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Posted: 6/8/2010 6:02:28 AM EDT
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Whats the best way to prepare an AK Rifle for long term storage?
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The "best" way is the modern military way.
The military and industry found that using a vapor barrier protects even better than a thick slathering of grease. It's faster to prepare a weapon for storage, and there's no need for a lot of work removing the grease when the weapon is needed. Clean the rifle thoroughly, especially if it's been fired with corrosive ammo. Wipe the metal with a thin coat of CLP Breakfree to neutralize fingerprints. Wrap the rifle in a couple of sheets of vapor-barrier paper. Seal in a special plastic bag. The rifle is protected from rust for at least 10 years, and when you need to use it, you can simply open the bag, wipe out the bore and go shooting with no need for laborious removal of heavy grease or lubricants. The vapor-barrier paper gives off a vapor that surrounds the metal with a barrier that prevents any rust. The special plastic bags are made of a type of plastic that won't pass moisture. WARNING: Ordinary plastic bags WILL pass moisture and will allow the protective vapor to escape. Use only the special bags: http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1197/Product/GUNWRAP_trade__PAPER http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1154/Product/TRIPLE_TOUGH_trade__PREMIUM_STORAGE_BAGS |
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No matter how tightly you wrap the foil, it's still going to have air and moisture in it and this will allow rust under the right storage conditions.
If you don't want to go with the vapor-barrier paper, just slather it with a good grease. Usually, you're better off not to wrap metal unless you're going with something like cosmoline. Leaving the metal unwrapped allows air to circulate around it and not trap moisture. Surprisingly, contrary to popular belief, common WD-40 is a pretty good rust proofer for short time storage. Another is to apply a coat of a non-abrasive wax like Johnson's Paste Wax. Don't wipe it off and you can apply it with a toothbrush to metal. |
Cache tubes are great and so are cache boxes/cases as well. While being sure it is clean to begin with is without a doubt the most important step, lubing it up like they did when they stored most of these AKs before storing them in bunkers and other nonconditioned locations/building is still a good answer. Perhaps you could do what the egyptians did when they mumified bodies and just rub on the necessary lubricants and wrap tightly in linen wraps and then put it in a hand carved wooden cask covered by a golden cover in the likeness of your AK. You could buy those specially designed bags but my position is you can obtain the same results with the appropriate application of lube/grease like they did when they stockpiled these AKs in their originating countries. 
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| uscombatdiver is Correct. Small arms weapons preservative is a very effective way to protect for long term duration. Clean up just requires a little mineral spirits and some time, but its still the best route to go for no worries storage. You can still find supplies of it out there in original block form. Just heat it up on a hot plate and dip, or brush it on. A friend of mine uses it in his machine shop for tooling protection. |
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That depends on what the "Space Vacuum Bag" is made of.
Again, most plastic bags will pass moisture and air. The special storage bags linked above are made of a "hard" plastic that's made not to pass moisture or air. As for long term storage, why go to the mess of slathering the gun with grease, when all you need to do is buy some vapor barrier paper and one of the special bags. The vapor will get into areas you may miss with the grease. Technology marches on. Grease slathered guns are not the way the military and industry protect metal for long term storage these days. |
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The preservative formerly used by the US military ("cosmoline") is not grease.
While I have no idea if a commonly available grease would prevent corrosion, in general the best results are obtained when you use a product designed for the task. One major problem with cosmoline when used for long term storage is that it is very difficult to remove, especially when it has been on a surface for years. |
| As I understand it, the Military used at least three different methods of preserving small arms. Cosmoline- a black rather tenacious substance which was hell to get off and could sometimes harden like rock. The Cosmoline sold today is NOT the Cosmoline of the 40's/50's. Wax/Grease- a softer more user friendly version of protection that one could more readily remove and which was probably far more EPA friendly. More time than not, this was applied then covered with wax paper, with a proven shelf life of at least 50 years. VCI bags- Good protection but more fragile than the two above methods. Easier and quicker to apply and bring back into use. Still have to thoroughly clean the weapon afterwards. Getting a hole in the bag greatly reduces the effectiveness of this process. |
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How long do you plan on storing it?
I didn't know they sold these products. I'm thinking i might buy one for my AR15 (planning on buying an AK soon). Instead of slapping grease which is messy and probably a pain in the ass, using the vapor method seems a lot easier. Plus the plastic bag and be reused. Well i assume it can be reused. How about he vapor paper? Could that be reused? But doesn't it depend what type of coating you have on your rifle as well? I would assume if you had a good protection on your rifle it shouldn't be do much of a probably with rust (example NP3 coating). But my guess is that most AK owners don't have that on their rifles anyway. If you have a safe couldn't dehumidifier work just as well? |
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Quoted:
My friends father just basically took his guns he did not use or worth money and put them in a barrel and filled it with motor oil and sealed it for future use  It has been years when he did this and I have to give him a call to see how it worked out. Pics or it didn't happen. |
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