Gun cabinet assistance

[FLINT]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of converting a cedar wardrobe/armoire into a gun cabinet - so the dimensions I have to work with are set - and are 19" wide x 36" long on the inside. I am trying to maximize the number of guns that I can hold in the cabinet. I have come up with 6 different designs - and each with two depth variations. What I mostly need help with is making sure that there is room in the cabinet for the guns to actually sit in there without the stocks hitting each other - its not the side by side spacing I'm worried about - its the front to back spacing - as most of my designs have multiple rows, so I just want to make sure that there is room for the stocks of the guns on two facing rows. Some of the designs get around this by having all the guns facing the same directions in parallel rows. I don't have a gun cabinet right now to set guns in and check for spacing, etc., so I want to make sure what I'm planning will actually work before I cut out the pieces - and wood is really expensive these days.

So i've attached two files - each file has three designs, and each design has two variations. They are drawn on graph paper - each square equals one inch. I hope this all makes sense.

Basically I want to know which design you think will work the best to store the most guns, but where they will actually all fit. I've seen cabinets before that supposedly held x number of guns, but using some of the spaces excluded the use of other spaces if you know what I mean.

Thanks for any input.

[Shasta]

My gun safe is configured in a double horseshoe like your 24-gun drawing. I like it very much as one can retrieve a specific gun easily without moving the others. I have mine arranged by caliber which saves searching around for the one I want.

Shasta

[Mescalero]

Bolt guns with scopes take up the most room in my cabinets, in your double horse shoe configuration; try to incorporate the additional space they require.

[FLINT]

yeah, I don't really like bolt guns. I only have one - a marlin .22mag, and don't plan to get any others - and only that gun and my BP gun have scopes. Almost all of my guns are leverguns and without scopes.

[Mescalero]

That makes it easier for you.

[Pete44ru]

.

My safe is arranged in two side-by-side sections, each section with two "front-to-rear" rows of 6 rifles/shotguns facing each other.

From above, the pattern looks something like this:

__________rear wall________
l <o............> l <o............> l
l <............o> l <............o> l
l <o............> l <o............> l
l <............o> l <............o> l
l <o............> l <o............> l
l <............o> l <............o> l
l <o............> l <o............> l
l <............o> l <............o> l
l----------------door----------------l


In each section, all long guns rest the topside of their bbl's in bbl notches along both sides of each section about 30" from the safe floor, with their butts resting on the floor, against the opposite wall of it's own section.
The bbls set in every-other-notch on both sides, offset from the opposite side in that section.

If you look directly into each section from the front, you will view the guns in an "X", crossing pattern, with each long gun's buttstock overlapping it's neighbor.

Since the line of bbl notches is actually a notched/padded 4" shelf, there is additional room to place a short gun under each shelf at an angle, front-to-rear.

Yes, guns must be removed to reach/remove guns towards the rear - IMO a small price to pay, so I can get 30 long guns into a "22-gun" safe.

I over 15 years with this safe, I've yet to cover any gun with a protective gunsock, and yet to scratch/gouge any guns. metal or wood finish.


.

[AJMD429]

This is just the starting row, but I found that this dowel-rod arrangement, angled towards the front, allowed not only more firearms than the system the safe came with, but made it easier to store the variety of lengths, widths, and so on that I had. I often store some guns muzzle-down, too.

The middle row was going to be just 'V' shaped dowels coming down from the ceiling, also angled to the front, and hung from two 3/4x3" hardwood boards about 10" apart. The ends were to meet, cut to meet flush, pinned with brads, and glued.

The design would have left the 'floor' quite clear, and allowed more ease in removing firearms.

I wound up not putting any middle section in, as I got a second 'little' safe that I keep my 'shooters' in, and the other one mostly now has guns in it that are in gun-socks.