Gun safe/cabinet for longrifle?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

koauke

40 Cal.
Joined
Jun 14, 2014
Messages
181
Reaction score
158
I've been trying to find a gun safe or cabinet that will fit my longrifle. It seems the only safes that are actually tall enough are massive.

My TVM is 57.5 inches long. I thought I had found one as the interior dimensions were good on paper so I brought my rifle in to check, but it couldn't fit through the doorway.

Are there any smaller safes/cabinets out there tall enough for a longrifle?
 
If I were a thief, :hmm: I would love gun safes....They are easy to find, similarly manufactured, and even easier to defeat....

The other day I was driving down the road an a guy had his garage door open....What did I see????? a gun safe in his garage. :youcrazy:

That safe could literally be stolen in less time than it would take the owner to call 911.... :doh:
 
That safe could literally be stolen in less time than it would take the owner to call 911....

Maybe that particular safe could, but something like a Browning runs from 500 lbs. to 800 lbs. unloaded and unbolted to the concrete floor. :shocked2: Even the man portable, locking gun cabinets, when properly secured would take more than two minutes to snatch, even if you knew where they were, and that's the major problem with the observation, the owner left it where it could be seen.

I have not been able to find any commercially made gunsafe or guncabinet that is designed for a long gun to stand upright inside with said long gun having a barrel longer than 38". :shake: There are some other options.

You can buy an expensive gun safe that will allow you to store your longrifle or musket on a slant /, or a custom built safe. That can get rather pricey and frankly if I had that cash, I'd buy a new rifle :grin: . The second is to get a gun cabinet with the add-on "pistol cabinet" that normally bolts to the top. Something like these Stack-on Steel Gun Cabinet and then add the Steel "Ammo" Cabinet to the top, but you need to have them cut to add two adjoining holes, so that the added cabinet on top extends the size of the interior. This seems awkward, but I know of a gentleman who is a welder (convenient) who simply used his acetylene torch to cut two holes. He only needed to store two long guns, and still had room for shorter stuff. Cost him under $300.

The above modification gave me the idea of simply getting one of these In-The-Wall Cabinet. Now as it is it won't store my Bess nor my two rifles, BUT I am thinking of opening up the top. I would then insert into the wall an extender made of plastic, to keep the dust and mice at bay, so that when the cabinet itself was installed flush with the wall, it would contact the plastic extension. A little Flexiseal to seal it up. I may put this into a wall in the basement, or into the bedroom with a full length mirror to cover the door. M(My wife would like it if I added a full length mirror to the bedroom :grin:)

Sure a professional or semi-professional burglar is going to defeat such measures, BUT those guys are very unlikely to target my house, as it's much more lucrative to hit a high-end neighborhood. What most of us are facing is a threat from the teen or the drug user looking for drugs, cash, jewelry, and handguns, and moving quickly....in an out in 6 minutes or less.

I hope this helps

LD
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That's quite true. As you pointed out, you SAW the guys safe :nono: That's a huge mistake even if one doesn't use it to store guns. It says "I have something worth the risk". Now if you are creative, you could hide the stuff well, increasing the search time = decrease in likelihood of theft.

You could simply get RFID Lock and build your own, with a secret panel. Won't stop a crowbar, as such, but they have to find it first, and it might simply cover the door to the actual safe.

I wonder if my wife would like a Faux Grandfather Clock, with working dial, but gunsafe inside???

LD
 
'morning,

Something else to consider, is not all safes (whether gun or not) are owned only with theft of contents in mind. Fire protection is also a primary consideration for most folks that I know with any type of safe.

Calum
 
I needed a place to store my long rifles, so I made a cabinet out of 1" plywood. The hinges are huge, and I used carriage bolts and heavy hasp, with master lock, pad locks. Inside corners have angle iron and door has steel tubing inside. No fire protection, but keeps kids out and slows down thieves. It's also lag bolted to basement wall. I keep the keys in regular gun vault. Better than nothing.

On the outside is a sign saying, No Smoking....contains gun powder.

My son-in-law told me to drill several holes at bottom of door, with pieces of straw sticking out and a sign that read..."DANGER SNAKES"
 
If you only have a couple long rifle, I found that used metal lockers will be tall enough. Before I bought my safe I checked into used lockers, they were narrow 18" deep and 72" tall. some had no shelves and were open from top to bottom. Not expensive, $50.00 at folks that sold warehouse racking and lockers. Worth a check.
The safe I have for my long rifles, I bought used, but if I remember correctly it was purchased at Home Depot. I have the interior floor panel removed for the really long ones, but a 59" will fit.
 
OK, have to begin with the caveat that I don't like storing long rifles where the weight of the barrel is constantly stressing the weakest part of the stock, the wrist. If one has to store a long rifle vertically, then I strongly suggest doing it muzzle down to avoid that.

I realize in some parts of the country that a long rifle stored over a fireplace will be ignored by crooks, but not here in VA. Sure, they would much rather have modern guns, but they will grab a long rifle hoping they have a collector item.

One of the neatest answers I have seen to storing a long rifle was to make a false back wall in a closet. Doesn't take much storage space out of the closet and unless the crook knows to look for something like that, the crook would never realize it. I've seen this done in both bedroom and even utility closets.

Gus
 
One of my friends has a heavy workbench in his shop with a massive top. It looks just like any other workbench with shelves under the top but when you lift the top there is a storage compartment under it that holds a dozen guns. I never would have suspected there was a hidden compartment because the top of the workbench was the typical clutter of tools and junk.
 
That's another great solution. :thumbsup:

I had one friend who built what looked like a wood wall cabinet for tool storage in his shop. There were even some tools in it when you opened it up, however, there was a false back to it that also held some long guns behind the false back.

Gus
 
https://www.sturdysafe.com/collections/2419-colletions/products/model-6028-6

At 2000# and bolted through the concrete floor I doubt it will go any where. It is a very nice safe, no frills, but super stout. The mechanical dial is much harder to defeat than the touch pad types.

I put my long rifles on a slant. If I wanted to I could modify a shelf to give more vertical room.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That's along the lines of the suggestion I was going to make, some times hiding something in plain sight works best. Disguising some items to look like something else can fool a simple minded criminal.
 
At 2000# and bolted through the concrete floor I doubt it will go any where. It is a very nice safe, no frills, but super stout. The mechanical dial is much harder to defeat than the touch pad types.

Sucks if you're the guy living in the apartment below where the safe sits. :haha:

I make this joke as a friend is a Class III owner, with several vintage sub-machine guns, and he had to verify the weight limit in his first apartment when he got his vault for his first sub-guns....not good to drop a ton+ on the neighbor below. :shocked2: Or even to drop it from one floor of your single family home to the next. The wife won't like that.

LD
 
"Wow and it comes with a hot brunette in leather. That's a cool feature"

I agree, a bit cheesie. It is a family business. She is the owner's daughter and the office manager. She is extremely knowledgeable and on top of the business details.

Cute too.....

Seriously, I did a lot of research and Sturdy Safes are be the best value and strongest. The design is extremely good. They are made in Fresno CA, not over seas, I like that. If you live within a couple of hours of Fresno you can make special arrangements for delevery and installation by the Sturdy people themselves.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top