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Storing Rifle for Extended Period of Time?

diderr

The Patch Guy
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 15, 2013
1,020
128
Gillette, Wyoming
datapatches.com
I'm going to be going away for three months, and not going to be able to shoot my gun. What's the best way to store a gun with a stainless barrel? I normally clean every 300+ rounds. I'm going to clean it spotless. Should I run a few Rem Oil patches and leave it wet? Suggestions?
Thanks.
 
I'm going to be going away for three months, and not going to be able to shoot my gun. What's the best way to store a gun with a stainless barrel? I normally clean every 300+ rounds. I'm going to clean it spotless. Should I run a few Rem Oil patches and leave it wet? Suggestions?
Thanks.
kinda vague on the details
will there be power available?
cold storage?
humidity levels?
dusty environment?
coastal area?
length of storage?
the reason I ask is because we can go as far as coating the whole thing in cosmoline for long term burial in the worst of environments. or it could be as simple as a dehumidifier in a safe with just a light cleaning and lubrication.
for me, my rifles are in the safe with a moderate lubrication and some descant packs in the safe. I pull them out every 3 months to make sure they are in good order, especially since my roomate has a poorly cared for 30-30 that is in much need of care due to poor storage in the same safe.
 
kinda vague on the details
will there be power available?
cold storage?
humidity levels?
dusty environment?
coastal area?
length of storage?
the reason I ask is because we can go as far as coating the whole thing in cosmoline for long term burial in the worst of environments. or it could be as simple as a dehumidifier in a safe with just a light cleaning and lubrication.
for me, my rifles are in the safe with a moderate lubrication and some descant packs in the safe. I pull them out every 3 months to make sure they are in good order, especially since my roomate has a poorly cared for 30-30 that is in much need of care due to poor storage in the same safe.
Just putting in a gun safe. Low humidity environment. climate controlled.
 
Hello diderr,

I'm going to college to be an Electrical Engineer and just this past semester I took a Materials Science course. At the end of the course we learned about corrosion. See each metal has a different strength of attraction to electrons. So when we have two different metals, the metal with the strongest attraction to electrons will NOT corrode while the other metal WILL corrode. This is why we place a magnesium sacrificial rod in hot water heaters. Corrosion will attack the sacrificial rod instead of the body of the hot water heater.

Let me tell you an experience I had. I have a precision R700 put together by Jered Joplin of APA. All the metal surfaces are coated in Cerakote. I take meticulous care of this rifle (wouldn't you b/c it's a $9k rifle!). I used Eezox, stored it inside a Borestore, and put it inside a gun safe with dehumidifier. About a year later I took it out of the safe and separated the barreled action from the stock and I had RUST!!! My two stock screws had rust on the threads, and my Williams bottom metal had rust inside and around the forward screw hole. Now because of this Materials Science course I know why!

Remember what I said earlier about how different metals have different strengths of attraction to electrons. Now think about this...

McMillan G30 Bolt: 17-4 SS
Williams R700 LA Bottom Metal: 11L17 or 416 SS or 1215 mild steel
Stock Pillars: Aluminum
Stock Bolts: some type of steel

We have a special name for the reaction that is taking place between the stock bolts in contact with the dissimilar metals that caused my stock bolts to rust. This is called a "concentration cell". You can read more about it on Wikipedia. But in order to nullify this reaction and thus stop the rusting of my stock bolts all we need to do is somehow make this area air tight to prevent moist air from entering. The solution is Vaseline! As soon as I got home on winter break I came home and detailed clean my rifle, then applied Vaseline to the threads of the stock bolts and finished assembling the rifle. I've had no more rust ever since!

So this is my advice to you. Use Eezox has as a rust inhibitor for your rifles, put Vaseline on your threads and anywhere else you have two different types of metal in contact with one another, put your rifle in a silicon impregnated wool sock like what Borestore makes, and put them in a gun safe with a dehumidifier (a regular incandescent bulb works just as well). That should do the trick!

Also I've had great results with Breakfree CLP. But if it's for long-term storage I would get CLP Collector because it takes longer to evaporate off the metal than standard CLP.
 
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Apply Eezox to all metal exterior surfaces (except scope) and the bore per product's instructions. Eezox has worked better at keeping corrosion at bay than anything I've ever tried. After final application is dry, place rifle in safe with humidity no more than 55% (although Eezox will protect regardless).