Long Term Storage ?
I was at my bro'in law's house over the weekend and this came up. Opinions please, because I do less and hope for more.
Bro bought a couple of the SKS du jour last year just to keep. He is a real detail man, so I rule out a 'lazy user fault'. He sez that after cleaning them up, a confirming shot or two, then he broke them down to clean to pack away. Sez he slathered the stocks with boiled linseed oil, soaked the hardware with a good '3 w/teflon' spray, then rubbed a coat of Hoppes protective grease on the metal. He then re-assembled, put it back in the box, and in the top of his garage. (He lives in S. Miss.)
Now to the meat. He shows me one on Sunday, and you can put your fingerprint on the barrel or gas tube almost like it was 'raw'. I saw no grease there and not much on any metal. He sez the grease was heavier than chassis grease, but slicked up a little with the oil that was sprayed on. Explainations ?
P.S. the stocks still had a sticky coating on them.
Bro bought a couple of the SKS du jour last year just to keep. He is a real detail man, so I rule out a 'lazy user fault'. He sez that after cleaning them up, a confirming shot or two, then he broke them down to clean to pack away. Sez he slathered the stocks with boiled linseed oil, soaked the hardware with a good '3 w/teflon' spray, then rubbed a coat of Hoppes protective grease on the metal. He then re-assembled, put it back in the box, and in the top of his garage. (He lives in S. Miss.)
Now to the meat. He shows me one on Sunday, and you can put your fingerprint on the barrel or gas tube almost like it was 'raw'. I saw no grease there and not much on any metal. He sez the grease was heavier than chassis grease, but slicked up a little with the oil that was sprayed on. Explainations ?
P.S. the stocks still had a sticky coating on them.
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The sticky coating on the stocks is boiled linseed oil which becomes tacky but does not harden. The excess that did not soak in is still sitting there. If the metal was not stored in plastic, then it is likely that the grease soaked into the packing material it was in, paper cloth or what ever, and that material should now be greasy.
He Dog0 -
Perhaps your "bro'in law" is an idiot? 0 -
Gets pretty hot in Ol' Miss, and he applied the "heavy grease" after soaking metal parts in a good "3w/teflon" spray.
How hot do you think it might have gotten in the top of his garage?
I think the teflon spray prevented the grease from forming any kind of bond w/ the metal and w/ the heat it just oozed away ...
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!0 -
first to 101air
Don't all in laws have a some amount of idiot in them?
The heat probably was a factor, but it is not at my place.
I suppose I should have asked clearly for suggestions.
Grease on 'raw' metal ?
Spray and check every 6 months ?
Grease and 'saran wrap' ?
I don't keep everything in my (new) safe, so if anyone has a 'best bet process' I would appreciate it.0 -
There have been a lot of opinions offered around here on storage methods, there is not universal agreement by any means. Some favor oil and store in a silicon impregnated case like a Borestore which allows air circulation. Some allow that gease packing is better. Your humid climate makes it a little tougher than my desert climate. Partly, it comes down to what do you mean by "long term?" If you can do so, since you have a safe, I suggest you equip it with a "Golden Rod" or similar gun safe heater to minimize humidity in the safe. Clean and oil well the gun at least every six months, but check more frequently to be sure all is well. True long term storage such as the military uses, involves crateing guns pack in cosmoline, with the cosmoline all through the bore and action coating every metal surface and even the stock. It is not fun.
He Dog0 -
For one thing stashing a Few Rifles away for a rainy day is a Good idea BUT you will want to keep in mind that you may one day
REALLY NEED them to deal with a bad situation so Packing them with grease in not smart in my opinion because you may not have the time to
de-grease them to get them into battery.Here is what I would do
to prepare a rifle, First Clean it as good a possible inside and out
then give it a Good wiping with some quality Gun oil on a cloth
(under the wood too) then making sure not to get you bare hands on the metal slide the whole rifle into a Vacume sealable bag, toss in some rust inhibator chips (the good ones) then vacume seal the whole
thing in a Good vacume sealer,My buddy did this with a couple of Blued Ruger mini-14's In PA where they were stashed in Barn Rafters
for Over 6 years, when he took them out they were as new as they were when he stashed them.
"Now Go Home and Get your Fu**** Shine Box!"0
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