Winter gun storage

napoleon1815

napoleon1815

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Mine are in the basement and this time of year the temperature down there is in the low 60's (it is around 80 in the summer). Humidity is around 40% so that is no issue. Am I right that storage in cool or cold temps is ok? The room has an electric baseboard but I am not sure if I should use it. Thanks.

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I thought this was going to be like a Martha Stewart thread where you were putting all your Autumn guns in storage to get your winter guns out and ready for use.

And I'm thinking, "Whoa! This guy is taking it to a whole new level!".

Now I have to go buy more AR's and have them Cerakoted with festive motifs for Christmas, Easter, etc.
 
From what I have read humidity is the issue for concern not temp so that was my question...like is a 50-60 degree room worse than a 70 degree room.

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The temperature in my upstairs is in the low 60s. The Rugers are from AZ and tend to complain more than, say my Walther from ME. My AK will often open the window to cool it down a bit and smoke cigarettes. Honestly, if he wasn't throwing vodka bottles down onto the driveway I'd probably let it go. But they don't chip in toward the heat so **** 'em.

Carry Guns, being a special class, get their own safe that I place near a heating vent. That's mostly because I don't want to trust my life to a cranky gun.
 
Guns don't care if they're cold, only if they're moist [wink]


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ToddDubya said:
The temperature in my upstairs is in the low 60s. The Rugers are from AZ and tend to complain more than, say my Walther from ME. My AK will often open the window to cool it down a bit and smoke cigarettes. Honestly, if he wasn't throwing vodka bottles down onto the driveway I'd probably let it go. But they don't chip in toward the heat so **** 'em.

Carry Guns, being a special class, get their own safe that I place near a heating vent. That's mostly because I don't want to trust my life to a cranky gun.
Click to expand...

Ha...nice.I know these aren't museum pieces....just curious about it and what others do.

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humidity levels are lower the temperature is lower. cold air can't hold moisture, so cool is better from that standpoint.
My guns are also in the basement. Some of them are in the space that i call 'boiler room' between forced-air heater and hot water heater. that place is dry as a bone and usually stay around 80-85*
rest of them are in the cold part of the basement where winter temp is around 60 sometime below 60. but I have a small dehumidifier locked with them inside the safe. it works non-stop and warms the enterior of the safe to about 75-78 degrees as well as removes the moisture.

ever since cold weather came dehumidifier can't even fill the 3-pint canister and it's been 2 month. during summer times i have to dump it every 10-12 days.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA02D07V2922
 
Last edited:
dnepro-mike said:
humidity levels are lower the temperature is lower. cold air can't hold moisture, so cool is better from that standpoint.
My guns are also in the basement. Some of them are in the space that i call 'boiler room' between forced-air heater and hot water heater. that place is dry as a bone and usually stay around 80-85*
rest of them are in the cold part of the basement where winter temp is around 60 sometime below 60. but I have a small dehumidifier locked with them inside the safe. it works non-stop and warms the enterior of the safe to about 75-78 degrees as well as removes the moisture.

ever since cold weather came dehumidifier can't even fill the 3-pint canister and it's been 2 month. during summer times i have to dump it every 10-12 days.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA02D07V2922
Click to expand...

I have a cabinet, so whatever the room temp is, the cabinet temp is about the same. That's why I wasn't sure if it made sense to kick on the baseboard to 70 or so...just sucks it would have to run all winter. I wasn't sure if being in the low 60's with low humidity was fine and I could just leave it alone.
 
My house is normally around 64 or so, colder at night when the thermostat drops for the night and the basement is probably right around 60 and 40% humidity. The one thing about a cold safe is that any moisture from your hands will form condensation on any cold metal you touch. So be sure to wipe down anything you handle before putting it back in the safe. You can still see the outline of a fingerprint on a case hardended pistol that I moved once to get another out to take shooting. Luckily I noticed it when I was putting that other piece back, so it did not start to really rust.
 
I store my cheaper plastic stocked and mosins up in my garage in a cheap locked metal safe. Sometimes it gets down to the 20's in there.

Ive never noticed any issues as long as i have some clp on them.


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ToddDubya said:
If you're really worried, put a Golden Rod in the cabinet.


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Click to expand...

I do actually...but since it's not airtight I am not sure how effective it is...more piece of mind I guess.

- - - Updated - - -

Mark from MA said:
I store my cheaper plastic stocked and mosins up in my garage in a cheap locked metal safe. Sometimes it gets down to the 20's in there.

Ive never noticed any issues as long as i have some clp on them.


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Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the info. The room would not get under 60, so I guess I have nothing to worry about.
 
napoleon1815 said:
I do actually...but since it's not airtight I am not sure how effective it is...more piece of mind I guess.
Click to expand...

You don't need it to be airtight. As long as the temperature inside is higher than outside the cabinet, you're good. From their website:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]How does GoldenRod® work?
GoldenRod® heats to a surface temperature of less than 150 degrees (which is almost too warm to hold) and circulates warm, dry air throughout an enclosure on a 24 hour basis. This increases the temperature of the air inside to several degrees above the ambient outside temperature. Expansion of the heated air forces the moist air outside through the vents or loose fitting doors leaving the dry air inside. In order to work correctly, it is important to ensure that there is adequate ventilation. [/FONT]
Click to expand...
 
