Stainless.

manbearpig

manbearpig

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ive just decided that any new gun purchase will be stainless.

my gun room measures at 25% humidity right at this moment - the average relative humidity of the Sahara desert.
for longterm storage, i clean, liberally gun oil and then run a patch of gun grease through the bore and wipe down the outside with a rag with gun grease.

i just took a milsurp out of my cabinet that was stored like that for a few months - in 25-35% humidity indoors - and theres some surface rust on the barrel. short of storing them in a barrel full of cosmoline i really dont know what else i could have done?

im getting so sick and tired of the battle against rust. on some safe queens its not an unpleasant ritual, but on your average user its really getting to be a pain in the ass. for once id like to come in from the rain/snow and just relax with a mug of hot tea instead of immediately having to totally strip and detail clean whatever blued firearm i was out there with.

anyone else feel the same way?
 
I'm a big believer in stainless guns, but it doesn't take away the need for some care. For example just yesterday I noticed a little rust on the bolt of my stainless savage rimfire. ie the bolt isn't stainless. Its so minor a rub with the thumb pretty much took care of it, but a little oil goes a long way and obviously I overlooked it last fall. Humidity isn't really your enemy, its more about the dew point temperature of your guns in comparison with it. Not sure what your gunroom setup is, but a little airflow may help considerably. I haven't broken out a psychrometric chart out in a long time, but getting the right readings can pretty much tell you if you're going to have rust issues. If you want an example pm me. In short, just remember that the springs etc etc in stainless guns... ain't, so you'll still have 'some' work to do.
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Okay, I couldn't resist checkin a few numbers. At 35%rh and a 20C house temp your dewpoint is sitting about 12C. Most peoples thermostats are in the center of the house... the warmest spot. If your guns happen to be in a safe against a wall... the temperature will be a lot lower. If you have no airspace, it could be low enough to cause moisture related issues. Now just because your 'average' humidity is low, it can spike... easily. Especially if you happen to have any wet gear in the area. Even something small like a sling can raise the immediate humidity enough to cause a problem. Raise the humidity a little and lower your guns temperature a little and you have a problem. And when I said airflow can help, what I really meant was for storage spaces against walls... for example moving a safe up on blocks off an uninsulated floor and leaving plenty of room behind it. Adding a small heat source inside your storage area can help as well, though other options are in my opinion the way to go.
 
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interesting.. thank you very much for the info.
i have a small barometer mounted right beside my guns. its showing 25% humidity right now but the room is coolish - its about 15-16 degrees in there right now.

so youre saying it would be better to get ventilation and some higher temperature in there? so a 35%+ RH at ~20 degrees might be better than 25% RH at ~15 degrees?

the whole thing is pretty confusing.
 
I started using "Rust Check" on all my gun's and it seems to work great. It's not just for storing but when hunting in pissing rain, it actually repels water really good. Another thing I did was put my gun lockers on either side of dehumidifier. But if you need a excuse to buy a stainless it's a good one LOL :D
 
My guns have all had multiple baths in Sheath (Barricade) by Birchwood Casey..........good stuff, but I still store them in a warm dry place, and dry them out when they get wet.
Mike
 
manbearpig said:
the whole thing is pretty confusing.
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Not actually... but its a bit of a #@^* to explain it to someone without being beside them and zipping your fingers along a chart. For some reason I've seen very experienced people argue the dumbest angles. Perhaps its one of those things that should be explained to people in early gradeschool. Hell, look at how many people think ice MUST turn into liquid before becoming a gas.... yet have no way to explain what happened to the ice on the hood of their car while they flew down the highway in -35C weather. MUSTA 'melted'.
Have a look at this link...
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mdarre/NE-127/NewFiles/psychrometric_inset.html
Not the best, but everythings in one place. Don't get too caught up with enthalpy and spec vol.
 
