gun vault question

[fourb20]

I'm in the process of building a room onto my house that will be a gun vault, I'm tired of the gun I want being at the back of the safe. I will put the long guns in racks but how to display the handguns. Pegs, on a shelf? any ideas welcome.

 

[bigwheelzip]

For a large number of handguns, displayed like in stores, on stands diagonally on glass shelves seems to be effective use of space.

 

[hittman77]

A local friend uses the peg method. Looks very nice with all the wood varnished or stained ...... guns easily accessible, don't bump into each other, etc.

Guns are at about eye level ...... big long row of Smiths.

 

[gman51]

If I had the room for it I would probably have all the guns displayed separately on wood dowels on the walls. That way they can each be seen for their individual beauty.
I just don't know a good way to make a whole room into a safe vault. Other than steel or concrete boxed walls nothing else would suffice IMO.

 

[rburg]

g

Its just not all that easy. I speak from experience. Of course anything is better than leaving them in carry cases on top of a table. What I've finally evolved to is a carrosel type rack I kept seeing at the OGCA show. Its OK for long guns. I've got a problem with handguns because a bunch of them are in boxes. I've bought a cheapo TV stand that has 3 glass shelves. Thick sturdy glass stacked 3 high, kind of like steps.

Just like the earlier poster, its important that you can get your hands on the gun you want with a minimum of tries. For a guy with 4 or 5 handguns, its just not a problem. As the number goes up, so too do the complications.

 

[eaglescout316]

Are you building up the room with extra fire protection like a gun safe would provide?

 

[bullmack]

I like the ideal of pegs - unless you live in earthquake country. The fire protection suggestion is also good.

 

[47knuckle]

Vault

I did the same thing about five years ago and have been pleased. I've included a picture of my long gun racks which hold two rows, front and rear. With the layout I used I do have to remove one long gun from the front row to get to one on the back row.

After building the vault I installed furring strips on interior walls and covered all with 1/2" plywood. Hold a handgun on the desired location on the wall, mark two spots with a pencil(I mark behind the trigger guard and under the barrel), drill two 1/4" holes and install two short pieces of 1/4" acrylic dowel. If you change the stocks, or trade a gun off, its easy to pull out the 1/4" dowel, tap in a short piece of 1/4" wood dowel to patch the holes, then mark and install new dowels.

The other picture shows a home built acrylic rack that only works well if you are stowing several handguns, all of the same frame size and with the same style stocks. Its not so good for display, but allows you to store many handguns in a small shelf space.

You will find that a vault is just like a safe, no matter how large it is originally, it will end up being too small after a few years.

 

[oneounceload]

If this is going to be a walk-in vault of sorts, don't forget about humidity control, fire suppression, and adding things like a drain in case of water penetration (fire, leak, whatever)

 

[03hemi]

If I had the room for it I would probably have all the guns displayed separately on wood dowels on the walls. That way they can each be seen for their individual beauty.
I just don't know a good way to make a whole room into a safe vault. Other than steel or concrete boxed walls nothing else would suffice IMO.

Just make the room/closet have a bookcase or shelf unit hidden door and latch. If you can't find them, they can't be stolen. The key is using a room/closet that has no outside window to give it away, but then a thief wouldn't take time to count your windows and deduce it anyway in a hurry.

 

[H Richard]

I went with the pegs. I cut 2x4's in half, and drilled holes every 2.5" (set up to put about a 5 degree tilt on them). I used brass rod for the .22's, and 1/4" dowel's for the rest. The first set held about 35 handguns, and I can keep going up the wall higher than I can reach. Mounted on the wall above my long gun rack.

 

[fourb20]

Thanks to all who replied, I will have steel in the walls and fire protection. The book case in front of the door is good idea. Thanks again. PS the room will be 12'x16'.

 

[eaglescout316]

Thanks to all who replied, I will have steel in the walls and fire protection. The book case in front of the door is good idea. Thanks again. PS the room will be 12'x16'.

Now you have to carefully consider which book will be the secret latch to move the shelf...

 

[oneounceload]

Now you have to carefully consider which book will be the secret latch to move the shelf...

A friend has almost that arrangement - he has a small push switch on a bookcase to open the bookcase which leads to a private elevator that goes down to a private underground firing range and reloading room. Pretty cool.

 

[eaglescout316]

A friend has almost that arrangement - he has a small push switch on a bookcase to open the bookcase which leads to a private elevator that goes down to a private underground firing range and reloading room. Pretty cool.

Is your friend Jason Statham or something?

 

[jessebogan]

Clearly the book should be the SCSW...

 

[oneounceload]

Is your friend Jason Statham or something?

Just an attorney........that downstairs room has an underground firing range that's ~100' long and big enough to walk down...

 

[03hemi]

Thanks to all who replied, I will have steel in the walls and fire protection. The book case in front of the door is good idea. Thanks again. PS the room will be 12'x16'.

Almost, the bookcase IS the door with a hidden latch.

 

[jpage]

A friend has almost that arrangement - he has a small push switch on a bookcase to open the bookcase which leads to a private elevator that goes down to a private underground firing range and reloading room. Pretty cool.

Sounds like the batcave

 

[Rule3]

No, no, no. It has to be a Candlestick!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ktmN0wvHQs[/ame]