Gun storage in man cave

JKP

So our new house has a 10' x 12' room that will be used for guns and ammo storage. I'll also store some other related stuff in the room and maybe set up a cleaning station in there as well. Loading and other activities will probably be elsewhere. The room has no windows and I will be properly securing the door. 

No safes are moving so I'll need to come up with a good solution for organizing the guns. Obviously need a solution for long guns and handguns. I've done some googling and see some good options but would appreciate any feedback y'all might have.

Perfect world nothing would be on the floor though I might end up doing some sort of two sided floor standing rack for at least some of the long guns. I found below image (the wall mounted rack on the left) and it looks nice and appears to have decent storage density. Without providing a number, I'm storing a fair amount of guns... I'm certainly no woodworking pro but can build simple stuff.

Thoughts based on any experience or what you've seen?

Tugar

The woodwork would be pretty simple. The bottom board just needs something at the end to keep the stock in place and the upper part could be done with a hole saw and some sanding or filing to make the openings. 

Zee

I am doing something very similar. Making two levels on every wall (high/low) and one wall with shelves to hold handgun racks. For the top part of the rifle racks, I’m going to drill holes and use 3” dowel rod pieces inserted in a 1x2 or 2x4 instead of the more intricate option in your picks. That way, I can space the rods according to the distance I need. Some rifles I store muzzle up and some I store muzzle down, so the top would need to be adjustable for width (barrel/buttstock). 

Won’t go into detail, but the walls involve bricks, the door involves steel cross beams and locks, with an alarm system attached to my phone. 

I’m finally gonna have a GUN ROOM!!

Zee

I went to my LGS and measured their racks. 

pjames777

I gotta get a bigger allowance!  

JKP

Zee said:

I am doing something very similar. Making two levels on every wall (high/low) and one wall with shelves to hold handgun racks. For the top part of the rifle racks, I’m going to drill holes and use 3” dowel rod pieces inserted in a 1x2 or 2x4 instead of the more intricate option in your picks. That way, I can space the rods according to the distance I need. Some rifles I store muzzle up and some I store muzzle down, so the top would need to be adjustable for width (barrel/buttstock). 

Won’t go into detail, but the walls involve bricks, the door involves steel cross beams and locks, with an alarm system attached to my phone. 

I’m finally gonna have a GUN ROOM!!

I like the dowel idea. Just run a 1x4 the length of the wall and go from there. 

Yes, definitely looking forward to having a gun room instead of packing guns into safes.

JKP

Dowel idea worked great. I ended up using a 2x2 for the dowel host. 

I still need to get some better handgun racks and come up with a way to rack the odd shaped stuff like AR pistols, FN PS90, specialty pistols, etc. 

orchidman

Zee said:

I am doing something very similar. Making two levels on every wall (high/low) and one wall with shelves to hold handgun racks. For the top part of the rifle racks, I’m going to drill holes and use 3” dowel rod pieces inserted in a 1x2 or 2x4 instead of the more intricate option in your picks. That way, I can space the rods according to the distance I need. Some rifles I store muzzle up and some I store muzzle down, so the top would need to be adjustable for width (barrel/buttstock). 

Won’t go into detail, but the walls involve bricks, the door involves steel cross beams and locks, with an alarm system attached to my phone. 

I’m finally gonna have a GUN ROOM!!

I made the same sort of racks for my big safe....but I also added some tube foam to the dowels to protect the barrels on the safe queen/collector rifles. One other thing to watch out for is that gun racks in gun stores dont normally store rifles with scopes attached so make sure the depth/width of the bottom shelf and the dowels allow for the rifles with scopes attached....

Zee

Good idea on the wrapping of the dowel rods. 

Yes, accommodating a scope is something I’ve had to take into consideration. 

bullsi1911

JKP said:

Dowel idea worked great. I ended up using a 2x2 for the dowel host. 

I still need to get some better handgun racks and come up with a way to rack the odd shaped stuff like AR pistols, FN PS90, specialty pistols, etc. 

make one section out of something modular like this:  https://tacticalwalls.com/modwall-main/

orchidman

Zee said:

Good idea on the wrapping of the dowel rods. 

Yes, accommodating a scope is something I’ve had to take into consideration. 

If you cut the foam slightly longer than the dowel you can put a dab of contact glue inside the overhang then squeeze it between your thumb and finger so it flattens vertically. It makes it easier to guide the barrels in......

JKP

Zee said:

Good idea on the wrapping of the dowel rods. 

Yes, accommodating a scope is something I’ve had to take into consideration. 

A couple of my larger rifles with large scopes need more offset from the wall than the rest of my stuff. I'll probably just build in a section with more offset for those handful of rifles.

Zee

I just measured again (more planning) and 12” off the wall seems to work whether muzzle up or down with my larger scopes. 

GunNut

Zee said:

I just measured again (more planning) and 12” off the wall seems to work whether muzzle up or down with my larger scopes. 

Just a thought but if you place dowels/rifles diagonal to the wall at a 45 degree angle you can cut that substantially without loosing anything on the overall capacity and the guns show better.

JKP

GunNut said:

Zee said:

I just measured again (more planning) and 12” off the wall seems to work whether muzzle up or down with my larger scopes. 

Just a thought but if you place dowels/rifles diagonal to the wall at a 45 degree angle you can cut that substantially without loosing anything on the overall capacity and the guns show better.

Yeah. For now I have a couple sideways on the wall leaning on a dowel. 

GunNut

JKP said:

GunNut said:

Zee said:

I just measured again (more planning) and 12” off the wall seems to work whether muzzle up or down with my larger scopes. 

Just a thought but if you place dowels/rifles diagonal to the wall at a 45 degree angle you can cut that substantially without loosing anything on the overall capacity and the guns show better.

Yeah. For now I have a couple sideways on the wall leaning on a dowel. 

By going to 45 degrees I found it’s easier to deal with the bolts and I can actually get the guns closer together and closer to the back wall.  The rifles do show better, specially the ones with nice stocks!   Learned that trick from my buddy’s LGS setup years ago.  Again just a thought.

Zee

You don’t need the dowels at a 45 to have the guns at an angle. Just rest them on one of the back corners at an angle. 

GunNut

Zee said: You don’t need the dowels at a 45 to have the guns at an angle. Just rest them on one of the back corners at an angle. 

That’s absolutely correct but if you do have the dowels at a 45 degree angle it does make it easier to pull the guns out without banging into each other or having to move other guns out of the way.  Of course if you keep the dowels short then it’s not an issue at all. 

Curious, why do you want some of the guns barrel down?

Zee

Many of my guns are quite heavy. Prolonged storage on a corner of the recoil pad could cause the pad to compress and lose its shape/usefulness. 

Storing muzzle down prevents that.