# Weather-resistant Truck Guns?



## Scorpion8 (Jan 29, 2011)

A lot of the newer pistol models use polymer frames and zinc-alloy slides. Seems like a lot of the internal parts are aluminum also to reduce weight. For example my S&W SD40VE seems to have few if any "steel" parts inside, and those that are could easily be kept well lubed or greased. So am wondering what if any the general membership would think would be a good model "truck gun" that got left in the vehicle or extended periods and could be expected to be (mostly) weather resistant? With our wider swings in temps here, we get a lot of humidity buildup inside our vehicles that leads to condensation on the inside or the windows, etc. So I'd be concerned about "steel" guns rusting.

Anybody have any thoughts on the matter?


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## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

For a truck gun, I'd probably go with a well-used one. Most likely be a revolver, due to it's simplicity. 

I just don't like the idea of leaving a firearm in an unattended vehicle. I've never had a firearm stolen from me, and I don't want it to happen. 

Years ago, I had a Rossi .38 spcl. with a snubby barrel. Bought it from a pawnshop for like $75.00 or so. I took it with me when I went dirt-bike riding. I wasn't worried about it getting banged up. 

Not sure how one would combat high humidity inside a vehicle. Maybe some desiccant packs inside a gun rug? 

I would not keep an expensive firearm in a vehicle. While I was employed, I kept a gun inside my car at all times.....as long as I was in it. But it never spent anytime alone in the car, other than a quick stop here and there. 

In regards to the desiccant packs, there's plenty of them in various sizes and configurations on E-Bay.


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## RK3369 (Aug 12, 2013)

paratrooper said:


> I just don't like the idea of leaving a firearm in an unattended vehicle.


I make it a practice to always take mine with me when leaving the car, unless I know I'm going in somewhere where I can't legally carry. I have a retired LEO friend who has a pickup with electric locks and the remote key fob. He thinks he sat down in a chair in his house one evening and somehow unlocked his truck in his driveway. Says he always locked the truck when leaving it. Next morning he went out, his glock that he normally left in the truck was missing. No alarm, nothing, which is why he figured he accidentally unlocked it. Apparently one of the most common ways guns get stolen from vehicles is kids or thugs checking car doors at night to see if they are locked. If not, they grab whatever they can find inside. That's why I never leave one unattended especially in my driveway overnight. Besides, I need it to shoot at the little [email protected] when they set the car alarm off.


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## Sierra_Hunter (Feb 17, 2015)

Hi point.


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## Scorpion8 (Jan 29, 2011)

Thanks all, but a little off-point. My main question is which guns are the most weather resistant? Leaving a gun in a vehicle will expose it to temperature swings over daytime-thru-nighttime, and here we get a lot of condensation. I don't think there's much ferrous metal (steel) inside a cheap S&W Sigma for example, and it's a polymer frame and alloy slide. But I don't have one. But what about a Glock, or XDS? Are their slides all steel or an alloy like a Ruger SR-22 or Walther P-22? Most of my vintage guns are all-steel and I know would rust up in the same fashion that my boat safety chains and D-rings do.


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## Shipwreck (Jan 26, 2006)

I use this (optic is battery free and can take the heat)


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## GCBHM (Mar 24, 2014)

I would have no issue with leaving a Glock or a SS Sig or HK in a truck/car for extended periods of time. They're all treated with corrosion resistant treatments that should hold up to almost anything.


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## BigCityChief (Jan 2, 2013)

paratrooper said:


> I just don't like the idea of leaving a firearm in an unattended vehicle. I've never had a firearm stolen from me, and I don't want it to happen.
> .


Absolutely - I agree 100%.


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## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

Shipwreck said:


> I use this (optic is battery free and can take the heat)


Don't think that will fit in a glove box. :watching:


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## denner (Jun 3, 2011)

Scorpion8 said:


> A lot of the newer pistol models use polymer frames and zinc-alloy slides. Seems like a lot of the internal parts are aluminum also to reduce weight. For example my S&W SD40VE seems to have few if any "steel" parts inside, and those that are could easily be kept well lubed or greased.


I not too sure your SD40VE sports a zinc-alloy slide? Also, I don't believe any of your internal parts consist of aluminum. MIM or metal would be my guess. Very cold temps -30 and below would make any metal part fragile, the higher quality metal, less so, I would surmise.