Well - Barometers are notoriously inaccurate - especially the old ones that use hair....
As stated above, the solubility of water in air diminishes with temp. So if you cool down air from 25 C/35% RH, the measured RH rises. At some point the water starts to come out of solution ( 100% RH) - as stated above, this is the dew point.
So there is a good chance that your guns are in an environment where the RH is substantially higher. One solution is to warm up the gunsafe with a low wattage bulb.
 
I wipe down guns with G96 gun treatment and put em away. So far no rust yet in 30 years. Keep a rag in a zip lock I use lightly sprayed. Bottle lasts along time. I wipe bore with Break Free usually too if leaving them for a while. I'm sure without that I would have problems.

Most of mine are blued but I do like stainless.
 
Well - Barometers are notoriously inaccurate - especially the old ones that use hair....
As stated above, the solubility of water in air diminishes with temp. So if you cool down air from 25 C/35% RH, the measured RH rises.
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ah, so i had it backwards.
a 25% relative humidity in 15 degrees C is better than a 25% relative humidity in 20 degrees C because the lower air temp can hold less water to begin with.

im not too worried about the barometers failing, i have one modern 'mechanical' one and one modern digital one that i make sure its working with, and they both give the same reading.

still, i cant help but think if i spent a few more bucks on some of my newer newer rifles and gotten them in stainless, id have that much less to worry about.
ive been thinking of taking a bore snake, removing the bronze brush from it, soaking it in gun oil and leaving it in a ziplock bag. then i can just whip that through the bores every now and then, would be less time than getting all my cleaning rods out and having to do every gun that way - would also be easier on the bore, though if i can i always clean my guns from the chamber end.
 
Never had an issue since I got some of these

Cortec corrosion inhibitors sold at Lee Valley will protect your rust-prone tools for up to two years. Instead of coating your tools with sticky, greasy, or oily substances, just throw one of these anti-corrosion emitters into any enclosed box, cabinet, or drawer where you store your tools.
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Emitters.jpg
 
Hell, look at how many people think ice MUST turn into liquid before becoming a gas.... yet have no way to explain what happened to the ice on the hood of their car while they flew down the highway in -35C weather.
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It's not that hard to explain.The outer surface of that ice melts into a thin layer of moisture that evaporates.That thin layer of moisture keeps evaporating as the ice melts,so a large pool of water never forms on the hood.The temperature outside might be -35,but the temperature under the hood is well above freezing,so there is heat transfer through the hood which causes the ice to melt.
 
pharaoh2 said:
A few of those moisture absorbant packs go a long way.
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If you are referring to desicant packs, they need to be used with care. When I was just starting out(read many moons ago), I had my safe in the basement, right by the washer and dryer. I never had a problem till one day I thought hey I should be kind to my shooting irons, and put in a desicant tray as the washer, and dryer could be throwing off humidity. Well I didn't bother checking on said tray for some time, and when I did, it had pulled in so much moisture I had water running down on some of my guns. Long story short, if you use desicant monitor it carefully, and i wouldn't even recommend it for gun storage.
 
stubblejumper said:
It's not that hard to explain.The outer surface of that ice melts into a thin layer of moisture that evaporates.That thin layer of moisture keeps evaporating as the ice melts,so a large pool of water never forms on the hood.The temperature outside might be -35,but the temperature under the hood is well above freezing,so there is heat transfer through the hood which causes the ice to melt.
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Is that how wet fabric on a clothesline in winter dries as well?
 
Is that how wet fabric on a clothesline in winter dries as well?
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Funny thing is,I don't see people hanging their clothes on the line at -35.:D

If you do,the clothing will freeze and then very slowly the moisture will evaporate.I would rather use a dryer than wait for that to happen,especially since we don't have any wind at -35 where I live.
 
pharaoh2 said:
A few of those moisture absorbant packs go a long way.

The stuff is silica gel and looks like rock salt.

Comes in a cloth bag when you buy something metal.

The stuff is used around the breathers on large power transformers and turns from blue to pink when water saturated. Then dry just it out in an oven.

I do not store guns in my basement.
I got a bag at the bottom of my safe:D
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