Guns should last a lifetime a guide to their long-term preservation: How you prepare your fireams for storage determines what shape they'll be in when put back into use

Guns Magazine, Jan 1, 2002 by Holt Bodinson

Protecting and preserving firearms for either short-or long-term Storage has never been easier. And the only difference between preservation or deterioration is a few minutes of time and a few cents worth of chemicals. With today's oils, greases, waxes, vapor emitting products and humidity reduction units, the process is a snap. So here are a few ideas on how to properly store your favorite smokepoles.

Clean It Right

First, thoroughly clean the bore and chamber(s) of copper, lead, plastic, carbon -- all those contaminants that can either attract moisture, trap moisture, or create some form of electrolytic reaction. For handguns, rifles and shotguns, I like aggressive solvents such as Shooter's Choice, Hoppe's Bench Rest-9, or Butch's Bore Shine. Along with these products, I use polymer-coated steel cleaning rods; 100-percent, cotton-flannel patches; and bronze-bristle/brass-core brushes. If a rifle or handgun exhibits considerable metallic fouling, I go right to Sweet's 7.62 Solvent. It is applied with a cotton mop and eliminates copper much more quickly than scrubbing it away with a bore brush. With shotguns, I pay particular attention to chambers, forcing cones and chokes -- all places where those rather invisible plastic residues from hulls and wads tend to build up and hasten corrosion.

Semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and shotguns, as well as pump shotguns and rifles should be stripped down and thoroughly cleaned on a periodic basis, particularly if they are going into long-term storage. The use of toothbrushes and cotton swabs, along with Birchwood Casey's Gun Scrubber, Shooter's Choice Quickscrub or Tetra Gun's Action Blaster will make quick work of carbon fouling, old lubricant buildup, unburned powder grains, and grass seeds lurking in all those little places.

The second step in gun storage is exterior protection. Metal and wood surfaces must be sealed against moisture. I've used oils , greases and dry, film-type products on gun metal; however, over the long haul they are often not compatible with wood stocks, synthetic finishes and glass bedding compounds. As a result, for long-term storage I tend to favor waxes that can be applied to both metal and wood at the same time. One of the best products is Brownells' museum-grade Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax and Cleaner. Renaissance wax doesn't build-up but leaves a thin, hard film that accents the richness of both metal and wood. At $21 a can, it's not cheap, but a can seems to last forever.

If you are a shooter and you are not familiar with the Brownells' catalog, then you are in for a treat. Brownells is the standard gunsmith's supply house, and its current catalog number 54 features a whopping 29,000 items.

On the other hand, for routine, short-term maintenance of exterior metal and interior bore surfaces, a light application of these products will do just fine: Brownells' Rust Prevent No. 2, Birchwood Casey's Sheath, Hoppe's MDL, Break-Free CLP, Shooter's Choice Rust Prevent or Butch's Gun Oil, After they are applied to the metal, use a dry patch to remove any residue left on wood or synthetic stocks. If you can, store the gun muzzle down to prevent preservatives from creeping down into the action, or into bedding and stock mortises. And if you live in a humid climate and use a gun safe, by all means install a Brownells silica gel pack or Goldenrod heating element in the cabinet. These two products use different methods to achieve the same result. They remove moisture from the air and go a long way toward preventing mildew and corrosion.

Long-Term Storage Just Got Easier

We don't often think about long-term storage requirements. But there are many reasons, such as a move or temporary overseas assignment, which may require that we do so. Thankfully we no longer have to coat the whole gun with hot Cosmoline or RIG and wrap it in grease-impregnated paper.

Brownells' Triple Tough premium storage bags make long-term storage simple and reliable. They are made from a polyester/aluminum/polyethylene blend and measure 8x20 inches for handguns and 12x60 inches for long guns. They are resistant to all petroleum-based chemicals and are non-biodegradable. Once sealed with a hot iron, they are impervious to moisture and vapor penetration.

To be used in conjunction with its storage bags, Brownells offers two corrosion-inhibiting, vapor emitting products: Gunwrap paper and Rust-Blox tabs. The advantage of these vapor-emitting products over traditional oils and greases is their ability to penetrate and protect even the most inaccessible parts of a firearm; plus, they're totally invisible and leave no residues to be cleaned off after an extended period of storage.

Gunwrap -- a brown-colored, vapor-emitting paper -- offers 10 to 15 years of protection for steel parts that have been sealed in a Triple Tough storage bag. Gunwrap is available in 12x 12-inch sheets for handguns, and 4x36-inch strips for long guns.

Rust Blox tabs are small squares of vapor-emitting cardboard, effective for at least a year in a sealed environment.