Moving with guns

[hq]

So, we're about to move. Not from our actual house but our town apartment to another, so it's not a huge deal.

However, I keep approximately 40 long guns and 30 pistols/revolvers in a safe there, which means that I'll have some 350lbs' worth of guns to move. Both apartments have safes and they're only a few miles apart so there's no major problem. There's also a few hundred lbs' worth of ammo but it's already boxed and ready to go.

I could make several trips but I'd like to handle everything at one time. I don't have original boxes and only a limited number of gun cases, so how would you recommend I pack the guns for transport? Avoiding dings and scratches is the primary concern, but easy and cheap are also considerations.

 

[George P]

Move as many as you can at one time and then go back for the rest. You can use blankets and similar to wrap some in; socks for handguns, etc.

 

[tarosean]

Roll em up in blankets. roll add roll add, etc. etc.

 

[Odd Job]

Is this transfer being done in a private manner? What I mean is, do you want to prevent neighbours from knowing what it is you are moving?

 

[Hokie_PhD]

Harbor Freight has moving blankets cheap
Uhaul sells boxes and bubble wrap and packing paper.

How you pack them depends on your vehicle, how much you can lift and the help you have and of course how much money you want to spend

 

[Mizar]

If you can find surplus Mosin-Nagant crates - that is the cheapest, yet safe and easy to transport solution I can think of.

 

[Slamfire]

I could make several trips but I'd like to handle everything at one time. I don't have original boxes and only a limited number of gun cases, so how would you recommend I pack the guns for transport? Avoiding dings and scratches is the primary concern, but easy and cheap are also considerations.

Just be willing to make several trips. If the destination is only a couple of miles away from the origin, you don't really have a problem. It gets to be a problem when the origin and destination are hours away.

I don't know what the typical mode of transport is in Finland, but the United States is truck happy. Light trucks are out selling cars, I saw numbers that indicate 60% of new vehicles are light trucks. The bed in any light pickup truck can be filled to the brim with long guns. I have found, if you have a pickup, you acquire friends who need you when they move! Minimum payment: pizza and beer!

Put something on the bed, preferably a thick foam mat, put a layer of rifles down, then cover with moving blankets


These blankets are thick and will help prevent the long guns from chipping or scratching each other. UHaul carries these in the US.

Good luck in your move!

 

[edwardware]

A couple tough cardboard boxes, and all the towels you own. Discrete and cheap.

 

[bassjam]

Whenever I've moved I've sandwiched each firearm in blankets and made sure they travel in the back seat or trunk of whatever vehicle I'm driving.

 

[Shimitup]

I think all the replies have you covered. The only thing I might add as far as the pistols go is to use an Igloo cooler if you have one. If you don't, see if you can borrow one, preferably with wheels. You could probably stack all 30 in one cooler between towels, anybody watching would think you're going on a picnic.

 

[JeeperCreeper]

I'd be concerned about the loading and unloading (probably not the best words with guns) the firearms from house to truck and back to house.

Unless you are hee-man, you won't be able to carry them all at once. So you'd need multiple people to either help carry or wait with the gear.

For that reason, I'd just take multiple trips as you go back and forth.

 

[If1HitU]

What George P said sound good to me.

 

[hq]

A warm thank you to everybody for ideas and suggestions.

It seems that the Igloo cooler that's been gathering dust since I sold the boat will finally get some use and I'll either look for surplus crates or just go with a bunch of towels.

Our current neighbors are gun-tolerant and the ones of the new apartment are strongly pro-gun so them finding out that we're moving a bunch of them isn't an issue. Logistics may be and a setup like this will probably fit in our spare minivan in one go. Pickup truck may be a bit too weather-dependent, there are some 100+ year old collectibles, sidelock best guns and some full autos among them so if anything, I don't want to get them wet either.

So, three weeks to d-day, one more problem solved. Approximately one thousand more to go. I really hate moving but because our oldest kids are in college and long gone, there's no point in having a bunch of unused bedrooms in what's a weekday home anyway.

 

[FL-NC]

Towels and blankies.

 

[bannockburn]

hq

I have all of my long guns and handguns in their own gun cases. From there it was just a matter of getting sturdy boxes to transport them in my SUV. I moved all of my guns and ammo (now that was a lot of boxes and a lot of trips!), by myself and because I had an attached garage I could just pull my vehicle in, close the garage door, and offload all of the boxes, without anyone seeing what I was doing.

