5 Tips To Keeping Your Gun Safe At Home

With the continued debate revolving around gun control, it is quite clear that there is a significant portion of the society that is of anti-gun sentiment. Anti-gun people have a legitimate basis for their claims, especially on issues to do with mass shootings and violent crime. However, if you are a legal gun holder, and would like to keep your second amendment rights, then you need to do everything within your power to eliminate any incidences that might increase the anti-gun sentiment. That’s why you need to always store your gun safely. To help you out with this, here are 5 tips to keep your gun safe at home.

Make use of trigger locks

A trigger lock is one of the best ways to keep your gun safe at home. It prevents unauthorized individuals from making use of your gun. The whole mechanism is to stop the trigger from manipulation. To ensure that the trigger lock gives you maximum safety, ensure that it installed when your gun is unloaded. Most new guns come with their own safety locks, reducing the hustle of acquiring one. However, if you have an older gun, you easily purchase one from your local guns dealer.

Use a gun case

One of the risks you face as a gun holder is for your little kids to gain access to your gun and harm themselves with it. That can happen if you store your gun in drawers. To keep it safe, get a gun case. This allows you to not only lock the gun-in, but also conveniently walk around with it, away from the curious hands of minors. A gun case also allows you to leave the gun at home, with the guarantee that no one can access it. It’s one of the safest ways to handle your gun.

Purchase a storage box

A strong box is one of the best ways to keep your gun safe at home. That’s because it is not only portable, but also has sophisticated locks, that can’t be unlocked by anyone other than the gun holder. Some of the best gun storage boxes come with customizable codes as well as biometric sensors that only the owner can open. These technologically advanced features make the gun storage box one of the best ways to keep your gun safe at home.

Keep the gun unloaded

To ensure that chances of an accidental gun discharge are significantly reduced, always keep it unloaded. In fact, make sure that the only time you keep your gun loaded is when you intend to use it. By keeping it unloaded, you are sure that chances of an accident are close to zero.

Purchase a gun safe

A gun safe is probably the most effective way to keep your gun safe at home. The best gun safe comes with customized racks that not only keep the gun securely strapped, but also keeps them well maintained. On top of that, gun safes have steel exteriors, which makes it almost impossible for someone other than the owner to gain access to the gun.

Storing Your Survival Supplies

Prepping involves gathering and storing many things. As you start spending more money you will inevitably start worrying about keeping your stores safe from theft, the elements and other issues. Also you will find that keeping them all sorted and organized becomes quite the endeavor. This is where purchasing secure weapon, food and/or tool storage can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. For the serious prepper who wants heavy-duty, extra secure storage you may want to consider purchasing secure weapon storage and use it for other things as well.

Materials Matter
Buying secure storage solutions is much smarter than buying regular shelf storage units because of the most important thing: durability. As a prepper you are acutely aware of the shelf life of various things, so it makes sense that everything you choose should have built in longevity. The materials used in secure storage units and lockers are usually built to withstand much more abuse than wooden shelves bought from a general store.

Organization
As you acquire more food, water and survival gear it becomes paramount that you organize everything. After all, what good is owning something if you don’t know where it is when you need it? Buying containers, shelves and having a dedicated storage room are all good ways to keep your supplies together and organized. Looking at secure lockers and shelf units is a good idea if you have a lot of supplies, as these products are typically larger than traditional boxes and offer more options to suit your needs.

Security Options
If you not only need durability and organization built into your supply storage but security as well, there are two major categories offered from secure storage solution companies for this. Open and closed storage lockers.

If you are not too concerned about breaking and entering, then having open lockers, or wall units, may be right for you since they allow easy access to your supplies. They will still have shelves and be extra durable so you do not have to think about them too much after you have put them up. They will stand the test of time.

Closed lockers on the other hand mean lockers that have some sort of locking mechanism. These are not as easily accessible but you can always simply leave them unlocked. These lockers are great for anyone who needs secure storage for weapons or other valuables they do not want stolen.

So essentially we are saying that while your supplies for any sort of survival, whether it is a room for a disaster, or a spot for a week away, the space you store those supplies in is also important. The best supplies can be lost if not stored correctly.

4 Reasons To Add a Pellet Air Gun To Your Survival Gun Arsenal

You read the heading correct – I said Pellet Gun. Yes, the kind powered by air – just 1 step above a BB gun. I own many guns of many calibers and styles for many different purposes. Among these is a good quality Pellet Air Gun and it’s not just because I still have it from when I was a kid. I INTENTIONALLY have added this gun to my survival rifle options for very specific reasons…which I have detailed below. If you’ve never considered a Pellet Gun as a survival rifle option, you might change your mind after reading this post.

