Get a large blanket. Set one rifle at the end, fold the blanket over it, roll it over, set another, roll it over, etc. Then get 2 belts and secure each end of the rifle blanket burrito.
Neighbors might think you are moving a dead body though.

My suggestion would be to get Bore-Stores from Midway or Brownells for each gun. They'll act as padding and protection during the move, won't take up as much space as the same number of boxes, and will be available for future firearm storage.

quote:

Originally posted by marksman41:
My suggestion would be to get Bore-Stores from Midway or Brownells for each gun. They'll act as padding and protection during the move, won't take up as much space as the same number of boxes, and will be available for future firearm storage.

... Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the benefit for the high cost. Those are $20 each at Brownells. That's over a grand, to have one per gun. (If they even have 50+ on hand.) All for something that's thinner and going to provide less padding/protection than (free) blankets or towels.

Free is definitely better.

I like the “rent an enclosed trailer, put guns inside, secure at a friends garage or rent a storage area and store the trailer inside”

When we moved from NC to TX, I put gun socks on all of them, I put the guns in her trunk,, and stuff on top of that. I put the gunpowder and primers in my truck. We backed her car into a spot each night right next to the room (motel). Two ignition over stays and three days driving.

and then I moved all the guns into our temporary apartment after dark carrying each long guns- two or three in a duffel bag (military sea bag). When we moved to the permenant house I took them out a few at a time with Mrs Mike staying at the trunk and me moving guns...we did the same thing when we arrived at the home.

Waited till dark and brought them in a few at a time. And when the safe was delivered I had the guns in another room and no ammo out for the safe guys to ogle.

The last time I moved, I kept my old place for several weeks after getting my new place. I had already purchased a new safe and had it put in the new house. I then moved a bunch of stuff to the new safe and put the rest in a closet upstairs. It took several trips to do this. Unloaded everything in garage to avoid curious eyes. When I had the old house emptied of gun stuff, I got several friends and moved the old safes from old house to new house. But I am an Ironworker and between me and my friends we had all of the equipment to move anything. I am now retired and not sure if I could do that again. But having both the old house and new house at the same time was a tremendous help.

You're a cop so I assume you're not stupid.. As part of the move, do it after dark. Guns and ammo cans at least. No reason to advertise. Its June and it gets dark late. July, too. Limits the hours you can transport things in the dark.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
As part of the move, do it after dark. Guns and ammo cans at least. No reason to advertise. Its June and it gets dark late. July, too. Limits the hours you can transport things in the dark.

No need. I can load the vehicle in the old house's garage with the door down, then unload in the new house's garage with the door down.

I’ve moved quite a few times and always move my delicate and valuable items myself.

What some of the other members suggested is part of what I do. All holsters, spotting scopes, ear protection, boxes, etc of the lighter variety go in rubbermaid tubs (the variety with the locking handles). Ammo is in military cans and similar gasket sealed boxes.

Here’s what I found the be the easiest method for moving shall we say… more than one gun?

I invested in two wheeled job boxes. These are quite secure with locks on both ends and you won't worry as much as if they sat around for a bit. (And these were the longer lengths). I found two of them nice quality for less than $300 bucks each new on sale. There are plenty of these around used if you have time to search that are cheaper. (A job box also doesn't scream gun). I tried cardboard boxes and similar before and it cost more than I expected.

Here’s the positive side- I have a number of soft gun cases and gun socks.
What I found worked best was to do the bottom layer with firearms with no optics. Layer the bottom of the job box and criss-cross with blankets. Once I got all of the basic pieces done, I would leave the more delicate and scoped rifles in soft cases with the last ones in gun socks on top.

These wheeled job boxes are quite friendly to move up ramps/off decks onto trucks. Trucks with lifts are gravy. Once inside the truck/van you can secure them to floor rings or side cleats/holes. (And I used a chain with a lock on each after they were strapped in place).

The nice aspect to this is that you know the firearms are secure as possible with two solid locks.
These boxes, once unloaded, can be used to hold all of the cases and boxes after the firearms have been removed. I found that the job boxes fit under my benches in the garage so it didn’t take a lot of space. They were there if I ever needed them.
What I also like about the job box route is that if things ever get any weirder than they are now, you can prep your stuff in the boxes and have them ready to roll.
Good luck on your move!

