Preservation forum, please no altered military surplus rifles or discussions on altering in this forum. Please read the rules at the top of each forum.
Caretaker 2011,
Most gun collectors keep their guns hidden.I've been collecting for years.I desided this
is lost history.I believe the Mosin Nagant got me into it's history.I found it so interesting what these rifles saw.
And the men and woman behind them.
I desided to build gun racks for the different countries an times of the rifles.I built a Japanese
rack using bamboo,WW1 rack old fashion looking,Polish rack also historicl looking.A Mosin Nagant rack,with
Russian items to accent it.I'm on the second Russian sniper rack.
I think I rattled enough.If I learn to get pictures on the form I'll post some.
Not lost history if you pass it on to as many people as you can. Not all people are able to display theirs (me) and i would not consider myself selfish either.
You have to consider there are a wide variety of people that collect these and not all live in giant mansions with seperate gun rooms.
The commerce which maybe carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue renders a knowledge of these people important ~Thomas Jefferson~ (to- Lewis and Clark)
I "display" (kind of) my Military 1890's to present firearms. My Revolutionary War Flints I keep in a safe and rarely display them even on the internet (I have a few I show, but not the others). This room is alarmed and in the interior of my house which has a separate alarm and camera system on it. It is a monitored alarm and they call me if either is breached and I can monitor the cameras over the internet. There are a few "other items" I don't talk about also. There is always a big problem with security if you leave firearms out of a safe. In fact a safe is not really safe at all. If they know it's there and want it, they'll get it.
If you think your cheap safe is safe, watch this.
If you think you Mid range safe is safe, watch this
I display them here, otherwise 99% of them are locked away, packed in cosmoline and in air tight bags to protect them from mold and humidity. Once I hit 40 or 50 items in the collection I quickly realized that maintaining firearms out in the open during New York's humid summers was a huge and ever growing chore even with the tricks I had learned from the museum curators I have met. Endless dusting, oiling, and so on, over time this would add wear to a rifle no matter how carefully done. The collection is much larger now, and it would be impossible for me to display more than 10% of it anyway due to limits on available wall space. From time to time I will break out some rifles and put others into storage, clean them, shoot them, maybe show them here on the forum, and then put them away. Even after almost six years of posting on both the old forum and this one there are still things in my collection that have not yet been here.
Now security is an entire other matter, and one I take very seriously, a home full of guns on display will be a thief target, guns are worth money and are easy to find a buyer for even when they are hot. The meter reader, the post man, the UPS guy, the plumber, your neighbors, and even your friends, they all have diarrhea of the mouth, what they see they talk about and sooner or later the wrong people hear about it. My closest friends know what I have, they know it's locked away, my neighbors know nothing, and I never let anyone near were my collections are secured, and I never discuss the security arrangements I have for the collection with anybody. If you were to walk into my home you would see nothing that suggests I am a gun collector, no NRA stickers, no shooting jackets hanging on hooks, no pictures of guns unless they were to turn on the computer and look under the Gun Porn file. Time and again someone is around here or on the BP forums I belong to going on about the guns they had that were stolen. I would kill to stop the theft of my guns, not because I value them more than human life, but because if I ever found out one of my guns was used to hurt an innocent person because I was to stupid to hold on to it I would have to eat a gun myself.
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
The people in the videos worked way to hard to break into the safes. Where I work, there was an old, high end safe that someone lost the combination to long ago. I was told to haul it to the dumpster. Being curious about what might be in it, I decided to open it. The hardest part about opening it was moving the heavy thing to my shop. I did not attack the door, and it only took about 15 minutes to get in. No torch, no pry bars, no grinder.
Afterword, I figured out the 5 digit combination, repaired my break-in and gave it to my son for his pistol safe.
Safes keep the kids and the casual criminal out, that is about all. On the positive side, most crooks are inexperienced, lazy and stupid and a safe will defeat them.
I saw that episode of the Sopranos also you went in the back, or the bottom.
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
I used to keep some on the wall, but my alarm went off one day while at work. My neighbor observed some people on my front porch then when the alarm when off, they came running from the back yard with what looked like a role of paper towels. She called the cops and they got them, but it was their word against hers. They said they knocked on the door and the alarm went off. I have glass sensors and a good bump on the door will set them off. I installed cameras now to cover me, but everything has since been in the safe. Well all the expensive ones that is.
