• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Long Barrel Safe?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
May 17, 2005
Messages
1,684
Reaction score
29
I've got a nice safe holding all my handguns and nearly all my rifles and shotguns. That "nearly" means I've got to get another safe so I can safely protect those fine weapons that are hidden elsewhere throughout the house.

The BIG exception, no pun intended, are my long-barreled flinters. They are kept out in the open in my library/study.

But today I was thinking of finally getting that other safe when I thought, maybe it's time to try to locate a safe that can include these long-john guns.

So, who of you out there has found a safe that you can fit your 42" and maybe longer barreled guns in? Can anyone reccommend one?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Well, its not a as sturdy as a real safe but I got a pair of surplus full length gym lockers - loooong rifles easily fit in one & I keep fishing poles in the other. Bolted both to the wall. A couple of tackle boxes on top & the gun locker locked & the fishing locker not. Sort of "hidden in plain sight" & anyone will have to break/cut the padlock. Since it is not obvious, hopefully a thief will not take the time - the house is on a dead end road & has an alarm system, so there will not be enough time to poke & pry very much before meeting the sheriff on his way in.
 
I have 2 Champion safe co. safes that will hold a 42 inch barreled rifle if you put in through the door just right.
They are 60 inches tall 31 inches wide and fire rated. They weigh about 400 lbs. each.
SC45-70
 
My safe will not hold my Rev. longrifle upright. I have to leave it slanted across the front. It will not hold my Brown Bess at all and that is left out. If yer budget allows, do measure what is for sale before making a choice. Safes are expensive and, IMHO, not designed with our kinds of guns in mind. :(
 
I have yet to see a gun safe tall or long enough to take any and all Longrifles.

For home security, you can remove the lock, and the ramrod from the guns, and store them separately. Having interviewed Thousands of burglars over my career as an Ass't Public Defender, I learned that these criminals know almost Nothing about guns in general, and even less about MLers.

But, they do understand that a gun without a lock on it won't shoot, and you can't do anything with the barrel without a ramrod. They have no interest at all in single shot rifles, and most rifles in general, unless they have ammo with them, and are ready to shoot. Long guns are sold cheap to a "fence" to get money for drugs, or traded to obtain a handgun and some ammo. Fences don't want anything to do with a MLer, and certainly less with a muzzle loader that has no lock or ramrod. That's just an expensive paper weight to them, and produces no profit for them. Since they also know nothing about locks, they can't even guess if they can buy a replacement lock. When burglars find out that a fence won't give them anything for these guns, they tend to leave them alone in your home, and go for your electronic appliances- and your computer- instead.

That doesn't mean you don't want to take some measures to secure your guns. A safe room with a lock on the door will do quite nicely to deter burglars, who are scared of being caught, and grab the first thing they see that they KNOW they can sell for cash. Phones, stereos, TVs, Clock radios, Clocks, computers are all more marketable than MLers.

Modern handguns are another matter. They are close to the top of the list of items taken by burglars, followed by rifles and shotguns, as long as the barrels aren't too long. Repeating rifles and shotguns are also preferred, over single shot firearms. BTW, Fences are paying less than 5 cents on the dollar to these burglars. Why Law Enforcement doesn't offer bounties on the arrest and conviction of fences has always escaped me. :( :cursing: If you get rid of the fences, there is no incentive for thieves to burglarize homes, as they can't turn your valuables into cash. :hmm: In all my years as a lawyer, I have never represented, nor seen any fence prosecuted. :youcrazy: :cursing: :idunno:
 
National Security Safe Company in Utah makes a safe that is 72" tall. The interior will accomodate any long rifle that I have ever seen. :thumbsup:
 
Paul, in my area the bad guys are probably familiar with muzzle loaders. Many even have great-grandaddy's ml hog rifle in the house. If they want to buy meth they will take anything that isn't chained down. I live in a semi-rural location. A truck could be pulled in back and no one would see it. In a safe bolted to the wall or it is gone. Fer certain, fer sure. BTW, there is almost no enforcement here. Courts give suspended sentences and fines which are never paid. Keeps LEOs busy. Can we say 'revolving door'?
 
I also have been concerned on where to store, hide, secure my long guns. Right now they are in one of the most obvious places in the house. Behind our bedroom entry door. I have a wall rack with a few not so worth it guns- pellet rifles, co2 pistol and a sword that I hope is the "grab it and go guns" by a thief. Any gun that will fit in a safe is in a safe. 90% of my guns are MLers.
Any more ideas on low cost storage without a toal disassembly? I don't want to spend a 1/2 hour putting my Enfield back together to use it, and then go scrounging around for ammo and BP so I can go out and enjoy the afternoon of shooting. I like the idea of an old long locker. Any other cheap ways, or ideas? It's time to pass them along. Everyone(including thives) knows about the traditional places to hide them--under the bed, behind the door, and in your sock drawer.
 
As for storage options, I had a friend who created a hidden "closet" under a staircase, when it didn't appear to have enough space for anything. I know others who have sealed rooms, with bars, and alarms. They are intended to delay the thieves, giving time for people to respond to the alarms( including the owners, who can have the alarm signal him on his phone or computer.)

