Jump to content

Protection for your pistols


Chris_B
 Share

Recommended Posts

I just whipped this up for a rimfire forum. It is particular to a modern Walther pistol, but indulge me here mods; I also have a photo of a mil-spec M1911A1 in this guide so I have a foot on shaky ground at the least. This pertains to collectible and military firearms very much

 

My intent here is to illustrate how a readily available case for electronics can be made into an extremely tough and lifetime warranteed pistol case. very suitable for collectible pistols; the cases are light, tough as nails, fully foam lined, non-corrosive, have pressure relief valves, water-proof gaskets, and metal reinforced hasps for locks

 

These are the same cases the US Military uses. My firm supplies robotic equipment to the US Military all around the world, and we use these cases because they are all they are cracked up to be. If they trust an M249 SAW or a robotic EOD assembly to this manufacturer's product, then I trust my M1911A1 to it.

 

This is a direct cut and paste; bear with me a minute

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The following will be a walk through of a job I just did tonight of customizing a case. It was not specifically a gun case. I like Pelican brand cases. They have many advantages as well as a lifetime warranty. They are available at many places but are not cheap. Other alternatives are out there

 

Here's a double-pistol case of mine. Note the gasket, the pressure valve, and the metal reinforced holes for locks. This walkthrough will be for a small .22 pistol; I just completed this project tonight. But the techniques are exactly the same as for this double pistol case

 

Pay no attention to the POW on the left :rolleyes:

 

THREE.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The case I chose for this little pistol is naturally fairly small. But these are light and tough. Also, I will be putting much into this little case, and I will end up with two layers of space inside it

 

FOUR.jpg

 

Here's what you see when you open it up

 

ELEVEN.jpg

 

The foam inside is thick, and it is cubed on the model I bought:

 

FIVE.jpg

 

We will not want to have to reach through 3" of foam to get the pistol or tools inside the case. Start by measuring off one-half the thickness of the foam. I use packing tape. As you can see, this is more than deep enough for the P22. This same technique was used for the .45 and the P.38 in the double pistol case, so this method should work for almost any pistol

 

SIX.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Use a bread knife to cut the foam. Start at a corner, and go as far as you can. By cutting at the corners, you can watch both ends of the blade and make sure you're cutting straight

 

SEVEN.jpg

 

Don't worry if it is not 100% perfectly cut. Later on, only the 'factory' sides will be seen. As you can see, it is easy to be fairly neat

 

EIGHT.jpg

 

Cut at all four corners. Go slowly, it's a fast job. Once you can't go any further at each corner only a small chunk will be whole in the center. Carefully cut free-hand from each side, a little at a time. The cut you've already made will be a fair guide

 

Now place one side of the half-thickness foam in the bottom of the case. Put the 'factory' side up. It will look perfect even if you screwed up a little. I have a small advantage; I used to cut foam at a job free-hand all the time, my hands were described as surgeon-like when cutting a straight line. One tip is- don't move your wrist. Move your whole arm at the shoulder, much like shooting pool, so you pivot instead of see-saw

 

NINE.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There should be a thin layer of non-cubed foam with the case. This is included for when you take out the entire layer of foam as you 'pick and pluck' the cubes out, and is intended for the bottom of the case under the foam. I put it between the two halves, to make a clean surface

 

TEN.jpg

 

Put your other half in the case, 'factory' side up. Admire your work looking exactly like it did before you started cutting

 

ELEVEN.jpg

 

Now, it's arts and crafts time. Put the pistol and accessories roughly where you want them to end up

 

TWELVE.jpg

 

This may change. My lay-out did. But no matter, the most important part is taking the foam out for the pistol. Once you have decided where it's going to go, remove the pistol and the top layer of foam. Turn that foam layer upside down, so the 'ugly side' is up. Place the pistol on the foam,bearing in mind you are now backwards from what it looked like before

 

THIRTEEN.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now, here you start picking your battles. Get the pistol square on the foam. Remember that the cubes will never outline anything but a block perfectly. So choose to line the pistol up at a straight edge, like the top of the slide, and at a corner. When choosing this spot, make sure that the edges of the cubed foam line up with the contour you wish to start at. It's smart to do this near an edge. I try to leave at least two cube-widths to the edge, as it gets dicey if you only leave one cube width anywhere, as we will see in future pictures. Once you have a staring spot, mark the position of the pistol. This is why we are on the ugly side. I use a paint marker. Don't paint your pistol

 

FOURTEEN.jpg

 

Be conservative with your marks. Remember that you can always remove more foam, you can never add it later. A smaller hole is much better than a big one right now. Remove the pistol and connect the dots

 

FIFTEEN.jpg

 

You'll need to take out a test cube to see how it goes. This is why it's so good to start at a straight edge of the pistol, and at a corner

 

SIXTEEN.jpg

 

This low light photo makes it easier to see the foam I removed. Looks weird, right? I'm taking out as little foam as I can, remember. Don't try to 'rip' the foam out in a line, it' better to shove a finger down the edge from front to back, one cube at a time. In other words, don't go left to right, go down into the foam and break free each cube as you go

 

SEVENTEEN.jpg

 

Regular flash photo, with pistol for comparison

 

EIGHTEEN.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Suddenly the weird shape makes sense. I changed my layout a little. Note the "L" shapes for the mags, so they don't rip the foam:

 

NINETEEN.jpg

 

