How to store firearms?

All this motor oil stuff is making me hungry.

lol I had my Browning High-Power locked up for almost 10+ years (the old man) with just a light film of oil on it. Hoppes No.9 nothing happened, nothing will. It's humid where I live and I say this.



For what it's worth, I've heard of silica gel packs to toss in the safe.
 
Wipe it down with auto polish and you will have long term storage. Wipe the barrel inside and out, the stock, everything.
 
This thread made me want to check on my stored guns

They are nice and snug and rust-free in with their coating of grease.

I wrapped em back up and tucked em away :)
 
Will regular motor oil work?

I have no idea where you would buy grease/cosmoline...:confused:

I have a 40+ year old revolver, not really serviceable, might blow up in my face. 32 I believe. What if I just dunked it in motor oil? and let it drip dry then store it, removed grips of course. It's all rusty on the outside and the parts inside I have no clue... Lots of minor pitting.
 
You can get Cosmoline at Cosmoline Direct:

http://www.cosmolinedirect.com/

If you want to really preserve it and you aren't going to touch it for a long while, Cosmoline will do the trick. But whoever takes it out is going to have to clean that cosmoline off.

Maybe you can oil the insides and only use Cosmoline on the outside surfaces.

I think a coating of motor oil will probably protect the inside parts, but I didn't trust gun oil / motor oil / any oil for the outsides of my guns so that's why I put grease on them and wrapped em in linen.


On the other hand I cleaned my dad's .22 with gun oil a long time ago, put it in a case and after 10 years of being stored in just a case - it had no rust on it.

So maybe you will be OK with motor oil.
 
I've used bore stores for several years and like them. However, I also added some VCI (vapor corrosion inhibitor) chips inside the bore stores with the guns. These VCI chips emit a corrosion inhibiting vapor that keeps rust from starting.

I get VCI products from The Inhibitor (Van Patten Industries) online.
 
Short term storage

I have a question about short term storage. I am going to visit some family out of state. I will be traveling by car and am going to take my gun with me. While there, I was going to keep it in the trunk of my car since I do not know how they feel about having a firearm in their home. I do not plan to ask them. No longer than I will be there, it's not worth dealing with.

So, my question is, is it harmful to the gun to leave it in the trunk where the temperature may fluctuate from hot in the day time to cool/cold at night. How long could it be stored that way withough it being harmful to the gun
 
There are so many variables...

It's not so much the heat per se, it's the change in temperature and humidty that affects the gun, and it affects metal, plastic and wood components differently.

I had a Benjamin / Sheridan Blue Streak pellet rifle that I kept I kept in a side attic - not even the top top part of my house so it did not get as hot as the attic on the very top of my house. But anyway, when I purchased the rifle it had a nice looking plastic / wood imitation stock. The heat in the side attic caused the stock to develop a powdery film... it was the plastic deterioating because of the heat.

Changes in temperature cause changes in humidty which is tough on wood. I'm mainly speaking of my experience with hardwood floors, but I think it must be applicable to wood grips. A quick change in temperature / humidty can cause the wood to expand and then contract and it can split the wood.. If you have wood grips I would take them off and store them separatly.

The heat doesn't bother the metal, in fact a lot of people who restore vintage firearms heat the metal components up in an oven to get the Cosmoline off.

But... with metal it's not the rise in temperature that poses a threat, its the drop in temperature. Depending on how you have it insulated or have it wrapped, it might not be a problem, but when metal cools moisture can condense on it, which you just don't want to happen.

I think the case you have here is a good case for the bore-store or other firearms storage bags as well as the vapor-corrosion inhibiting cips that are talked about above...

You don't want to use something like Cosmoline for this - it's a hell of a cleanup job for such a short time. Even oiling the hell out of it seems messy. The storage bags with dessicants and stuff seem like a better solution
 
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