Are you an ultimate gun collector? Do you own more than one gun? Do you keep your guns in your home or in a storage center? Are you still looking for the perfect gun storage solution? Well…have we got the answer for you!!

If you are looking for the best of the best, you might want to look into the BedBunker King Double Gun Safe BB300. This bad by holds as many as 32 rifles or 70 handguns (seriously! 70 handguns!) and are completely temper proof – not to mention guaranteed for life. All BedBunkers rely on high security Mul-T-Lock locks to make sure that all your guns will always stay safety stored. The best part of these things is that all BedBunker safes are designed to replace traditional box springs underneath a variety of bed sizes. If you have a king size bed and want the best protection possible for your guns and your family, then this is the answer for you.

This gun safe has some pretty amazing specs – the safe body is made from 10 gauge steel and the doors are quarter inch steel.  There is a solid three quarter inch continuous hinge side locking inside to prevent the safe from being compromised as the hinges cannot be cut off. The safe is heat sensitive and an expanding fire gasket to seal the door edges in the vent of a fire or flood. And to boot, it has a lifetime transferable warranty.

This baby doesn’t come cheap, but if you are in the market for the best of the best gun safe for your collection, then this one is for you! You can order online at SafeGunSafes.com or contact one of our qualified customer service agents if you have additional questions.

Hunting and shooting vacations are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. There are several tour companies that are running these sorts of promotions in the Mountain West of the United States and in Canada. One of these trips that I’ve come across recently takes place in Montana on the border of Yellowstone National Park (arguably one of the most beautiful and interesting places in the United States. And guess what game they hunt in Yellowstone Park? Elk! That’s right – this is an opportunity for you to hunt on of the largest game animals in the world, and likely the largest game animal in the United States. Only the Moose in the United States and the Sambar rival the elk in sheer size. The Roosevelt Elk in Alaska commonly grow to weight up to 600 kilograms or 1,300 pounds!

If you are keen, you can go out with the trip guides and fellow hunters around the trophy elk areas around the National Park. Trips are usually for five days of hunting and lodging with the inclusion of one guide for every two hunters. Hunts take place each year during Elk season – which occurs between the end of October and the end of November.  They can accommodate up to 10 hunters during each week of the season so you have a large group, you’ll want to book well in advance (they even recommend booking two years in advance).

In addition, the same outfit organizes the Gardiner Late Elk Hunt in which a few lucky winners (who draw the four day, either sex elk tag). This late hunt is an amazing opportunity for people who are ready for an incredible experience – the Late Elk Hunt requires a special permit and allows hunters to hunt an older class of bulls on the Northern Yellowstone Winter Range in January or February. It’s significantly cheaper than a normal elk hunt and can be an incredible experience for every hunter.

Images from here and here.

How many of you out there in the blogosphere are hunters? Hunting is one of the most noble sports in existence – it goes back to the kings and royalty of nations past. While for millennia  before that hunting had been a subsistence act, meaning that hunters would shoot and kill animals for food and for their own protection, it later turned into a act of sport and vermin control. One of the first cases of fox hunting can be traced back to the 16^th century where farmers would use their dogs to get rid of the “vermin.” Hunting as a social activity in Britain was well developed over the next several hundred years. By the Victorian era, it became very fashionable for noblemen and women of the British wealthy upper class to would go on hunting expeditions for a social activity. Additionally, hunting has been very popular among the British royalty – it is even said that King George V (the father of the current Queen Elizabeth II) shot over one thousand pheasants in a single day in 1913.

Nowadays, hunting is less of a royals-only sport. It’s now more about camouflage and strategy than about hounds and hunting parties. Now, it is about hunting permits, and specialty rifles, and bag limits. While the times may have changed, the sentiments behind hunting remain the same. Hunters love the camaraderie, the beauty of the outdoors, being a part of a long tradition of similar individuals. There is little that is better than waking up early in the morning and hiking out in raw nature to a hunting cabin. And then, when you spot that first game (whether it is a deer or a duck or anything in between), you know why you’re there.

Many men and women have had a long love affair with hunting. Even as hunting regulation becomes stricter and stricter, the core values and experiences remain the same.

Are you a hunter? What is your favorite game to hunt? What is your favorite spot to hunt?

Dye Hawley, our illustrious manager here at SafeGunSafes.com has produced a great video helping to explain the nature and use of gun safes. If you are a gun owner and you keep your firearm in your home, it is of the utmost importance that you have a gun safe. Gun safes make sure that safe gun use and storage are your priority.

Check out the video at the link below (we’re having some issues getting videos to embed in the post). Gun Safes

For those of us who truly love guns, there is really nothing better than learning about and collecting antique firearms. The mechanics alone (not to mention the beauty and history) of these firearms is truly astounding. For those of you who haven’t yet caught the collecting bug, I want to share some of the facts that got me hooked quite some time ago.

To start, it’s important to know what we’re talking about when we speak about antiques – a gun from the 1980s, no matter how solid the construction or high quality the materials is not an antique. On the whole, we’ll only be referring to guns produced prior to the beginning of the 20^th century – that means that everything is over 100 years old. Secondly, there are two main types of guns that we’ll touch on here – the first is the older muzzleloading guns. These are guns used mainly prior to the 18^th century and are those that we often seen in movies about the Revolutionary war. The hero on the front line loads his gun with black powder and fires away. And the second is the slightly younger and more standardized cartridge firing. Most collectors prefer cartridge firing guns as their provenance (or history) is easier to document.

