The magic of VCI

Guns Magazine, July, 2004 by Holt Bodinson

Protecting your shotguns from the ills of corrosion just got much easier with the introduction of a variety of new products incorporating what has been used by the military for decades--Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor--"VCI" for short.

It was 1962 and I was assigned to Fort Devens, Mass., for what used to be called "basic training." Yes, in those days one still had to run the infiltration course with live .30-caliber machinegun fire splitting the air over your head while blocks of TNT were going off all around you. It was a heady stuff for a young man, particularly a firearms enthusiast.

Soda Straws And Garands

On the second day of our arrival at our World War II barracks home, a deuce-and-a-half truck pulled up with a load of long cardboard boxes. We were told these were our rifles and to draw, unpack and clean them immediately. I don't know what we expected to find inside those boxes. The M14 had been adopted several years before. None of us had ever seen one, but we were expecting to. The odd thing about that whole basic training experience was that we trained with BARs and Browning light machine guns and upon arriving at our final assignments round selective fire M14 rifles and M60 machine guns.

Upon opening my box, I found it contained a long silvery gun sleeve. Cutting open the sealed sleeve, I extracted, would you believe, a brand new, Springfield Armory M1 rifle. What surprised me was that the M1 was totally dry. It wasn't oiled. It wasn't coated with cosmoline. There was just a soda straw looking paper tube sticking out of the barrel. That was my introduction to the magic of VCI preservation.

This past fall I was hunting waterfowl with Tom Knapp, Benelli's exhibition shooter. It was typical duck weather--cold and wet. When we returned to the lodge, I saw Tom wiping down his Benelli Super Black Eagle II with oil from an orange colored bottle with a label that read "Inhibitor--VCI/Oil Blend." Could it be, I thought?

I asked Tom about it, and he assured me it was that old military VCI and that he was a supplier for a whole family of VCI containing gun products marketed under the "Inhibitor" name. To include oils, aerosols, gun cloths, and VCI emitting paper chips, chamber plugs, sleeves and gun bags.

Two months later at the SHOT Show, I suddenly came upon an exhibitor's booth with the name, "Barrelguard." There they were--those VCI impregnated, soda straw looking bore tubes. I asked Matthew Dworman, who was attending the booth, whether these were the same VCI bore tubes I discovered in the barrel of my MI in 1962. He assured me they were and that the Barrelguard Company regularly supplies them to military arms contractors in sizes from .223 through 30mm cannon. For the civilian market, bore tubes are available in all rifle, pistol and shotgun sizes.

Now that VCI technology is being shared with the shooting public, how does it work and what are its benefits?

How It Works

Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) is a chemical compound that slowly vaporizes and penetrates even the smallest, most hard-to-reach areas. The vapor forms a protective molecular barrier on the surface of metals, either ferrous or non-ferrous, and does not affect wood or wood finishes. The protective layer prevents moisture, oxygen, salt and other contaminants from depositing and causing corrosion. It does not require an airtight environment and being a volatile, it forms a continuous, self-renewing, inhibiting film.

VCI is very long lasting. Barrelguard recommends replacing their barrel tubes annually. Inhibitor recommends replacing their chips and chamber plugs every six months. Chamber plugs can also be placed openly in gun safes and will treat a minimum of 27 cubic feet with VCI. In fact, that's how I use them. I also use Inhibitor's chips in reloading die boxes, tool and tackle boxes, and boxes in which I store bullet moulds.

So if you are tired of working with oils, greases, and desiccants to protect your fine firearms, try VCI technology. I think VCI is the future.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Barrelguard

www.barrelguard.com

Inhibitor

www.theinhibitor.com

Tom Knapp

[763] 441-5634

www.tomknapp.net