What About The Guns?

25 October 2013, 15:31

This week I started looking at my trophy rooms and noticed that, accidentally, all the animals in each room was shot with a different rifle, so I mounted the rifles on the wall in each room as well. My experience has been that most people have their weapons in a gun safe, or cabinet. I'm curious if anyone else has displayed their weapons in different, or unique way.

I also have the recovered bullets from the kills and am trying to figure how to include them along with the trophies.

25 October 2013, 16:52

jorge

I would love to have a place where I could display my guns. I remember growing up and seeing pictures in the "Weatherby Guide" of hunters with their beautiful trophy rooms and gun racks. Remember the TV show Bonanza? I always wanted a gun/book display like that!

Sadly I live in an urban area and although crime is relatively low, all it would take a thief is to break in and steal them so all my guns are "banished" to the confines of a safe..

25 October 2013, 17:42

Kensco

I have that vulnerable feeling as well. I have three long guns on the wall in my house/office, facing a front glassed door. I don't like it, but I also have a good security system, video coverage, and am one mile from the local police station. Hopefully that is a sufficient deterrent/response should anyone feel like getting a closer look. I just hate having everything locked up or hidden.

26 October 2013, 07:37

buffybr

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jorge:
... I remember growing up and seeing pictures in the "Weatherby Guide" of hunters with their beautiful trophy rooms and gun racks...QUOTE]

I also spent many, many hours looking through those Weatherby Guides, and dreaming that someday I would be able to go on exotic hunts and have a great trophy room.

I still have the 1973 and 1977 editions.

26 October 2013, 18:10

Sevens

I think that, sadly, displaying guns Has become less common these days due to the negative conotation politics have given guns and the increased amount of theft.

I've been privileged to see some really fantastic trophy rooms and of those only two had rifles on display. One was an actual cabinet display on a wall and can be seen in "great hunters; their trophy rooms and collations 6" under Rich Pierce's section. The other gun display I saw was a safe built into the wall with a clear front for viewing. I thought this to be the safest route as your guns are still fairly secure with the advantage of a locking metal safe.

28 October 2013, 09:02

boarkiller

We seem to live in the world of constant worry. Locking guns, cars hell about anything can be stolen. But that's life. Guns displayed with trophies is a must, otherwise what's the point of having trophy room and be scared to display guns that put those heads on your wall.
We are nothing but a bunch of worry worts and pantsies.

" Until the day breaks and the nights shadows flee away " Big ivory for my pillow and 2.5% of Neanderthal DNA flowing thru my veins.
When I'm ready to go, pack a bag of gunpowder up my ass and strike a fire to my pecker, until I squeal like a boar.
Yours truly , Milan The Boarkiller - World according to Milan
PS I have big boar on my floor...but it ain't dead, just scared to move...

Man should be happy and in good humor until the day he dies...
Only fools hope to live forever
“ Hávamál”

29 October 2013, 02:01

Duckear

I am going to have custom cabinet built for six or so of my easily replaced hunting rifles. I am going to have some sort of locking bar to secure them from a smash and grab thief. And plenty of insurance.

If you live in constant fear of theft of your stuff, at some point, your guns own you. No thanks.

29 October 2013, 23:33

bisonhunter1

I'd love to show off some of the rifles used to take some of my trophies on display in my trophy room/house. Ain't gonna happen tho, because of the theft issues brought forth by some of the previous posters and the fact that my trophy room was BROKEN into several years ago and the lousy thieves helped themselves to some of my firearms that were in a locked (but more of a lock for show than real theft deterrence) wooden gun cabinet that my brother built for me. Luckily the guns that were taken were not of high value, well insured and insurance covered the loss of these firearms. Other than taking a report, the local sheriffs office has been of zero help in any recovery of stolen firearms, and in fact told me they won't even look for them, unless maybe found in the investigation of some other theft were one or more of the guns just might happen to be. So now I make sure mall my guns are locked in two large bolted (from the inside of the safe) to walls gun safes.

The other part of this thread was about displaying recovered slugs from game shot. While I usually don't recover many slugs, mostly cause the shots are usually pass thru, the one I have gotten back from two of my Africa trips I took the trouble to weigh them post firing and have small signs made up with pre and post weight, and also what gun and animal the were used on and then had all that framed and matted by the local Jo Ann's fabric framing department. The piece I now have on the wall with these is about2 ft high and 3 ft long and has about 7 slugs and the little signs displayed in it. While I didn't do it, one could perhaps add a small picture of each animal/slug combination to if desired. If someone wants to see a picture of this, ican take a photo and send me an email and I'll send it to you. I have a devil of a time posting photos on here so not likely to try that.

Willi

31 October 2013, 23:52

tom ferry

if you look at the pictures I have posted on the trophy rooms forum I have several guns up in my trophy room. I do have a security system . People like to look at the guns as well as the mounts.

