Six months later...LOL! Forgive my laziness, but I posted this on another site, and I'm copying and pasting the post here:
From time to time, folks inquire about plans for rifle racks. I've been needing a rack for the firearms I keep sitting around the house. We live in the country and as such I keep firearms close at hand for rattlesnakes, stray dogs, deer, hogs, coyotes, Liberals, etc. I wanted a gun rack in our laundry/mud room, but there's not enough wall space for the typical horizontal gun rack. So I decided to build a vertical rack similar to those seen in the Sheriff's office in the western movies. I've seen the plans at 7.62x54.net, but none of them suited me.
Before some well meaning touchy-feely person scolds me let me say:
1) Yes, I keep some of my long guns in the open in the house, yes I have kids, and no, I won't lock all my firearms up. Most of my guns are in my safe, but I keep some in the house because to me a locked up firearm is even less useful than an unloaded firearm. 'Sides, like me, my kids have grown up in a home where guns are the norm and they occasionally use them, but never play with them. They're nothing new to the kids.
2) I know, they could be stolen, but again I refuse to live in a home without a readily accessible firearm or two. Fortunately, my home is situated such that it would be extremely stupid and exponentially risky to burglarize it.
Now the rack:
The rack is something of a prototype. It is less than 2' wide, but will hold 4 long guns. As you'll see in the pictures, I designed the rack to lessen the possibility of knocking a gun off the rack or dragging one off as when the bolt of one rifle snags the sling of a second. Also, I designed it so the the rifles sit in at an angle. This was done in order to accomodate scoped rifles. Otherwise, the rack would have to be deep so the scopes wouldn't hit the wall on which the rack is hung. The optional opening under the butts of the long guns is a storage area for ammunition, binoculars, etc.
I wanted a rustic look, so I built the rack out of old slats from a privacy fence. As such, you'll see on the upper support some metal straps intended to strengthen this piece because some of this wood was a little weak. I'm going to double the thickness of this board and eliminate the straps. Of course if a person were to built the rack out of new pine 1"x6" boards this would not be a problem.
It was really simple to build and I did it in one evening with no more plans than a picture in my head. Now that I have a "pattern" to follow, I think I can turn them out in under two hours each.
Anywho, here are some pictures:
Hope this helps!
35W
