Does anyone store their guns muzzles down per recommendations to avoid oil seeping into the stock and action? Most gun racks aren’t made that way, and you rarely see pictures of such storage.

I would really appreciate photos of those sorts of racks as well as any pictures of gun rooms.

Kindest regards,
QD

The empty slot is for my Remington 3200 in 16 gauge

Just turn the picture upside down for a muzzle down aspect

Odd I know, but I keep a lot of my longarms muzzle down in modified self-standing golf bags (bought for a song in the local recycling centre); A few club separators removed so the guns fit OK. Wheeled golf bags are also handy when transporting a lot of rifles and such at the firing range.

Markus

Muzzles down in the safe.

I have gone to horizontal gun racks. They take up a lot more room but allows for a nice display of the guns in a position which does not let too much oil soak into the stock, I hope. Space is not my issue as I have an entire Basement level to use. My racks hold eight guns per unit with a 13" shelf under them for books, Leather gun cases sit on top of the lower shelf under the guns and two shelves over the guns display decoys and gun stock blanks. I have more blanks than I will ever use and figured it would be a nice way to display them, so you can see what a nice blanks looks like. Mostly English Walnut, Black Walnut crotch figure with a few Claro blanks mixed in as well. Decoys are all hand carved working decoys, a mix of Canvasback, Teal, Wood Ducks, Widgeon and few old cork Black Duck and Mallards. Many are decoys I hunted over as a kid. A couple are Ward Brothers, Jobe family decoys or Ed, One Arm Kelly decoys. A few old shell boxes scattered in fill in the gaps.

For the guns not in racks, I still store them muzzle down for now but will finish the last horizontal gun display cases this Summer which will bring the total up to 12 for just under 100 guns. After that it will be time to cull the herd and get rid of many project guns that I now know I will never get around to finishing. So the muzzle down group will go away and the entire collection will be on display so I can show them off as best as I can.

Where are the pictures?

Muzzle down for me in a carpeted gun safe.

Collectors of vintage guns don't worry much about oil migration and wood damage. Their guns are mostly dry when they add them to their collections and only get superficial and light mechanical lubrication from then on. My guns have been stored mostly muzzle up since the early sixties and show no oil damage. Bore cleaning should end with a light wipe to remove excess oil or solvent.

Gun oil cannot seep into stock wood if you don't apply it so heavily that gravity causes the excess to run downhill. But we will be having this debate about orientation in the rack or safe forever, because people will continue to use too much.

I don't use too much, and I disagree somewhat about the only movement of oil on guns being due to gravity. Some oils, like Kroil, can creep upwards, especially if there is any opportunity for capillary action. When a gun's barrels are wiped down, then the forend is snapped into place, there is wood to metal contact. You also can't wipe down all of the rear of the action/frame without getting some on the wood. I agree that many people use way too much.

I don't see the big deal, really. it's just as easy to stand them muzzles down as it is muzzles up.

I store my long guns muzzle down. I have yet to modified my Zanotti Armor original rack to make it easier to store. I will eventually cut a new rack board and carpet it but it is long on my to do list.

Concur with you that the rack needs to be different than the traditional barrel up rack

Kroil is not gun oil. It is alleged to be a penetrating oil, which has the viscosity of kerosene. And really, in my opinion, it is no better than simple kerosene as a penetrating oil. I will never waste my time using Kroil on a stuck gun screw when I know there are much better products. But that's another discussion.

I agree that there will always be incidental contact with the (correct) thin film of gun oil where barrels contact forend wood, etc. But the real problems we see with excessive oil getting into stock wood is mainly where it creeps out and soaks into end grain. The best way to prevent that is to apply a very thin film of gun oil which isn't likely to flow downhill. If uphill oil creeping was the problem, then it wouldn't matter how guns are stored to prevent stick oiling. People who lay it on that heavy would be better advised to do it properly, or remove their stock wood and store it separately.

I'll bet there are guys that store guns barrels down in their gun safes who literally have puddles of gun oil on the floor of their safe.

There likely are, Keith. But, I'm not one of them.

All the best , SRH

I gently lubricated a bolt action Remington 700 with a Kevlar stock and a sorbothane pad with CLP.
Which is a recommended lube for AR style rifles.

I stood it up in the rifle cabinet muzzle up and forgot it for a year or more. Worried about protecting the crown.

CLP migrated the full length of the stock, turned the Sorbothane pad to a sticky mess, and dissolve the open cell foam that was on the floor of the cabinet.

It was remarkable how far of that stuff migrated, and also frustrating what it did to that pad.

I didn't think so Stan. But it sounds as though the "Grey Man" is one of them.

I have a friend that use to oil up a gun to the point it was dripping. I accused him of dipping them in a 55 gal drum.

I store most of my firearms muzzle up but to make room in the safe I set in a row muzzle up and another row muzzle down either just between or just in front. With 30 & 32" guns to the back and 26"-28" to the front, let's the heel of the stock cradle between the barrels of the rear gun. It doubles the capacity of the safe. Also instead of carpet (which I feel can hold moisture) I line the bottom of the safe with cork. 1/8" -3/16" flooring cork works excellent.

Carpet can certainly hold moisture, but in a gun safe that has a Goldenrod on continuously it is a moot point. I repurposed a 5200 lb. Mosler safe into a gun safe in 2002. Stripped all the cabinetry out and lined it all with short loop carpet, and installed a Goldenrod. It's lived 20 years in an unheated space on a concrete slab and there's never been one even minute issue with rust, or moisture issues of any kind.

Alternating them to increase the capacity of the safe is a great idea; thanks for posting that. I would like to get a couple more into my safe and that would make it possible to do it.

I have always stored mine muzzle up for a couple of reasons. The main one is to avoid damage to the muzzle of my rifles. I know that it shouldn't happen in a carpeted safe, but stuff happens and I've always been a bit overprotective of my rifles. I cringe when I see folks carrying a nice rifle muzzle down in a truck.

Another reason is I've always been paranoid about the possibility of getting something into the barrel of a shotgun that turns into a barrel obstruction. I check the barrels when loading any break action gun, but I don't with a semi auto.

This is an old image of my horizontal display cases. I have increased the lower shelf height by an inch, increased the width by two inches. On the second from the top, I added a LED strip which is inlet into the bottom of the shelf at a 45 degree angle to give the guns more light from above. You can not see the LED strip unless you are right under it. The green has been replaced by Baize in the same color in all but one case. There will be 12 when finished but right now there are only 10 finished and one almost completed. The wood is Honey Locust which has a bit of red colored grain on a honey background.The pegs are screws that are covered with vinyl tubing which can be moved around to get eh guns spaced out and barrels horizontal to the floor and each other. The Baize can be removed and used to restore gun cases if I decide to change color or go with a leather background that I am debating.