Ideas for long rifle gunracks

[trentOH]

While it's a stretch to call a gun rack an accoutrement, I'll beg forgiveness and plow ahead anyway.

My kids are now moved out, which leaves the dilemma of how to use their rooms. Before my wife gets some crazy idea like a sewing room, or the dogs get their own rooms, I intend to confiscate/ abscond with one of the rooms, at least partially as a gun room.
That said, who can give me some ideas on what works (and what doesn't!) for gun racks for long guns? I have 5 long guns with barrels between 38"-42". Two are lefties, and three are righties. There are a couple of short barreled loaner guns to rack also. I'm not looking for anything beautiful or artistic. Mostly functional, and inexpensive to boot. I haven't ruled out a rack to display them horizontally or vertically.

Your experiences and ideas are much appreciated. But hurry, before she-who-must-be-obeyed gets any ideas of her own!!!

[smylee grouch]

I have made some pegs to hang the rifles on. I used short sections of 7/16 hickory ramrods with a hole drilled in one end to accept an course thread construction screw with the head cut off. I filed a flat on the shank of the screw and set them in place with acraglass epoxy. When they were cured I drilled a pilot hole about half the dia. of the screw and made sure I was going into a stud or solid wood as some of the rifles weighed 10# or so.

[John SMOthermon]

I've been thinking about building a vertical one.

Like the ones on the old westerns...Bonanza , Gunsmoke or The Rifleman.

[smallpatch]

Don't need to stinking plans!

You can easily build your own with some Shaker pegs, and a couple of vertical pieces 1 x4, of wood of your choice.
Can be made on the cheap, or you can invest in some nice hardwood for the verticals.

[Mike C]

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[Dennis Glazener]

I made one for my office out of left over curly maple strips that my stock man sends back with the stock after he duplicates my patterns. They are usually 1/4" or less but I glued them on top of 1 X 3 strips of clear white pine. (You never notice they are not solid curly maple) Then I drilled and glued 3/8" pieces of hickory ram rods ever 6 or 7 inches. Easily holds 8 rifles probably could have made it a little longer and gotten 10.
Dennis

[Joey R]

That unfinished sporting rifle and anvil look familiar.

[Bill Paton]

I echo smallpatch and Dennis, with the addition of attachment to the wall by a single heavy screw at the top into the top plate of the wall, so the spacing doesn’t have to be confined to the stud locations, and you don’t perforate the wall too many times. A smaller screw at the bottom can keep the verticals from swinging sideways when guns are taken down. Also, the pegs should be slanted slightly up away from the wall so vibrations don’t cause the guns to walk off the ends of the pegs over time. Each peg should be custom located to fit each gun so the barrels are parallel with one another. Alternating the right hand and left hand guns makes a pleasing balance in the display, with all patch boxes showing.

I also mount mine with spacer blocks to position the verticals 1 1/2” away from the wall, allowing furs, Indian rugs, etc to be displayed behind the guns if desired.

Bill Paton

[Nordnecker]

One thing that works well for hanging racks/ shelves is a top cleat ripped on a bevel. This is very simple but hard to describe. For instance, if you were going to use a 3" wide board for the top rail, rip the rail lengthwise down the middle on about a 22.5 degree angle.
You can mount the bottom portion of the rail with the short side of the bevel against the wall facing up. The top portion of the rip is mounted to the rest of the rack/ shelf assembly with the bevel down. The rack will simply hang  there with the bevels holding it tight to the wall. The more weight you put on it, the firmer it will hold. This allows you to hang or unhang the rack easily without futzing around with the whole thing.

[Robby]

Cheapest no frills rack, handful of twenty penny nails pounded into the studs. If you want to dress them up a bit, slide on a colorful plastic sleeve cut to length. Probably cost less than a buck.
Robby

[Brokennock]

For what it's worth, and advice is free, I do try to store my long guns muzzle down. For those stored vertically in my safe they are muzzle down on a soft clean piece of towel. For the few stored horizontally on the wall I used the old classic rifle rack design kids used to build in shop class, adjusted so the muzzles are slightly muzzle down.
This prevents any lubrication or rust preventative from running/soaking downward into the stock and/or action.

[hanshi]

Mine repose on a wall rack horizontally.  But the rack is built such that, combined with the stock architecture, all the muzzles are sloping downward.  This arrangement works nicely.
 

[WKevinD]

Down and dirty for the shop, 1x4s and 3/8 ramrod cut offs.
Kevin

[Marcruger]

I agree with Brokennock and Hanshi.  I never store muzzle up.  In modern rifles you get punkish, oil-soaked wood behind the action, as well as compressed & hardened recoil pads.  On patent breech longrifles, you have the distinct possibility of oil settling in the breech and gumming up or hardening.  If you ever have had to clean out one of these breeches from hardened lubricant, you'll never store muzzle-up again.  Daryl and Taylor had to come to my rescue. 

The horizontal storage works fine, with the muzzle slightly below the breech. 

Just my 2 cents worth.  Best wishes, and God Bless,  Marc

[thecapgunkid]

Probably because of this post I am thinking of building one with stout pegs where the gun is hung muzzle down.  That way, after I clean and oil  the bore and  breech, everything runs toward the muzzle and gets wiped when taking it out before shooting it

[iloco]

I have two racks on two different walls that hold my Long Rifles.  Here shows one of the racks.

[Brokennock]

My two gun rack is the same design as that of iloco except my muzzles wind up slightly downward. It almost looks like if the guns were reversed, or the rack pieces had been reversed, the muzzles of his guns would be slightly downward.

[John Archer]

The hooks are mounted higher on the right side of that rack than on the left. You'd have to take the rack apart and switch the ends to be able to display the rifles lock side out and slightly downhill. The rack is designed for modern rifles.

John.

[Keb]

I never store guns out in plain sight. That just seems to be asking for trouble.

[T*O*F]

  I never store muzzle up.

Numerous people have mentioned this.  It makes me wonder how much cottin' pickin' oil you guys shove down your muzzles.

I've got close to 100 guns, both modern and muzzleloading and they are all stored muzzle up.  Many have been stored for years and none have ever exhibited any of the problems mentioned.  I live in hot, humid western TN.  My gun room is in my shop and seldom has heat or AC and I have no rust problems.  When I go to the range or a shoot, I run a patch down the bore and snap a couple of caps if it's a percussion gun.  This makes me think y'all are overthinking this whole deal.  See 2nd sentence in the 1st paragraph.

[Mick C]

I really like Mike C's vertical rack.  I might go with something like that for my next one but for now, here's mine.  Simple 1x4's with dowels.  I added some felt furniture feet pads to keep the guns from rubbing the wood.   Works pretty good and looks pretty decent, I think.

[Greg Pennell]

A little late to the party, but I did something similar...3/4”  1”x2” oak strips, and Shaker pegs.

Greg

[tippit]

Hand Forged rifle hooks...tippit

[Robert Wolfe]

Tippit - love the hooks. Can't say that about the Phillip's head screw........just a pet peeve of mine.

[tippit]

Robert,
Actually I believe these Phillips screws are historically correct...



John Phillips (1800-1874)
Phillips helped found the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831 and also known as inventor of the Phillips Screw!

Oops, the first part is true maybe not the second part.  Anyway, I'm going out to the forge to pound out some hand made iron nails...tippit