Uncle Richard
Member
Its your house, do what you want to do....
C&R rifle over fireplace?
- Thread starter valnar
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JohnM
Member
Cosmoline
Member
It always seemed odd to me that we'd stick something loaded with black powder over the best ignition source in the house. And I'm not really sure where the notion of putting your long gun up there got started. When you bring cold iron into a warm cabin you immediately get drops of condensation all over it. Maybe people took to sticking the smoke pole by the fireplace to dry it off, because it was the only place that had low humidity in the house. Or maybe the thing got started much later because there were famous paintings of guns by fireplaces. It would be an interesting topic to investigate.
The one thing I can say with certainty is it's a VERY BAD idea to put a loaded horn on the hook dangling over your fireplace ;-)
The one thing I can say with certainty is it's a VERY BAD idea to put a loaded horn on the hook dangling over your fireplace ;-)
Sav .250
Member
You said,"not that I care." A man`s house is his castle... which means, if you want it up there.......do it! If you really didn`t care, you wouldn`t be asking us though.
The gene pool does have a way of cleansing itself.JohnM
Member
"fashion faux pas" !?! So what, it's yours isn't it?
jgh4445
Member
Seems to be a good way to end up with dried and possibly cracked wood. That is, if the fireplace is used often.
col.lemat
Member
Keeps my powder dry.
BSA1
member
Then there is the issue of "political correctness." Some of your friends/relatives might be antigunners. Why needlessly provoke them?
Why stop with guns? What about hiding the family Bible (don't want to offend Muslins). a painting of Jesus last supper (don't want to offend the Jews) and wedding photos of you and your wife (don't want to offend homosexuals)?
Why stop with guns? What about hiding the family Bible (don't want to offend Muslins). a painting of Jesus last supper (don't want to offend the Jews) and wedding photos of you and your wife (don't want to offend homosexuals)?
DammitBoy
Member
Don't forget to hide the booze from your bible thumping friends...
Crash_Test_Dhimmi
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I have a lee enfield no4 mk1 over my mantle, with bolt removed and hidden away somewhere obscure
ArcherandShooter
Member
My Hawken over our living room fireplace...
JVaughn
Member
.
I used to have a gun cabinet full, still have the cabinet but empty now due to security concerns. Sometimes I use it to temporarily hold something, right now got a .22 Marlin I just picked up in there. I just worry about easy access to would be thieves in a break in. I have a lot of time and money invested in my arms.
MagnumDweeb
Member
I have a fireplace. I'm still in the middle of furnishing my house. I'm going with a Springrield Trapdoor 1873 once the panic settles down. I've wanted a .45-70 for sometime. Being able to launch a 400 grain bullet out to 400 yards and still have it be lethal to varmits on two legs just says badass. I will however pull the firing pin and leave it in the safe.
bannockburn
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If I had a fireplace I would hang my Hawken rifle that I built from a kit a number of years ago over it. I think it's the perfect finishing touch if you're into Early American decor.
mgmorden
Member
Not necessarily tacky. I've got a GEW88 Mauser that is missing the bolt head. Unless I can find one of those for now its only use is decorative, so I might would hang it on a wall if I had more space.
Jim NE
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I've never thought a gun over the fireplace was tacky. I think it's neat, but it could be incongruous with one of those chic all white modern decors that have splotchy frameless modern art hanging on the walls. On the other hand, who'd want to live in a place like THAT, anyway?
I might be worried about possible damage to the wood stock over time, though, if you use the fireplace a lot. When I sold guitars, I always told people that keeping an acoustic guitar in front of a roaring fire for any length of time could be bad news - it could crack the wood. It's the intense dry heat.
A wood stock is a lot thicker than guitar wood, but might still be bad in the long term. Maybe oiling it regularly would help. Most of what I see hanging over fireplaces nowadays are old single shot beaters or wall hangers - the rustic effect.
Good luck.
I might be worried about possible damage to the wood stock over time, though, if you use the fireplace a lot. When I sold guitars, I always told people that keeping an acoustic guitar in front of a roaring fire for any length of time could be bad news - it could crack the wood. It's the intense dry heat.
A wood stock is a lot thicker than guitar wood, but might still be bad in the long term. Maybe oiling it regularly would help. Most of what I see hanging over fireplaces nowadays are old single shot beaters or wall hangers - the rustic effect.
Good luck.
Kevin Rohrer
Member
If the fireplace works and you use it for that purpose, be careful about heat drying out your stock.
She Who Must Be Obeyed wanted a wreath over our working fireplace, so I put my Pedersoli Brown Bess Short Land Pattern musket over the entranceway. It looks just as kewl.
She Who Must Be Obeyed wanted a wreath over our working fireplace, so I put my Pedersoli Brown Bess Short Land Pattern musket over the entranceway. It looks just as kewl.
tulsamal
Member
It depends on what type of "fireplace" you have. When we moved into our older house, it had an existing brick fireplace in the living room. Tall brick chimney up the side of the house. I called a chimney sweep to come out and inspect it. He deadlined the whole thing. Pointed out dangerous issues with both the open fireplace and the chimney. So his suggestion was to buy a heavy cast iron insert and line the chimney with a stainless steel unit. The insert isn't one of those cheap things you see at discount stores. It's really a stand alone wood burning stove that was designed to fit inside an old fashioned open fireplace.
We ended up with a very efficient unit that heats most of our house all winter. When you live on 90 acres, you have more wood than you will ever be able to use. Especially since more is always growing.
The relevant fact here is that an enclosed cast iron stove being used as an insert in a fireplace is a whole different animal. It sticks out in front of the bricks so any heat that rises on exiting doesn't heat up that area at all. And it normally has a variable fan going which pushes the heat out into the middle of the room before it rises. You can have this super hot fire going and go over to the mantle and pick up the pictures and candles that are lined up there and they are no hotter than if they were across the room. The brick faces remain room temperature. There is no smoke that gets into the room. I don't actually have a gun mounted in that area at this point in my life but I wouldn't worry about it if I wanted to do it. Actually I've been thinking about putting a large flat screen up there and I thought about the whole heat issue. A few checks while a fire was burning convinced me it wasn't really a problem.
Gregg
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