Remington Moisturegaurd Gun Plugs.

[Zebra62]

Has anyone used Remington's Moisturegaurd Gun plugs?

It seems like a nice way to prevent corrosion for long term storage if it actually works. The description claims they can be used as a snap cap also, so if one is loaded in the chamber and keep your magazine loaded, in theory you should be able to cycle the ation one time to eject the plug and chamber a live round.

I was thinking about ordering one for each of ours.

[Synchronizor]

As snap caps, you really don't need them to keep your gun stored with the hammer down. You won't hurt an 870 by dry-firing it without a snap cap, and there'll be no chance of a jam (unlikely as it may be) when you need to get the gun into action quickly. Snap caps and dummy rounds are great for practice, but they're not necessary for storage.

[MStarmer]

I have to agree, not needed and I would surely not recommend this for any kind of storage for a HD situation for a couple of reasons. First being look at the construction, it appears to be all plastic including the rim (which takes a beating being chambered and ejected). There is a high probability that this will fail to eject as it gets worn a bit. No problem if you want to use it as designed to help reduce rust but not for a gun that could be put into action. Secondly that I don't think it's a good idea to try and get a dummy round out and a live round in under stress, either it's empty or it's loaded, not any kind of "in-between" state.

Snap caps do have a place for storage in other shotguns though, O/U and doubles that have no way to take tension of their springs and if they aren't safe to dry fire. My dads favorite cheap sears/stevens double broke the firing pin from just that. I think for the fancy O/U guns they actually sell something to hold against the breach just for that reason. Of course there's the never ending debate on whether to leave weapons cocked or not, but that's a different topic.

If rust or corrosion is your primary concern I would think any quality CLP or lube will give more than adequate protection. Depends on your environment, finish and frequency of service.

[tom]

The Remington MoistureGuard can double as a snap cap, but the idea I think is to use it like silica gel packets - just leave it sitting in your gun cabinet, safe, etc where it'll capture moisture to prevent corrosion. It doesn't have to be chambered in the gun to collect moisture.

[Synchronizor]

Remington's product description makes it sound like there's something more to those plugs than a simple desiccant, but there's probably some level of marketing BS in there. However they work, placing them in a gun's chamber would ensure that moisture in those areas would be the first to be absorbed/negated/whatever, providing focused protection for the chamber and barrel bore. I don't think they're meant to protect a whole safe interior; there are better tools for that, like active dehumidifiers or reusable desiccant packets that can be dried out in an oven.

[Zebra62]

Logical and sound advice from all. It does seem I need to do a bit more research on the dehumidifier issue, but I won't be buying the Remington plugs.

I do not keep snap caps in the chamber of my HD weapons. Even though we have not had an extraction problem with the caps I have for our 20 gauge, we have had feed problems. About half the time the caps will not come out of the magazine and I have to disassemble to get them out. Live rounds feed just fine including the empty rounds we have laying around. I fold the open end back in on itself and presto - practice round. They don't have the same weight as a live round, but do well enough right now.

[Synchronizor]

I do not keep snap caps in the chamber of my HD weapons. Even though we have not had an extraction problem with the caps I have for our 20 gauge, we have had feed problems. About half the time the caps will not come out of the magazine and I have to disassemble to get them out. Live rounds feed just fine including the empty rounds we have laying around.

What snap caps do you use? I use the 12ga aluminum A-Zoom ones, which are pretty good, except for the rim diameters being just slightly less than spec, causing them to frequently double-feed from the magazine during drills.

[Zebra62]

Ours are plastic ones I picked up from Academy. I don't recall the brand right now, I'll look at them when I get home tonight. I di recall when I was looking, they were the only style anyone had in stock in town.

[Zebra62]

The snap caps we have are Tradition Omniplast. I tried them again last night hoping I was just doing something wrong, but still came up with the same results. About half the time they will not exit the magazine.

Close inspection of the caps does not show any wear or chipping of the plastic, so it may be a tolerance issue. The long and short of it is that I wasted $6.99 plus tax on something and I feel a little upset about it. True, its only a few dollars, but I could have used those dollars to buy lunch one day, or two more gallons of gas.

Chalk it up to experience.

[Synchronizor]

The snap caps we have are Tradition Omniplast. I tried them again last night hoping I was just doing something wrong, but still came up with the same results. About half the time they will not exit the magazine.

Close inspection of the caps does not show any wear or chipping of the plastic, so it may be a tolerance issue. The long and short of it is that I wasted $6.99 plus tax on something and I feel a little upset about it. True, its only a few dollars, but I could have used those dollars to buy lunch one day, or two more gallons of gas.

Chalk it up to experience.

I did the exact same thing. The day I bought my 870, I also picked up a pair Tipton Snap Caps, which were the only ones that the shop had on the shelf.

In addition to being too short and light to properly represent real shells for practice purposes; the plastic rims turned out to be too thick to function properly, especially before my gun had been broken in. The action would not close completely unless I slammed it shut, and then I had to really yank to open it again. I wasted my money, but learned my lesson.