Holy crap. I had a similar accident when I was at my favorite fishing lake. Sadly every one of my guns went overboard and down to Davey Jones Locker...
Now I have to fish from shore. 
Posted on 12/30/2012 5:26:58 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
On a gun site, someone suggested using the Zerust VC2-2 NoRust Vapor Capsules insides of a gun safe to prevent rust. They said these are used for metal parts in shipping containers. Was curious if anyone has used these over an extended period of time, as I am concerned these are made for short term use and not about long-term viability with guns.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerust.com ...
Gotta say it for those who are tired of hearing it: I don’t have to worry because there are no more guns in my gun safe. I had a canoe accident . . .
But, no, I don’t know anything about that product. I just (used to) clean every gun quarterly, and run a swab of gun oil through when I was done.
“I just (used to) clean every gun quarterly, and run a swab of gun oil through when I was done.”
I found that was also a good way to make sure the guns work properly when you pull them out of the safe.
You can use a desiccant which is a crystalline formed chemical that adsorbs water vapor. It changes color when enough water is trapped, and then it is baked in an oven and goes back to it’s original color and reused. Any gun safe manufacturer should have it.
I have some of those, but I have a question. How do you safely “bake” these things without a fire? Do you microwave them? Possibly a dumb question, but I thought I would ask anyway.
Do I have to oil the thing every time?
If you want to use a vapor product to protect your stuff from rust and oxidation, you could take a lesson from the people who ship and store microwave electronic parts. They put them in a plastic bag and then drop several moth ball into the bag with them. As the moth balls sublime (evaporate), the air is displaced and the products are protected against oxidation.
Great answer. Dessicants are widely available. I would think most commercial packaging places would have them, too.
Those dessicants need to be recharged very often......this precludes the need for doing that so frequently.
I started using the EVA-DRY in my gun safes. Have a viewable window that tell you when you need to take them out of the safe and plug them into a 115vac outlet to dry them out. This takes 6-8 hours and then you put them back in the safe.
Cost is 25 bucks and you can do this over and over again. I have had mine in operation in 3 safes for over 2 years now and they seem to be functioning well.
The dessicants I’ve seen come in a metal container; that way it makes it safe to dry them out in the oven.
Holy crap. I had a similar accident when I was at my favorite fishing lake. Sadly every one of my guns went overboard and down to Davey Jones Locker...
Now I have to fish from shore.
A gun that has been used should be cleaned and oiled annually to get carbon that has slowly leached from the metal since its last cleaning. It will also clean out any transient rust that may have formed, as well as common dust.
This gets excellent reviews on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Zerust-VC2-2-NoRust-Vapor-Capsule/dp/B003T1H7IA
Absolutely. Especially blued metal. Moisture will condense on the cold metal and surface rust can happen pretty quickly.
Mine have directions embossed on the container - roughly 350 degrees for three hours (from memory).
You can make your own desiccant for practically nothing, though it won’t have the color indicator. Get some gypsum wallboard and remove the paper, then cut or break it into half-inch pieces. Bake it in the oven at 400 degrees or hotter for at least an hour. Or toast it over a fire in a single layer in a metal container for at least 20 minutes, keeping the bottom of the container heated to dull red. This converts the gypsum to anhydrite by driving off the chemically-bound water from the gypsum molecule.
Before it cools too much and reabsorbs water from the air, store the anhydrite in an airtight container such as a glass jar. Put a few pieces on a saucer in your gun safe from time to time; how often will depend on how well the safe is sealed and how humid it is where you live. You can restore and reuse the desiccant pieces as many times as you like.
This is from “Pulling Through” by Dean Ing, in the part about how to make your own fallout meter at home.
On eBay by the pound.
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