20 November 2013, 10:40

Idaho Sharpshooter

sad state of affairs where you have to live Jorge...

03 December 2013, 22:47

jorge

Just now saw your reply. While our neighborhood is quite safe (never had a break in) we know it's just a matter of time. There used to be a company that made beautiful "hardened" gun cabinets, but very expensive and I dont know if they are still around although I'm sure an outfir like Julian & Sons could make you one.

04 December 2013, 01:48

zimbabwe

It's only another indication of the sad state of affairs of the US populace. I can actually tell when it started. I am from Mississippi and a small town at that. Until I was out of college my parents never locked the doors of our house, in point of fact the front door did not even HAVE a lock. I can remember well when my mother asked me to put a lock on it. My father was a construction worker and away from home for long periods. Only when there was a prowler reported did she even think about a door lock. The US lost it's innocence with the advent of a public service TV spot in 1956 that I well remember. It showed a car parked at the curb with the windows down and zoomed in to show the keys in the ignition with a boy looking in at them. The voice over and caption was "don't help a good boy go wrong'. To me this is when the slide started when the Government placed the onus on you for not securing YOUR property from some unknown person. And implying that part of the reason the 'good' boy went wrong was yours. I didn't accept that premise then nor do I accept it now. I am a total disbeliever in political correctness in any form be it speech ,written word, or action.

04 December 2013, 09:35

Idaho Sharpshooter

I'd just as soon build a rack in the front yard and stick my firearms in it as leave them visible inside my house.

05 December 2013, 05:56

JCOOK

quote:
Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I'd just as soon build a rack in the front yard and stick my firearms in it as leave them visible inside my house.

I agree 100%...just had friend go on vacation and when he got back, his guns were missing and ALL of his prime mounts,including a full body lion mount were also gone...police said that the ones doing this have standing orders for both guns and mounts...need to take care in who sees what you have.

06 December 2013, 23:29

GroundsKpr

quote:
Originally posted by zimbabwe:
It's only another indication of the sad state of affairs of the US populace. I can actually tell when it started. I am from Mississippi and a small town at that. Until I was out of college my parents never locked the doors of our house, in point of fact the front door did not even HAVE a lock. I can remember well when my mother asked me to put a lock on it. My father was a construction worker and away from home for long periods. Only when there was a prowler reported did she even think about a door lock. The US lost it's innocence with the advent of a public service TV spot in 1956 that I well remember. It showed a car parked at the curb with the windows down and zoomed in to show the keys in the ignition with a boy looking in at them. The voice over and caption was "don't help a good boy go wrong'. To me this is when the slide started when the Government placed the onus on you for not securing YOUR property from some unknown person. And implying that part of the reason the 'good' boy went wrong was yours. I didn't accept that premise then nor do I accept it now. I am a total disbeliever in political correctness in any form be it speech ,written word, or action.

.........Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!

14 December 2013, 00:22

Use Enough Gun

JCOOK: Damn, that's scary. I figured that guns were on the list of thieves, but didn't know that trophy mounts are part of it too! I guess I'm going to start asking people to not take any pics! As to the other, yes, a lot of us remember the days of no home door locks, keys left in the ignition of your cars in the driveways, of carrying guns in a gun rack over the cab window of your truck fully exposed during the entire deer hunting season, and/or of going to high school and taking your shotgun and duck/upland hunting gear with you in your truck so you could hunt ducks, geese or pheasants after school. Or, taking your deer hunting gear with you to school, including your hunting rifle, orange sweatshirt, hat and ammo, and leaving right from school when the last bell rang to hunt deer until dark. ALL OF THOSE DAYS, AND MORE, ARE GONE.

14 December 2013, 06:40

JCOOK

quote:
Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
JCOOK: Damn, that's scary. I figured that guns were on the list of thieves, but didn't know that trophy mounts are part of it too! I guess I'm going to start asking people to not take any pics! As to the other, yes, a lot of us remember the days of no home door locks, keys left in the ignition of your cars in the driveways, of carrying guns in a gun rack over the cab window of your truck fully exposed during the entire deer hunting season, and/or of going to high school and taking your shotgun and duck/upland hunting gear with you in your truck so you could hunt ducks, geese or pheasants after school. Or, taking your deer hunting gear with you to school, including your hunting rifle, orange sweatshirt, hat and ammo, and leaving right from school when the last bell rang to hunt deer until dark. ALL OF THOSE DAYS, AND MORE, ARE GONE.

all so true and likewise so sad that the young ones will never see or experience that life style...i have always said that if you did not grow up in the 40s or 50s you missed out of a lot of good things...there is a local monthly magazine that features local hunting/fishing along with write ups on local hunting camps,there are several of us with hunting camps who have been ask,but refuse to allow them to write about our camps...something that we should take pride in and be proud to do...hate to have to operate like a submarine..run silent,run deep,if you surface you get sunk..but thats the way it is.

