Secure Storage for a large handgun collection?

H

hAkron

New member
About 2 years ago (maybe less) I looked around my closet and said "Jeez, I better buy a gun safe". I bought the biggest one I could afford at the time, a Liberty Fat Boy 64 gun safe. That is 64 long guns (and good luck fitting 50). My collection is a few rifles, a half dozen or more shotguns, and a bunch (well, what's a bunch to a collector?...My wife says a bunch, but I say not enough) of hand guns (like 80 or so). I have a few wire racks, and shelf hangers, and door pockets, but the safe is pretty much as full as it can be using conventional means. My next step is to probably buy a second safe just for hand guns. All of the safes I look at though are built for long guns. They provide some shelves of course, but they really don't make any real concessions for a reasonably sized collection of hand guns. I have to think that there are people with much much much larger collections than me and I want to know what you do to store your guns? I'm looking for efficient ways to securely store my guns against theft, fire, and uninvited touching of any kind while giving me easy access to view and handle my collection without having to pull 30 guns out just to grab that one in the back, and without my guns knocking into each other like expensive wind chimes when I'm too lazy to pull 30 guns out just to grab...well, you get the picture. What are you guys (and gals) with medium to large collections doing to secure your handguns?
 
Do you have a spare chunk of basement you could brick off and put a security/fire door on? Then you could just do display cases.

And when you consider the cost of a big safe, it might not cost that much more.
 
If you can give up some long gun room, you can always add shelves to a safe for handguns.

As for a room, you might want not only a vault type door, but a true vault and also to conceal the fact that there even is a vault. A room with a safe type door won't be secure if (as sometimes happens) the door is on a room with walls made from drywall and 2x4's. If the room is not as tough as the door, the door will only challenge thieves without really stopping them.

But it is also a good idea to conceal the entrance completely; one man I know has a rec room with a pool table and pool cue rack. There is no indication that the rack can be unlatched and swung out to reveal his vault door.

Jim
 
The day I moved into the vault was one of the happiest in my life. Rather than move 5 or 6 guns to get to the one I want, I can see them all at once, and simply take a few steps and pick up the one I want. The only downside is my wife can count.
 
For the purpose of this discussion, let's assume I'm a few years out from being able to put together a vault. I do appreciate the suggestion though.
 
Before the vault, I maximized handgun space with Rubbermaid dish drainers. By alternating directions, I could get about a dozen handguns in about 1 sq foot. I also had the door racks, and used over the door shoe holders for magazines (not in the safe).They are transparent, so the proper mags are easy to find (and inventory). I kept carbines in one vault, allowing room for extra shelfs above.
 
More stand alone safes are probably the cheapest solution vs a gun vault.

The easiest way to store handguns...would be to take the interior out of the safe...and custom make some sliding shelves for the safe ( kind of like you might do in a kitchen pantry )...the ones at the top of the safe, you might want a little shorter or not as deep -- so you can see the lower shelves better...but putting them on fully extended roller guides, lets you pull them out and look at everything...

I would put the individual handguns on standing racks ( metal - covered in poly) so nothing scratches...and you can stand up the guns, yet there is no metal to metal touching between guns...

depending on the width of the safe...you can probably get 20 or 25 guns per shelf...and 6 or shelves in one safe...about 8" of clearance between the shelves.

For the shelves in my safe...I just used a good quality 3/4" cabinet grade plywood...and then I covered the shelves in some non-skid shelf liner ( black )...and put the racks in ....

These are the racks I use....

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Lock...andgun+racks&WTz_l=Header;Search-All+Products

but I store the guns in the rack - with the rear sight up ...not down...and let the barrel, if its a long revolver rest on the non skid shelf mat...
 
I too, have reached critical mass in my gun safe. In a 14 gun safe with one shelf I have managed to stuff about 50 guns, half of them handguns. The trouble is about half of mine still have their boxes. Not the plastic late model stuff (those guns hang on the door), but early Colts and S&W's whose boxes are worth a few bucks in their own right.

I have a plan for a vault that would be hard to break into and should be nearly fireproof (an eight hour fire rating) and much less costly than a manufactured safe. I just need to buy a house so I have a place to put it.
 
Similar to the last post, I've seen someone with a combo of 125 rifles/handguns (mostly handguns) in 2 "14 gun" safes. Be creative... I'm sure you can fit everything in your safe, as long as you don't try to keep them in their original boxes/containers.
 
Long guns are kryptonite when it comes to having room in a gun safe.

Personally, I think the lowest cost but still somewhat "decent" answer is to get every long gun out of the proper, solid, heavy gun safe, and make the real gun safe a handgun only gun safe.

The long guns should find a new home in one of those far, far, far cheaper sheet metal locking security cabinets.

They won't protect the long guns from fire... but ya know what? The big, proper gun safe isn't very good at that task either.

They certainly won't protect all that well from theft, but real estate inside the safe is what it is. If you have to have the full security of the full-bore safe, then unless you know some kind of magic or science I've never heard of, there's no way to get more room inside the safe if you keep stuffing HUGE, long guns inside of it.

I'm a handgun guy. :p I believe you are also. I say kick the rifles to the curb and let them live "on the edge" in a cheaper location. For the bolt action rifles, remove the bolt and leave 'em in the handgun safe. The rest? I don't know. Insurance is a good idea.

It's not a phenomenal solution but I don't see any other solution except adding another safe... or getting rid of long guns.
 
I've officially stolen the cardboard bin idea. It works really well, and it is cheap and easy. I managed to fit all my handguns into my safe. :D
 
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