VP 90 sachets - do they affect rubber?

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paultap

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Hi Guys, I have a couple of Bratton Sound Rifle cabinets which were originally bought by myself from new, there was some kind of voucher in them giving an entitlement to a free VP90 sachet as I recall, I have always continued to use these sachets to act as a rust prohibiter in my gun cabinets. I am starting to wonder if this stuff adversely affects rubber on certain gun stocks in particular.

I have a stainless Sako 85 with a synthetic stock which I have had since new, bought in 2013. The rubber overmolding on the stock had broken down and the stock went all sticky. (I have previously posted a thread about this) the result was that I had to get the stock stripped of all the rubber, or buy a new stock, I went on to have it hydro dipped in a carbon fibre pattern.

GMK were aware of the rubber on these stocks breaking down over time, blaming contact with any number of things - gun oil, gun cleaner, after shave, bug repellent, they weren't really sure other than to predictably say that this problem wasn't covered on the warranty, even within its warranty period. Sako are still producing the exact same stocks today on their stainless synthetic 85's, knowing that this problem exists, the stocks are not fit for purpose in my opinion. Having experienced this, my advice would be, DON'T buy a Sako 85 with this stock on it.

I also have a beretta 391 shotgun with a synthetic stock on it. It has grey rubber grip panels on the stock, having seen photos of other 391's with this stock, the inserts break down on this stock also, so I wouldn't be surprised if the soft grip panels on this starts to degrade and break up. Again GMK will do nothing for you if you have this problem.

I am beginning to wonder if the Vapour from the VP 90 sachets adversely affects some gun stocks, the info around the VP 90 sachets says that it only bonds to the metal parts on guns but I'm not so sure. Has anybody else suffered from similar problems I wonder?
 
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paultap said:
I am beginning to wonder if the Vapour from the VP 90 sachets adversely affects some gun stocks, the info around the VP 90 sachets says that it only bonds to the metal parts on guns but I'm not so sure. Has anybody else suffered from similar problems I wonder?
Click to expand...
I have used VP90 since the 90s in my gun cabinets and have had both a Sako 85 synthetic and a Browning X-Bolt Stalker without the issues you describe. I sold the 85 on after 6 years and the stock exhibited none of the issues you describe and I have had the X-Bolt since 2019 without problem. I am meticulous though in ensuring no cleaning solvents or oil get onto the stocks and if it does, clean off immediately and thoroughly. Touch wood, no problems so far.................
 
I've the vp90 in my boxes at home and havent seen any noticeable change to any of my synthetic rifle or shotgun stocks.Ive probably tempted fate now lol.
 
What makes your gun sticky is the silicone gunmakers used to create the dura touch effect stocks, they now know it was a bad idea, hence they now don,t do them. I have just finished a Winchester x3 and a A bolt, clean them with acetone and then hydro dip. As for the 391 a very common problem, remove the rubber and insert a wood pattern linoleum cut out.
 
The thin rubberised coating on some Sako stocks is easily rubbed off leaving you with a standard synthetic stocked rifle.
A nice idea but as you say not fit for purpose
 
I have VP90 in my cabinet and also soft touch stocks. Both Sako, beretta and others and no real issues so far - this may be because I give my guns a spray with Napier/Legia aerosol spray and then wipe down before putting away and haven’t noticed any negative results so far, however - just by their nature the vapour phase (where VP comes from) corrosion inhibitors are usually a volatile substance to perform and so there is a possibility it would attack elastomers over time. (Similar to an open can of petrol or diesel where you can smell the particles in the air)

The VP’s are definitely a better option than silica crystals if you have wooden stocks as the silica can pull too much moisture out.

Vapour phase are widely used in metallic machining industries where they want to keep corrosion as bay.

Be an interesting question to ask Napier - if they have seen any long term affect on elastomers when stored with VP90 sachets.

Regards,
Gixer
 
I put a vp90 sachet in the cabinet with my Benelli 20bore with the grippy rubber coating on the fore end and that went tacky after several months.

I put it down to the vp90 🤬
 
Similar thing happened to my 12g Benelli synthetic stock. The coating went sticky. I never used vp90 so it wasn't that. Put it down to some bore cleaner I must have used. It was a right bugger getting the sticky residue off.
 
Now come to think of it I used to use WD40 for bore cleaning my Benelli shotgun so I presume it was traces of that getting on the stock. I now use Balistol. No problems since.
 
Wood warps mate .Had a 222 that started playing up at distance .Was the forend touching the once free floated barrel .Stuck a plastic on it and got another 5 years off it before I shot it out .
 
wytonpjs said:
I have used VP90 since the 90s in my gun cabinets and have had both a Sako 85 synthetic and a Browning X-Bolt Stalker without the issues you describe. I sold the 85 on after 6 years and the stock exhibited none of the issues you describe and I have had the X-Bolt since 2019 without problem. I am meticulous though in ensuring no cleaning solvents or oil get onto the stocks and if it does, clean off immediately and thoroughly. Touch wood, no problems so far.................
Click to expand...
I am meticulous also with cleaning, my Sako 85 is just over 8 years old, the stock was perfectly fine until the last few months, I pulled it out of the cabinet and noticed it had gone sticky, GMK were well aware of the problem, Browning soft touch stocks also suffer with a similar problem apparently. These stocks should come with a warning in the owners manual. You can reasonably expect a rifle stock to come into contact with products designed to clean and protect the metalwork, barrels etc of a firearm. For GMK to say that this isn't covered if it occurs within the original warranty period of the rifle is ridiculous and probably in breach of trading standards and consumer protection laws. I appreciate that my Sako is well out of its warranty period but these stocks are definitely not fit for purpose. I bet American customers get treated rather differently with their propensity to sue.
 
As I stated earlier nothing to do with cleaning products, browning recalled there stocks in the USA years ago.
 
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