Hopefully this post can save some folks from the same troubles I went through.
I moved to MD on military orders in fall 2021. I brought most of my collection (around 20 guns), leaving behind my shotguns and Steyr AUG with my dad. For years now, I've always kept my guns in my safe in the garage. I never thought about the effects of humidity because it's just not an issue where I came from. I routinely shot 1000s of rounds a year, mostly suppressed, and would put them back in the safe only to find them perfectly functionally months later. Admittedly, I tend to follow the clean it when it needs it ethos...
Shortly after moving to the area, I did a lot of shooting in quick succession. Then, my son was born and I didn't touch a gun for nearly a year and a half. My collection sat in the safe this whole time, going through two summers and winters. Realizing how much I missed target shooting and having the ability to go shooting more often, I decided to open the safe up and do a one over on everything. What I found was pretty bad (albeit fixable luckily)...
Of my handguns, the four that I shot most (and always suppressed), wouldn't even cycle. They were practically seized with this amalgamation of CLP, gunpowder residue, and humidity. My lesser fired guns were all fine as I had lightly cleaned everything before he was born. No cycling issues across my rifles or sub guns thankfully.
I called up local gunsmith who offered to do "deep cleans" on all five for $35. I dropped them off with him the same day. A week and $140 later they were good as new. He said they were gummed up worse than he's ever seen. Luckily, because my collection is all "modern", there were no concerns with rust due to modern manufacturing and protective coatings (phew). As a fellow west coaster who moved here and dealt with something similar, he gave me some tips.
Now I've got the safe setup with a 24" goldenrod and a 500g rechargeable desiccant pack. Everything has been cleaned again and checked thoroughly and should be good to go now. If you plan on storing your weapons outside of a climate controlled environment, HEED MY WARNING. It was a spendy lesson that hopefully can save future dry environment transplants like me the same hassle!
I moved to MD on military orders in fall 2021. I brought most of my collection (around 20 guns), leaving behind my shotguns and Steyr AUG with my dad. For years now, I've always kept my guns in my safe in the garage. I never thought about the effects of humidity because it's just not an issue where I came from. I routinely shot 1000s of rounds a year, mostly suppressed, and would put them back in the safe only to find them perfectly functionally months later. Admittedly, I tend to follow the clean it when it needs it ethos...
Shortly after moving to the area, I did a lot of shooting in quick succession. Then, my son was born and I didn't touch a gun for nearly a year and a half. My collection sat in the safe this whole time, going through two summers and winters. Realizing how much I missed target shooting and having the ability to go shooting more often, I decided to open the safe up and do a one over on everything. What I found was pretty bad (albeit fixable luckily)...
Of my handguns, the four that I shot most (and always suppressed), wouldn't even cycle. They were practically seized with this amalgamation of CLP, gunpowder residue, and humidity. My lesser fired guns were all fine as I had lightly cleaned everything before he was born. No cycling issues across my rifles or sub guns thankfully.
I called up local gunsmith who offered to do "deep cleans" on all five for $35. I dropped them off with him the same day. A week and $140 later they were good as new. He said they were gummed up worse than he's ever seen. Luckily, because my collection is all "modern", there were no concerns with rust due to modern manufacturing and protective coatings (phew). As a fellow west coaster who moved here and dealt with something similar, he gave me some tips.
Now I've got the safe setup with a 24" goldenrod and a 500g rechargeable desiccant pack. Everything has been cleaned again and checked thoroughly and should be good to go now. If you plan on storing your weapons outside of a climate controlled environment, HEED MY WARNING. It was a spendy lesson that hopefully can save future dry environment transplants like me the same hassle!