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

My favorite thing to store firearms in is the Pelican/Hardigg gun cases. You’re familiar with them, I’m sure. They’re waterproof, airtight, reasonably crushproof and uber-professional looking pieces of gear. They are, however, pretty damn spendy. But…what’s it worth to you to have your firearms and accessories be in pristine condition when you pull the case out of the flooded rubble of what used to be your home?

For absolute end-of-the-world durability to protect a gun, I have yet to meet anything that beats the storage tube for the 120mm M865. Those babies are my first choice. They are pretty much indestructable, have points to run a length of chain for security, watertight, and the lid even has a hasp for a padlock. Perfect Problem is, they’re rather heavy and they are difficult to find regularly.

So somewhere between the $200 Pelican case and the $35-50 (plus shipping) M865 tube and its scarcity, there must be a compromise…right?

Indeed! If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation you probably recognize these ‘Transporter test articles’. These are sonobuoy tubes. They’re made out of plastic similar to a Pelican case, one-piece with a screw-on top, and an excellent compromise between the two previously mentioned containers. Best of all, it appears CTD has ‘em for ten bucks at the moment.

When I used to ship long guns across country these were an ideal container. You take your rifle, roll it up in a blanket, fold the ends over the muzzle and butt to give extra padding, slide it into the tube, screw the cap on, roll some duct tape around the juncture of cap-to-tube, and you were all set. A durable gun case that was light enough to be shipped back empty for re-use.

Are these waterproof? They are in the sense that there are no joints, valves, openings or other points for atmospheric integrity to be lost. However, I suppose that if you don’t screw the lid on tightly enough you may have water migrate up the threads. I can’t recall if there’s an o-ring in there, I’ll have to check. However, if youre doing the long-term storage thing just run a bead of silicone sealant in the threads, tighten it down, and that should do it.

Go to the CTD page and you can read the dimensions. Guns with pistol grips wont fit without having the pistol grip removed but things like SKS, 10/22, shotguns, etc, will fit just fine. At the price CTD is listing I don’t expect them to last long so you may want to grab a few while you can. Even with shipping factored in they still came out to $15 each to my locationm which was still quite reasonable for what they are.