No matter how careful I am with my guns in the safe the inevitable bolt pump occurs. Does anyone know of a rubber or padded cover that can be placed over bolt knobs in storage? It used to be new Weatherby rifles came with a thick plastic coating on their bolt knobs which helped in the short run. Some of my customs have checkered bolt knobs and they are the worst.

Hi,

Might try a Toys r Us store or similar and look for small rubber balls, hollow, of course, and cut them as some do for covering hitch balls with tennis balls. Might work.

Luck,

Stephen

All my target rifles have their bolt knobs covered with the liquid rubber material available at most hardware stores used to cover tool handles. I use it to provide a firmer grip on the bolt knob for rapid fire, but it would work just as well for your purpose. You merely dip the knob in the liquid and allow it to dry. Thickness is controlled by the number of coats applied.

I save my old sweat socks and just slip them over the butt of my rifles before placing the gun in the safe. They're normlly long enough to cover the bolt handle as well. Just remember to remove before shooting.

i tried to avoid this,honest,but i just couldn't
How about a extra small condom

Did anyone here actually know they made extra small condoms, no? Just butchloc? Oh well.

Finger cots. AKA finger condoms.

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
i tried to avoid this,honest,but i just couldn't
How about a extra small condom

You got to get them from Japan and the freight will kill the deal.

Seriously, the finger cotts are the way to go.

I have several rifles with damage from contact with bolt knobs. My solution--don't mess with anything to cover the bolt knob. The only sure-fire way to avoid damage is to take the bolts out of the rifles before squeezing them into a safe where space is tight. Yes, you end up with a bunch of loose bolts, and the right one must go back in the proper rifle, but it's worth the effort to solve the problem.

I agree with vicvanb. Bolts and scopes take up a lot of room. I remove the bolts from the safe queens.

cut the fingers off of some gloves - rubber, latex or what have you.

Go to your local office supply, get the rubber thumb protectors for money counting. They last forever and it's a perfect design and fit for bolts.

Tanned baboon scrotums will also work.

This is one thing that Will doesn't make in elephant :-)

quote:

Originally posted by ~Arctic~:
Go to your local office supply, get the rubber thumb protectors for money counting. They last forever and it's a perfect design and fit for bolts.

Baby bottle nipples. Tapered so they will fit any size bolt knob.

A friend of mine has several made out of leather with snaps....pretty slick and I'm sure any good leather worker could make some up although it may be kind of pricey compared to some of the above suggestions. It would be a nifty idea to make them out of elephant hide. As I was reading this I came to the conclusion though that the best thing probably is to remove the bolts since they do take up a lot of space, I know in my safe the guns stack so close they almost rest on the handle of the adjacent gun. Now I won't rest until I have some sort of dedicated place, rack, holder etc... to put the bolts! My problem is I have little to no shelf space left.

It is frustrating trying to get a decent number of guns into a safe unless you collect 94 Winchesters. My safe is rated for 32 guns and I can't get close to that. The bolt removal idea is sound except I use the shelf for handguns. Also the larger scopes eat up space.
I guess I could get a small safe for handguns.

go to an office store or amazon, look for thumb and finger rubber protectors. They come in boxes of 12 for about 5.00 and work perfectly. Sizze 14 i think is the thumb size.Cheap as well as effective.

quote:

Originally posted by Macs B:
Did anyone here actually know they made extra small condoms, no? Just butchloc? Oh well.

That's hitting below the belt, ...but funny.

I just put gun socks on every other rifle.

I made two bolt racks from 4/4 hardwood about 2 inches wide and a bit shorter than the width of the door liner. One inch holes work for most bolts. I removed the sheet metal liner and screwed the racks on from the back side. I soon developed an arrangement to keep the bolts in logical order. I am able to get 17 guns into a 17-gun safe. I'll post a picture later.

Another benefit to the rack is that I can lock up bolts from guns that won't fit in the safe.

JohnD, great idea, so easy even a caveman could do it .

I have been using rubber finger cots to protect stocks in my safe from checkered bolt knobs for over 30 years. You can get a dozen of them from Staples for @2.50.

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
i tried to avoid this,honest,but i just couldn't
How about a extra small condom

I always wondered if they came in different sizes.....not just extra large as most assume

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
i tried to avoid this,honest,but i just couldn't
How about a extra small condom

I always wondered if they came in different sizes.....not just extra large as most assume

Ever seen the serial number on a condom?
No? Well you just aren't unrolling them far enough.

Seriously, my safe is listed for 40 guns... Blowguns maybe!
I pull the bolts too but those rubber finger tips look good even for transporting bolt guns to shows etc.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
I agree with vicvanb. Bolts and scopes take up a lot of room. I remove the bolts from the safe queens.

Same here.

I'm still working on a rack design for my Liberty National "Magnum 50" (rated for 39 rifles) to allow anywhere near that many to be stored with scopes and removable without disturbing more than one other rifle, but so far I'm stuck at 24, even with the bolts removed. Granted, a lot of them are big, fat DG rifles.

Removing the bolts is the only way to go. Now I just have to design an elegant way to organize them all. I'm using rare earth magnets to hold the rifles in place sitting almost vertically, so that the butt pads don't deform over time.