Now, the foam is still pretty deep even though it's half thickness, and I want a tool compartment. I don't want them to be down that deep hole. So, at a corner, I used scotch tape similarly to the packing tape earlier, and using a very sharp thin knife and scissors, I filleted the foam at that edge at one half the thickness of my top half of foam. Then I marked out the area to be removed (no paint pen needed, this is a simple shape), and plucked out my foam

 

TWENTYONE.jpg

 

Low light photo of the half-thickness compartment. I liked this, and I decided that my 5" barrel and bushing, as well as the extension, were too 'deep', too

 

TWENTYTWO.jpg

 

So I took the foam that I removed (I made sure to remove "blocks" instead of individual cubes whenever I could), and used scissors to cut them into half-thickness pieces. Then I simply put them into the holes for the 5" barrel, bushing, and extension, to build them up. Now they are easy to access. I didn't use this technique for the tool compartment because the small tools may slide down into the gaps

 

TWENTYTHREE.jpg

 

As you see, there's still plenty of room for a can of dry-lube and a bore-snake, as well as the guide-pin I will make for assembling the slide to the frame

 

Now, underneath that top half of foam is an entire layer of cubed foam that is just a spacer. I will remove whatever foam I need to to put a small dedicated cleaning kit in that layer

 

Total time: one and a half hours

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully this little quick tutorial can help somebody out. The above case was about 90 bucks; I'm sure they can be had cheaper. I would not hesitate to throw this case off the back of a truck into a gravel pit with the pistol inside it. Cheap insurance for a collectible military pistol you may have paid thousands for

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully this little quick tutorial can help somebody out. The above case was about 90 bucks; I'm sure they can be had cheaper. I would not hesitate to throw this case off the back of a truck into a gravel pit with the pistol inside it. Cheap insurance for a collectible military pistol you may have paid thousands for

 

Thanks for all the work to put that together. I have long used Pelican cases for photo gear and while I have seen imitators, I think the Pelican brand is the way to go.

 

It looks like you used the Pelican 1400 case with foam. I've put together a link to to that at the USMF Amazon.com store:

 

pelican1400.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is so James Bond cool! Throw in some gold coins, a GPS, a couple credit cards and a passport, and you are ready for adventure and intrigue. Very nice!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had problems with "eggshell" foam in a hardside case removing the finish from a blued rifle - solved by surrounding the rifle in an old towel. I don't think that'd be a problem with the modern finish on the demonstrator pistol (Sig?), but how about a blued weapon? Any advice there?

 

This is a GREAT tutorial, thanks for taking the time to put it together for us!

 

Thrasher

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A nice idea, however, I NEVER store any weapon in any foam. I have seen a lot of foam in cases, that has broken down over the years ruining medals guns knives almost anything stored for long peroids. I have lined my gun cases with velvet or recycled wool cloth. Gun oil reacts oddly to different foams, so to preclude any accidents, all foam is removed or covered with a neutral reacting fabric, it just aint worth the risk. All foam out-gasses over time, and some of the chemicals used in the making of foam reacts with metal. Just my 2 1/2 cents worth, Dave :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are closed cell and open cell foams and they are quite different and many of the general statements about the damage from foam are probably based on experiences with open cell foam, which is sponge like and affected by chemicas. Pelican cases use closed cell, and are described thus: "Closed cell Polyethylene: Will not absorb water - easy to clean - not affected by acids, solvents or gasoline."

 

 

This forum has a good discussion, but there does not seem to be one definitive solution: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=160857

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for moving this!

 

In regards to 'storing guns in foam', well...the best place to store is in a safe, with humidity and temperature control. These are transportation cases- they have handles :) They could not guard against, for example, a major fire. This tutorial is not intended to offer the best solution for long term storage of firearms. For my own pistols, which I use, this ends up as short-term storage because they are out of the case every 1 to 3 months to be used.

 

But as mentioned however, this is closed cell, not open cell. The US military really does use exactly this line of cases to transport equipment including firearms around the world- I am involved in part of that process actually. In addition "foam" is a very broad term describing an incredible range of plastics with various properties

 

Typically, polyethylene is not considered bio-degradable as it takes centuries to break down and does not dissolve at room temperatures. The melting point of this stuff is probably around 200 F. There are of course many types of polyethylene. Oils should not harm it. Things like toluene and benzene can, but you should stay away from toluene and benzene anyway :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had problems with "eggshell" foam in a hardside case removing the finish from a blued rifle - solved by surrounding the rifle in an old towel. I don't think that'd be a problem with the modern finish on the demonstrator pistol (Sig?), but how about a blued weapon? Any advice there?

 

This is a GREAT tutorial, thanks for taking the time to put it together for us!

 

Thrasher

 

It's a Walther, a little teeny P22 that fires 22LR. A lot of fun to shoot.

 

There are gun socks made from the same silicon cloth that are for gun cloths. Should not harm the blued finish. if I intended to store for years at a time, I would use one. I actually should get one on general principles for my M1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not now, but in years past, before I owned a proper gun vault, I protected both handguns and longarms with SOX. Two Army boot sox, one from the muzzle and one from the butt end, would cover a rifle. If I wanted to keep the weapon "wet" I sprayed the inside of teh sox with WD-40. If there was concern about the lubricant soaking through to stain something, I put a plastic bag over the sock(s) -- newspaper bags are long and narrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I use one off those plastic and egg crate foam to store my 1911 and other blued pistols. Just a couple questions...

 

1. The case i purchased from dicks sporting goods, does anybody know if the egg crate foam used is closed cell or open cell?

 

2. Would the egg crate foam gradually rub the blued finish off the pistols?

 

Thanks in advance,

David.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...