I don’t recall if it was Patrick McManus, Ed Zern or perhaps Gene Hill that warned us about what happens if you leave guns in a dark safe. They multiply at an alarming rate!



Frankly, I blame the campfire. 15 years ago I was perfectly happy shooting stuff with a Win M70 .243 my dad had given me! You people are a bad influence (in the best possible way)



The Fort Knox I have I bought more than 25 years ago and I think it was a 12 gun safe. Over time I took the shelves out and inserted some new configs to allow more but I was pretty much done and guns that should be in the safe we now in cases and spread around the house.



Friend Jorge, with the same problem, pointed this http://www.storemoreguns.com company out a couple weeks ago so I counted poorly and ordered the 20-gun set ($75)

It’s essentially sheet of the loop side of Velcro you staple to the bottom of the shelf and then a series of .22 rods that a disk with the hook side you slide into the barrel and hook to the bottom of the shelf.



As you can see, it works great and the 12 gun safe now holds 24 with room for at least a half dozen more (time to get busy!). 32 percussion no longer fits since I filled in the insert in the shelf that allowed very long barrels so I’ll just have to let VANimrod make me and offer I can’t refuse (hear that Sean!)

As you can see, I ran over 20 so cut a disk from a dowel and drilled and inserted and then stuck some Velcro on the end. In fact, you could make this whole set-up for far less than $75 but I have to give the folks that put it together credit for ingenuity and marketing it so I don’t feel like I wasted the money.



A nice couple hour project including oiling and checking out guns that don’t get out of the safe much as well as catching up with documenting serial numbers and such.

Tough problem to have!

you got to watch those savages or you'll end up like this !!

I assure you in 8 years in the "forever house" in NH that the safe won't be much of an issue. I'll have something much more like that!

HEY!
Shelves...now there's an idea.

Thats depressing !!!!! and i can imagine how they store their ammo !!

It was Pat that warned about guns in dark safes.

I'm trying to figure out the rate at which they double so I can anticipate when I'll need another safe.

Yesterday.

Time for another safe. Managed to squeeze in a few more..

Jorge, if you turn some of them muzzle down there's a lot more room in there.

As former Naval Air you'll appreciate the back of the roll around bins I use for storage. They also happen to hide the safe which works out well.

Top is a poster I got from Tailhook in 91
Middle picture is one I took of trapping on the Washington
Bottom is another poster back when we had Prowlers and Intruders in the Navy and now we have neither.

Love it, good work!

Turn out the lights on that middle photo and it's not nearly as much fun

OBTW you need to put up some shots of Phantoms or Tomcats on your bins

That sea state and an easy divert makes night not fun but OK. Throw in a pitching deck and blue water and it's time to replace the seat cushion.

Why would I put pointy nose jet pictures in my shop when everyone knows jets shaped like a drumstick get the real work done.

It's a well known fact that the warm dark confines of a gun safe are perfect to promote firearms to breed and multiply till the safe cannot hold any more. What better reason does a guy need to buy another safe and start the process all over again.

Pugs,

From MAT Wing 1's Hanger in Oceana:

Fighters make movies...Bombers make history.

The other one was in the upstairs hall:

Bombers...The real reason for building aircraft carriers.

VA-42 & VA-85
AT2 WC 210 Night Supervisor (89) Indian O and (91) Desert Storm Cruises USS America
85-91

Even more bizarre is how either a lone upper or lower AR assembles itself with sights or scope...magically! Can't seem to figure that one out.

May have heard those before (from the bulletin board in the shop). Had a good friend with VAQ-137 on that cruise. Looking forward to catching up with him at the USN Prowler farewell at Whidbey this June.

Attack...I should have remembered that.

Yes I remember those cousins in 137 with their gay gold canopies!

I am sure I would have transitioned to Prowlers being an AT had I stayed in after they whacked the Intruders.

Good times.

