Storing Handguns

[charlessummers]

I've got this nice little wooden cabinet for my rifles/shotguns/pellet rifles, but nowhere or no-how other than my little Sentry safe to store my pistols. I've considered buying a gun safe, but really don't want some large safe sitting around in my den and closet space is at a premium around here... so what are my options? I've seen the little racks, but they either wont fit the safe or are not secure sitting out exposed.

[monkeylizard]

That depends on what/who you want to secure them from. If you're keeping long guns in a wooden cabinet, then you're not worried about theft, so I'll assume you want to keep little fingers away. Most any locking box would do the trick. Maybe something like this?

Amazon.com: Homak® In - the - Wall Gun Safe: Sports & Outdoors

It's made for long guns, but screwing some hooks on the back plate would let you hang quite a few handguns in there. It won't keep a burglar with a crowbar out, but it would do the trick to keep kids out. Pretty much what a wooden cabinet does. and you can't beat the space that it takes up. None.

Edited September 17, 2011 by monkeylizard

[Jonnin]

Being really into handguns, I quickly ran out of space with them lying flat. Different things work, but what I did was mak an L shaped wooden rack, drilled into it at the proper heights, and put in a short (1-2 inch) dowel rod stick. The guns now sit on their magazines with the barrel onto those dowel rods, saving much space!

For the big ones (too tall, this is our competition guns with red dot sights on em) that must lay flat, we store those in plastic transportation style boxes. In those boxes, they can be stacked up 3-4 deep on a shelf to save space again.

These space saver ideas should work no matter where you store them, mine just happen to be in a safe.