doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Butt up or down ?

Doug, thanks for posting the photos. They have already given me some ideas for how I will do mine. I love the door rack but the safe I am re-doing is a double door and each door is too narrow to make it worth while until I add about another 35 guns to my pile. Also, this safe will only be for my SxS's and single barrel game guns.

Pumps, rifles, semi-autos and O/U's will be relegated to the old safe, albeit with a little more leg room than they have now.

Replacement, thanks for the suggestion of using a polyethylene kitchen cutting board. Really like that one.

PA24 that door setup is awesome...I'm starting right now on converting mine! Steve

Sideways and up mostly. Guns that get used regularly are butt down.

I've always use lubricant sparingly and never on the exterior of my guns. As far as I'm concerned any lubricant used on the exterior just attracts airborne particles of grit. You wipe this off the gun and you have just created an abrasive because there's grit in the oil.
I just took a very detailed look at a Sterlingworth Fox I've had for 45 years. It has always been stored butt down and their isn't a trace of oil damage whatsoever.
The bottom line here is this is a subject that probably has no definitive answer. If you are of the butt up school and you think there's a possibility of oil running down into the stock if stored the other way you should probably remove the forends from your doubles as well when they are in storage. So do whatever you're most comfortable with.
Jim

I had mine butt up...but turned them over hoping they would shoot better

I'd guess there's some difference between a dealer selling used Chevys and one selling Purdeys, but maybe not.

First off before I forget, PA24 you've got a beautiful layout in your safe! With mine I always have to move very gingerly so none of the guns hit each other.

This is a stretch, but maybe in Greener's day the muzzles would be resting on a hard surface and there was a chance of inflicting damage over time on the muzzles if stored butt up(?)

I've got mine a mix of butt up and down, primarily for a good fit in my safe so I DON'T knock them about when pulling a piece out. All are EEZOXed so creeping oil isn't a concern.

HammerGuy - I presently have 7 guns stored flat in their cases. Makes a nice presentaion, but at the expense of security. I don't have a "safe room" like some, only a safe, soon to be TWO safes in "regular" rooms. Those in their cases, generally speaking, have a combined dollar cost more than those in my safe. Maybe a tie..

Besides the fact that I'm breaking the law by having guns out of the safe and not locked up, I'm just plain nervous about having them stashed under beds and couches, the most common form of "security" meaning, of course, NONE.

Add to the fact that I've also got 9 guns in my library just standing around. Most are Blackpowder percussion guns, 4 of them are modern replicas of the flint persuasion. But since these are "custom", their value is still somewhat high.

My New Year's resolution was to find a safe tall enough to accommodate the long rifles and fowlers as well as keep a good number of other rifles secure. That also means spacious enough so there's less a chance of them smacking each other when one is retrieved.

Hey, can you tell I had 2 1/2 cups of coffee this morning? Want me to keep typing like a woodpecker, rat-a-tat-a-rat-a-tat-a...........

I'm guessing you wouldn't, so I'm off to get an inspection sticker on my car, a 1998 Ford Escort that just got a whole new used engine implanted 2 days ago.

Priorities: buy a Mercedes or Lexus and have uninteresting guns or keep running the old jalopy and blissfully buy beautiful guns........is there really a choice?

Re the security issue on guns stored flat in cases, I have recently begun improving a couple of closets to add a little security. In an upstairs office closet, I replaced the original hollow core doors with thicker solid core doors that match the appearance of the originals. Added exterior door lock sets and single deadbolts that match the finish of the interior trim, and replaced the jambs and hinges. New hinges are non-removeable pin type. A crowbar or saw will still gain entry to the closet, but more casual visitors will never see the inside.

For the safes in the garage, I am in the process of building a closet to enclose the safes. Closet will have case storage above the safes, and the interior walls will be lined with chain-link fence material to deter intruders. Steel fire doors will be hung in steel jambs with NRP hinges and locksets/deadbolts. The cost of the closet materials is about the same as another decent safe, and the closet completely hides the safes from view.

have seen too many old sxs's with oil soaked wood at the head of the stock. once it cracks, it is very hard to glue back together and usually it will just crack again.

storing guns butt up, will help reduce oil soaking of stock wood.

I support those with the gumption to do their best to preserve their fine arms. It just seems to me that life is to short to spend it looking at your collection standing upside down on its nose with the most important part on the ground. It just aint natural.