Keeping firearms dry during storage

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Overdue Bill

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I'm thinking of building a new cabinet for my firearms including my patch and ball rifles. I want to put the cabinet in my basement which is kind of damp. The cabinet will be well ventilated but is there anything else I need to do to keep my firearms dry? Thanks for any help!
 
I don't know what part of the country you are in, but humidity is some areas can sure present a problem. I am in East Texas, so we have to really watch over our firearms. I have 5 safes with firearms and have to keep them in my garage, so it's really a problem. I keep everything coated with Rig, to help keeping the humidity off of the metals, and it helps. I also keep a couple of humidity collectors in each safe....I've actually found where one of our 1.00 stores sells those for 1.00 each.
 
My guns are banished to the basement too. I bought a dehumidifier and keep the humidity of the basement at 50%. The guns stay safe.
 
Right now in Colorado, humidity that is so low, all my doors in the house have shrunk. We have a humidifier in the house to try to keep the wood from drying & shrinking. Not working well.
 
I use the thick "Bore Stores" soft gun sleeves. They are impregnated with silicone, and supposedly help draw any moisture away from the firearm. I have never have a problem with any of my long guns, if I store them in Bore Stores.
 
I have a Golden Rod in my big safe and rechargeable ones you plug into 120 v in my others . I live 1 block from Corpus Christi Bay tons of humidity year round and mine stay rust free. My big safe is in the garage also .
 
I have a Golden Rod in my big safe and rechargeable ones you plug into 120 v in my others . I live 1 block from Corpus Christi Bay tons of humidity year round and mine stay rust free. My big safe is in the garage also .
Wow, plenty of humidity down there. Our company had a heavy equipment dealership there at one time. Conley-Lott-Nichols Machinery. I used to go down there from time to time from our Dallas shop to rebuild transmissions and Detroits.
 
I worked for Holt Cat till I retired .Power Systems field Tech 1500-2000 KW Generators oil fields and hospitals and high-rise buildings . Also offshore rigs.
 
Growing up in central New Hampshire we had special canisters for crackers and other crisp snacks that featured a humidity absorbing cartridge, When they turned pink from absorbing humidity they went in the kitchen oven on low setting until they went blue.

Even here in Colorado dampness can accumulate in a basement. I keep all the little silica gel packets that come in merchandise packaging and put them in an old sock. These go in the gun vaults, and rotate through the oven every couple of months.
 
I live just down the road from Houston. I have a large safe with a Goldenrod heater. It has been running for over 5 years. I pull the residents of the safe a couple times a year and inspect, oil or grease as needed. RH in the room is usually about 40-50%, but the small amount of heat in the safe seems to be adequate to prevent rust. Long term storage items get a coat of Rig grease inside and out, my favorites get used, and oiled after use, then again a few days later. All stored muzzle down. Works for me.

As a side note, a few years ago while searching for something on the web I ended up at an engineering site discussing corrosion. One of the things I remembered was it discussed was the corrosion (rust) formation rate of metals, and one section specialized in steel. If you can keep the RH at 50% or less, it greatly reduces the rate of rust formation. It does not stop it, but since the reaction rate is an exponential function of the water vapor concentration, it greatly slows it down the lower the humidity.
 
My LGPR is stored in it's leather sleeve stored under our bed in a nice dry area... I take it out every so often just to caress and hold :D
 
Goldenrod is just a long tube with a filament inside. It emits enough heat to prevent condensation from forming inside your gun cabinet. A low wattage lightbulb or even a string of mini Christmas bulbs left lit inside the cabinet will work the same, and at less cost.
 
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