Gun storage

cornholio508

Hi all

I just bought my first rifle a week ago . CZ .22 lr bolt action. I have all the forms filled out and numerous letters from landowners for shooting permissions . The forms themselves are fairly straightforward .So i know what i need to hand in .


I have a problem with storing the weapon . Its hard to explain but i have nowhere to bolt a gun safe too . On the other hand i do have a spare room with a room where i can put the gun under lock and key . Now i could use my brothers gun safe but storing it 50 miles away under a different district of another garda office other than where i live could also cause me problems .

I have also heard that a bolt lock would suffice as long as the gun is stored out of sight . and the bolt is stored somewhere else .I.e along with the ammo in a small safe in a different room .

I am in a bit of a bind here as my license will be out soon and the local guard will be out to inspect the premises to make sure the gun is safely stored . Any advice i can get would be appreciated .

It wasn't me!

By the sound of things you've made a false declaration on the form when you ticked the box to state you'd complied with the SI governing secure storage, which would render the granting of any certificate null and void. You would have been better off talking to your local Gardai about your situation before submitting anything. I'd suggest going and talking to them immediately and hope they're sympathetic.

cornholio508

Thanks for the advice . At the time i had just bought the safe . Its not until i went to install it that i noticed i couldnt anchor it . I live in a renovated cottage . Every wall is dry-lined so there is nothing to anchor it too . I would put the safe in the attic but the entrance to there is outside the house . So that is not safe either .

Now i do have somewhere to store the gun . I rang the local guard and he put that address on the form after i explained i couldnt anchor my safe . Unfortunately he was called out of the office so i couldnt talk to him on how to store my gun at my residence . Unfortunately he is a hard man to catch a hold of so good knows when i will get him again . It took me three days to get a hold of him at the office .

Now my main problem is when i have the gun at my residence . Heres hoping i can get hold of the guarda again so i can hopefully find a legall way to store my gun at my house . I have a pest problem here with a few acres of veg i planted . So i cant always have the gun stored at another address . I do have a small safe where i can store the ammo and the bolt for the gun . SO would a bolt lock suffice while i have it at my residence .

The Aussie

You do have a few option for fitting.

Bolt through the floor of the Safe (yes I know it could be leavered off the wall:rolleyes:), you would have to drill the holes in the bottom of the Safe yourself.

Threaded Rod and Chemical Anchors, you can get long Masonry Bits cheap enough, once the holes are dust free nothing is going to budge a Chemical Anchor once set and the Threaded Rod can be cut to length.

bravestar

cornholio508 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice . At the time i had just bought the safe . Its not until i went to install it that i noticed i couldnt anchor it . I live in a renovated cottage . Every wall is dry-lined so there is nothing to anchor it too . I would put the safe in the attic but the entrance to there is outside the house . So that is not safe either .

Now i do have somewhere to store the gun . I rang the local guard and he put that address on the form after i explained i couldnt anchor my safe . Unfortunately he was called out of the office so i couldnt talk to him on how to store my gun at my residence . Unfortunately he is a hard man to catch a hold of so good knows when i will get him again . It took me three days to get a hold of him at the office .

Now my main problem is when i have the gun at my residence . Heres hoping i can get hold of the guarda again so i can hopefully find a legall way to store my gun at my house . I have a pest problem here with a few acres of veg i planted . So i cant always have the gun stored at another address . I do have a small safe where i can store the ammo and the bolt for the gun . SO would a bolt lock suffice while i have it at my residence .

It is all going to come down to what your super deems as acceptable. Unfortunately, nobody here can really answer your question, only the super can.

Witcher

Lay the back of the safe down on the floor and bolt it down.

dCorbus

Why not just get longer fixings and secure the gunsafe, through the drylining, into the solid walls?

Or, remove the drylining in the area concerned, install very-high-rated insulating foil (to avoid a cold-bridge), and then simply afix the gunsafe to the solid wall?

Or, securely screw fix 18-25mm ply to the studs of the drylining and then fix the gunsafe into that?

You've a couple of options open to you. I'm assuming you aren't living in rental accommodation (as any landlord might be miffed if you were to start ragbolting into their walls). Think outside the box!

You must have a 'solid' wall somewhere in the house. Use that. Under the stairs maybe?

