doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: Gun storage climate control

I want to build a little "trappers' cabin" on my property to house all my hunting, fishing, and outdoor junk in one common organized place. I want an aquarium for live bait and a place to tie flies without my cat's help. My own private tiny sporting goods store with shelves, racks, and so on. It will get the clutter out of my house and workshops. If I move it can become an accessory dwelling unit.

My question is how much, if any, climate control do you think is necessary to properly store guns and ammo? Thanks.

Ryan,
i use a desiccant canister in my safe, however it is in a temperature controlled home. If your cabin has electricity, then i presume an electric safe dehumidifier would work providing power is not lost. I estimate that my safe interior humidity is around 40%.
Guys that have a safe in the basement or garage might have better information for you. Hope this helps,
Karl

I keep my safe in my garage. It's heated over the winter to about 40 degrees. I have a Golden Rod in my safe that keeps the interior temp of the safe closer to 60 degrees and the humidity in the high 40s. Never had a problem. And because my garage is above freezing, when I drive in with a snowy car, lots of moisture. Never a problem with the safe.

I had one of those canisters years ago and ended up throwing it out. Didn't work worth a darn. I had one of those Goldenrod dryer dehumidifier rods- it melted and scared the heck out of me. So, now I use one of those small, 3", 650 lumens, 60 watt bulb. It keeps my safe about 70+ degrees. No problems so far in the past few years. 👍

Over the years, I have had my guns in the basement, garage and boiler room. A few hours a day with the Goldenrod on a timer has worked for the last 15 years. The boiler room was a problem since my stocks shrunk and some got loose. Fortunately, they all came back when I moved.
I am not sure a live bait aquarium will be compatible unless you build a separate isolated area. Higher humidity in the summer plus a live bait aquarium does not sound like it should be near guns.

Seeing you are from Denver the humidity problem shouldn't be as big of an issue as other locations. Some form of heater, a golden rod or like one guy said a light bulb should work. I have two safes, one has a golden rod the other doesn't have anything & I haven't found any difference to my guns between the two, but I do keep them wiped down & use rig on the seldom used ones.

Being as we, both live in the same general area. I would be more concerned with the potential theft issue of having my guns stored in an un-occupied outbuilding. I do most of my gun work in my detached garage, but I sure wouldn't put my gun safe out there for a couple different reasons. One is it isn't climate-controlled year around even though I do have a gas fired heater in it for warming when necessary and two, is because it's unoccupied and it's just plain easier for someone to break into. My experience has been that it's not that big of a deal to carry a gun to the garage when needed while having the peace of mind that the rest of the time they are in a climate-controlled environment with people & dogs around most of the time.

My sentiments, exactly!! I wouldn't leave my guns in a building that I wasn't living in. I have an out building and I would never think of storing my guns there, unless there were hidden and with a burglar alarm. I might keep one there for protection, but that would be it.

I noticed last week, my local gunshop is now selling small electric dehumidifiers with a fan that go inside the safe. That might be a nice investment.

I have had a Goldenrod in a big Mosler safe, that I converted to gun storage nearly twenty years ago, in an unheated building all that time. The goldenrod is never turned off and has never caused any problem. Zero issues with the guns inside, also. Works perfectly. I have seen water actually dripping off the outside of that big old Mosler, and opened it to find all contents warm and toasty. I live in a region of very high humidity.

I have kept reloading supplies in an unheated outbuilding and used cans of powder that were 30 years old with no issues.

Most people use those Golden Rods. They are nice to use. I was shocked that the end of mine melted on the end where the cord goes into it. The whole rubber end of it melted which means it probably got hot. I still have another one here, but I decided to just use a light bulb. It is too humid where I live not to have something. I still take mine out about once a week and wipe them off with an oily rag. That's a good thing to do.