I've heard condensation occurs more frequently when a pistol is stored in very cold temperatures, then heated up(car heater) and repeated over time. Likewise, lubricants tend to breakdown in extreme cold and heat as well.

I would think your SDVE40(if black) has a melonite finish. A Glock's tenifer finish is hard to beat. Very few of us from the lower 48 are going to experience such extremes as you have up there in Alaska. It may be best to ask around from folks in your neck of the woods and see what experiences they've had. I don't prescribe leaving firearms in vehicles un-attended, but if you must, don't store the pistol in a leather holster or any material that attracts moisture, and, if it were me, I wouldn't keep any firearm in a vehicle un-attended that you can't afford to lose.


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## Shipwreck (Jan 26, 2006)

paratrooper said:


> Don't think that will fit in a glove box. :watching:


Hahaha. I also have a Beretta PX4 I use. I got it for $399 late last year, and then got a $75 Beretta rebate. So, $325. Awesome $325 gun!

Barrels on both are chrome lined, which prevents the inside of the barrel from rusting.


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## Shipwreck (Jan 26, 2006)

denner said:


> I not too sure your SD40VE sports a zinc-alloy slide? Also, I don't believe any of your internal parts consist of aluminum. MIM or metal would be my guess. Very cold temps -30 and below would make any metal part fragile, the higher quality metal, less so, I would surmise.
> 
> I've heard condensation occurs more frequently when a pistol is stored in very cold temperatures, then heated up(car heater) and repeated over time. Likewise, lubricants tend to breakdown in extreme cold and heat as well.
> 
> I would think your SDVE40(if black) has a melonite finish. A Glock's tenifer finish is hard to beat. Very few of us from the lower 48 are going to experience such extremes as you have up there in Alaska. It may be best to ask around from folks in your neck of the woods and see what experiences they've had. I don't prescribe leaving firearms in vehicles un-attended, but if you must, don't store the pistol in a leather holster or any material that attracts moisture, and, if it were me, I wouldn't keep any firearm in a vehicle un-attended that you can't afford to lose.


It was my understanding that only the old 380 sigma had a zinc slide . It wore out quick, too. I think the gun had a 1-2k round lifetime., if I remember right... The gun couldn't hold up to 40 with that kinda slide. You only see 22s made with that pot metal stuff now. I really don't believe that Smith slide is anything but steel.


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## Spike12 (Dec 10, 2008)

Find one of the old Ruger P-Series pistols. There's no zinc in those babies. Poly frame and SS everything else. Tough as nails too. There's stories about how some Ruger engineers drilled countless holes in one to see how far they could go before it would fail. Old man Ruger heard about it and wasn't pleased. They never did get it to fail.


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## Shipwreck (Jan 26, 2006)

Spike12 said:


> Find one of the old Ruger P-Series pistols. There's no zinc in those babies. Poly frame and SS everything else. Tough as nails too. There's stories about how some Ruger engineers drilled countless holes in one to see how far they could go before it would fail. Old man Ruger heard about it and wasn't pleased. They never did get it to fail.


Yes, you can buy a P95 with a stainless slide for like $315 or so online. They have been discontinued, but not that long ago. I have had two over the years, as vehicle beater guns. I was going to possibly buy one again, but then caught the sale on the PX4 (and the rebate)


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## Goldwing (Nov 5, 2014)

Scorpion8 said:


> Thanks all, but a little off-point. My main question is which guns are the most weather resistant? Leaving a gun in a vehicle will expose it to temperature swings over daytime-thru-nighttime, and here we get a lot of condensation. I don't think there's much ferrous metal (steel) inside a cheap S&W Sigma for example, and it's a polymer frame and alloy slide. But I don't have one. But what about a Glock, or XDS? Are their slides all steel or an alloy like a Ruger SR-22 or Walther P-22? Most of my vintage guns are all-steel and I know would rust up in the same fashion that my boat safety chains and D-rings do.


There is a Youtube video out there where a guy buries a G21 in his yard for two years and after digging it up, rinses it off and takes it to the range.

At the range the guy and a group of friends send 800 rounds through it in a short amount of time. I think a Glock can stand a little truck time.
GW


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