchi several years ago; some of my guns are in those. There's also a company that makes bags for the USMC to store weapons long-term; supposedly does away with cosmoline entirely, protects all the metal surfaces. Haven't tried them yet.

I use the ziplocks for camera equipment as well, but I had some little dessicant packages and included them inthe bags. So far the cameras seem to have suffered no ill effects despite sitting undisturbed in a safe for a couple years.

I haven't encountered the grey deposit of death - kinda worrisome. I plan to rethink storage in light of Locoweed's experience.
 
Gun safe issue

I have a goldenrod in my gun safe along with the large VCI cartridge to keep corrosion down, or reduce the potential. I also was just trying to be even more protective (I have too much time on my hands) put a desiccant material in a plastic bowl with slots in the bottom (made for this purpose) and as the material absorbed moisture the moisture drops into a drip pan below. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men are sometimes about equal, and I found that the desiccant was "pulling in" moisture from the outside, AND then the water was just sitting there in the bottom of the safe in the catch pan. What could be wrong there??? So, now that is gone. This was not the little bags that can be heated in an oven to recharge, this stuff is different it was called dri-z-air. Has its place somewhere, but not in my safe.
 
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I store my guns in a case or the gun cabinet. All of them are lightly oiled and I try to wipe every one down with oil and/or silicone every few months.

Storing them in a leather holster long term just seems like a a problem.
 
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