17 December 2013, 05:54

AnotherAZWriter

My expensive precision rifles are in the safe in my reloading room, which is adjacent to my TR. My house is custom built, so I had cherry bookshelves with an integral gun rack built in. The bookshelf rifles are all wooden stocked (including a high grade Citori) shotguns and rifles. I don't want them stolen, but they can be replaced with money. My precision rifles have a lot of time and effort in them, and are in a fireproof safe that is bolted to the concrete under the floor.

We live in a gated community and have a good alarm system as well. But when we are gone for a while, all the guns go in the back up safe. My neighbors watch the place; in fact, one day my taxidermist rolled up with his trailer and my neighbor came over to make sure he wasn't stealing stuff from me.

27 December 2013, 00:07

458Win

Now if we all hunted with Ruger American rifles we could simply hang them on the wall without fear of them being stolen

27 December 2013, 13:35

buckeyeshooter

But then you have to look at it every time you walk into the room.

28 December 2013, 00:26

Adventura

We keep hearing these stories from abroad.
A housekey ? What´s next ? Paying to park ?

28 December 2013, 01:39

retreever

Peter Capsticks guns were stolen when he lived in Naples, FL.

Mike

17 January 2014, 06:53

BaxterB

I don't even talk about guns to people in general, much less leave them out in my house. I have had friends find out I've got a safe full of guns and they look at me like I just ate their baby. I always tell them they are free to leave if they don't like it. So far, none have left, so it must be ok.

17 January 2014, 15:40

A10ACN

quote:
Originally posted by zimbabwe:
It's only another indication of the sad state of affairs of the US populace. I can actually tell when it started. I am from Mississippi and a small town at that. Until I was out of college my parents never locked the doors of our house, in point of fact the front door did not even HAVE a lock. I can remember well when my mother asked me to put a lock on it. My father was a construction worker and away from home for long periods. Only when there was a prowler reported did she even think about a door lock. The US lost it's innocence with the advent of a public service TV spot in 1956 that I well remember. It showed a car parked at the curb with the windows down and zoomed in to show the keys in the ignition with a boy looking in at them. The voice over and caption was "don't help a good boy go wrong'. To me this is when the slide started when the Government placed the onus on you for not securing YOUR property from some unknown person. And implying that part of the reason the 'good' boy went wrong was yours. I didn't accept that premise then nor do I accept it now. I am a total disbeliever in political correctness in any form be it speech ,written word, or action.

I think its more of a lack of fear by the general population. Kids used to fear getting their backside tanned if they did wrong. Now parents fear getting their kids taken away if they use a loud voice to correct them. Likewise, adults used to fear doing (real) hard time in prison, getting executed, but especially getting shot and killed by honest citizens protecting their families and their hard earned property. Now, honest citizens fear prosecution by their own governments and law suits by criminals or their families. We as a society really went off the tracks somewhere. And this is NOT just a US phenomenon.

24 January 2014, 06:50

BwanaCole

Having just moved back to the US from the UK I am missing my gun room. Seeing every gun in an ugly gun safe here leaves me depressed. I had seen some gorgeous gun rooms in London show rooms and some beautiful houses and I wanted one. Well, "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride" is what my mother used to say. Not being one to take no for an answer, I bought a 20' used shipping container secure construction site office and had it craned into my back garden. It became my man cave for me, the dogs, guns, reloading equipment, good scotch and good books. The local constabulary decided that if someone managed to steal the damn container, they probably deserved the guns! 20'x8' is not huge but it was a nice retreat and I got to look at my guns every time I went in. Basically, it was a walk-in safe.
Now that I am in Houston, I refuse to live with out my man cave and, in fact, want a much bigger one. I have a garage that I am plannung in remodeling with a flat above for guests(read: completely rebuilding). half of the ground floor is going to be a concrete walled vault. Probably 25'x25' or so. I plan on using a Ft. Knox vault door as my access door inside the car part of the garage. That way I can have my trophies, guns, books, dogs, scotch and reloading gear all open. It will be a much bigger walk-in safe!

24 January 2014, 09:36

Bill Collector

I keep my best stuff in a steal enforced gun room, and a 1800 pound safe that's not going anywhere. Make sure you have good insurance,and in my case, a trained hundred pound German Shepherd named Rambo who is just waiting for the day. someone tries to get in.

01 February 2014, 22:53

IOWADON

I worked for an elderly farmer in Nebraska when in high school around 50 years ago. He only had a couple centerfire rifles, a shotgun and an old pistol. He said the pistol was very rare and valuable, but I don't remember what it was. He had made a hidden gun rack behind a kitchen cabinet where his wife had some plates displayed. It only took a few seconds to get to his guns, but no one would have guessed where they were. I was just amazed at his ingenuity and very flattered that he showed it to me. Also, I doubt that he locked the door on his house at that time as most farmers around there did not.

