Behold the gunsafe! (Lots of photos)

[Combat Controller]

I recommend strongly against "Damp Rid" or other subliming hygroscopic chemicals. If you spill just a tiny amount, and you will, it is not only hard to remove but it will seriously, and I mean seriously rust the living hell out of any metal it touches. It is very caustic. Silicone bags that you recharge in the over work fine. I advise you get those instead.

I have some very rusty and value ruined barrels from some that migrated somehow to where the barrels rest in the lower safe.

[Darrell]

I've heard of people just tossing a burlap bag or two of rice in the bottom of the safe; don't know how well it really works.

[merll2005]

I've heard of people just tossing a burlap bag or two of rice in the bottom of the safe; don't know how well it really works.

I feel compelled to apologize in advance, I'm sorry for this.

I don't know about rust prevention but at least it will keep the rat bastards from stealing your rice.

[SeekHer]

Congrats, finally...Damn, but that's beautiful...What's its total capacity 40+ guns?

Seeing the pictures of your gun in the safe brought this age old dilemma too mind...

So as not to hijack this thread I stared a poll
Gun Storage Barrel Direction

Also goes with your question of storage racks etc...

[BadgerAZ]

One caution about the bag of rice: Bags of unprocessed rice often contain tiny insect eggs intermixed with the rice. A few years ago one such bag of rice (a 50-lb burlap bag) started sprouting little white moths that virtually took over our house. It took us weeks to figure out that they were sprouting out of the bag of rice, which was deep in a storage area of our kitchen.

If you still want to use a bag of rice, an easy solution to the insect problem is to put the bag of rice in a picnic cooler, throw in some dry ice (frozen CO2), close the lid and leave it all in there for a day or two or until the dry ice all dissipates. That will kill off any air-breathing critters that hitchhiked with the rice. Same thing works on any kind of bulk grain, fruit, veggies, etc.

[mekender]

I keep the little bags of dessication that come with shoes in my tool box, in my ammo box, in my range bag and so on. When I get a good safe, I plan on getting a bunch of them for the gun safe too. So long as you change em out every 6 months or so, they should work just fine. And the best part is that you can get them for free from your local shoe shop.

[arctictom]

Nice safe. What do the local LEOs have to do with firearms storage ???

[mekender]

mekender, I'm sorry - I didn't mean to sound supercilious with my desciption of the safe in reply to your comment, but I see it does read rather like that. I thought inquiring minds might like to know, and I didn't mean it to sound like a put-down. I do appreciate your thoughts!

No worries, I was just tired when I replied so that is why it was such a short reply. What I meant was that I made most of my statements based on just the pictures of the safe without knowing the details of the make or model.

After you detailed what it is, I was 100% more certain that it was one that would probably never get broken into without some serious pros being involved.

I only wish that I could get a safe of that quality

[Denis]

I recommend strongly against "Damp Rid" or other subliming hygroscopic chemicals. If you spill just a tiny amount, and you will, it is not only hard to remove but it will seriously, and I mean seriously rust the living hell out of any metal it touches.

Wow! Thanks to you and Aglifter for that caution. I've been using the chemical dehumidifiers for years, and I never had a problem, but then I always put them on the floor of the safe, so I haven't had much of a spillage risk. I'll look into getting some non-caustic ones instead

I only wish that I could get a safe of that quality

.

Well, this government website is where they get auctioned off. If you search for "panzerschrank", "stahlschrank", "tresor" and "schränke", it turns something interesting up every few weeks. They're not expensive - I paid 200 Euro (say US$290) for mine. Of course, your transport costs would be a killer...

What do the local LEOs have to do with firearms storage ???

Tom, here in Belgium, the police are allowed to inspect that firearms owners comply with various rules on the secure storage of their weapons. If you don't show you have secure storage, you won't get a firearms licence in the first place. If you have a licence, but no secure storage, the licence can be withdrawn. The more guns you own, the more stringent the storage requirements become. My pitiful collection falls into the higest-security category, so the police take an interest in it.

I'm relatively lucky, because my local firearms officer is friendly and he knows me by now. He makes an appointment to check my storage when it's convenient for me, and he knows that I am not a nutter, so he doesn't ask to inspect every weapon and have me account for each round of ammunition. However, if he wanted to mess me around, he could make the whole procedure quite a nuisance.

So, defend your freedoms while you have them!

Congrats, finally...Damn, but that's beautiful...What's its total capacity 40+ guns?

I don't know yet. I haven't got forty guns to try Let's say that, if I organise the inside correctly (more on that in the other thread), it will take the current collection, with room for a few more, plus some household valuables (jewellry, cameras, laptops, important documents). The "household" bit is important for domestic reasons, otherwise the cost of installing the safe would have to come out of my beer, guns and ammo fund. Domestic considerations also require that I give the safe a coat of paint to make it presentable...

I feel compelled to apologize in advance, I'm sorry for this.

As well you should be!

[HTRN]

Something similar to this is what I'd like, if I can't build a vault - you commonly see these kind of double door safes for sale in the US, usually made by Mosler(went belly up in 2001), and they typically come out of either Jewelers or secure document storage.

the carousels for gun storage are the easy way, but give up way too much in terms of storage - a better idea is multiple pull out doublesided racks. The idea is to setup each side so it's offset by half the spacing on the other side, so the barrel doesn't touch. Make the spacing wide enough that the bolt handles don't rasp the gun next to it when it's take out, and the back of it deep enough so a big aperture scope doesn't bang into the rifle on the other side. Build as either 2 or three pull out drawers, which means it's easy to get the gun out without banging into another.


HTRN