If you're like most gun owners, you are truly proud of your gun collection. And sometimes, the gun safe isn't as orderly, reducing the space and aesthetic outlook. So, how do you organize your gun safe?
Key Takeaways:
You'll want additional equipment like magnetic mounts and rifle rods to organize your gun safe effectively.
Consider the storage environment, overcrowding, and safety rules before organizing your safe.
The best places to store your gun are the basement, closet, and corner near the outside wall of the house.
Bolting down your safe is key to safeguarding the gun safe.
Here's how to organize a gun safe with minimal effort but effectively. No more gun scratches and clatter. First, consider the following 5 top gun-safe organization tips before getting to the organizing bit. These will make gun-safe organization smooth and safe, just like using a speed loader for a revolver.
How To Organize A Gun Safe: Top 5 Tips on How to Store Guns in a Safe
To organize a gun safe, consider the following 5 tips on storing a gun.
- Gun storage safety. Gun storage safety helps you and your family or roommates avoid accidents.
- Maintain a suitable environment for your guns.
- Always clean your handguns before storing them.
- Avoid overcrowding your gun safe.
- Keep copies of the gun storage space combination and an Inventory list, just in case.
1. Follow Gun Storage Safety Rules
Following gun storage safety rules means ensuring you lock and unload your guns before storing them in the gun safe. Also, it observes the other basic handgun safety measures, like treating every firearm as if loaded.
Last, store them in a way that limits unauthorized access. So you want to get a suitable safe for your guns. Consider a high-end, burglary-rated TL-15/TL-30 safe if you have many guns.
2. Maintain a Suitable Environment for Your Guns
The Safe should help you maintain a suitable environment for your guns. Therefore, according to NRA, keep the humidity at 30%-50% at room temperature (70 degrees) to control rusting and corrosion. A gun safe dehumidifier will do.
Also, avoid storing the guns in their packaging cases. A firearm needs circulation, so non-breathable cases, fabrics, or waterproof cases are bad for your gun storage. Plus, they take up more space inside than without storage cases.
On top of all this, buy fireproof firearm safes with a minimum 1-hour rating. Any fireproof gun safe with fire ratings of less than 1 hour will not safeguard your valuables for long in the event of a regular house or office fire.
3. Always Clean Your Handguns Before Storing Them
There is an inevitable buildup of guns that happens. Such gun buildup is from corrosion and rust, Sweat with oils & salts, and regular rubs of gun parts during shootouts.
So regular cleaning helps in gun maintenance keeping the moving forearm parts in check, preventing rusting, stopping the gun from jamming in the future, and contributing to the gun's longevity.
4. Avoid Overcrowding your Gun Safe
Here, ensure you have sufficient room in your safe to reduce and eliminate scratches on your gun. Overcrowding damages your firearms.
Items that will help here are storage shelves, magnetic mounts, rifle rods, pistol racks/handgun hangers, door panel organizers, and installing pegboards. They create more room in your safe storage space, as you'll see in a few.
When planning your gun-safe organization, make sure you allow enough room. Trying to stuff as many guns as possible into the storage space can damage your guns.
5. Keep Copies of Your Safe Combination and an Inventory List
You can trust your memory but have a secured, safe combination handy just in case. The key is to have your gun safe hidden in a secure place far from your gun safe.
You also want an upgraded list of items in the gun safe. Ensure the list has a short gun description to help you identify the exact firearm, serial numbers, and a list of other valuables stored.
6 Best Gun Safe Organizer Ideas
Here are seven solutions that will revolutionize your gun storage safe. Have a look.
- Magnetic mounts
- Rifle rods
- Handgun hunger
- Pistol racks
- Installing pegboards
- Installing more lighting/gun name tags
1. Magnetic Mounts
A gun-safe magnetic mount is like a holster but metallic and magnetic, and it's for your gun safe. You use the magnetic mounts to increase or create more space in areas where you couldn't. And they enhance the aesthetics of your gun safe while increasing its capacity.
So, you mount magnetic mounts under the shelf space or behind the gun-safe door. You mount it in a way that you can stack your handgun vertically.
Magnetic mounting brackets can keep the longer firearms in a linear, well-organized, easy-to-access fashion, maximizing storage space. And you can also include magnet magazine racks to store magazines.
2. Rifle rods
Often, many rifles & long gun owners store their rifles leaning on one another on the gun-safe wall.
That takes more space, and scratches are almost always inevitable in long gun storage.
A rifle rod is a closet door organizer that goes into the barrel of the rifle through the nozzle to support it so that you can hang it vertically.
So with many rifles and other long guns, you organize your gun sage by hooking them in one row, maximizing storage space. Also, you'll create more unused space, increase the aesthetic outlook, and make accessing the rifles in the long gun storage seamless and exquisite.
3. Handgun Hangers
Handgun hangers are a creative gun safe storage remedy for your revolvers, Glocks, S&W's Lugers, Zevs, and other handguns.
The hangers use the under-shelf space for storing handguns. And they are metallic but coated with a rubber sheath to keep the gun safe while protecting the hangers.
Hangers slide into the firearm's barrels, holding it in place for storage. They are painless, and they make accessing the weapons hassle-free.
4. Pistol Racks
Pistol racks take up more space than hangers but make excellent door panel organizer accessories. They come in different styles, so go for the one that fits your gun in the fashion of your liking.
Some gun owners prefer a fully enclosed gun-safe organization, while others like them more on display to complement the storage cabinet display.
5. Install a Pegboard
Just like how a pegboard complements and maximizes a garage gun space or any gun display wall, it also maximizes the gun safe space. The good thing with pegboard kits, you can customize their crafting for a specific application and still use it for your gun safe.
6. Installing More Lighting/Gun Name Tags
Gun safes are often shadowy, which makes locating guns tricky. To organize your gun safe, there needs to be more than one light on top. Consider having more lights around the shelves and in the gun-safe door. Alternatively, you can organize your gun safe by having name tags on your guns or both.
Is It Better to Store Your Guns Vertically or Horizontally?
It's better to store your guns vertically and not horizontally. That is because of storage safety. And second, vertical storage adapts to most weapons. Thus, holding weapons vertically is flexible and more efficient in speed retrieval. It's faster to count than when using horizontal storage.
FAQs
What Should You Mount Your Gun Safe On?
Depending on the size and weight, mount your safe on a fortified concrete floor or your typical floor. You can set smaller, lighter safes on the floor. The heavier, larger ones require firmer surfaces. You can fortify the floor or use concrete, especially if you have a wooden one.
Should You Bolt Your Gun Safe to Your Floor?
Yes, bolt the safe to the floor because it's always safer. It reduces the chances of falling when the kids try to tip them over. And bolting them enhances safety from theft.
Where Is the Best Place to Put a Gun Safe in Your House?
Near an outside wall in a corner would be among the best places to put your gun safe. You can also store it in your basement for those who prefer an out-of-sight location. Other good places for gun safes are closets.
Should You Keep Ammo in a Safe?
Yes, you can store your Ammo in the gun safe if you have specific spaces for ammo storage. But NRA (National Rifle Association) says that unloading guns before storage is better. So keep the ammo in a separate safe different from the gun safe.