I thought really good gun safes were airtight...I chose a cabinet because I didn't want humidity being "trapped" in an airtight safe. In any event, thanks for the information. I keep most of them in silica gun socks and I do have a goldenrod in it.
 
napoleon1815 said:
I thought really good gun safes were airtight...I chose a cabinet because I didn't want humidity being "trapped" in an airtight safe. In any event, thanks for the information. I keep most of them in silica gun socks and I do have a goldenrod in it.
Click to expand...

A gun SAFE would be airtight, but you wouldn't use a GoldenRod in there. You'd use some other form of dessicant/dehumidifier.

A gun CABINET won't be airtight (and shouldn't, as M1911 mentioned). In a cabinet you could use a GoldenRod.

The GoldenRod doesn't actually dry the air, it just warms it up. Relative humidity is (simply put) how much moisture is in the air (at that temperature) relative to how much moisture the air is capable of holding. Warming the air effectively reduces the relative humidity (assuming you don't also add moisture to the air, which would be dumb), because the quantity of moisture in the air is constant and warmer air can hold more moisture.

Imagine you have a cup of water filled almost to the top. It's relatively full. Now dump that cup into an empty bathtub. That same amount of water in the tub leaves it relatively empty. The bathtub represents air at a higher temperature.
 
ToddDubya said:
A gun SAFE would be airtight, but you wouldn't use a GoldenRod in there. You'd use some other form of dessicant/dehumidifier.

A gun CABINET won't be airtight (and shouldn't, as M1911 mentioned). In a cabinet you could use a GoldenRod.

The GoldenRod doesn't actually dry the air, it just warms it up. Relative humidity is (simply put) how much moisture is in the air (at that temperature) relative to how much moisture the air is capable of holding. Warming the air effectively reduces the relative humidity (assuming you don't also add moisture to the air, which would be dumb), because the quantity of moisture in the air is constant and warmer air can hold more moisture.

Imagine you have a cup of water filled almost to the top. It's relatively full. Now dump that cup into an empty bathtub. That same amount of water in the tub leaves it relatively empty. The bathtub represents air at a higher temperature.
Click to expand...

a goldenrod works very well in a safe assuming it has a very small hole that allows the cord to be passed through it. the plug can be unclipped and re-clipped for this purpose. my Liberty safe has that option.

Between proper oiling and using something like a goldenrod or desiccant, you can't go wrong
 
Should be good with goldenrod.
I have an inexpensive digital thermometer (battery powered) with humidity indicator.
Typically, it reads higher in July than January
 
napoleon1815 said:
I do actually...but since it's not airtight I am not sure how effective it is...more piece of mind I guess.

- - - Updated - - -



Cool thanks for the info. The room would not get under 60, so I guess I have nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...


No...I don't think so, I get big temp swings too sometimes, because I heat the garage on occasion when working out there, and really haven't had any issues. I do try and open the cabinet when I heat so condensation doesn't become a problem inside the safe.

Wipe them down, and coat the barrel with CLP and usually I never have an issue. In the summer, use a dehumidifier if they are down in the cellar.
 
COOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD storage here…i would guess it gets below zero in my safe at times. i use frog lube and high temp grease (axle grease) on everything. for those of you that have used frog lube know that shit is a miracle to man anyway, but EVERYTHING seems to survive unscathed in my bunker (if you're cool as **** and own lots of rifles i might show it to you) which remains ambient air temp throughout the year.

It should be mentioned, however that I spend about 10-20 times as much time cleaning my tools as I do firing them…every time I use any of them (and sometimes even when I don't) they get a thorough cleansing and that's MARINE clean…EVERY time.

slop enough of that shit on there and they'll never know the difference.

i can't imagine the russians, swiss, or americans for that matter had ANY heat in the buildings they were using to store our milsurps…so why the **** would i waste valuable heat keeping them warm when they enjoy being cold almost as much as I enjoy them being hot enough to cauterize the ass hole of any motherbitch who tries to take them from me (i'm not yet speaking from experience.)

-Iron Mike
 
Dakar652 said:
COOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD storage here…i would guess it gets below zero in my safe at times. i use frog lube and high temp grease (axle grease) on everything. for those of you that have used frog lube know that shit is a miracle to man anyway, but EVERYTHING seems to survive unscathed in my bunker (if you're cool as **** and own lots of rifles i might show it to you) which remains ambient air temp throughout the year.

It should be mentioned, however that I spend about 10-20 times as much time cleaning my tools as I do firing them…every time I use any of them (and sometimes even when I don't) they get a thorough cleansing and that's MARINE clean…EVERY time.

slop enough of that shit on there and they'll never know the difference.

i can't imagine the russians, swiss, or americans for that matter had ANY heat in the buildings they were using to store our milsurps…so why the **** would i waste valuable heat keeping them warm when they enjoy being cold almost as much as I enjoy them being hot enough to cauterize the ass hole of any motherbitch who tries to take them from me (i'm not yet speaking from experience.)

-Iron Mike
Click to expand...


Semper Fi.
 

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