Crazy idea for long-term storage and rust prevention

[Black Butte]

Common methods of staying off rust include keeping handguns well oiled, using silicone-impregnated "socks," placing a heater in your safe to keep air circulating, or using descants like silica gel. Another idea I had was to use vacuum storage bags. We've all seen those commercials on T.V. where you can put your cheese or other food items in a special bag and then use a machine to suck all the air out and seal it. The commercial promises the investment will pay for itself by keeping your groceries fresh for weeks longer than otherwise possible. They even have a larger version for cloths and the like. My thinking was that if you had safe queens or guns that you weren't planing on shooting anytime soon, you could vacuum seal those guns in the food storage bags. With the air removed from the sealed bag, there should be no oxygen or water vapor left inside the bag that could cause rust. Any oil placed on the gun, if it's even needed, should in theory remain there indefinitely because there would be no air in the bag to dry out or evaporate the oil from the metal surface. If you wanted to use the gun, you could simply rip open the bag, use the gun, then reseal it in a fresh bag after cleaning. Let me know what you guys think, or if there is any obvious down side that I'm missing. Maybe I could market a vacuum storage bag system specially adapted to handguns.

 

[Oyeboten]

Probably...If it was me, and anticipating long term storage ( like really long term)...

I would have a hot solution of Axle Grease, Molten, and immerse the Gun in it, possibly with whatever Stocks and easy to remove parts, removed...

Dip Muslin strips also, wrap the Gun in those while they and the Gun are still hot.

Once cool, wrap all in plain Muslin, using quite a few layers...and, dip THAT into molten Tar.


Let cool...


You could bury that anywhere and it'd be fine in a thousand years.

 

[justgoto]

Waits for Cosmoline to show up.

That said... I think your idea would work, as long as you sealed the bag in low humidity conditions.

 

[cleardiddion]

Cosmoline, the gift of the preservation gods

 

[tekarra]

As long as the seal is good and the material is durable there should not be a problem. I had pistols in storage in the Gulf Coast area for seven years with no sign of rust. Cleaned them thoroughly, warmed them up, liberally oiled them and put them in zip lock freezer bags closing the bags after expelling as much air as possible.

 

[Clifford]

Seems like a sound idea to me. I would clean, oil and drop a dessicant bag into the vacuum bag before sealing.

 

[Zebraranger]

There's a vacuum sealed system already out there for firearms called http://www.zcorrproducts.com/
There was a discussion and photo's on the product here about a month ago, http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4289390.

 

[DBR]

I suggest Eezox and a Brownells plastic bag.

http://www.eezox.com/gun-care.html

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1154/Product/TRIPLE_TOUGH_trade__PREMIUM_STORAGE_BAGS

 

[klover]

.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1207/Product/RUST_BLOX_VAPOR_TABS

An ammo box or other air tight container, and these little yellow chips work very simply.

 

[GCBurner]

Doesn't the Army use vacu-sealed bags for small arms now instead of the old Cosmoline? I thought I remember reading that somewhere.

 

[danez71]

Melt a pot of wax, submerge gun, let cool, and store.

To use again:
Place block of wax incased gun on cookie sheet and turn on oven to 175F.



Or... you can just slather on some oily stuff all over it and be done with it.

 

[sourdough44]

Rub on a little R.I.G. light grease & let it be, inside & out.

 

[BCRider]

It only gets the excess air out. It doesn't remove much at all from the inside of the gun or other spaces where the plastic bridges gaps such as checkering. So there's still some oxygen in the bag.

The big advantage would be that there isn't much and that it would be easy to trap any moisture with a fairly small silica gel bag. But it should not stop you from liberally oiling the gun before putting it in the bag along with the slica gel packet and then sealing it in. Then as long as it didn't develop any perforations or slowly leak air through the pores of the plastic it should be good for many, many years to come.