Here is a picture of how it used to look.
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It's a shame we really can't but unless I'm shooting it, wearing it or showing one to someone I know, they are locked up. I have a collection that's worth quite a bit and many have a special personal value that is beyond any monetary value. I realize that the determined thief will get you but let's not make it easier for him. A friend lost some really nice target pistols to his step son's "Buddies" who found out he had some in his pistol box, packed ready for a match. While he got some back, they were worse for the wear and the some are still gone. I along with JYD would be sick to death if I found that one of my guns was used to hurt someone, especially if the gun was carelessly stored.
Damn, I'll bet that's going to leave a mark! Probably hurt too!
"I think Congressmen should wear uniforms,
you know, like NASCAR drivers, so we could
identify their corporate sponsors."
"When I die, I want to be facing my enemies surrounded by their dead bodies and piles of spent brass"
"Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience." - Mark Twain
Mounted on the wall of a interior room with a solid core door with a dead bolt and 2 alarms systems and a camera system is not "carelessly" stored. I have a dog and a wife around all the time and no children in the house (and it locked all the time anyway). My "room" is as safe as your "safe" is. Perhaps more so because if anyone gets into the house, I will know inside of a few minutes. Well before they get into the room and the second alarm. I turn on the cameras anywhere in the world on the internet and see 6 cameras around and in my house, if they are in there, the police will be there in a few more minutes. All that before they get into the room and the second alarm.
You can't say that with just a safe. I can turn on the camera in that room right now and look at those rifles, and know if they are safe. They can't come in the back yard, I have a dog there and he makes a lot of noise!
Real good idea Dolk ;) Has given me a few ideas for my own. I keep all of my guns in the safe except for my carry gun and I have four on the bench right now ;)
•"Was there ever a people whose leaders were as truly their enemies as this one?"
- Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
"....from my cold dead hands:
President Charleton Heston
I have thought about hooking up an electric fence charger to my safe with a hidden switch in another room. For you city boys with no experience with an electric fence charter, it will knock your **** in the dirt and your teeth will chatter for a week after getting shocked by one of these rigs. They hurt like the dickens but are not actually dangerous, sort of like a tazer.
With my memory, I would probably be the only victim, but at least my wife would enjoy the show.
I started with just one room dedicated to my collection but over time it has spilled out to other rooms. The initial room is very secure and I have made the second room just as secure. You have to get through the front of the house to get to the other rooms and the alarm systems would tell on you every way you tried to enter. Then there is my killer cat to deal with too.
I only see one M38????? Waht is up with that? I think yo uneed at least 2 more
The commerce which maybe carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue renders a knowledge of these people important ~Thomas Jefferson~ (to- Lewis and Clark)
SA1911a1 wrote:I have thought about hooking up an electric fence charger to my safe with a hidden switch in another room. For you city boys with no experience with an electric fence charter, it will knock your **** in the dirt and your teeth will chatter for a week after getting shocked by one of these rigs. They hurt like the dickens but are not actually dangerous, sort of like a tazer.
With my memory, I would probably be the only victim, but at least my wife would enjoy the show.
I wonder what a transformer from an oil burner would do?
I've seen some very secure displays and some guys that have stuff leaning in corners. My concern is making it harder for some 'casual' thief. You will never defeat the professional that is determined to get your stuff. Fortunately that type of thief is rarely on the prowl for C&R's
Damn, I'll bet that's going to leave a mark! Probably hurt too!
"I think Congressmen should wear uniforms,
you know, like NASCAR drivers, so we could
identify their corporate sponsors."
"When I die, I want to be facing my enemies surrounded by their dead bodies and piles of spent brass"
"Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience." - Mark Twain
I'd love to display mine. They are sort of, but they're just sort of around my bedroom right now because the old ones don't get locked away from climate control. I just don't have any place to put an actual display wrack. I wanted to hang some on the wall over my bed but decided against it in case the wall decided one night it didn't want to hold all those heavy weights up anymore. I'll come up with something eventually! But I do love admiring them.
"Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
you went in the back, or the bottom.
