Storing Your Arms, Home Made Fireproof Safe
Over the years I guess I became the catch all for Arms being passed along from Family.
Becoming the caretaker before I get to old and having to figure out who in the family could carry the 'Torch' in to the future. Back about 2001 I seen my situation would get worse as family passed on. I have a few heavy safes and a few (I call) overnighter safes.... Light duty like your gym locker. At work after watching some trades spraying the foam fireproof on a Industrial building we were doing I hatched and carried out my storage plan.
How to Store:
To be completely honest about it, I'm over run with 'arms collected' I guess I became the family drop them off to member. To better understand my brother and I at age 5 started getting our first arms and every Christmas after up until my Father was in his 80's. Some we were told we could shoot, others never to shoot. On the lever action Commemorative Winchesters that were 'Never to be shot' still have the twine he tied around them to keep you from accidently racking it, to keep from any type of wear. They are still in the original boxes with another box over them so the original box doesn't get damaged. These are limited editions, some consecutive serial no's, some matched rifle and carbine etc. On top of these I became the owner of my Fathers arms who was in to early Winchesters, Sharps, Springfields, different makers of Rolling/Falling blocks, Pocket pistols, watches and knives, Grandfathers moonshining carry revolver, old trapdoors and SxS shotguns, Brothers are mainly bolt action hunting rifles, FIL had a few early Colt and S&W revolvers, and 2 Uncles who had mostly what I call 'Farmers guns'.
How to store them without going broke on safes:
While raising 2 kids I knew my biggest problem was never being able to have, move around or afford enough Gun Safe space. I got the idea after watching contractors spraying fire proof foam on a Industrial building.
This was about the same time I was having a pad poured for the back boat garage and having a coarse of block set on it.
I had my block mason buddy lay a build out from a basement wall that gives me a 22' wide x 6' deep x ~8' tall locker. I purchased enough of the spray fireproof foam from the outfit that was doing the work on the local GM Assembly plant when we were painting the new addition to give me a 4hr rating @ 1000F. I sprayed between the upper floor joists before the corrugated steel ceiling was installed, after I built the storage racks the entire interior was sprayed again. My Humidity control system was installed with the help of a local 'grow your own' supply company which was much cheaper than the systems quoted by big gun safe systems they carried. Our home already had a sprinkler systems, I just had to relocate 1 line. Finally after wiring. I had a 3/8" steel door fabricated for it (also sprayed) with a special high temp gasket/weather strip like on a wood stove made up for it. Great place for arms I couldn't be happier but also a good place to store extra powder and primers. Since our basement has a block foundation you really don't notice this being there. Our basement is cut in half length wise with 1 side having a rec room, full bathroom and extra bedroom. The other side is the utility side making the stand out not noticeable. I covered the outside of the steel door with cork board that has pictures and notes pinned on it. The lock is inside a recessed fuse box panel (flush mount panel door) about 1/2 way up the sliding track door. I'm proud of it and Thanks to swapping/bartering some work it cost less than a couple high end gun safes. That's about 1000 cubic feet of storage... minus shelving area.
Happy Thanksgiving All
WARNING- This got really long
Hi Dave,
One downside is those rare occasions when we have a Tornado warning, when I get the EYE from the Wife. Meaning our storm shelter is too full to fit in. There's enough room to shelter if need be, you can walk thru without having to side step. Maybe it's the smell of the #9 and the stale Christmas tree air fresheners ? Or because she lost a circuit when I linked the generator thru the transfer box so the lockers hot during power outages ?
Really it's the fact that she didn't get another walk in closet. I've never revealed the number of arms I have and never will. I have a log that has everything listed, though some are just descriptions and numbered because they didn't have serial numbers. Log and Tags have the name of the former family member or friend that left it to me, I tried to organize the storage so their grouped by the family members- Dad, Grampa H, Brother... etc.
They use much less floor space now compared to how I stored them before.
Once located each arm is easy to get in and out without having to move a dozen things to get to it. Imagine the stir if the neighbors had seen a dozen gun safes being delivered.
Figuring out how to build the racks and shelving seemed the hardest to take advantage of the space. Then a couple weeks to build them. Built all this while finishing the basement, so inside work on rain days and framing the boat house/garage on good days. So drawing no extra attention from neighbors. We're in a little older neighborhood on a side street about 1/2 mile long. Most of the houses were built in the mid 60's to early 70's and are pretty close to each other, about 2 driveway widths apart. But being on the River side of the street we all have backyards that run back at least 75 yards and deeper to the river bank. Across the river is heavily wooded land in the floodplain and will never been built on, with the nearest road about 5 miles north. I've had the hunting lease on 60 acres for nearly 20 years, signed and notified. My fee is $1000 for each ten years. A token fee but gives the owner some piece of mind knowing in our agreement that I'll keep it posted and ask others to leave.
$$ Again, NO WAY I could have afforded to buy enough quality safes for storage. And they were a lot cheaper back when we built this. Time I was done compared to gun safe prices back then I figure I saved nearly 75%. The timing helped as my mason buddy was here finishing up a pad and single coarse of block for the boat house/garage (I used to race the small 10' hydro boats max 60 HP and collected pre-1930 outboards). Cheaper since he was here anyway and could work on rain days. Plus our house had a walk in basement sliding door, but the grade was off and shouldn't have been there so his final job was to block it in. Worked out well because we hauled in the basement remodel supplies like lumber, drywall, the Fabricated metal door etc and he could bring material in that way for the locker and set his mortar mixer right outside it. To neighbors this all appeared as part of the renovations, so no raised eyebrows. After he was done and the block cured I waterproofed it, using his Bobcat to back fill and grade the back shop. His own home had partially burned and I had climbed thru the attic and sprayed it and wall cavities to kill the smoke smell (a nasty job), later finish painting it. So like with many other trades (the ones you could trust) we often swapped labor.
The Build Your Own locker thought came after working around the guys spraying the foam fireproof on the General Motors Plant job. Then getting home seeing the progress on the cement and block work out back.
A few years later we built another in the basement of my Orthopedic Doctors farm house. He'd purchased it to make a hunting camp for himself and friends. Same mason was hired to lay a block wall foundation after we lifted the house to put in a full size basement. Soooo since they were there and Doc loves his guns we built him a smaller version.
Made for safe storage because no one lived there. His farmhouse was broken in to twice in a ~6 year period the guns weren't taken but other things were and much of it vandalized the 2nd time. A game camera caught pictures the 2nd time and revealed it was his stepson from a previous marriage.
I remember putting up nearly 6 miles in running feet of that pattern 116 knotty pine-tongue and groove. This was his idea of Rehab for me after 1 or 2 of multiple surgeries he performed. Luckily he had a huge un-used barn I was able to set up multiple 40' long saw horse racks to lay stacks out on. By saving all the cut offs I was able to pre cut them in to kits for his young son's Cub Scout group to build a few hundred Blue Bird houses. Sorta funny driving there as you'd start seeing Blue Bird houses from a mile away.
***Sorry so long*** Few memories popped up and got off topic*** :slap:
PS: I've always kept my cutting torch chained up out back. Neighbor was over one day, seen it and started laughing. When I asked what was so funny, he fired it up and cut a single chain loop off, then looked at me with a grin.
I'd honestly never thought about someone using my torch to cut the chain off to steal it.
Sometimes you just don't think things thru ! :surrender:
