A crying shame

Discussion in 'Firearms' started by groovy mike, Feb 15, 2008.


  1. groovy mike

    groovy mike Immortal

    The short version of the sad story is that when I was a kid my dad had some absolutely gorgeous antique guns. I mean real antiques like a civil war vintage Sharp’s carbine in pristine condition. Fast forward 20 years and the carbine has come to me so rusted that the rust has started to cake and flake. It is a case of pure neglect for years on end. Probably 5 grand in value and a historical artifact in prime condition irretrievably lost because no one bothered to put a little oil on once a year. 20 years x 3 minutes = a grand total of maybe 50 cents worth of oil and one hour over 20 years to have prevented this.

    I’ll get off that soap box and just close with a plea that you please go oil your collections TODAY. I too have firearms that I fire less than once a year, but spend the literal pennies and minutes with a rust preventive aerosol spray, or bottle of oil and wipe each one down inside and out today and every new year’s day or ground hog day and fourth of July. Incidentally the fourth of July is a great time to go shooting as no one minds the noise J If you don’t have anything specifically designed to protect firearms any light oil will do, even WD-40 is better than nothing though it leaves a film when it dries.

    I found that I am down to one aerosol can of rust preventative spray and a couple bottles of light oil, so I placed an order with CTD for 4 more cans and some rust preventing storage bags.

    As the price of everything goes up, the value of preventive maintenance will increase whether TSHTF or not.

    This is true whether you are oiling firearms, changing vehicle filters or oil, cleaning chimneys, or vacuuming cooling coils. It costs little besides time to take care of what you have, but doing nothing could cost you plenty!
     
  2. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Once a year, I go to my Dad's place and clean&lube all his guns - hey, I'm protecting MY inheritance!! [beer]

    He hasn't hunted, or even fired any of them, in a good thirty years! They are all still in top condition.
     
  3. groovy mike

    groovy mike Immortal

    sounds liek a very prudent thing to do seawolf!
     
  4. Claymor

    Claymor Monkey+++

    I've got Zerust sleeves that the guns can go into. Just purge out the excess air, roll and clip them shut, & put them in the gun locker. I don't have to worry about pulling everything out every 6 months & inspecting it.

    They contain a petroleum distillate that precipitates on the metal of the gun while it's in storage, plus they're impregnated with some sort of ferrous material that is supposed to have any loose water vapor attach to it, rather than the metal of the guns.
     
  5. Claymor

    Claymor Monkey+++

    If you really, really want to store them long-term, do the above, then put them inside of a long FoodSaver bag, suck all the air out, & heat seal the ends. Make the FoodSaver bags a few inches over length, so that you can cut them at the seal, inspect your guns, then re-seal the works when you're done.

    They should be safe until the Second Coming.
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7