How many guns will a 30 gun safe hold?

[Aragorn243]

Not a trick question. If you take out all the shelving and racks from a typical gun safe, take all bolts out of the rifles and put them in gun socks (none have scopes) how many would fit in a typical 30 gun safe? First row butt down, second butt up and so on. I know it's hard to get 30 in there with the shelves and such in place but am thinking 40 or more should go if packed in.

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[Gil Boyd]

Sounds a bit like a Donald Trump question "How much will a wall cost us along the Mexican border do you think?"
As its Saturday, I'll hazard a guess once stripped, and you don't want to get to any particular rifle with ease at any future date and its for security only, probably a lot more than that

[henry r]

I think that would be totally dependant on the brand of safe, what you were putting in it and how good you were at packing.

I friend and I were looking at a 30? gun safe at one of the local gunsmith/dealers, and he said he had the same safe for his own use out the back with a stupid number of rifles in it (I think he said about 100). he also said if he tried to fit another in he wouldn't be able to close the door.
I never saw it myself but have no reason not to believe him. he is not the type to talk up his achievements. the only time I heard him make a "claim" about anything (I thought it had to be bs as it was a BIG claim) he pulled out his phone and showed me the pictures.

[Eaglelord17]

I had a 18 gun safe for a bit which at one point I managed to fit 22 rifles in (not counting the handguns). I also had them all in gunsocks so they wouldn't get damaged. I couldn't access them easily if I wanted to though, and all my rifles are 'average sized' i.e. no scopes and pretty much all bolt actions.

[Aragorn243]

I'm pretty sure my current safe is a 30 gun safe. I have a mix of scoped, lever, bolt actions in there and am pretty sure I have about 36 in it and the shelves are in place. Some are small carbines in socks that fit between the others, the front row I have additional ones that are butt up. Just looking at it, it would seem I should be able to double capacity pretty easily if not confined to those "notches" in the shelf supports. Reason I ask is Cabelas is running a sale on a 30 gun safe and if I could get 60 shoved in there it would go a long way to solving my storage issues. A bigger issue perhaps is a lack of a place to put the safe.

I'd only be putting military rifles in it and like I said, I could pull the bolts out, especially those that have straight ones. I wouldn't have to access them often either. I'd rather they be safe against fire, etc.

[henry r]

if you are storing the bolts separate from the rifle please work out some sort of semi-permanent way to match the bolts to the correct rifles, just in case.

maybe something like pairs of numbered plastic poultry leg tags on the bolt handle and trigger guard.



edit, they come in a variety of sizes and colours, in packs of 100 (so should cover even you for a year or so ) and are cheap.

they could be used to catalogue your collection for future reference in a way even non gun people would understand straight away.

[Aragorn243]

The Cabelas safe sale tuned out to be a misprint. The $1400 safe was not on sale for $700, bummer.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

You can get far more than the labled 30 using your method. if you are socking and inverting every other one the bolts should not be much of an issue.
Here is the problem (voice of experince) I could not remember what was where and was hesitant to disassemble the jigsaw puzzle that was my safe and could not enjoy the collection.
I bought one of the Cannon 80 gun jobs on sale and am glad I did. It added enough enjoyment being able to retreive a particular piece without investing an hour into the search to justify the expence.
Had to add a 50 gallon barrel of water to the back of my tractor to lift her in the door though.
My humble opinion. Get the biggest safe you can find/afford/purchase without the added expense of a divorce.

[cipherk98]

I found that even the cheap safes will hold what they claim if you take out the bolt and can tolerate your guns picking up a scratch or two in handling... my big issue is how the stand offs are often too short. In my case the M1 Carbine, Winchester 94 Carbine, and my Marlin 22 all have to sit on a wood block, while the AK is folded up and makes it's home on the shelf I used to store my magazines on.

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

One of my safes is for storage only. This is a 36 gun safe. In it are 42 carbines, a Savage 45-70, Ruger #1, two .22 rifles a model 94, and 43 handguns. It is well packed.