Anyone who love the outdoors loves Whidbey! You would have enjoyed it out there. My cousin was an AE who spent his whole 20 years at Whidbey. He was the final troubleshooter on my first cat shots off Indy when I was a clueless lt(jg) and got me both halves of the hold-back fitting. It sits on my desk and work and people often ask what the heck is that broken piece of metal

The gold plate on the canopies ($500K per set) was supposed to protect us from the electromagnetic radiation from the pods but after they were banged and scraped by cranials and helmets in the break we all had our doubts. I blame it on my wife and I not having kids.

I knew what the canopies were supposed to do of course just hazing you. Cool that he snagged that for you.

If we had been at Whidbey, I might have stayed in but not for sure. We had our second October 1, 1990. Pretty hard on a young wife to be solo in VaBch with a 4 and newborn while I was floating around the world all help from the family 1586 miles away.

Very possible that all of that high powered RF zinged your potency. Remember all of that training warning us about the high concentration of energy around the flight deck. You took it with you every sortie to double up on the dosage.

Yea, that hit a lot of people in the VAQ community. There were never enough Prowlers to go around and even when I went to the reserves in 97 I ended up getting recalled to active duty 5 times for deployments in the next 10 years. Deployments, work-ups, red flags, china lake dets and all the other demands were hard on everyone. Great community and Whidey was great but we were gone a lot. I don't think in 8 years up there I ever had 60 days in a row at home.

Speaking of movies....I was on cruise in VF-33 on the America (off Libya) when Top Gun came out. My wife took my daughter and 5 year old son to see it and in one of the first scenes, the XO is addressing the class and he has a big, VF-33 monkey patch on his flight jacket.

Proud young son jumps up in the packed theater, points and yells, "that's my Daddy's squadron!"

perfectly good gun thread turns into a bunch of wingnuts reminiscing

Navlav8r...Was VA-55 on that cruise with you? R.Y. Weber was my CO in 42 later XO of the America when I went to 85 in 1989. One of the finest Naval Aviators I ever knew.

He showed us videos from bombing those gun boats and rafts. So awesome even with the poor video quality back then.

Pugs...Did your buddy in 137 ever have a copy of the Bad Company video that was played at the beginning of every launch during Desert Storm? Wished I had a copy of that.

Sorry for the side show on the gun safe thread but be glad none of us started with "this ain't no sh++" and started telling sea stories from the good ole days.

See my previous apology...sort of!

Yeah, but it's a bunch of "gun nut" wing nuts, not just your every day wingnut!

What you REALLY need is a nice head on shot of SLUF the magic war wagon. A-7E, the only jet in the fleet that descended to cruising altitude off the cat.

Then it is acceptable

Corsair...thankfully that and the Phantoms were phased out for the most part by my time.

On a positive note...at least it was Pugs thread.

Ouch...age is creeping up on me.

Pugs, you an old A6 jock?

Super sized ones...Prowlers

VA-34 "Blasters" were in Airwing One at that time and they sure put a hurtin' on some gunboats.

One night, we were on CAP and a guy in our sister squadron, VF-101 came up on "Strike" freq and said, "Strike, Diamondback 1__, every time we fly over this surface contact, they shoot at us."

It was really poor radio discipline on my part but I couldn't help myself and I came up and said, "WELL, DON'T FLY OVER THEM!" That was one of the gunboats that was taken out later that night.

Also known as "station wagons"

I was there with you. VS-32 Maulers..

I tried to do just that before we moved to Australia a couple of years ago and realized I needed another rather large safe.

Heck, in retirement I think I'll need a safe just for the rimfires.

My name is Allen and I have buying .22s problem. Everyone together "Hi Allen"

Hi Allen! I was just trolling Rimfire Central's website last nite. They have done cool stickies!

Afraid I won't be much help. I will however take you out to dinner if you ever get back this direction. Scrubby' is now an Asian food joint, but sure we can find something of an agreeable menu!

Sad That was as good a brisket as I had in the Pac NW. I do need to get back out there and we'll certainly hook up for a meal.

Clearly Pugs needs a Sharps...

Back demon, back I say! Get me an old priest and a young priest and some holy water stat!

I am wanting a mini-Sharps but don't want to fork the coin for a Dakota. Looking at the Lyman in 38-55.

That .32 Pedersoli (never fired, btw) can come live here for a spell.