Rifle safe orientation?

**Slipie** · 12-06-2023, 06:58

Morning all.

I am about to take over my fathers safe(5 rifle safe) to replace my single rifle safe.
My current safe is nicely tucked away in my wife's closet, but with the bigger one on its way, it wont fit in one our closets.
I might need to install the new one in the study, but it will stand out in the open.
Do I hide, or build a "fake" shelf around it, OR do I install it horizontally behind my desk?
I don't see problem with a safe lying down on its "back", perhaps just install some wooden holders for rifles to rest on?

I'm sure someone here has done something similar like this?

**GlockForce** · 12-06-2023, 10:17

From a pure practicality perspective, I think horizontal is going to drive you nuts.
Look online, loads of ideas of how to hide safes.
As mentioned a fake shelf, bookcase front or cabinet would be my suggestion in the study.

**Bonedoc** · 12-06-2023, 11:40

Horizontal can work, but there are a few cons.

You will loose space for shelves
You will have to go down on knees to store/remove rifle
Heavy door needs to be lifted, rather than swung on hinges.
Door must also be secured in open position, otherwise you'll loose a fingertip or two, or get a nasty bang to you head.

**Vaal** · 12-06-2023, 11:49

The best place is in a corner with the door opening away from the side wall. It makes it more difficult to pry the door open. You can use rawl bolts in the back, bottom and the side wall.
If you put it on its back, rather let it open away from the wall, if you open it to the wall it might fall on your fingers. A medium size safe's door is to rasy to open upward, I think you can look for gas lifts with a long enough stroke to help a bit. Otherwise camouflage it so its hidden in plain sight

**M43** · 12-06-2023, 13:04

Originally Posted by Bonedoc

Horizontal can work, but there are a few cons.

You will loose space for shelves
You will have to go down on knees to store/remove rifle
Heavy door needs to be lifted, rather than swung on hinges.
Door must also be secured in open position, otherwise you'll loose a fingertip or two, or get a nasty bang to you head.

Also... And I know this because I once had to transport a safe horizontally...
While horizontal the little pins holding the rather heavy and large moving parts inside the door attached to the turning handle can become dislodged... It took me a day to get my safe opened. Do NOT turn a safe on its side.

**Gleock** · 12-06-2023, 19:25

I have one of my rifle safes bolted horizontally to the floor.

The door swings past 90 degrees, so its not an issue with it staying open.

What i lost in storage space on the 3 shelves, I gained more by being able to stack every open space to the depth of the safe.
If you not storing guns with scopes the normal mounting is sufficient, but with scopes you will need to build some sort of mounting block to give the scopes clearance.
I only have one scoped weapon stored in that safe for this reason, and it takes up more space than it should.

Been a few years now and I have had no issues with pins moving or the mechanism being affected by the mounting angle.
I have additional concealment around the safe, so bending down to get things out is the easiest part.

**A-R** · 12-06-2023, 20:12

Another option may be to mount horizontally, bolted to a wall, with the door facing forward, not up.

I have seen such installations, and they seem to work fine. Door opens downward.

This seems to work with single and 2-rifle safes, but may prove difficult when storing more than 2 long guns. You could consider mounting your current small safe like that, and use the closet space for the new 5-rifle safe?

Building some shelf or closet specially to hide a safe is always a good idea in my book.

Some people have a visible safe with low-value items (air rifle, deactivated gun) in it to act as a "decoy", while the proper safe is hidden.

**oafpatroll** · 13-06-2023, 13:31

An old boss of mine had a horizontally mounted 2 rifle safe hidden behind a spring loaded panel on the headboard of his bed. The safe had a gas strut on the door and seemed to work well enough.

**Slipie** · 14-06-2023, 06:42

Originally Posted by M43

Also... And I know this because I once had to transport a safe horizontally...
While horizontal the little pins holding the rather heavy and large moving parts inside the door attached to the turning handle can become dislodged... It took me a day to get my safe opened. Do NOT turn a safe on its side.

This actually makes sense, will have to look at the locking mechanism.
Thanks for all the input, I might start looking at ideas on how to hide a safe in plain sight with shelf or something similar.