Gun storage, gun safes and gun cases
I mentioned a few days ago that the ideal way of locking up all of your firearms and ammunition is to create a fireproof room in your home that you can just walk into. I know several gun collectors that have done this and if they would have gone out and purchase gun safes they probable would have had to remove a few walls in there house just to get the safes in, not to mention how much destruction they might have caused trying to move one around the house. I believe my one friend had 3 gun safes that would today, cost close to $10,000, but I don’t think he would have done that again. Security systems are much better designed and you can keep various sections of your home under active lock downs while it’s free to roam in other areas.
One thing that hasn’t changed very much is the reality that guns usually get damaged during transport and many people don’t have the right gun cases matching up to the rifles. I had issues with several of my Uncle Mike’s assault rifle cases not working very well with some of my M4 Carbines when they had anything more than a rifle scope on them. The Uncle Mike’s gun cases are very good, but if you have lasers or flashlights on them, you may need another fatter type of gun case. There have been times where I have taken 7-10 rifles to a gun club and that was an enlightening time for me. After I put my most expensive rifles in the better gun cases like the SKB gun cases, I ended up just having gun socks for shotguns and 22 rifles. I think gun socks are good for the money, but the Allen Endura gun cases offer a little more protection.
When getting asked the question how many guns we own, the question should be asked “what do I not own?” After several years of dealing with the high speed, low drag weapon systems, and after watching the 2008 election results, there was huge jumps in ammo prices. I thought to myself when 5.56 ammo was hitting close to the $700 per 1000rds range, that maybe ammo was going to be worth more than gold soon. After putting a little thought into why the ammo prices were going up, I pretty much guessed that they won’t stay up that long in a bad economy, because nobody in their right mind would spend money on something that was 200-300% over inflated. I decided that if It was reloaded ammo, I wasn’t going to touch any factory ammo, and it was now time for a 22lr bolt action rifle.
I believe in having a holster for every handgun and a rifle case for every rifle. When people are putting $1000 Trijicon ACOGs on their rifles they are considered to be tough for combat, but sometimes things get slammed around in cars and unwanted dents and dings occur. SKB rifle cases are on the heavy side, but if you have a bigger sized vehicle, these are very easy to stow in and get out and it’s sturdy enough to not worry about damage if you have to bury it with other gear. You may even be able to keep most of the rifle magazines and accessories in the case as well as some othe range gear. Drag bags are another great rifle case, but they may be a bit of an overkill when it comes to using them for something as small as a Carbine.
SKB and Pelican make gun storage units that will protect your guns if they get knocked around. The foam pads can always be customized for specific guns and gear and I highly recommend doing so. I strongly believe in buying gun cases that are for specific firearms and especially so for rifles. You will be able to fit varying sizes of handguns in the pistol cases depeding on which way you place them, but rifles will get tricky and since most of them will have optics, you gotta be careful how much you pack them. There are even some rifle cases that can hold your magazines, pistol, and pistol magazines.
With the advent of the accessorized rifle or carbine, people are putting so many things on rifles these days that need to be screwed on, locked in, and battery operated that Murphys law has some really cold things to say about this. Every screw on your carbine is going to come loose at some point and every battery operated device will fail at some point. I’ve seen a lot of accessories that fit in the pistol grip, buttstock or other areas and this is nice for some purposes, but any of those operators were spending more than a day with their setup, they find that they aren’t carrying enough tools sand gear on their guns to get through 48hrs of hard use.
Do you own a rifle that could use a nice scratch up the barrel? Well, I thought so, so why do people not think about buying a rifle case for every gun they own? One thing I’ve found is it’s really a good idea to buy atleast, one soft case for each semi-auto you own and then put a tag or label on it so you know that gun will fit in it. How many times have you gone to the range and had to figure out which rifle goes where?