False walls with hidden switches have long been used to hide personal treasures. I would not want to attempt to outfit a mobile home with this kind of thing, however. IN those cases, a separate structure- in the ground, is the way to go. If someone wants to get your stuff, and has enough time- you live in the boonies, all alone, with no one to watch your home when you are away--- they will get in. I have clients who carried loaded guns in their vehicles so that they are armed as they approach their own homes, on the off-chance that they may run into burglars and thieves at their rural homes.

Rural Neighborhood Watch programs emphasize noticing any vehicle that passes by, and identifying its owner. When strangers are spotted, members call ahead to alert neighbors- many miles away in some cases--- that a strange vehicle is headed in their direction. If no one answers the phone, other members of the watch group are called, and people converge on the unoccupied home, or follow the strange vehicle, while armed. Thankfully, most of these stranger vehicles are just people who took a wrong turn. But, every once in awhile, they do catch the bad guys, and hold them for the sheriff. What the court system does after that is not their business. But, they now know who the bad guys are, what they drive, and what they are after, and the Bad guys know that they can be caught if they try again in that area. When they see all the citizens armed, and ready to shoot, and sounding pretty hostile to them, It doesn't matter if the Courts are lenient to them. They will find someplace else to rob.
my brother has a flat safe that lays on the floor of his closet, under a piece of carpeting and shoes on top of that. The locks are under an edge and are the cylinder style of key locks. If you know where the locks are, you can reach under insert and turn the appropriate key, and open it up. If you don't you don't have room to see under the lip, and you can't pick the lock without the right key- its expensive for even locksmiths to buy! The safe is bolted to the floor, also. However, its not one of those 72" long safes mentioned above.

Thanks, for that information, BTW. I was hoping someone knew of a safe company that I didn't know about that produces a product that fills our needs. I knew a safe dealer back in the early 90s, and specifically asked him about accommodating long guns. And, ten years later I was at a gun show when dealers of two different brands of safes were there, and I talked to them about long guns, without success. Its now ten years later, and while long barrels Traditional MLers may be only a small part of sales, there must be enough of them around for a company to produce a safe to fit them. Terrific! :hatsoff: :hatsoff:

The good ol' boys in your neck of the woods may know guns, and MLers, but a fence still won't give them any money for a gun that has no lock on it, nor a ramrod with it. He simply can't sell it quickly for a profit to risk having it in his possession for long.

BTW. Putting a small card with your name, address, and date of purchase on it, Under the Butt plate is a great place to hide identifying information from Bad guys. Putting the same information in the bottom of the barrel channel of the stock also works. Adding your driver's license # will be easily recognized by police, and they can quickly locate you with it. Do NOT put a Social Security Number on anything for ID. No one has access to that information, save the Federal Government. However, giving that information out to crooks can prove more valuable than whatever they stole from you, as they can sell that information to people who forge SS cards, and sell them to illegal aliens.
 
Don,t know if this will be of any use to some of you , but there are ways to keep your collectable items out of site and still have fairly easy access to them. One of the biggest benifits to the gun safes is that they have a high fire rating, they also are heavy and drop to the lowest point as a fire burns the wood structure around and under them. this puts them in the "coolest" area of the average home fire. The method of concealment I,ll describe will not have as much fire resistance as a good safe , but its posible to have some.
In older homes pre 1940 or so , there uaually are areas that can be utilized for this purpose . often the house has had walls moved (non bearing) syairwells closed off,and chiminnys removed etc. these are all areas that might work as a hidden storage. If you are or intend to have a new home built this type os "secret" area can be included in the prints. I think the homes with the least choices are the ranch style homes on a slab.These were common from about 1946 to date.
One of the most elaborate concealments I,ve built, was a complete wet bar and lounge w/balcoy over looking a famous lake in up-state N.Y. thehouse was shaped as a diamond and this room was in the point towards the lake.
the entry to the bar was a revolving (real) bookcase 8ft. wide , and floor to ceiling. When this was closed there was nothing to show there was other then a bookcase on that wall.
For those of you that have a ranch style, you could talk the wife into letting yo have some of the closet space. :hmm:
By using heavy metal studding and double 5/8" drywall you can gain a considerble amount of fire rating. If you are able to perform the work yourself you can build a safe area for the cost of a gunsafe and it will take the longest gun(s) you are likley to own.

:thumbsup: :hatsoff: :v
 
Poor Private asked:
Any other cheap ways, or ideas?
Between you and me, don't tell anyone else....it's a secret.....
I sometimes remove the large air return filter for my heating/cooling system and put things behind that for safe keeping. It wouldn't escape discovery with an organized search. But, bad guys are scared, stupid and in a hurry, I doubt they would think to look there.
Now, don't tell anyone. :nono:
 
I finally broke down and bought a Champion Trophy TG50. It is 72.5 inches tall so most longrifles fit without having to be angled.
Several other companies make six foot tall safes as well.
 
sc45-70 - I'm very impressed with these champion safes. A further attraction is that they have a dealer about 9 miles from my house!

Many Thanks for the tip, I appreciate it - Marc
 
No problem Marc
FYI when I ordered my 2, I was able to get them both with the same combination.
:thumbsup:
SC45-70
 

Latest posts

Back
Top