A rifle in the hands of the wrong person is not something you’d want to see. Not all places would allow you to carry a rifle. The only place you can leave it is in your truck if you have one. This guide walks you through options on how to store a rifle in a truck.
Unlike your house, your truck has limited space. It can be tricky finding a safe place to keep your gun. However, it is not impossible. With a good mixture of ingenuity and disguise, you can easily conceal your weapon from prying eyes.
Notice that none of the options include a truck gun rack, as this guide aims to disguise and secure a rifle.
Whether you are a military person, a law enforcer, or a hunter, you have a huge responsibility to keep your rifle safe. Here are some great tips on how you can do that.
Keep Your Rifle Out of Sight and Out of the Wrong Hands
Whether it’s your children you are carrying in the truck or your friends, do not let them know where you keep your gun. Anybody who takes a quick look at your truck should not see a gun or some apparent signs that you are carrying a gun. In short, be careful when you store a rifle in a truck. This is why there is no truck gun rack recommendation in this article. You don’t want people to know you have a rifle in the truck.
Ensure you are alone when keeping it if possible. If you don’t have a lock for storing your gun, just get one. A trigger or cable lock is a low but effective option to keep everyone safe.
If you are carrying someone in your car, they may not feel safe if they know that you are carrying a rifle.
If the firearm is for self-defense, ensure the storage place is also easy to access in an emergency.Â
Strongly consider a trigger lock or cable lock to prevent a child or unwanted person from firing the rifle.
Disguise Your Rifle
Instead of carrying a rifle in a bag that sends a message that you are carrying a rifle, use unsuspecting bags. A guitar case is a good example. If you can fit your rifle nicely in a guitar case, anyone would think you are carrying a guitar.
While it is not 100% theft-proof, it does help when you have to carry your gun in a place where guns raise concerns. Even within the truck, this may help to keep people from suspecting that you have rifle in truck.
If you have many long rifles, you may need special storage units such as the following.
Consider Truck Vault Storage for Rifle Storage
A truck vault unit is a compartment that can be fitted at the back of your truck or pickup. It comes with several lockable drawers for storing your valuables. However, one of the drawers is made to fit firearm storage. This is a great option to store a file in a truck. Make sure you can lock it.
The storage drawers are fitted with a carpet and foam at the bottom to ensure that sensitive items are carried safely. Customized foam is available to allow specific types of guns to fit in nicely, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Use Double Deck Storage
Double deck storage requires you to divide the back of your pickup such that you have a lower floor and a higher one. The lower floor is retractable, but the upper one is not.
The lower deck is divided into several sections. Each section is used to store separate items. Therefore, this is where you can store your rifle in the truck because it is hidden. You can lock it and use the upper deck to carry other kinds of luggage.
Store a Rifle in a Trunk Bunker/Bed Bunker
Trunk banker is a secure way to lock your rifle inside a box. The box has the same quality as the safe used to store valuables in homes. It is large enough to accommodate rifles of all sizes.
The trunk bunker can be fixed at the bottom of your truck’s boot or it can be tied with safety handles.
Using truck vault, double deck, and trunk bunk may cost you some cash. If you are looking for a cheaper option, check out the following methods.
Store a Rifle in the Back Seat of Your Truck
You can create a rifle storage area at the back of the driver’s seat. You can do this yourself since you do not want anyone else to know where you keep your rifles.
To do this, move the driver’s seat to the forward. Remove the seat cover carefully from the back of the seat without tearing it. Ensure you have accessed the interior of the seat. Wrap your rifle there and put the seat cover back in its place.
If you like, you can buy a removable seat cover to overwrap the first one to completely hide your rifle.
Store a Rifle Under the Rear Seat of Your Truck
In some trucks, the rear seat is not divided. It is one long seat. If you have this kind of truck, then you have a storage unit for a rifle.
All you have to do is try to flip the seat upwards. At the bottom of the seat, you may have to undo the seat cover to access metal strands where you can fasten the firearm.
Fasten the firearm so that it does not fall off, then restore the seat to its normal position.
Create a Custom Floor on The Boot
This method is almost similar to the double-deck for pickups, but it works in enclosed cars such as SUVs. You can build one for yourself or have someone make it for you if it looks complicated.
Create a wide box that fills the floor of your boot. The height of the box should be just enough to fit the riffles and maybe some other tools. It also needs to be strong since you will use the upper side to carry other stuff.
You can create a solid lid to the box that can be flipped up to access your rifle from inside. This box looks like a second floor on the boot. It should be low enough to give the impression that only one floor exists. This is a great option to store a rifle in a truck, as it appears invisible.
Under Seat Drawers
In some trucks, the back seat usually has a free space underneath it. This is the space between the seat and the floor. If this space is large enough, you can create a drawer to store your rifles.
Made of wood or metal, these drawers are sturdy. You can have someone make it for you. Just tell them it’s a toolbox. It should be created so that it can be retracted from the sides of the seat towards the door.
Make sure the drawer is disguised to look the same as other parts of the truck. You can have two drawers, each accessible from different doors. One drawer can be used to store rifles and the other one to store tools.
If you lock them up, no one can tell that you have a rifle in truck.
Conclusion
Proper storage of firearms can help to prevent them from being stolen or misused. There are many ways to store a rifle in your truck. Since each truck might be different from others, choose the most effective way in your case. In any scenario, make sure to lock it up to prevent it from ending up in the wrong hands. A low cost option to keep loved ones safe is a trigger or cable lock.
Before carrying a firearm in your truck, make sure you are not breaking the laws of the state where you live. Concealing your rifle can help the people around you to feel safe and also not expose you as a rifle holder.