Review: ZCORR Vapor Barrier Firearm and Ammo Bags

The number one enemy of any firearm or ammunition is corrosion.  Many shooters turn into firearm collectors, and many firearm collectors know the importance of two things–keep moisture out and keep the guns lubed.  Well ZCORR has been making a product that was designed to do/maintain these two things exceptionally well; so well in fact that their products previously were only available for the United States Marine Core.  Luckily for us, they’ve opened their product line to civilians, and Gunblog.com is ready to tell you about our experiences using the ZCORR Vapor Barrier firearm and ammunition storage bags.

ZCORR Vapor Barrier bags keep moisture out and preserve its contents within by utilizing a Vapor Phase Corrosion Inhibitor (VpCI).  Basically, in a nutshell, there is a layer of VpCI inside of the bag, and over time, the VpCI forms a gas which molecules cling to the metallic contents of the bags forming a protective barrier against corrosives.  Once the bag’s seal is broken so is the VpCI seal around the firearm or ammunition, making it immediately available for use.

Click “Read More” for the rest of the review and pictures.

To tell you the truth, I was thinking the same thing you’re probably thinking before handling the ZCORR Vapor Barrior bags, “it’s just a fancy bag, big deal.”  Well, I’ll tell you right off the bat, these bags are kind of a big deal.  When initially handling the bags, I was immediately impressed by the obvious durability and quality that the ZCORR bags presented.  They’re extremely tough and will not rip easily–one would probably need a pretty sharp knife to puncture them, yet their still quite flexible.

The zip lock type seal on the ammo bags are incorporated well, easy to operate, and have an industrial feel to their lock.  They’re air tight–I unsuccessfully tried my hardest to squeeze the bags, trying to get them to “pop” after it was sealed.  I have no doubt that the ZCORR ammo bags will help preserve its contents while keeping out the catalysts of corrosion, moisture and air.


The ammo bags seem to fit more than I would of expected.  I was able to put 350 rounds of .223 in one bag, and it probably could of housed about 100 more.  I rattled and shook the bag seeing if I could get one of the rounds to puncture the bag, or get the bag to pop open, neither of which happened.  The bag did show some places where the rounds pressed against the bag significantly enough to show “divots,” but no punctures.

The Vapor Barrier Firearm bag ZCORR sent me shares the same attributes as the ammo bags with a few differences.  The first is the outer layer of the bag–its a reflective, silver, and looks like it was made by NASA.  Its extremely durable, even more so than the ammo bags–I could not rip the bag or puncture it by hand.  The ZCORR Vapor Barrier rifle bags are long enough for almost any long gun I could think of.  It’ll have no problem housing a Mousin Nagat or any other rifle being that it can contain my AR-15 with a YHM suppressor on it and with the stock fully extended.  The other difference the rifle bag has from the ammo bag is the seal.  The rifle bag that ZCORR sent me has a Velcro seal.  Granted its a very high quality Velcro seal, probably the tightest and strongest I’ve seen; however, being that it’s Velcro, its gives me some doubt about its ability to create an air tight seal.  ZCORR does make a vacuum seal bag though, which has a zip lock seal and a vacuum valve that can be used by any household vacuum–unfortunately, ZCORR didn’t send us one of these bags; they would be more of an ideal solution for true corrosion resistance for long term firearm storage.

With the more firearms we shooters acquire, more of our guns start turning into “safe queens.”  It’s that rifle that sits in the back of your safe that you don’t really want to sell, but you don’t really take it out to the range that much either.  Well according to ZCORR, if those safe queens are clean and lubed before they go into one of their rifle bags, you won’t need to take it out to re-lube or clean it for 5 years.  I guess there was a good reason why the USMC used them for long term storage of their rifles.

While ZCORR bags are perfect for the collector, another demographic came to mind that I thought would really like to utilize these long term storage bags, the SHTF anticipator.  For those who don’t know, SHTF (S#!t hit the fan) is a quick way of saying when the world comes to end, society breaks down… you get the point.  I could easily see these pessimistic firearm owners utilizing these bags, especially for ammo.  I was able to fit two fully filled ammo bags, one with 300 rounds of .45 and one with 350 rounds of .223, snugly in a .50 cal ammo can.

The idea for the ZCORR Vapor Barrier bags is for long term storage.  Gunblog.com has had about 2 months of experience with them, which isn’t enough time to really see if they work.  So while our initial thoughts on the ZCORR Vapor Barrier bags are good, they don’t necessarily capture the true performance of the bags since we would need a lot more time.  So we’re going to update this review in 6 months, and in one year, making this an ongoing review.  I have given the bag to a collector that has some safe queens, and a few ammo bags to a friend that keeps a lot of “anticipatory” ammo in long term storage.  From our first impressions, the ZCORR bags are almost a must have, but we’ll let time be the test, and we’ll wait for a final verdict next year.


View the original article here