Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Storing guns horizontal?

Anything inherently wrong about storing guns horizontal?

Or perhaps at a slight angle up or down?

If you do not have scope caps and the like on them I think it would be better. I have a Mauser procured from an elderly neighbor that was stored vertically in a cabinet for so many years that there was a dust bunny in the chamber!

I store mine upside down as they are easier to pull out from the safe and it doesn't squish the pad.

It also would be a good habit as any fluids would run to the muzzle instead of into the bedding.


.

Best stored barrel down so that you don't ruin the recoil pad..However I am not adament on this and most of mine are actually butt down, but I can change out the recoil pad in an hour or so.

Oil will leak to the wood on lots of models, and best it runs down to the forend than back into the recoil tang.. Oil ruins wood, but the best cure for that is don't over oil as the vast majority of folks do..it only takes half a tad if that of oil to maintain a firearm and never enough to run is correct....

The bottom line then is don't over oil and store them any way that works best for you..

I store the wood stocked rifles muzzle down and the synthetics butt down. The muzzle down protects the wood from oil and storing the synthetics allows me to pack in more rifles in the safes.

But is there a "down side" storing rifles horizontal??

Nope, especially when stored right-side up. Generally that gives the bore a little downslope, so any oil or solvent will still flow away from the action inletting.

Horizontal also tends to keep the scope lenses less dusty, if you're not using scope caps.

Someone not using scope caps? Never occurred to me. Less grit and crap on the lens, less cleaning, less chance of damage.

nighthawk,
Sorry but there are folks like me that have a draw full of scope caps, mostly made out of intertube jbtw, that never use them for some reason known only to the Red Gods of Hunting!!!

Only one I know of. Dad mounted his own deer feet and screwed then into a knotty pine wall to make horizontal gun racks in his gun room. The salts from the tanning process rusted the heck out of several barrels and trigger guards.

It was common for old time taxidermists to mount a deer head on a pannel and one or two pairs of up turned deer feet below to use as gun racks. Same problem.

O

An old-fashioned gun rack (horizontal) sure is a nice way to access guns, and they look good too.

I see no downside to horizontal.

That's probably the best explanation for some of the things I do too.

Yes there is a down side. I don't have enough wall space to hang them all, and they aren't very secure. I do have a chest type strong box that I store guns in, but there the problem is like a chest type freezer. Whatever you want is at the bottom. Another problem is you have to store them in cushioned gun cases if you are just going to pile them in, and then you have the potential for rust in a humid enviroment.

Some day, I will have a large vault room with lots of horizontal racks on tracks just like bookcases. That's my dream anyway!

I saw something yesterday that still bothers me � a horizontal wall rack of four shotguns with the barrels pointing the wrong way.

Given the fact that some numbnuts rack 'em with live rounds in the chambers, and inadvertent discharges are not unknown, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with those barrels pointed toward a nearby intersecting wall, not toward a doorway near the rack.