02 February 2014, 02:55

Lost Oki

I have been hunting with the same guy and his son for 12 years, I know he has a large gun safe but have never been allowed to see it. Why? He was robbed by an alleged family friend years ago and he made a policy to never ever let someone other than wife and son, see his gun safe. I was never offended and have adopted a similar policy. The better I can secure them, the better I feel.

03 February 2014, 04:20

ragsxd

i keep mine under wraps.dont tell dont show

03 February 2014, 08:25

pagosawingnut

One of my friends here locally, had an oak display case made and wired to his alarm system. If it is broken into, noise it makes is incredible and the local LE are notified. They're only 45 minutes away so that doesn't help much but it's better than nothing I guess.

04 February 2014, 20:02

IOWADON

I've taken a couple security engineering courses and what was emphasized in them is that one cannot protect assets by putting them in a protected enclosure alone. Rather, one must layer protective enclosures in conjunction with alarm systems because any enclosure can be gotten through given enough time and the proper tools. Therefore, if one has a gun safe, his guns are still not protected unless he has a security system sound off when burglars enter his home so that law enforcement can get there before burglars have enough time to get into the gun safe.

20 March 2014, 19:50

RAC

Here is a neat concept. http://burglarbomb.com/ Just don't accidentally set it off! IMHO, it would make burglary extremely difficult.

15 June 2014, 21:47

fla3006

I have a friend who keeps guns in a large, electrical circuit breaker box, with conduit going in and out and a danger-high voltage sign with lightning bolts painted on the door. He thinks that will deter burglars, but he also does not have many very valuable guns.

17 June 2014, 19:01

SR4759

Rifle Magazine had an article about 20 years ago about a writer in Austin, Tx. He would get telephone calls and no one would answer. He worked at home so he did not leave that often or that long. One day he came home from an errand and his front door was open. He had been been broken into and only guns were taken.
Some how the police were able to solve the crime. It turned out that his teen age son had brought a friend over. The friend told another kid about the guns. The other kid and some buddies did the breakin.
While in state prison the punk was murdered.

It seems that to safely possess them you would need to load them in the car inside the garage.
Never let anyone see them and never talk about them.

26 June 2014, 03:16

BwanaCole

Having just repatriated from the UK to Houston, I am sorely missing my gun room. I used to have a 20' secure office shipping container in my back garden that was basically a giant safe. Within it I had open storage of my rifles in a vertical wooden gun rack. They were cabled through the trigger guards, of course, just to keep them from growing legs if I dozed off for a moment

I am now trying to build a 22'x22' gun/trophy room within my garage which is a separate building behind the house. I am making it as secure as I can; no windows, wire mesh in the walls, ply wood on all wall surfaces, armored (or as armored as I can make them) doors, etc.

I still want to be able to see my guns. I hate the box guns safes here. Why can't I find a company here in the USA like this:??

Bespoke Gun Cabinet Company

I really like the glass fronted ones like the "Marlborough". Not cheap, but nothing good ever is.

Anybody have any suggestions??

26 June 2014, 13:59

Andy W

Cole,

You could always move back to Keystone!

Andy

04 July 2014, 20:27

0007

Cole -
If you haven't started yet, first question is what kind of construction is the garage build of, concrete block or frame. If it's block, life is good, if it's frame, it'll be a little harder. Anyhow if you have a poured floor, I would suggest you look into using block anchored to the floor with rebar. Then you fill the block and you have solid concrete walls to play with.

13 November 2014, 00:17

Bryan W

My trophy room is on the 3rd floor of my house. I'd like to display guns on free standing walls throughout the space. I'm think the guns would be horizontal or on a 15-20% angle. Does anyone have pictures of this?

It is a shame not to display the guns!

13 November 2014, 09:05

Duckear

quote:
Originally posted by BwanaCole:
Having just repatriated from the UK to Houston, I am sorely missing my gun room. I used to have a 20' secure office shipping container in my back garden that was basically a giant safe. Within it I had open storage of my rifles in a vertical wooden gun rack. They were cabled through the trigger guards, of course, just to keep them from growing legs if I dozed off for a moment

I am now trying to build a 22'x22' gun/trophy room within my garage which is a separate building behind the house. I am making it as secure as I can; no windows, wire mesh in the walls, ply wood on all wall surfaces, armored (or as armored as I can make them) doors, etc.

I still want to be able to see my guns. I hate the box guns safes here. Why can't I find a company here in the USA like this:??

Bespoke Gun Cabinet Company

I really like the glass fronted ones like the "Marlborough". Not cheap, but nothing good ever is.

Anybody have any suggestions??

http://www.woodloft.com/specia...guncabinets_main.htm