Moving & Packaging Firearms. Ideas?

[Nick Leduc]

I think I am going to go the route of buying a bunch of blankets, and wrapping my rifles in them, but might as well start a thread and see if anyone has any better ideas.
Long distance move.
I have the pistols all wrapped in shipping foam and will be locking them in a tote: Bought this one.
Long guns: I started wrapping them in the same foam as the handguns, which will prevent from scratching, but I really don't my optics to get knocked around. There is around 70 long guns, so buying plano rifle cases for all isn't practical. I read somewhere to use moving blankets and then ratchet straps to keep them together and reduce movement. Doing 5 or so to a bundle. I tossed the idea around of making crates for shipment. But that lasted about 5 minutes once I realized how much room in the truck they will take up.

Pistols:

 

[PATRON]

I am moving some of my guns to my winter home in Florida,and I went to Home-Depot,and picked up a few large rolls of bubble wrap.
Wrapped all the guns up,and then packed them up in a box.I don't think they will get hurt.Just remember to get a strong box,and
tape it up really well.

 

[50wt]

Will a dishwasher box, TV box , or furniture box fit in there? A box that say Maytag or Ikea on it might be a little more discreet.

Dont mention where you are going.
Dont take pictures of your vehicle.
Remove any 2a related stickers from your vehicle and replace "show dogs" or " Little Nicks Dance Club "
Limit your driving at night.

Drive safe, and good luck.

 

[northny]

Nick, this won’t help you but maybe someone else. When I have them I save all the boxes my firearms cane in. When I move scopes are taken off and guns go back in boxes. The shelves come out of gun safe and boxes go in safe. I use soft sided gun cases when I don’t have original box.

On a side note this is one time an 18 gun safe will actually hold 18 or more guns!

 

[namedpipes]

A "Job Box" would work nicely.

I assume you're driving them somewhere. If that's out of state, make sure you're in compliance with FOPA in addition to the suggestions above. Especially if your destination is on the other side of New York. Even run of the mill states "could" have transport requirements, so a few calls or web searches would be smart.

 

[01906]

A "Job Box" would work nicely.

I assume you're driving them somewhere. If that's out of state, make sure you're in compliance with FOPA in addition to the suggestions above. Especially if your destination is on the other side of New York. Even run of the mill states "could" have transport requirements, so a few calls or web searches would be smart.

That's a great idea something like this. You could even chain it down in the back of the bed.

 

[namedpipes]

That's a great idea something like this. You could even chain it down in the back of the bed. View attachment 312302

I use one for ammo. It's strong enough for security but not strong enough to turn it into a bomb in a fire. (mine anyway - THAT one looks like a tank)

 

[Asaltweapon]

When my brother moved he mixed up his wrapped long guns inside the upright garment boxes and they were in a locked trailer. Ammo boxes were in a ton of plastic totes also in the trailer. I forget what he did with the pistols.

 

[Stape]

I moved from CT to TX with all my long guns bundled up in moving blankets like you were talking about. Maybe 3-4 per bundle rolled up. My nicer rifles I put in the hard cases I already had. NES'r Allen generously gifted me an awesome aluminum rifle travel case. It's pretty big and can fit rifles two-deep/layered, so I had all my pistols layered in that like a game of tetris. I closed up pretty tight and nothing budged even a bit. All my guns/ammo/reloading components and my motorcycles were hauled in a 5x8 enclosed trailer that was absolutely packed.

 

[Len-2A Training]

When I bought my gun safe, I also bought the silicone impregnated gun socks of various sizes.

Moving my guns to NH, I also used locked soft-sided gun cases for some long guns. I packed the rifles in them. All were transported in compliance with MGLs.

 

[tbk5]

A commercial mover cannot legally move your fireams unless you are active military. I moved them myself from MA to AL. The ammo went in very large plastic patio boxes with a padlock on them. Handuns were in original boxes in another locked patio box. I put long guns with trigger guards in silicon socks in HD tall wardrobe boxes, filling voids with sweaters and winter coats. Blended right in. PS-I put the patio boxes and wardrobe boxes in the truck empty and loaded them up while in the truck. They were way to heavy to move otherwise.

