Gun Storage Solutions Review
Gun safe marketing is hilarious. “8 gun” safes struggle to fit 6, “16 gun” safes struggle to fit 8 long guns, you always run out of space sooner than you think you should. I have a 16 gun safe from Costco, but I started really running out of room at around 10. I posted a picture on Facebook about how I needed “more safe spaces”, half joking, but half not. I was really out of space and had to trigger lock and separately store my guns. It was not ideal, as I’d rather have them all in my dry, secure safe. Gun Storage Solutions saw my post on Facebook and were kind enough to send me some safe storage accessories to help me out.
Storing Long Guns
The problem was really the ‘U’ shaped rack that stands scoped rifles off from the back of the safe. I don’t need that rack at all if I’m stacking a shotgun or iron-sight rifle, and it’s not far enough from the back on rifles that have big bad scopes on them that sit far off the barrel. It also KILLS 3-4 inches of space around the sides of the safe, but without the rack, guns can slide around and fall on each other and wreck the finish. The solution is to replace the space-robbing rack.
Rifle Rods
Without the rack, you still need some way of keeping rifles and shotguns from bumping into each other and leaving loving safe kisses on each other. You could lean them all up against the inside wall of the safe, but then you can’t stack multiple rifles/shotguns in the middle, and leaning rifles is a good way to have them fall over and get scratched up. Rifle rods are plastic rods that fit down the barrel of the rifle or shotgun on one side and have a velcro pad on the other side. The velcro goes to the underside of your upper shelf (or the ceiling of your safe if you have a short safe or long guns), and lets you suspend rifles in the middle of the safe. The bigger the safe, the more room in the middle you’re giving up. Some safes make use of separate ‘U’ compartments to store rifles, but you still lose space in the middle.
By storing shotguns and rifles that are fairly straight in profile near the rear, with progressively higher sight plane long guns near the front, tipped forwards via the rifle rods, you can store WAY MORE GUNS in the same safe. To access any rifle you only have to pull out rifles/shotguns in the same “aisle” as that long gun, so I only have to move 2 guns at most to access the ones at the rear. You can also store frequently used guns closer to the front and centre and not at the rear or along the sides as you would in a safe with a traditional rack. That makes grabbing your faithful competition or hunting guns out easy while keeping safe queens out of the way and in the rear.
The package I received had rifle rods that worked with as small as 22 caliber barrels. They worked all the way up to, and including, barrels as large as my 12 gauge shotguns. For 17 HMR rifles, you need a smaller diameter rod that they also sell. The kit I got came with carpet that you could use if your safe’s shelves were uncarpeted on the bottom. Luckily for me, the shelves I have were already carpeted and easily latched onto the velcro tips on the rifle rods.
Pistol Hangers
Safe storage solutions also sent me some pistol hangers. They’re simple “S” shaped rods that enable you to suspend handguns from a shelf. If you own lots of handguns, or if you want to keep shelf space free, this makes it easy to suspend many handguns side-by-side. The rods are coated with a polymer to make sure they don’t scratch your barrel, and are easily swapped to account for thicker or thinner shelves. Safe Storage Solutions also sells a hanger that can have a handgun on top of the shelf and one on bottom.
Multi Mag Gun Safe Magnets
These magnets are made for use in a safe. Which is to say: they’re rubber coated so they won’t scratch pistols, magazines or rifles. They come connected in pairs, but can be separated. You can use them to:
- Suspend a handgun from the ceiling of your safe
- Suspend magazines from the ceiling or against the safe wall
- Have a rifle or shotgun securely stand against a wall. Instead of leaning it against a wall and risking the long gun falling and getting damaged, the magnet holds the barrel and stands it off from the wall. This works great for the side of your safe, or on the corner of a wall that has a steel closing cap under the paint & drywall mud.
- Hold a pair of binoculars or other light item that has a strap on it. Since the magnets can clasp together, they can hold strapped items.
Having these magnets in a safe is kind of handy because they work in so many ways and are so flexible. That flexibility is nice since needs change as you change what kind of guns you store.
Store More Guns in the Same Safe
“Real” gun safes are expensive, heavy, and take up floor space. Not everyone has a few thousand dollars to buy a big safe for all their guns and fewer still have a new house they can put their big bad safe in before doors and walls go up. If you need to fit more rifles, pistols, or shotguns in your safe, take a look at some of the Safe Storage Solutions pieces of kit. They’ve got an online store and I’ve also seen them locally here in Edmonton at Wholesale Sports.
