how do you store your guns?

[savetheclaypigeons]

Recently the gf and I were talking about houses and she actually brought up something about wanting a walk in closet for guns . She had a house as a kid and one closet she had always felt was made to have a padlock and guns inside. I took the idea and ran with it, display case in the middle with lights and a sliding glass door, dresser drawers inset with the wall and padded, padded/carpet walls.... just seems neat to throw around in the ole noggin. I'd have to expand on my gun collection though in order to make it work well

Gets me to asking though, what would your 'dream' home be for your guns? How do you store them now? And has anyone seen these or have them?


for the record, I store the long guns in the closet in their cases propped against the walls and my 2 handguns in the nightstand by the bed. Certainly could use some security measures to secure them, something I'll be thinking about today

 

[jahwarrior]

under my pillow.

 

[Big Calhoun]

Within easy reach...whether it be in the closet, in a drawer, under the bed, on my person, on a chair, under a newspaper. I'm never more than 1.5 seconds away from a loaded firearm when at home.

 

[Brigrat]

Most of my guns are in a walkin closet that has an alarm system seperated from the normal house alarm...

Naturally I have weapons readinly available for defensive purposes as well, but the bulk of my firearms are locked away...

 

[gunNoob]

A double rifle case with 3 locks on it (3 different keys) under my bed.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Just your basic RSC right now but I have some cool plans in mind after the wife and I move into a house of our own!

 

[Shifty]

initially, just locked and out of sight, but as my collection grew, i ended up purchasing a safe.

ran out of hiding spots, and after watching that discovery channel show "it takes a thief" i realized that the bad guys know where to look.

 

[aerod1]

Gun safe

 

[Mr White]

Most are in a safe. A few are in easy-to-access places throughout my home.

 

[scurtis_34471]

Rifles stored in rifle bags with trigger locks barf: ). Pistols stored in a steel lock box when not carried. One loaded pistol goes in the nightstand when I go to bed and either into my holster or back in the box in the morning. I'm planning to buy a quality gun safe in the not-to-distant future.

 

[03Shadowbob]

most in gun safe. I keep the P3AT and PT140 on top of the safe and grab whichever is appropriate for the day.

 

[AntiqueCollector]

Everywhere.

 

[mpmarty]

Most rifles and shotguns in Browning gun "safe". One Mossy persuader 12ga hangs from the brass knob on my side of the headboard on our bed; 10mm Witness and SA XD45 condition 1 in drawer of my nightstand; Taurus PT145 w/11 rounds of 185gr Barnes solid copper hp on top of nightstand; Walther PPK 9mm Kurz in wifes nightstand drawer; one (at least) loaded 9mm or larger pistol in every room of the house (3600 sq foot house = lots of rooms). Two canine early warning systems on duty 24/7 courtesy of an ninteenth century german dog pound manager, Herr Doberman.

 

[MRIman]

By all means,build your self your gun closet.
But don't have a door on it. Build a nice book shelf that is
on a slide assy. They make slide units that will move 3',far
enough for a "door opening". If you are crafty with power tools
it can be done. Biggest $$ will be the track assy.
I know a few people that have "hidden rooms" and use this type
of set up. IT works very well. Can't steal what you can't see!!!

MRI

 

[22-rimfire]

Leaning in a corner. On coffee table in living room

 

[Tinmancr]

hmm

in a safe and 44 easy access with low power 44 spec ammo "don't wanna go through them"

 

[BobMcG]

Primarily in a safe.

 

[ptmmatssc]

By all means,build your self your gun closet.
But don't have a door on it. Build a nice book shelf that is
on a slide assy. They make slide units that will move 3',far
enough for a "door opening". If you are crafty with power tools
it can be done. Biggest $$ will be the track assy.
I know a few people that have "hidden rooms" and use this type
of set up. IT works very well. Can't steal what you can't see!!!

Lol , in my old house I used the "Can't steal what you can't see ' method . Back of my closet had a wall that , if pushed on the edge on a certain side , would kick out enough to reveal a 4 foot wide by 10 inch deep cavity that I stored my guns . Fabricated it myself and used a spring loaded catch ( the type you push once and door pops open , push again and it stays closed ) . Had to come up with a new setup at my new place since my collection has grown , but unless you want to rip out walls , you'll never know it was there .

 

[lee n. field]

Gets me to asking though, what would your 'dream' home be for your guns? How do you store them now?

Dream -- walk in climate controlled safe in my lair, big enough for everything, impervious to anything short of a nuke and blends in to the woodwork.

Reality -- partly "security through obscurity", in other words, I'm not telling you where I keep my stuff now. As safe as I can make it, and not all in one place.

 

[CB900F]

Fella's;

Most of mine are in a safe. A real safe, not an RSC. If you do the closet route, keep in mind that you are foregoing fire protection. If you want a walk-in safe, there's a lot to building one correctly. Buy the vault door from me & I'll be glad to walk you through the process.

900F

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

I am blessed with a full finished basement where the gunroom sits in one corner of the house. I could, but haven't re-enforced the door jam yet, but I'll be installing a good firedoor and dead bolt some time soon. Most of the guns in the house are in the safe in that room. All of the powder and other things that go boom are in a vented locked metal work bench/cabinate, (the idea being to prevent a presurized explosion). There is a waterline in the cieling that some day I'd like to put a wax head fire sprinkler in. One should handle the 10x11 room just fine. It's not a big room, but it holds my reloading benches and presses, a dresser with guns parts/stuff in it, a desk with computer some book shelves for books, cartridge boxes, dies, and the safe.

By all means build a gun room, but unless you can make the walls, floor, and cieling all concrete with a vault door, don't do the display cases. Your 'collection' isn't something to show off to a thief all at once.

Your long guns should be at least in a Wally World lockable cabinate that's bolted to the floor and wall. Your hand guns should be locked with trigger locks and in at least a hand gun safe. Better yet, there are nice ten rifle safes available for a mear $500 or so. Yes, keep your defensive weapon or two available within your home, but while you're away, your guns are drug money for any neighborhood thief. How would you feel if your stolen gun was used in a crime? Especially if that gun was used to harm someone.

OK... I'm off on a rant here, I broke my own rules for many years. And luckily never lost any to a thief. Now I don't plan on it either. I certainly don't want my guns to make thier way into the hands of kids/gangs/criminals. All gun owners should be responsible and set the example by storing their guns the most safe way possible.

-Steve

 

[230RN]

Hither and yon, here and there.

As to "how," mostly in cases.

My daily carry gun gets parked on top of the nice warm stereo, which I always leave on when I leave the house.

For a while I kept an M1 carbine over my door. I found a couple of those sheet-metal bookends could be inserted into the molding above the door and, properly bent, would hold the carbine (named "George") up there nice and secure and handy. No muss, no fuss, no hole-drilling.

Toyed with the idea of leaving the bayonet on it for visual effect.

Downside was I had to keep dusting it like a knick-knack, so I quit that. I now rely on the "stereo" gun for initial HD --that is, to allow time to get to "Irving," my Mossy.

Main rule I've always observed is to store rifles muzzle down. Keeps the oils from creeping into the lockwork and gumming it up and also from draining into the wooden stocks and swelling them. I was told that a long time ago and I just kept that habit alive for good or ill.

It's sort of like chicken soup for a cold: Can't do any harm, might do some good.