You've had some arguably good responses.
I'm going to answer with the perspective that you are a fairly new firearms owner.
As others have mentioned, springs wear out from cycles not being held in compression.
For parts wear it doesn't really matter slide locked to the rear or forward. I would base my decision on where the pistol is stored and how likely the pistol is to get dust, etc. on it during storage.
I store my pistols with the slide forward, magazine well empty or with a safe chamber flag inserted and a loaded magazine in the mag well. I don't leave loaded weapons, more correctly weapons with a round chambered OR a loaded magazine inserted and chamber flag in place, laying about unsecured. The exception to that rule are pistols carried on my person, or the pistols concealed in our bedroom, which is locked when we aren't home. I trust two GSD's to give us enough warning to eject the rapid racks if needed.
https://www.safrgun.com/
Whatever you choose, remember the first rule of firearms safety - all guns are always loaded - treat them as such until you have visually and physically confirmed otherwise.
Adding nothing to the conversation since 2015....
Funny this comes up at this time. In my fairly recent move, the safe went from my climate controlled bedroom to an unheated outbuilding. It gets quite cold in there and metal items in there sometimes develop a coat of moisture on them. I have a goldenrod(?) in the safe, but where previously I could feel the very slight warmth inside the safe when I opened it up, I no longer feel that now that the safe is in the outbuilding. The. guns used to feel very slightly warm to the touch and they no longer do. *But*, my understanding is that the military determined some time ago that all that is needed is for the inside of the safe/storage box to be ever so slightly warmer than the outside temp to ward off condensation/rust inside the safe/storage unit. This to the extent that they came up with the term "hot boxing" (or something along those lines). Am I remembering/understanding this correctly? (Apologies to CF and his sciencey piktchur.)
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No one is coming. It is up to us.
Unloaded, slide forward, trigger pressed, no mag, in a locked container indoors, wrapped in “Bore-store” soft silicone-impregnated cloth gun cases.
Last edited by RJ; 12-08-2022 at 08:59 AM.
Unloaded. Slide forward. I prefer mag out - just my preference. Locked in a safe or locking hardened closet.
On the issue of cased, etc, just remember that cloth and foam absorb and retain water. I don't recommend storing firearms long term in soft cases because of this.
Store the gun complete with all parts needed to put it into service including an empty magazine.
How many times have you heard about somebody inheriting Great Grandpa's old rifle but there's no bolt or magazine. The parts got lost because they were separated.
I'm actually a pretty big fan of the 'all guns are always loaded' metaphysics. To me, this is a question about storage, and part of the context needs to be 'for how long.'
I store all of the guns I'm not regularly carrying or messing with off site. Many of those guns go untouched for years or decades at a time. Sometimes, I do not do a 'long term' procedure, which for me is a little different than a 'not in use right now, likely to be put back in use soon' procedure.
'At rest' procedure: mag out, chamber cleared twice, boresnaked, wiped down, light oil on vulnerable surfaces, operating parts properly lubricated. Pistols are stored in a plastic case (either OEM or MTM) with a little desiccant. Those boxes go into a locked cabinet inside a climate-controlled environment. Guns are in an 'at rest' condition mechanically, so slide forward, not cocked.
'long term' procedure: As above but the guns are pretty darn clean, and have had ballistol applied on vulnerable surfaces.
This approach has not bitten me yet.
The condensation concerns mentioned above are relevant to dewpoint. If the gun is colder than the dewpoint in the area, condensation will happen. The dewpoint, which is expressed as a temperature, moves on a two-axis graph of temperature and relative humidity (I only care about it on boats, so I only think of it at sea level). In order for condensation to happen in a gunsafe, the surrounding atmosphere would have to warm or moisten (moving the dewpoint up) faster than the temperature of the gun's metal could equalize temperature. That can be prevented by ensuring that the gun is always warmer than the storage area, which seems hard, or by keeping the area immediately around the gun dryer than usual so that the gun has more time to equalize.
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