Hi Guys....

A frequent "theme" here is the Burial Tube concept.  I recently completed a somewhat long term trial and have some comments that may be of interest.

Eight years ago I acquired some acreage.  After some time spent setting things up (cabin, small foot bridge, etc) I opted to try the burial tube concept.  I recently sold the land and as a result needed to dig up the tube.  And since I was already digging it up, I figured I'd post some comments for the benefit of the group.

The Tube:  Nothing fancy, just the typical white 6" PVC pipe sourced at Lowes.  In reality, mine was the foam cored stuff, which apparently isn't all the great as far as pipe goes.  One glued on end cap on one end, one screw cap on the other.  Mine was approx 4 feet long.

The Contents:  Some "junk" firearms acquired on the cheap.  A Yugo 59/66 I picked up new in box, cleaned up.  A Marlin Papoose 70 .22...  And a couple other blued steel firearms.  Some ammo.  A few odds and ends (fire starters, etc).  The ammo was a plastic sleeved pack of FNM 7.62x39.  other ammo was commercial boxed stuff, vacuum sealed in plastic food saver bags.

The Method: I'm sure there are lots of better ways to do this.  This was sort of a "what the hell, lets try it!" whim.  I simply sprayed all metal down with a good heavy coat of G96 (which is very good rust preventative!:  Keeps the "in the white" ways on my lathe looking new even in a damp basement).  Stuffed it all in the tube.  Tossed a Browning Safes Zerust Capsule in the tube.  And, since rust is a chemical oxidation involving oxygen and iron, I thought reducing available oxygen might reduce rust.  So, I grabbed a couple of regular $.99 per package disposable hand warmers, opened the package up, and tossed them in.  Handwarmers simply use oxygen and iron in a chemical reaction to create heat.  If the hand warmer  used up available O2 quickly, there'd be less O2 to form rust on my rifles...  Placed the warmers in a location where they would not be resting up against blued steel.....

I tested the cap.  It seemed like a reasonable fit with the fitting.  Being paranoid, I wanted to ensure a good seal.  I put one or two wraps of pipe tape on the threads so that it would engage once the cap was nearly fully seated.  used wrench to install the cap.

The location:  My 72 acres grew a wonderful crop of rocks.  Most of it was very thin soils, over solid bed rock. What isn't stone and rock tended to be wet muck.  More water = more chances for water infiltration. And more water meant soils frozen solid for several months a year.  I wanted a higher, drier site, preferably with good drainage.  A post-hole digger and a vertical hole was NOT an option, or at least not an option without blasting.  The site was a moderate hill top, with thin sandy soils.  A trench was dug, down to bedrock, meaning about 12" deep and 4 feet long.  The tube was laid horizontally, and covered.  Landmarks were noted and a small stone "cairn" used to mark the location.

The Retrieval:  Some four or five years later the tube was dug up.  Even though I was intimately familiar with the land and had the stone cairn to mark the location, retrieval was more difficult than expected.  I was on the cairn and digging confidently in seconds.  Only the tube wasn't there!  Dig some to this side.  Dig some to that side.  No tube.  After a frustrating half an hour I thought "Maybe its deeper than expected" and when to the starting point.  It was there, only inexplicably deeper than I remembered....  Screw cap removal required significant muscle and a big wrench!

The contents:  After four or five years, buried, through our usual wet Springs, a record wet Summer, wetter Falls, and terrible winters, the contents were unscathed.  They looked every bit as good as the day they went into the tube.  Not a speck of rust, anywhere.  And my corrosion prevent measures were fairly lax.  A spray on coat of G96.  I suspect the Browning Zerust Capsules helped tremendously (nice, low volume enclosed sealed environment) and oxygen removal/reduction didn't hurt any to be sure.

I'd call the test a complete success.  My only do-over?  Some means of easier location.  Im thinking some indestructible yellow 1/4" poly rope, tied to the tube and splayed out left and right under the soils.  Find the rope, follow the rope....  This 'test" was easy: I walked by that location frequently, and it was marked clear as day with the small four-stone cairn. Remember this bugger was laid horizontally, so you'd figure it would be easy to find.... I was a bit puzzled until I thought "screw it, lets just dig until I hit stone"....  The damned thing was six inches deeper than I expected.  And vegetation changes had me second guessing: Is this REALLY the stone cairn?  (Yes, I  had confirmation since it was 8 feet from the neatest, weirdest old burr oak....)

Fro

Good info, I never really thought about the handwarmers.

nice info...i'm currently testing another end cap system...will post pics ....soon?

In for the hopes of pics. Handwarmers sounds like a clever idea. Thanks!

cool info, thanks for doing it! I like the rope location idea too. I might suggest like red wire though, since I always seem to hit wires in my yard that I just can't dig through.

Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing

Wanting to try this at my place, thanks

Some great info, thanks for posting.

Somewhere in the early days of Arfcom pre Y2K was a thread where a guy in California buried an SKS for Y2K and it ended up under about 20 feet of extra dirt due to construction at his chosen burial site. I don't know if he ever got that one back.

Thank you for posting - some good stuff in here!

I have a 6" x 36" thick PVC tube 2' below the ground. I will check on the water level in spring. The tube is empty since I'm a lazy MoFo

+1

I have a couple youth Rossi matched pair 22LR+20GA, one that has just been sitting around since I acquired it for less than $100 when on sale years ago.  This thread really interests me as I haven't been able to send anything off for its final burial.  Living in the damp north east I never knew what to expect.  I always wanted to build like a small well insulated spider hole with various supplies and a locking door but never seem to get around to it...