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  1. #1
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    Default Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    It is probably a common fact that leaving a gun in a gun bag can cause or accelerate rust.

    I have been doing so for the last two months but without getting rust. Probably because every time I use them I wipe them down with an oily cloth and I don't put them in the bag after shooting while they are hot.

    So what I'd like to know is under conditions do they rust? Is it from a cold floor like a canvas tent's miff. Is it from having rust already and just getting worse or is it simply just that leaving a gun in a gun bag long causes rust?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    You get rust from moisture condensing on the metal.

    In high humidity areas, the humid air permeates the safe in the day, and the cool of the night causes it to condense onto whatever metal is in the safe.

    If your rifle is oiled in a closed bag, the air in the safe can't condense onto it.

    When rifles are stored or boxed for a long time, they are covered in grease for this reason.

    A bag that has openings, or flaps into the main compartment will let the humidity in.

    You can test the theory with two offcut, unpainted pieces of mild steel. Coat one in oil, and wrap it in cling wrap. Rub the second piece down with an oil rag, and leave it unwrapped. Put them in the safe for a while, and see what happens. If you have aggressive humidity, like near the coast, the unwrapped mild steel will show some rust even though it was wiped with the oil rag.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    A rifle will rust if put in bag warm/hot and stored, always air bag open(bags can go moldy) and rifle for a good while before locking away.

    Depending on material type, Nylon, Rayon (synthetic materials) will be less likely to hold moisture and retain damp than leather and felt type of bags, also they breath better so as to reduce chances of condensation inside the bag.
    All this would likely be the most affected by where you live, Joburg thunderstorm area or Karoo velt.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    I'd get a lekker fright if I saw condensation inside a safe or on a gun but I am from the Karoo so I'll probably never see how it looks. I have noticed though that there is some damp ground under a rock- it was either in the morning or night- so we get the same effect when the day turns around. It pulls water out of the ground.

    The main reason I ask this is because when told about this people will always say "never ever leave your gun in the bag" and at most they will add "under a bed" but they do not add anything like the gun being warm, it being humid, wiping it down or any other caveats so I assumed that a gun left in a gun bag is just a straight road to rust, no questions asked.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    Besides the condensation. I have seen that some people. Not alot. Will touch a barrel of a rifle or bled pistol. And then somehow hour or so later. You can see service type rust marks where their fingers touched. Not sure if its something in their sweat or hands thats more moist or something.

    Either way. I have a piece of cloth with Fluid film sprayed on. Its like it stays forever on the cloth and does not dry out. But from range everything gets a quick wipe and into safe

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    Hot rifle into a cool bag? Must form some sort of moisture

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    My grandfather always left his 303 in a bag in the safe. He never had any problems with rust. But as Shooty said some people can touch a gun and it will start to rust. I had a friend that carried his Glock 26 gen 5 for about 2 weeks and the slide and barrel started to rust and pit. He even cleaned and wiped the pistol off every night but that didn't realy helped.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    I have what the jewelers call poison hands, if I touch metal it rusts. The guy who told me about "poison hands" was a jeweler and said he had had a operation to to ???? remove, disconnect ?? something in or before his hands because he would tarnish metal he worked with by touch.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    I guess some kill with their hands and other with their feet Treeman

    are you a double threat?

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Gunmyths - Rifle Bag Rust

    Quote Originally Posted by treeman View Post
    I have what the jewelers call poison hands, if I touch metal it rusts.
    This is a real thing: some people rust metals and even melt their keyboards with their fingers. True story. And I know why this happens.

    I had a conversation with an elderly but classy woman working for a client company of mine, and it went like this...

    Her: "Most peculiar, for some reason keyboard keys lose their letters after just a few weeks after I get me a new one."

    Me: "Oh, yes, it's quite a common phenomenon and it has to with your perspiration."

    Her: "Excuse me? My perspiration?"

    I should've heard the ice in her voice and just fled the scene, but as I did know the answer to her question, I thought she might want to know the science behind her vanishing letters and melting buttons...

    "Yes, many people especially with kidney problems have such a lot of uric acid and urea in their sweat that it actually melts plastic a little by little."

    "Do you mean... I piss from my fingers?" ...the latter part of her sentence was vested with an ample amount of anger and disgust and if looks could kill... Well, I wouldn't be telling this story...

    This is when I fled, but boy was it way too late...


    Sorry for my off topic Meteor...

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