I built a 6' x 8' room off my basement for a gun vault. Concrete on all sides, and a steel bank vault door for access. I ran heat, phone, electrical and lighting into it along with plastic, stud walls, insulation and drywall to finish the inside. I'm painting it tonight so then need to build gun racks and storage drawers for the back wall. Any ideas would be appreciated. I was wondering how high the racking needed to be for the tallest gun I might find. I have a shotgun that needs 52" so 54" should clear that one. Are there longer typical guns that I should account for? Any plans or spacing to go by before I design something?
Thanks,

I was just in such a room. The guns are all horizontal on pegs. This prevents damage to rubber butts and from oil running into the stock tang. They can go from ceiling to floor like this if need be.

If you double tier your guns then you can take a hole saw and make a big hole in the cross beam of the second tier. where the butt stock sits. This way the long bbls. from the bottom tier guns can stick up behind the buttstocks of the top tier. I did this and it works like a charm.

the gunboards.com froums had a thread on building gun racks not too long ago, had plenty of pics too. maybe you could try that for some ideas.

[ 11-28-2002, 01:06: Message edited by: Curtis_Lemay ]

I have two 1x3" strips two feet apart nailed up from floor to ceiling. They are drilled in a zig zag pattern for 1/4" pegs slanting slightly down and back at 1" height intervals. The pegs are 3" long and removable. This allows you to set the guns horizontally and move the pegs so that the guns can be fitted quite closely together.

As to horizontal space needed, some muzzleloader antiques and replicas can be over five feet long.

Also have a wall paneled with heavy 1/4" pegboard, bought the shelf holder hooks that are about 10" long, you can hang three guns on two of them spaced maybe 3' apart, guns are upside down supported thru trigger guard and under barrel. Does not work for lever actions as weight pulls actions open. If you bend the shelf holder hooks into a triple v you can support guns on top of the hooks rather than hanging from them.

Another option for long guns is to make or have made a floor gunrack that is on a bearing like those fishing rod holders.

Try here for some ideas Fort Sandflat

Thanks for the links. I got some idea's from the Fortsandlot page and alot from the gunboard discussion. I am almost done building cherry cabinetry for the vault. I am making 28" high base cabinets with mostly drawers and one door along the back wall. The guns will sit on top of the counter with holders that are 5 deep and 10 sections wide. Will easily hold 50 guns securly. Way more than I have, for now. I am also building a 24" wide open shelf unit for ammo and gun power storage inside the vault. No need for that stuff to be outside in case of fire. Thanks for the idea's.