Most thorough antique gun collectors in the United States focus on several main eras including the Pre-Napoleonic era (roughly from the founding of the US until the Civil War), the Civil War era, the Old West, and the Prohibition era. There are firearms of all sizes, quality, and value in each of these eras. Some collectors like to specialize in just one period while others span several. And once you leave the United States, the world of antique gun collecting gets even bigger.

For today, as I’m really just aiming to give a basic understanding of what it is that interests me in the antique gun field, so we’ll do a brief run down of several of the guns that fit into the first collectors period – the Pre-Napoleonic era. But you should remember the check back here often as we’ll outline additional periods and guns once or twice a month.

The Kentucky Rifle is the only gun of American origin of the famous Pre-Napoleonic era firearms. It makes it an important piece in any collection of American firearms. This longrifle was developed in the Lancaster, PA region in about the 1740s – that’s a whole 30 years before the Revolutionary War – and continued to be produced until well into the 20^th century. While history is sketchy on the origins of the rifle, most agree that the legacy of the firearm was a product of German gunsmith’s who emigrated in about the 1620s. This rifle stood out in the colonies as the only American produced gun in a sea of expensive European imports. It was truly the start of the American love affair with firearms.

While Americans imported most of their firearms from Europe, it was thanks to a solitary group of frontiersmen and Indian fights that the Kentucky Rifle found its market. These men valued the long-range abilities and accuracy of the rifle. While it took nearly a full minute to load the rifle, sharp-shooters could reliably hit a target more than 300 feet away – that’s over 3 times the going rate at that period. This was an incredible gun during the period – and what makes it even more special is that it was created on our own soil using only American ingenuity.

While we’ve only given you a glimpse of the history of the Kentucky rifle, we hope it’s enough to spark an interest in you to learn more about antique guns.

Image from here.

I recently starting researching the fascinating history of the evolution of firearms over the last 200 years.    Beneath the surface of this subject lies a whole world of gun collectors, antique gun dealers, books, historians, and gun enthusiast.    What triggered this research was a blog I read about the Colt 1911 and how Moses Browning passed the rigorous testing by the US Army.   Here is a small excerpt from this blog:    “Submitting the gun for a second round of evaluation, a torture test was conducted in 1911 and Browning’s pistols passed the rigorous test of 6000 rounds of fire, rusted in acid and submerged in sand and mud.” Within a few minutes of reading this blog I started thinking about social and political forces of our evolving world that spurred the development of  the Colt, Winchester, Remington, and a host of other firearms that supported our military and police forces.

Most gun collectors divide this field into firearms manufactured before the beginning of the 20th century and modern firearms developed after the turn of the century.    This dividing line is somewhat arbitrary as there were some very sophisticated firearms produced during the 19th century.   I researched a dozen firearm antique dealers and a few firearm auction sites to get an idea of the value of these old firearms.   I was shocked to see that the prices for these old firearms can reach as high as $50,000, and I am sure that I did not find the really rare firearms that probably sell for even higher figures.

I came away from this research slightly confused by the fact that this story was never taught to me in school.  It is an amazing story of politics, war, innovation, belief in protecting peace, and simply a real story about American ingenuity.

A friend of mine recently got married. Sure, no big deal, people get married all the time. Not to say that it isn’t special or momentous. Well…it’s not actually the marriage or the wedding that really intrigued me. What I thought was really clever and fun was the bachelor party. Instead of the usual barhopping or poker game, this to-be groom and his brothers went skeet shooting!

If you don’t know too much about skeet shooting, it’s a great shooting sport in which people (in this the groom and his brothers) attempt to small clay discs that are thrown into the air at a very high speed from a bunch of different angles. This sport requires precise aim as the discs are only about 4 inches in diameter and an inch thick. It’s hard enough to hit a target like this when it’s stationary; it’s a whole other ballgame to hit one while it’s flying through the air at high speed. This sport harkens back to the old days when hunting parties would go out to shoot and kill birds – that’s one of the reasons why the discs are called clay pigeons!

Skeet was invented in the 1920s by a man called Charles Davies – he was an avid hunter and particularly like hunting grouse (a bird related to the chicken). By 1926, Davies had introduced the nation to the sport and even started a contest to come up with a name for the new sport. The winning entry “skeet” was entered by a woman by the name of Gertrude Hurlbutt and was said to be inspired by the Scandinavian word for “to shoot.” Skeet shooting went on to be a wildly popular sport – going so far as to become an Olympic sport in 1968 – and also a military training program for the US Army during World War II.

My friend had a great time at his “bachelor party.” None of the guys were too great – after all, they were all newbies to the sport – but they had a great time. It’s a challenging sport, a clever bonding activity, and an interesting new sport to take part in. I’m going to try my hand at it the next chance I can, and I’m sure you’d like it too.

Have you ever tried Skeet? Were you any good? Did you have a good time?