 

[CapnMac]

If available look into renting a transit van for the day.

Another thing to check on is (furniture) Mover's boxes. In the US, there is a common box called a "wardrobe box." This is about 1m square and about 1.5m tall. It has a rod in it so that one's clothes can be put in on hangers and moved entire. Most movers in the US recommend such boxes, with clothes inside as a way to transport mirrors, framed pictures and the like as the clothes pad the things. They are generally inexpensive to buy, and can be reused through the move.

You might want to hire a two-wheel dolly/hand truck to move the wardrobe box once full (especially for navigating stairs, or up over curbs to get to the lift).

I will imagine that Finland is a place where one collects a variety of coats and jackets, some quite long, and those can make for great padding for long arms.

The cooler is a capital idea for moving hand guns.

For ammunition, I'd probably go looking for no longer used corrugated cardboard wine cases; or buying mover's boxes. But, I'd try to never exceed 0.5m on a dise boxes, as ammo gets heavy quick (just like hardcover books).

Hope that helps.

 

[Ks5shooter]

I used the moving blanket method in pickup bed. Lay one down put another on top. Tuck top blanket partially under first firearm ,lay next firearm next to first partial tuck and repeat in layers. The will not move I drove 2 hours no issues.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

Home Depot sells bubble wrap in rolls.

I made a big mistake when I moved. First, I hired idiots. Bekins. Never again. Totally incompetent and dishonest. Second, I didn't double-check their gun policy. On the day of the move, they told me they could not move guns without a bunch of paperwork. I had to stuff things in my SUV and leave other things for later. Anyone who pays professional movers needs to be aware that they may have bizarre gun policies.

Of course, I did not let them know about the boxed guns they had already put in the truck.

 

[redneck2]

Many years ago I had a valuable collection of record albums. During a move with a commercial moving company, they disappeared.

Just be careful.

 

[hq]

Just be careful.

Thanks, I will. That's one of the reasons we want to move valuables ourselves and figure out the best way to handle it.

 

[scaatylobo]

hq

I have all of my long guns and handguns in their own gun cases. From there it was just a matter of getting sturdy boxes to transport them in my SUV. I moved all of my guns and ammo (now that was a lot of boxes and a lot of trips!), by myself and because I had an attached garage I could just pull my vehicle in, close the garage door, and offload all of the boxes, without anyone seeing what I was doing.

Time of day is a real consideration too.
VERY FEW will be watching you move after 1 A.M.
I did mine with blankets on a floor of a trailer,and rolled um up as they filled up.
Had a "few" friends and it was done VERY quickly ,in the middle of a week day.
Ammo cans were the problem,had to use handtruck for them,lots of weight there.

 

[bannockburn]

scaatylobo

I did most of my load-ins mid afternoon during week days when neighbors were at work and their kids were in school. Found boxes that were used for shipping paper to be very sturdy (and inconspicuous), for moving my ammo. The trick was not to overload them with too much ammo.

 

[hq]

VERY FEW will be watching you move after 1 A.M.

True, but some do. Last time I actually DID move after 1AM resulted me spending the better part of an hour explaining to the cops that I actually do own the humongous high-end stereo speakers on the back of my (wife's, on top of all) truck.

 

[bannockburn]

hq

Yeah there are some times of day (or night for that matter), when you don't want to be seen coming and going from a house with various items from said house; even if they are your own!

 

[CapnMac]

hq
Yeah there are some times of day (or night for that matter), when you don't want to be seen coming and going from a house with various items from said house; even if they are your own!

LoL.
I had decided to move out of a perfectly good apartment to be nearer to work. Was in an apartment complex that had been ok, but had slipped into serious decay since. Which I discovered after trying to move in (it's rather a longish horror story and not germane here). So, I wound up renting my old apartment again, and moving all my stuff back to same.

During that move, a storm came along and knocked out the power in that part of town for a while (and in that complex for longer). So, despite the fact that it was central Texas in late August and no a/c, and after 2200, none of the locals much commented on my packing my stuff up in the dark.

Now, I had just gotten home from Drill and was in ODs, so, perhaps I had a penumbra of "officialdom" no one wanted to poke their nose into. But, I do remember walking through the pitch-dark complex with rifle cases wonder ing just what I'd say if some one dropped a dime.