 

[snax]

My company throws decent size crates out all the time. Most are pallet sized 40x48 or 48x48. Varying heights. You could pack them snugly and packing it in a truck is actually better because it's not an irregular shape. I can check to see what they got. Sometimes, if lucky, there is foam bonded to the inner surfaces as they are used to transport very expensive equipment

 

[tuna]

Check Lowe’s or Home Depot for large boxes about to be tossed. Wager, dryer, snowblower, etc. Worth a shot.

 

[greencobra]

Will a dishwasher box, TV box , or furniture box fit in there? A box that say Maytag or Ikea on it might be a little more discreet.

Dont mention where you are going.
Dont take pictures of your vehicle.
Remove any 2a related stickers from your vehicle and replace "show dogs" or " Little Nicks Dance Club "
Limit your driving at night.

Drive safe, and good luck.

and toss a blanket over the car for good measure. don't use a camo pattern, panel quilt style is good. cut a slit out front for visibility but not big enough that others can look inside.

 

[JRLB]

Harbor freight has cheap moving blankets

 

[Racenet]

When we moved, we were taking a large chest freezer. That went into the truck first and then was packed with all the guns. They were each wrapped in a blanket or bubble wrap. Stuffed them all in there, threw other stuff on top to fill it up, closed the lid and locked it. Easy, peasy.

 

[Broc]

Last time I moved, I used a stack on safe (those thin metal ones that cost like $100). I wrapped all the guns, lay the safe flat, put all the guns inside and closed it.

I then used the cheap safe to store ammo and reloading stuff.

 

[AllaSnackbah]

I had my 72 gun safe in the back of my uhaul, i wrapped rifles in bubble wrap and tossed everything in it. Lasted from CT to Phoenix, all i had damaged was a shitty 10/22 stock.

 

[Twigg]

Borrowed a couple blankets & a quilt from my wife for the latest move. Worked pretty good for me. No damage.

 

[FiremanBob]

IDK how long your firearms will be wrapped up, but if it's more than a few days I recommend wrapping them in anti-rust paper such as Henry, S&W and other manufacturers use for their new firearms. I bought a large roll of the stuff on Amazon and wrapped every firearm in it before stowing them in cases/boxes. The foam rubber of cases and boxes can hold water against the firearm causing rust spots.

 

[amm5061]

The job box is the best idea I've seen so far. Those can be locked with a padlock so that should satisfy most transportation requirements almost anywhere.

Plus then you've got a nice job box to use for ammo storage when you get to your new bunker.

 

[AllaSnackbah]

OP where are you going? Ive got a job box im looking to move to AZ maybe we can mutually benefit

 

[Nick Leduc]

Harbor freight has cheap moving blankets

Amazon beats them with price on the same size (if you buy a dozen)

OP where are you going? Ive got a job box im looking to move to AZ maybe we can mutually benefit

South Carolina

 

[Salyeica]

If you use an appliance box or something else of similar size, you may want to consider putting a base in the box (MDF board, etc) to help distribute the weight of the guns for when you need to load/unload it from the truck.

 

[Spanz]

i would lose a lot of sleep making a long distance move. When i do a cross country, i get a hotel room for the night and move my one or two guns in there to sleep with them....in case the car gets broken into.

If i had 30 guns in the car...jeez it would take some serious time to get them into, and then back out of the hotel room.

Not sure how others would handle this? A good car alarm would help. Also picking a motel where i could park right outside my door...so i would hear the alarm going off would be great.

I would keep them all with trigger locks, and well hidden under a pile of other junk, in the car.

 

[bigben111435]

Just be sure to keep the guns and drugs in two separate areas.

 

[Salyeica]

i would lose a lot of sleep making a long distance move. When i do a cross country, i get a hotel room for the night and move my one or two guns in there to sleep with them....in case the car gets broken into.

If i had 30 guns in the car...jeez it would take some serious time to get them into, and then back out of the hotel room.

Not sure how others would handle this? A good car alarm would help. Also picking a motel where i could park right outside my door...so i would hear the alarm going off would be great.

I would keep them all with trigger locks, and well hidden under a pile of other junk, in the car.

I’m assuming OP is taking a moving truck. When I made my cross country move, the guns were the first thing on the truck, so there was no way they could get taken unless someone unloaded the entire thing looking for them, or stole the truck.