Next to my 12 Gauge Mossberg and my Ruger 10-22 sits a very cool and collected Benjamin Sheridan 392 .22 caliber Multi-Pump Pellet Gun and I treat it with the same respect as it is a very specialized soldier in my arsenal.

Benjamin Sheridan 392 .22 Cal Multi-Pump Pellet Gun

As a student and instructor of survival living, I take my gun choices very seriously and only add one to my cabinet if it deserves to be there. Below are 4 reasons (in no particular order) why a Pellet Gun deserves to be including in your Survival Rifle selection:

Survival Reason # 1: Excellent Small Game Hunter

A pellet gun, especially .22 caliber, is an excellent weapon to take down small game. While people have taken larger game such as wild boars with air guns, they are best suited for small game. Hunting small game is perfect for any survivalist. Rabbit, squirrel, dove, quail, duck and the like are excellent food sources and are readily available in most of the country. With practice, hunting small game with a pellet gun is absolutely no problem.

Small Game Hunter

I have taken many small game animals with my .22 cal pellet gun. It requires better stalking skills, but that is a good skill to learn anyway. It requires better shooting skills, but that is also a good skill to hone in on. Hunting with a pellet gun will force you to be a BETTER hunter and it will also put dinner on the table.

Survival Reason # 2: The AMMO

The Pellet Gun’s AMMO is one of the more convincing reasons to have one on hand. Pellets, no matter the caliber, are very cheap.

.177 cal Pellets – 500 Count for $10

You can buy 100s of pellets for just a few bucks. Spend $50 and you’ve got enough to last a lifetime of small game hunting. If all hell breaks loose, traditional ammunition will become increasingly difficult to get your hands on. Not to mention that it will be ridiculously expensive. If the world we live in ever gets this way, why waste your traditional ammo on hunting squirrel or other small game? That would be wasteful and careless if there was a smarter way. There is – PELLETS.

1000s of Pellets Fit into Small Spaces

Not only are pellets DIRT CHEAP, they are very small. You can carry 1000s and not even know they are there. You can store 10s of 1000s in just 1 shoe box. To top it off, pellets have a shelf life of pretty much FOREVER! Traditional ammunition can go bad over time. Especially with the talks of giving ammunition an expiration date, stocking a few 1000 pellets isn’t a bad idea.

Worse case scenario you could use all these extra pellets to reload your shot-gun shells.

Reload Empty Shotgun Shells With Pellets

Survival Reason # 3: Silent Shooter

Forget the earplugs. These guns are silent. In many survival scenarios, a silent weapon is a good thing. Not only can you hunt without drawing attention to yourself or your family, but shooting a silent weapon often means you can get off more than 1 shot if there are multiple targets. Both of these are positive. People pay 1000s of $$$ to make their guns silent. No extra charge for the pellet gun.

Survival Reason # 4: Powered By Air

You don’t have to buy air. And, it’s never going to be out of stock. For this reason, I prefer either a MULTI-PUMP or BREAK-BARREL Pellet Air Gun. I have opted NOT to purchase a CO2 or pneumatic powered air gun. Needing to refill canisters or tanks doesn’t make any sense in a survival situation. You want to keep it as old fashioned as possible. It’s hand pump all the way for this survivalist.

Break-Barrel Survival Pellet Guns

There are tons of options when it comes to Hand Pump or Break Barrel guns. They both come in .177 and .22 calibers. The fps varies depending on the gun. My Multi-Pump Sheridan shoots 850 fps but there are models out there that shoot upwards of 1250 fps which rivals some rim-fire cartridges. Like anything, the details are personal choices. However, I definitely suggest a PUMP or BREAK-BARREL so that you can manually charge your air chamber rather than being dependent on other air supply products.

So there you have it, 4 solid reasons why I keep a Pellet Gun in my survival arsenal.

I hope this has been useful information and as always I would love you hear your thoughts and comments.

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About Willow Haven Outdoor & Creek Stewart

Creek Stewart is the Owner and Lead Instructor at Willow Haven Outdoor – a leading Survival and Preparedness Training Facility located on 21-acres in Central Indiana. For more information on Survival Courses and Clinics offered at WHO, click HERE.

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