Lets see your reloading benches

[flyrod]

Thanks you for sharing pictures of your nice setup! It's very impressive to those of us reloading in a corner of the basement.

Originally Posted by orkan

...and they are heavily protected from fire and thievery this time.

Did you have problems before? I remember some threads about building a gun closet with 4 layers of sheet rock to help survive a fire. Some of the gun safe manufacturers talk about the filling they use, which cooks off water as it heats up to keep the interior cool.

[orkan]

Originally Posted by flyrod

Did you have problems before?

Never had problems before, but I don't intend to start. This one is constructed of high psi concrete with triple oversized rebar and hardened reinforcement on all sides with the most impressive walk-in vault door I could find.

It weighs as much as a large bulldozer, so I had to have special footings built just to support the weight of the structure. We calculated it out once... and I think it was something like a hundred tons. It doubles as a tornado shelter. I figure a full size combine can hit it from 10 miles up and it will wreck the combine good.

It has a separate room, also concrete, with its own entrance that has a hardened steel 120 minute rated fire door. I put a 6" steel pipe (wow was it heavy) into the roof which vents outside the house. In there I'll store powder/primers/loaded ammo/etc. So if I ever have spontaneous combustion with any components, everything will vent out the pipe.

[TinMan]

What a great job on the room and the construction details. It all sounds very familiar.

Twenty years ago, my BIL had a neighbor who owned a concrete construction business. He built a building to store a couple of trucks/machines he stored during the winter. To the side of it, he build a gun storage room very similar you described. Poured walls and roof, and found a walk-in safe door from an old bank vault that was being razed. The gun room was maybe 20x40ft inside. Only stored firearms, no reloading supplies there. Inside, he built racks along the walls, like in a good gun shop to store his collection of military rifles from WWI and WWII, his hunting rifles, and some pistols. I was very impressed when I went through it afterward. However, I think your facility even tops that one.

[orkan]

Originally Posted by TinMan

What a great job on the room and the construction details. It all sounds very familiar.

Twenty years ago, my BIL had a neighbor who owned a concrete construction business. He built a building to store a couple of trucks/machines he stored during the winter. To the side of it, he build a gun storage room very similar you described. Poured walls and roof, and found a walk-in safe door from an old bank vault that was being razed. The gun room was maybe 20x40ft inside. Only stored firearms, no reloading supplies there. Inside, he built racks along the walls, like in a good gun shop to store his collection of military rifles from WWI and WWII, his hunting rifles, and some pistols. I was very impressed when I went through it afterward. However, I think your facility even tops that one.

I'd love to have seen his collection. His bunker sounds really nice. I'm not bothered by whether my things are better or worse than other folks. I only concern myself with improving constantly, for my own sake. I do take my precision rifle shooting seriously.

I love my custom rifles... but I've taken a shine to "irreplaceable" items as well. Rifles that are difficult to find and are unique. I'm a bit of a rimfire fanatic, so I have collected a few fine specimens over the last few years.

I'll start a thread about one of them. Maybe I'll learn something about it.

[TinMan]

The BIL and the neighbor are both gone now. The neighbor loved battle rifles, Lee Enfield, Mausers and especially Swedish Mausers. His hunting rifles were mostly Ruger No.1s and a few lever actions. His place surrounded 20+ acres of woods, and had his own private range, complete with a tubular 'muffler' to knock down the muzzle blast/report. Quite a set-up.

Have you looked through some old Gun Digest and Shooter's Bible catalogs to search for your Walther?