Also, as IWM rightly mentions, sort this asap - should have been done before you ticked that box. But shouldn't be much of an issue once you sort it out before the grant is issued.

dCorbus

+1 on the lying the safe down on its side idea - Did that myself and found a fixing-place much more easily.

Also, you don't NEED a safe for your bolt and ammo - it's a good idea, but not often required by the GS.

cornholio508

Thanks for the helpful replies guys . Unfotunately for me i had no idea until the safe landed a few days ago . I ordered online ,since my local gun shop hadnt any in . So i never checked the walls to make sure i could anchor it . Lesson learnt . Check everything is ready b4 you send the license and make sure you can bolt the safe to something .

On that note my landlord will be over soon . Yes it is rented accommodation out in the stix . So i will ask the landlord if its ok to remove some of laminate timber flooring and bolt it to the ground in the spare room .

I will get back to you guys and see how i get on . Thanks again for the advice .

Cass

cornholio508 wrote: »

SO would a bolt lock suffice while i have it at my residence .

The minimum security, as mentioned above, for a rifle is a safe. So not trigger lock, bolt lock, action lock, etc would do. As It wasn't me point out signing the form to say you do conform could be construed as a false declaration however you had the safe so it's an accident, and not a purposely misleading statement.

I would get talking, face to face, to your FO asap, and get this cleared up.

dCorbus

No need to remove any laminate flooring - You could, for example, fix through to the 'solid' floor.

Also, let's not forget that the regulations call for fixing to a 'solid structure' - not a concrete structure, not a loadbearing structure, not a monolithic structure, etc etc - in the absence of a definition in the regulations as to what does or does not constitute a 'solid structure', I'd suggest that any 'built element forming part of a premises fabric which is both intrinsically dimensionally and structurally stable AND is sufficiently solid to carry its own self-load while being securely affixed to a loadbearing structural element and/or is a structural loadbearing element in itself' should and can be considered 'solid' for the purposes of securely fixing a gunsafe to - and thus complying with the regulations.

But then again I'm not a lawyer/solicitor/member of the Gardai - but I do know a wee bit about structures....solid or otherwise

cornholio508

The landlord landed over so we got to talking . He was amazed that the house was drylined the way it was as one wall didnt require it . So when i mentioned pilling up some laminate boards he went back to his house and got some tools . Safe got installed and crisis is now averted . To make things better the safe is now hidden better than if it was bolted to a wall and upright .

looks like i dont have to contact the FO again . I would have never thought about lying it down and bolting it to the floor . Its a simple idea but all the same i would never have thought about that . I will still be contacting the FO on monday but at least this time its nit about the gun safe . i am hoping he can give me some info on who runs my local gun club . no one around here seems to know maybe the FO will . Anyways the gun club is last on the list of priorities . This is one more thing i can check off the list thanks to you all .

juice1304

Thats good, He sounds like a nice man. With regard the gun club you would be better off contacting the NARGC.

session savage

Jaysus lad don't panic. I guarantee there is no wall that you cant fix a gun safe to once the wall is big enough.
If everything is dry lined then personally I would get some extra long trubolts depending on the size of the grounds on the dry lining. 215mm trubolts would be enough even if the grounds were 3x2s with a 3/4 slab on top.
Drill trough the dry lining and well into the wall and you will probably need to drill the bolt holes of the safe to widen them because the 215mm trubolts are thick enough. The only way you might be caught is getting a location where there's a couple of studs close enough together because ideally you would have a stud running down the back of the safe on the left and right and you would sandwich the dry lining between the safe and the original wall.


If you are really suffering and your not too far away Ill give you a hand to fit it no bother.

cornholio508

juice1304 .
ya rang the NRGC about it during the week but the No. they have for the club seems to be disconnected or they gave ne the wrong number . They gave me an address but he is part of a huge area . I can always ask the postman during the week for that area and get directions . It all depends on the clubs fees . I was going to join a club in my home town but i was staggered at the price tag of 200 euros . Thats too rich for my liking . I was talking to a mate and his club charges 90 euro . So that might be a better option . If my local club is about the same then i will join them .

session savage
Thanks for the offer mate but its all sorted . Bolted it straight to the floor with the landlord here to help . He didnt want me to damage the walls . So removing a couple of floorboards that i can replace later if i move was a better option .

Again lads thanks for the help . I really appreciate .