I went through this recently. Cases or wrapped in blankets. The additional piece of advice I'd have is to not wait until the last minute. It took a lot longer to unload and pack it for the move than I thought it would. I have a 32 x 60 x 48 jamb packed with guns, ammo and personal items. Took 3-4 hours to empty the safe and properly pack the items.

This is just me, but I would try to have a safe dealer move the safes before move day and have the safes in a location the movers wouldn’t need to go into.

I agree with Broadside....

My concern is the people from the moving company, I'm sorry I'm projecting here... are probably not the type of worker who have a vested interest in staying with the company long term... knowing that you have a number of guns....

I would figure out a away to vet a separate company to move the safes either with the guns in them or empty...

quote:

Originally posted by Broadside:
This is just me, but I would try to have a safe dealer move the safes before move day and have the safes in a location the movers wouldn’t need to go into.

Likely not possible. I'm closing on the sale of my current house and the sale of the new house at the same time ("concurrent closings"), with occupancy for each party to be at time of close, per the contract. So I need everything out of the old house the morning of closing, and can't move stuff into the new house until the late morning or afternoon of closing.

There's a chance that the builder of the new house may be nice and allow me to move some items into the garage the day before closing, but that doesn't help much with the safes in particular, since I'd still have to get them into the house the next day, and it'd still be obvious to movers that I have gun safes since they'd be sitting in the open in the garage.

I won't have days/weeks of overlap in which to move items in stages, using several different methods and different companies, under cover of night, with sniper overwatch and air support.

quote:

Originally posted by rackrack:
I have three of these. They worked well for my long guns during my most recent move. There's a store location in Little Rock if you can't find them elsewhere.

Dimensions: 52-7/8" L x 20-7/8 "W x 14-1/16" H

https://www.containerstore.com...d?productId=11005991

This is what I did when I moved from Virginia to Missouri. Only the containers were not clear and I was able to lock them. Cleared my safes, and they went into the U Haul trucks before anything else.

Heavier blankets work fine. I moved my arsenal a few minutes away a few years ago. Did it in multiple trips with the truck. Now I would probably get a uhaul and do it one shot.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
As part of the move, do it after dark. Guns and ammo cans at least. No reason to advertise. Its June and it gets dark late. July, too. Limits the hours you can transport things in the dark.

No need. I can load the vehicle in the old house's garage with the door down, then unload in the new house's garage with the door down.

My wife and I just made the same move to our new home about two weeks ago.

I have cases for all of my guns, ( though I don't quite have fifty ) but in your case, the U-haul/storage suggestion sounds like the best way to go in your case. Garage to garage is great, too.

In my case, the ammo was the biggest pain in the ass. Two full beds worth in my Tundra for the bulk of it. The tip off will be when the movers are bringing multiple safes into your new home, but there's not much that can be done about that other than covering them with tarps or movers blankets. If any nosey neighbor asks, just tell them those are your wine chillers or something.

This won't help with the long guns, but if you decide to go the box route, you can get USPS flat rate boxes from the post office for the handguns at no cost. Simply walk in, determine the size you need, grab the number you need, and walk out. If you need more than what they have you can either ask postal workers for more or drive to another postal location to pick up the remainder of what you need.

USPS flat rate boxes are of decent quality so you can either toss them when done, or do as I do, and save them for either storage duties or for actually shipping things when needed. If the boxes get a little beat up over time they also make decent targets or target backers.

I once built my own long gun box, when shipping a high end expensive rifle + optic to a friend's FFL, after my friend bought it. I wanted the rifle to be well protected and arrive in the same excellent condition it was going to depart in, and I couldn't find a box locally that fit it well. I bought a larger cardboard box and cut it down to the proper size. It took me 8 hours to build it and properly secure the rifle and optic in it, so I doubt you want to go to this level of trouble for that number of long guns...but it can be done.

Every time I've moved, I simply stacked with towels. I wrapped each gun individually, then layered them with more towels in between each layer.

Any guns that could fit in hard or soft cases could, and the overflow were stacked as above.

Granted, that was about 20 long guns, so you have a few more. They were kept in a locked vehicle in a garage.

I put a blanket down in my truck bed and made two trips for a similar move. Worked out just fine driving right around the speed limit. Not a new scratch on anything. It's likely worth making multiple trips and not stacking them on top of each other.