Moving Firearms to New Apt

[mikeyr]

Even if you're in a good neighborhood, what if some porch pirate is cruising around all day and drives by your house and sees gun cases or ammo boxes? Or your big mouth neighbors mention in the wrong company your huge gun collection? I assume you have a job, but the people who would come after your stuff most likely don't, and have the time to wait you out and figure out your behavior patterns. Also, how is it paranoia when I'm already meticulous about range safety, and reloading procedures and checks to also include opsec in my list of activities I put some effort into?

I do live in a good neighborhood now, if you count being surrounded by very nosy retired neighbors being a good neighborhood (I do). I do have a job and yes i am gone from the house, but I have 2 noisy dogs and a few security camera's that notify me of movement, I feel good, you are never 100% safe but I am feel ok. I keep all my guns in my safe, day or night, you break into my house middle of the night, please give me time to walk past you to the other room, turn on the light, open my safe, load a magazine or load my SAA so I can defend myself.
Lastly there is a difference between being meticulous, which I am at the range and while reloading and being paranoid, which in this particular case I translate to being scared of others knowing you have guns. I am proud to live in a country where I can own guns and while that is less true in Calif. I will still not hide the fact I own them, I also will not advertise the fact I own them (outside of forums like this one). My neighbors know I own guns, they don't know if I own 1 or a 1,000 but they see me load the car for range trips almost every weekend. And the UPS guy has built up some muscles delivering ammo to my place, he really should thank me for the workout program I created for him.

Like I said, I was asking a serious question, trying to figure out why people seem so scared of being labeled a gun owner, I have lived in neighborhoods where I was paranoid and no one knew I had them and I kept a loaded gun by the bed in those places, so I was asking...that is all I was doing.

[Cokebottle]

This is a serious question...
Are you guys living in bad neighborhoods ? or are you that paranoid ?

If you are paranoid, ok, go on and ignore me, nothing you can do about it. If its the neighborhood well I can understand that, I have lived in a few that I would rather not admit to having lived there.

But geez, if its a normal neighborhood, even hiding guns when going to the range ? moving in at dusk or dark ? all those things seem so extreme. I have very anti-gun neighbors and I don't care if they see me load my guns into the trunk for a range trip. I don't brag about my guns and what I have, but I wont hide it.

My former neighbor had some personal assistants help him move out.

Even in a good neighborhood, you NEVER know who may be nearby. This guy got out of prison and his mom bought him the condo.
He was a good neighbor for several years, but started regaining contact with his old friends, and ultimately the place became a flop-house for using and selling pot.
His "customers" were stealing anything and everything that wasn't bolted down from front porch deliveries to pilfering back yards if a gate was left unlocked.

Any one if his "customers" observing would be quite likely to mark the residence for a burglary.
He flat out admitted to my wife that it was a good thing we have a security system.

[edgerly779]

Take shelves out of fridge and fit all you can then use large golf bag case.

[Skip_Dog]

Do it however you like. Just do it so anyone watching you (and they will) do NOT see any guns or ammo. They may not do anything but EVERYONE has that one friend of a friend who is shady. Shady people know other shady people. No need to take any chances of a home invasion when you’re not home. I recently sat on a jury for exactly this crime. The girlfriend and child were home when the shady friend of the neighbor broke in with 4 of his shady peeps. Not being paranoid just cautious.

[oddball]

Some of these posts are amazing.

I just sold my house and moved into a small apartment to start hunting for a house in Texas. My ammo has been stored in another safe location (too much of a footprint), but my guns are with me. My wife and I moved the long guns in using a wardrobe box, moving in 4-5 at a time. My safe was moved in with a blanket covering it, so it looked like a tall cabinet.

Handguns were arranged in a generic plastic storage tub in bubble wrap layers and carried in (cases are in storage).

The reason I did this is why advertise extremely valuable property in the open? Would I openly move in jewelry, Rolex watches, etc? Believe it or not, guns are the most sought after items in the thief's world. Moving in a flat screen TV is no big deal, but rifle cases and Glock cases?

Openly loading in firearms in a public apartment parking lot is not a political statement, but a foolish chance of getting ripped off.

"Women and children can be careless, but not men."- Vito Corleone

[Norcalkid]

I live in an apt. Moved safe at 6am, gun cases in a sleeping bag or quilt when going in or out. Neighbors don't even know I have a gun in the place.

[langss]

That's a tough one OP....especially in an apartment complex. I have a hard time at my house trying to prevent neighbors from seeing me load up for a range trip....I usually load up before sunrise to be discreet or in my garage if one has the luxury. Like others have mentioned move the guns yourself it would be nice if you had a relative to take them to and move them one or two at a time so you could do it here and there. It's funny I don't even throw anything firearm related into my trash cans as I have neighbors who sneak their trash into my cans from time to time ( Yeah I see you )I'm veering off topic lol good luck with the move! Oh and U-line sells discreet cardboard boxes for rifles with egg crate or just a long box you could label the boxes fishing poles....pool que's.....or whatever

+1 for this. I don't even toss out the box's I get from wherever without removing all the stickers and labels from them.

[chuckdc]

The only sane option is to disassemble all the rifles into individual parts so you can fit them all in a box. Then reassemble them once you've safely smuggled them in to your house. It's the only option really.

This is what I did when I moved into my current place.

For the safe, I have a Dakota Interlock safe, which breaks down into a few large pieces. The only part that requires real oomph to move is the front piece with the hinges and door. I covered that with cardboard with moving blankets over it. With a stout dolly, 3 of us got it up the stairs, and one of them didnt know what he was moving (me and the other guy both knew) I said it was a really stout bookshelf knocked down into parts and boxed. It was then reassembled in a space where the doorway is too small to take it back out without disassembly.

The things that go into it were broken down (shotguns, removed barrels, and ARs into uppers and lowers) and the regular rifles were removed from their stocks, wrapped into towels and put in moving boxes. Convenient AND anonymous.. just another cardboard box (the only thing "special" was that I had a good source of strong boxes from the pharmacy at work.. all that glass gets double-walled boxes). Handguns are even easier (of course!). Ammo more or less the same, though you need to be careful how much you put in per large box. The other thing I worried about moving was my reloading supplies, as they would not be popular with the management of the complex.

[chuckdc]

With regards to "good" neighborhoods, you never know. My apartment complex is in a decent area (Not all that far from Bush 41's place), but when I was driving home from work a couple weeks ago, one of the larger units at the front of the complex had about a dozen or so nice folks with plate carriers on, blue t-shirts with gold lettering, and carrying lots of more exotic hardware, paying a very unwelcome visit. Turns out that the resident of said unit was being grabbed up for dealing meth. His daytime job was with the Houston Police Dept. (!) They're gonna LOOOVE him up in Huntsville.