Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

According to well-meaning but highly abrasive gun rights zealot Gary Marbut, the average Montanan owns 26 firearms. I recall a furniture store here in town that was listing its odd lots at blowout prices. One of the ads said something like “Gun rack, six gun capacity. About as useful in Montana as a 2 cubic foot beer fridge.” Me and the missus are usually pretty discreet about how many guns we have. It’s no secret we have them, its just a kinda-sorta secret exactly how many. Obviously, some of those guns need to go into storage. I have some guns, Glocks most notably, that I acquired solely for the purpose of squirreling away and not shooting. Oh sure, I shot them when I first got them..I fired a couple mags to check function, adjust the sights as necessary and then stick ‘em away in the back of the safe for that rainy decade when handing someone a LNIB G17, three mags and a box of hollowpoints might make the difference between being very unhappy or very safe. Anyway… About the only firearms I don’t worry about storing are Glocks, stainless guns, and true military finish (parkerized) guns. Keep em dry and they’ll pretty much just sit there just fine for an eternity. However, some stuff, if youre going to sock it away for a while, needs a little help. The Firearms Blog had this post about some anti-corrosion firearms storage bags. These arent exactly new…the military and factories have had similar packaging available for years. Bianchi came out with their commercial product, Bianchi Blue bags, but they seem to have disappeared from the scene. Brownells, as well as a few other outfits, offer a similar product. The ones from ZCORR seem to take things a step further and offer a port in the bag to allow a vacuum to be used to evacuate air, and presumably contaminants like moisture, from the bag.

Interesting product and certainly one that Im sure people could find useful. If I lived in some humid redneck state where the humidity is like breathing through a wet, hot towel I would almost certainly be using something like those bags for the long-term storage of certain firearms. Fortunately, this region of Montana is only a couple inches of rainfall away from being classified as a desert. Humidity and its effect on firearms isnt a bif concern. (Although in the winter, bringing a cold firearm into a warm house will result in condensation and that is a concern.) Also, the vast majority of our firearms have what you might call a ‘military finish’ which is pretty resistant to most environmental hazards. Nonetheless, being a suspenders-and-a-belt kind of guy, I do sometimes pack things away in a bit more hardcore fashion. Usually the pistols go into perfect-condition ammo cans after getting a light wipedown with some gun lube. Rifles…well, theres only one good way to preserve a rifle and, infortunately, it aint cheap. A good solid Pelican/Hardigg case with a little desicant tossed into it will suffice in this region. Pack it up in the case, tuck it under the bed or in a crawlspace and it’ll probably be just as fresh and crispy in twenty years as when you packed it up.

Personally, I’d spend the money and get a properly sized Pelican/Hardigg case. They make them in enough of a variety of sizes that you can store however many guns however you like. Some will hold a rifle/pistol combo and some will simply just hold a dozen pistols. Not cheap when you buy new, but you might find a deal on a used one. If the commercial case is just too much for your budget, excellent condition military ammo cans are probably the next best thing. No problem finding them in pistol size but finding them in a rifle size can be tricky and the shipping can get a bit spendy…but you’ll still be ahead of the game, dollarwise, than if you bought a $900 hardcase. On the other hand, if youre really serious about what youre doing, and you look at the big picture over the long term, a $900 case comes out to around $3 a month to protect a rifle and scope over thirty years. I dunno…might be worth three bucks a month to know that an AR,870 and G17 will always be in perfect condition for your use over the next thirty years.