Do you hunt with firearms? Do you shoot competitively? Are you a firearm collector? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you need strong, safe, and secure firearms storage.
Proper firearm maintenance is also a must. Keeping your shooting equipment in premium condition will contribute to their long, reliable life and servicability.
In this article, let’s look at how to store rifles, shotguns and handguns to ensure they are safe, secure and in storage that complies with your local state or territory legislation.
A responsible firearms owner stores his or her guns in a manner that complies with their relevant state or territory legislation. The safe pictured to the left is from the Premium series of LOKAWAY gun safes, distributed by Beretta Australia. The LOKAWAY Premium series are Australian designed and feature patented Swing ‘n’ Slide locking technology, the number one anti-pry design in the world. The LCH1 model (pictured) holds 12 – 18 guns and is suitable for storage of categories: A, B, C & H.
In this article, for illustration purposes and to make a point, I have pictured a couple of safes distributed by Beretta Australia. There are many more safes in the Beretta Australia inventory suitable for all types and categories of firearms. All safes distributed by Beretta Australia comply with the firearms storage requirements of Australian states and territories at the time of writing.
There is more to storing your guns correctly in a safe than just leaning them muzzle up inside the safe and locking the door. I personally prefer to store my rifles and shotguns muzzle down, but more on that later.
In some instances, you will comply with the storage requirements for rifles and shotguns in your state or territory by keeping them inside a locked wooden box. I don’t do this, and here’s why.
A Gun Safe, is the most practical and cost-effective option for storing firearms in your home. A quality, modern gun safe will feature a separate, internal and lockable compartment that can be used for storing ammunition or other valuables.
The walls, and sometimes the door also, will be lined with a soft synthetic material that doesn’t attract or store moisture. A height adjustable baffle facilitates separation of rifles and shotguns to prevent dings and scratches when moving your guns in and out of the safe.
The soft, synthetic padding on the internal walls and door keeps firearms shielded from rust, dirt, and moisture. When you consider the replacement value and compliance requirements of your firearms, scopes and mounts, the case is clear: a gun safe is the way to go.
Good safes also feature recesses and mounting hardware for fastening (from the inside) the safe to a concrete slab or house frame.
So, is that all you need to do? Just choose the safe that best meets your requirements and if it stores handguns, bolt it to the slab or frame of your home if required by your state or territory legislation? The answer is no. Let’s assume you have taken delivery of your new safe and positioned it in a room of your home. If the safe is going to store handguns, either on their own or in combination with rifles and/or shotguns, it must be bolted (from the inside) to either the house frame or concrete house slab. Securely fastening the safe to your house slab or frame, even if not a compliancy requirement is still a very good idea to increase security and peace of mind.
Adopt the good habit of 1) safety checking, 2) thoroughly cleaning and 3) safety checking your firearms again, before putting them back in the safe. Store rifles and shotguns either muzzle up or muzzle down using the adjustable baffle to ensure the guns aren’t touching each other.
If you adopt the muzzle down approach to storage as I like to do, you must ensure the floor of the safe is covered with a generous base of soft, absorbent material to avoid all possibility of marking or burring a muzzle, muzzle crown or choke.
Firearms are best stored following cleaning. Sometimes, even the most fastidious cleaning detail may leave traces of oil or solvents in the bores and exterior metalwork. These traces are best not left to seep into stock timber and actions. Storing longarms muzzle down reduces this liklihood.
Another reason I personally like the muzzle down storage in the safe is preferred, is because some recoil pads, specifically modern, recoil absorbing pads, can lose some or all of their shock absorbing capability if stored muzzle up for a length of time.
Some firearms enthusiasts choose to store their longarms in silicone impregnated socks to further reduce the likelihood of damage to fine timber and steel when moving items in and out of the safe. If you choose to adopt this extra precaution, beware. Buy socks only of a reputable brand because I have seen some on the Australian market that are cheaply manufactered and do not allow the timber and steel to “breathe” which results in rust and corrosion.
Pictured here is the excellent Beretta VCI (Vapour Corrosion Inhibitor) gun sock which does not trap moisture because it is not impregnated with silicone. The sock prevents rust and is non-abrasive. Made of soft spun yarns, it won’t abrade fine timber and metal. Beretta’s VCI gun sock is the first gun sock designed for the transport and storage of firearms under wet field conditions.
VCI technology forms a protective chemical barrier that stops rust and corrosion from occurring which makes the sock ideal for long-term storage inside your safe.
Never store firearms in lambswool bags or wraps. Lambswool retains moisture and has the habit of holding dust and grime which can act as anabrasive on the finish of your guns.
For those of us who live in humid environments, moisture retention inside the safe needs careful attention. To avoid rust and corrosion of firearms metal, and to prevent swelling, cracking and staining of fine timber, extra precautions are needed to reduce humidity inside the safe.
There is the common solution of dessicant or silica gel sachets, bags and plastic containers. Be extremely dilligant if you go the route of the larger plastic container style; these are commonly found on supermarket shelves. If that plastic container tips over, all of the water it has captured from the air inside your safe will spill onto your guns! Beware.
I have seen advanced dehumidifying solutions in gun vaults and large safes in the Australian tropics. However for most of us, moisture management in the safe can be addressed by ensuring you thoroughly clean and safety check your guns before putting them back in the safe. Store each one inside a premium quality sock such as Beretta’s VCI gun sock, and use and regularly refresh a good quality disposable or renewable silica gel solution.
Much of what applies to the storage of rifles and shotguns, applies also to handguns also. However, compliance can vary between the states and territories.
The handgun safe pictured to the left is the Hunt-Pro HP-2, distributed by Beretta Australia. This handgun safe features 6 mm steel walls and door, comes pre-drilled for fastening to a house frame or slab, and the walls are lined with soft synthetic material that won’t mar or ding your pistols and revolvers.
At the time of writing, Hunt-Pro handgun safes meet the storage requirements for handguns in all Australian states and territories.
There can also be legislative requirements relating to bolts being removed, lever’s left open and break-action guns being broken down before they are put back in the safe. These requirements can differ between states and territories and I encourage you to contact your local club or police firearms licensing section for further clarification. For example, in Queensland, rifles and shotguns stored in your safe or when being transported, must be un-loaded (of course!), with the bolt removed or the action broken.
However, common sense must always prevail when storing firearms. Never store ammunition in the same compartment of the safe as your guns and always safety check the gun for an empty chamber and empty magazine prior to putting back in the safe.
So there you have it, safe storage of firearms starts with you.
