For long, looooooooong term storage of a firearm on the order of decades like the russians did with all the cosmoline-soaked sks's and mosins; obviously comsmoline worked very well. As long as you get the cosmo all off/out of the action, there is unlikely to be any corrosion. Might take a couple hours of cleaning to get a workable, greasy, rifle; but it works.
So if a guy wanted to seal up a firearm in a tank, or cache it as the survival guys would say, or for whatever purpose; he coud buy cosmoline and stick with what works... problem is that cosmoline costs WAY too much to fill even a single rifle-sized case with it:
Say your idea was to simply dump a Yugo SKS (disassembled, whatever) and a liter of acetone and a couple toothbrushes and a boresnake, plus say 100rds of VERY VERY WELL sealed up ammo and a couple rags; into one of these: http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&src=iMSTR06&prodID=YN5860 (or these, same thing i think: http://www.galleria-e.com/cgi-bin/Colemans.storefront/en/product/203901 ), and then fill it to full with whatever protectant we come up with, which is 40"x6.75" diameter giving a volume of 23.444 Liters.
I dont know how much space the rifle and toothbrushes would take up, maybe 5 liters (probably not even close) and the ammo, maybe another half a liter, the liter of solvent plus the bottle its in another half a 1.5 Liters? lets go with that...
At ~30 bucks for 64 oz( http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/productdetail.aspx?p=1134&s= ) or 1.893 Liters you would need (23.444-7)/1.893= 8.687 L. So you have to buy 9 cans for the cosmo, plus pay shipping. At LEAST 300 bucks to get that SKS ready for its journey into eternity!
Too expensive for my taste!
So whats a cheaper alternative? The main constituent of cosmoline is lanolin, I think. And the recipe for Ed's Red also calls for anhydrous lanolin, so it appears safe for firearms. Seen here (scroll down): http://www.thesage.com/catalog/FixedOil.html?mmsID=ebcf1a9a17855828e16e8653d847bb02 we see 25 pounds of anhydrous lanolin is about 140 bucks. 25 lbs is over 12 liters (being 90% the density of water). So now we're down to half the cost! Still alot though.
Ok, lots of people use Mobil 1, even the AR notes page suggests it ( http://www.armalite.com/library/techNotes/tnote64.htm ).
It might be cheaper at $ 8 per Liter x9L= $72.00...
Now i dont know alot about synthetic motor oils. Some contain sulfur and whatever else that could damage the wood, plastic, and/or metal over the years. here is where I could use some education, then.
I sure would appreciate someone with expansive knowledge of synthetic oils letting me know which, if any, of the commonly available motor oils would likely be safe for a rifle taking a bath in it for 50 years! Or, any good substitute for the overpriced cosmoline!
Thanks in advance!
C-
p.s. I suppose, if a much cheaper source of cosmoline IN REASONABLE QUANTITIES exists, i could do that. Please provide a link! C-
So if a guy wanted to seal up a firearm in a tank, or cache it as the survival guys would say, or for whatever purpose; he coud buy cosmoline and stick with what works... problem is that cosmoline costs WAY too much to fill even a single rifle-sized case with it:
Say your idea was to simply dump a Yugo SKS (disassembled, whatever) and a liter of acetone and a couple toothbrushes and a boresnake, plus say 100rds of VERY VERY WELL sealed up ammo and a couple rags; into one of these: http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&src=iMSTR06&prodID=YN5860 (or these, same thing i think: http://www.galleria-e.com/cgi-bin/Colemans.storefront/en/product/203901 ), and then fill it to full with whatever protectant we come up with, which is 40"x6.75" diameter giving a volume of 23.444 Liters.
I dont know how much space the rifle and toothbrushes would take up, maybe 5 liters (probably not even close) and the ammo, maybe another half a liter, the liter of solvent plus the bottle its in another half a 1.5 Liters? lets go with that...
At ~30 bucks for 64 oz( http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/productdetail.aspx?p=1134&s= ) or 1.893 Liters you would need (23.444-7)/1.893= 8.687 L. So you have to buy 9 cans for the cosmo, plus pay shipping. At LEAST 300 bucks to get that SKS ready for its journey into eternity!
Too expensive for my taste!
So whats a cheaper alternative? The main constituent of cosmoline is lanolin, I think. And the recipe for Ed's Red also calls for anhydrous lanolin, so it appears safe for firearms. Seen here (scroll down): http://www.thesage.com/catalog/FixedOil.html?mmsID=ebcf1a9a17855828e16e8653d847bb02 we see 25 pounds of anhydrous lanolin is about 140 bucks. 25 lbs is over 12 liters (being 90% the density of water). So now we're down to half the cost! Still alot though.
Ok, lots of people use Mobil 1, even the AR notes page suggests it ( http://www.armalite.com/library/techNotes/tnote64.htm ).
It might be cheaper at $ 8 per Liter x9L= $72.00...
Now i dont know alot about synthetic motor oils. Some contain sulfur and whatever else that could damage the wood, plastic, and/or metal over the years. here is where I could use some education, then.
I sure would appreciate someone with expansive knowledge of synthetic oils letting me know which, if any, of the commonly available motor oils would likely be safe for a rifle taking a bath in it for 50 years! Or, any good substitute for the overpriced cosmoline!
Thanks in advance!
C-
p.s. I suppose, if a much cheaper source of cosmoline IN REASONABLE QUANTITIES exists, i could do that. Please provide a link! C-
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