22nd Oct 2019
Video: How to Store Your Guns After a Shoot
We're here today at our local range to talk to you about how to store your guns after a shoot. It doesn't have to be raining for your guns to be at risk of corrosion or rust and it's the simple humidity in the air or the grease on your finger tips that if left un-checked can cause your beloved firearms to look old, unloved and potentially even cause a malfunction.
In this video we are at our local shooting range and we're going to show you how to effectively store your guns!
The biggest problem that most shooters face is that after a long day in the field or at the range they simply don't want to go through the whole process of cleaning a gun before putting it into storage. The result is dirty, greasy and wet firearms being chucked into their slips at the end of the day and being ignored until tomorrow. At which point corrosion has already begun to set in. If you're really meticulous you might get around to cleaning them that evening, but even then they've spent a few hours in a slip and the beginnings of rust slowly eating away at the finish. Surface rust on your gun following a shoot is caused by oxygen reacting with the exposed metal on your gun like scratches. This reaction creates rust. The reason water speeds up the rusting process is beacuse it contains much more oxygen than the same volume of air does.
So when you're unpacking from a shoot and you've ensured the rifle is unloaded and safe, take an oil impregnated cloth (like the Abbey Supply Sportsmans cloth) and give the weapon a quick and thorough wiping down making sure there is no water left on metal parts. The sportsman cloth will remove any moisture from the gun and replace it with a fine protective film of silicone oil. It will also remove dirt and greasy fingerprints which are a big contributor to surface rust. So by wiping the weapon down you remove any potential causes of corrosion and the oil layer left behind creates a protective barrier from future causes of oxidation and will prevent surface rust from kicking in whilst you're kit is waiting for a clean following a shoot.
Now you're ready to chuck you're gun into it's bag knowing it will be protected until you're ready to give it a full breakdown and a full clean.