Opened or closed?

F

Fatal Wound

New member
Those of you who use gun safes, when you store your bolt action rifles, do you store them with the bolt opened or closed and why?
 
Fatal Wound,

Excellent question and something I had not thought about doing from a safety point of view. Except for the bolts on my semi-auto 22s, mine are always closed but they will now be open.
 
Closed on an empty chamber, trigger pulled. Same with lever actions. handguns too. Been doing it that way since forever. If I'm doing it wrong, correct me.
 
Closed, just because I haven't been presented any compelling reason to keep them open. I do however ease the firing pin forward (closing the bolt with trigger depressed) so that the spring isn't under tension during storage. Also use a snap cap in my AR for the same reason.
 
Bolt action rifles in a gun safe?

ALL of them the same, ALL of the time:
bolts removed

Gives every rifle more room in the safe to not be banging up in to one another.
 
Staggered open, closed.
That way I can get more guns in the safe.
If I store them with all the bolts open or all closed they do not stack cleanly in the racks.
By staggering, they stack straight and neat.
 
Open or closed

I have no reason for doing it either way. Just wanted to see other opinions and there are all good ones that were expressed here. Thanks.

p.s. Armed Chicagoan---Those Mosin bolts do get in the way.
 
I happen to have 2 safes. All rifles have bolts removed and they are stored in the pistol safe. All pistol mags are removed and stored in the rifle safe. All revolvers have cylinders removed, and they are in the rifle safe.
Overly cautious, maybe. But, the dirtbags have to break into two safes to get anything they can load and use.
Needless to say, my EDC is always loaded and on my person or within arms reach.
 
I like the idea up until here:
All revolvers have cylinders removed
Click to expand...
I suppose if we are talking all single action guns where removing the cylinder is routine, then I'm more on board. But double action revolvers? I sure hope not.

Also makes me want to ask if all the pistol slides and/or barrels are separated from the frames?

On a similar note, I recall reading of one gentleman who had his big gun safe in his garage, bolted down, and also inside the safe were the tips of -ALL- the torches that he owned, so that he didn't have tools sitting next to the safe to assist in it's attack. Good idea, I thought.
 
My safe sits in a small locked room I built for it. The electrical outlet is on it's own circuit, so when on vacation I pull the breaker, just so a thief won't have power to run a tool. May not do any good, but he'll take more time.
 
Since this moved on to security, I used to store everything open as a visual aid to assure it's not loaded... I stopped doing that over time...

On the security note, I've considered putting my small safe behind a false wall... But haven't yet....

I do have bait items to keep them distracted from the gun safe...

Some cheap electric guitars... I always figure those would get snatched and satisfy the thieves from searching further...
 
I've never worried about it with my bolt-action rifles but I do store my pump-action rifle and shotguns with the slide back (bolt open). It's not that I really have a valid reason for doing so - just habit.
 
For me, my only bolt gun has it removed, all other guns have their actions locked to the open position and handguns slides locked to the rear to facilitate easy identification that they are clear and unloaded.
 
Sevens
Like I said, "all" cylinders are removed. Can't see what the problem is. Small screwdriver and about 2 minutes. Been doing this for about 30 years. What problems do you see? Pistols are intact. No mags, no ammo, not much use.
 
I happen to have 2 safes. All rifles have bolts removed and they are stored in the pistol safe. All pistol mags are removed and stored in the rifle safe. All revolvers have cylinders removed, and they are in the rifle safe.
Overly cautious, maybe.
Click to expand...

That makes total sense.......
 
Closed, trigger pulled/ decocked. I know it is second nature for me (and most other shooters I know) to immediately check the action of any gun they pick up, so I don't see it being a safety issue at all. I'm big on organization and things look much nicer all tucked in and closed up. Be it rifle of any kind, pistol, or revolver, the actions are closed but they still get checked before being removed from the safe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top