Keeping ’em safe
One of the things you begin to notice as you collect firearms is theamount of space they begin to take up. Soon enough, you start to see why gun cabinets are so large, and why most of them are so damned expensive.
My biggest problem wioth most gun cabinests was their sheer size, followed closely by their cost. A decent gun cabinet cost as much as a decent used car, and the cheap ones might just as well be made out of tissue paper. A cabinet big enough for my (albeit small) collection with enough room to grow was going to take up a 3 foot square space. I needed a place to keep the growing oglet out of the collection as well, so something had to be done soon.
So i put a heavy door on my closet and a deadbolt, and stored the long guns amid my trousers for a long time. Worked ok, but I got tired of having to dig for keys every time I wanted a shirt.
So I started looking around. There were a lot of small safes with room for several guns but nothing in my price range that wasn’t made like a glorified filing cabinet.
So I started looking around and thinking, there are a hundred different types of cabinet manufacturers, who makes good sturdy solid ones?
Electrical cabinet manufacturers do. I start looking around at auctions and find a 5′ tall electrical cabinet that will fill the bill nicely, and take it home for $25. It’s a foot deep, and almost 4′ wide, so plenty of room.
I take the electrical devices out, and the backplane, and weld up some holes in the front where pushbuttons had been. I prime and spray the doors with safe paint (the kind of speckled paint body men know as schutz or trunk paint) and seal it.
I then lined the inside with some suede fabric, which I glued to some 1/8″ Luan plywood. I left a cavity under a false bottom that can hold bags of silica gel, and I got a length of spandrel rail to rest the gun barrels against.
I also put a wire rack against one door using self adhesive hooks, which carries short guns. The lock is keyed and I’ve changed the key and hae the ONLY key that works on my chain. I also have, er, other measures that I won’t discuss here.
The point is to keep them from prying eyes and fingers, keep them dry and safe, and keep them in fine order. The homemade safe does that,in spades. here’s some pictures.
THe outside of the doors
Pistol rack on inside of the door:
15 comments Og | Uncategorized
I thought for sure you’d have Hog on Ice Steve make you a cabinet on his new workmate. Just Damn!
Ya know, you could just hang them from the ceiling. Oglet probably can’t reach that high :-)
Funny, I have a similar cabinet where I store my valuble workmate. My long guns I just keep in the closet. I guess it is a matter of prioities and value.
hmmm, looks good. I might have to look into that.
BTW, what are the flintlock pistols? Are those Harper Ferries? They look too short for Kentucky, but they have the distinct American grip to them.
Very nice Og.
I’ve got the flimsy filing cabinet type safes. I’m not terrible concerned about theft, as the safes are buried somewhere deep in the bowels of my house, and the time it would take someone to rummage around, find the safes, and pry them open would be enough time for my retired state cop father to meander over from next door and jam his .357 into the goblin’s ribs…
As far as the kids getting them, well, if my son can pry open a steel-doored safe, even a flimsy one, then he’s either too superhumanly strong to be hurt by mere gunfire or he’s clever enough not to shoot himself. I’d be far more worried about the razor-sharp CutCo knives sitting untethered on the kitchen counter…
Twenty years ago I purchased a safe from American Safe Company and have never looked back. Anchored to the garage floor it provides serious security. Thing weighs 852 pounds however, so it was a bear to move, both in originally taking it home, and the two times I’ve moved since then.
More recently, with the collection growing even more, I have converted a closet by putting an outside type door on it and installing a dead-bolt lock. That’s all that closet does anymore, hold firearms.
I also have a couple of the non-secute type glass front cabinets. In one of them I keep only muzzle-loading firearms, and in the other only low-value surplus military rifles. Even with such low attractiveness firearms I keep a cable padlocked through all of the trigger guards.
Last, I most recently purchased another safe. This one is smaller, at about 300 pounds. But it’s still a SAFE and not a cabinet. It’s also bolted to the concrete of the garage floor. I plan for it to eventually be just for handguns and other items of concentrated value, like coins and precious metals.
It is truely amazing the volume of these sort of items one can accumulate if one keeps at it. In the case of firearms I’ve been at it for over 35 years.
Nice.
Heck of a price, too!!
Nice, but I gotta say, it looks like you’re keeping your pistols in the fridge.
Pretty slick set up…
It looks like you have a sporterized P14 or P17
Enfield towards the middle.
good eyes, wall. I’m looking for a new original stock, to take it back to issue condition.
Contagion: I have no actual idea what they are, other than they cost $2 at an auction. The frizzens are soft, and no longer spark, which I intend to rectify this spring.
Looks like you hit the mother lode on Rom. M69 .22’s as well.
Rehardening a frizzen is simplicity itself. Build a medium size campfire, put on a pot of coffee. Wrap the frizzen in a scrap of soft leather. Buckskin works well. Wrap the wrapped friz’ in a ball of mud, bury it in the coals of the fire. Sit around bee essing and drink some coffee. After the mud ball gets red hot, pull it out of the fire and allow it to cool for about two more cups of coffee. Bust up the mud ball. scrub the goo and gunk off the frizzen, oil the parts that need it and put it back in the gun.
You’re welcome.
Gerry N.
Sh*t, should have thought a bit longer on my comment.
Those flinters look like partially finished kits from CVA, Traditions, Palmetto Arsenal, or a dozen other importers. Mostly made in Spain (OK) Japan (OK+) Italy (Better.) Carefully completed and in good shooting order, they’re fun little shooters. If they’re smoothbore, try half an ounce of #4 or #6 shot in ’em. Good for grouse or rabbits up close. Snakes and liberals, too.
Gerry N.
They’re 50 caliber, six groove. I think CVA. I intend to try them with homemade black powder. I’m not sure the wife is keen on me keeping stale urine around the house, though.