Guns & Ammo storage question

[lc80]

I going to be in a position where I have to rent and its not practical for me to bring my guns and ammo with me. Is there a way to mitigate moisture damage to guns and ammo in a regular storage unit? Am I taking a lot of risk putting high dollar items into a rental storage unit? Thanks folks.

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[The Heretic]

The risk would be primarily theft. Storage units are often broken into, usually from a neighboring unit.

Clean the firearm, spray it with Balistol (long term consider also using Riggs gun grease or better yet, Cosmoline which is available in aerosol spray), insert it into a silicon sock (made for the purpose), insert that into a plastic VCI bag made for the purpose. Beyond that, putting them into a hard case would be advisable - the hard case many handguns come in would be fine. For a long gun you can buy a relatively inexpensive hard case.

 

[lc80]

That's kind of what i figured. I'm more concerned about all the wood. I have a lot of vintage stuff.

 

[The Heretic]

Ammo; wrap in a plastic bag/etc. & store in USGI metal ammo cans.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

That's kind of what i figured. I'm more concerned about all the wood. I have a lot of vintage stuff.

Is it possible to take the wood off?
My grandfather left me a bunch of wood grips and small metal parts, he wrapped those wood items and small parts in quality paper towels (layers of them) rubber banded them together, put them in a zip lock bag and then put those bags of parts into an airtight container.
All his stuff was out in a rickety shed for 30+ years.. when I opened the container I expected rust, decay.. all were perfectly preserved.
Id take all the wood off
(unless so antique it'll break upon removal). Id then do what @The Heretic suggested for metal preservation.

My way.. Its messy as hell, but I use grease and storage bags for long term metal firearm storage. Ive had some items stored for 5-8 years without issue. Its a mess to apply and clean up.. but it preserves my stuff amazingly. Ive tried oils.. they always seemed to evaporate or run off or something.. when I used oils, bone dry each time I checked up on them, thus I use grease..

 

[lc80]

yeah id grease the metal for sure but its just not practical with the vintage stuff. I think im actually more concerned with theft.

 

[41mag]

Storage sheds seem to attract various parasites.

 

[DedPyro]

I just came across this but if you're talking about a rental storage unit, most of them seem to have a policy against storing guns and ammo. The biggest issue there is that if you do, and they get stolen or destroyed, they won't insure them, and if there's a fire and ammo causes damage or anything else they imagine, you may be liable. Just a thought.

 

[3006shooter]

Couple of years ago I looked into storing some guns for short time in a climate controlled rental storage facility. They were adamant their policy was guns had to be kept in a safe.

 

[The Heretic]

Couple of years ago I looked into storing some guns for short time in a climate controlled rental storage facility. They were adamant their policy was guns had to be kept in a safe.

Probably a wise idea, but still not good when there is nobody there to keep an eye on the safe.

 

[Horatius]

there is another thread today dealing with a man who had his guns and ammo stolen from a storage unit.