Moving and the best way to transport your guns!!!

[CJWinOR]

When I moved a few years ago, I moved my firearms and assorted accessories first. I bought a new safe for the new residence, then moved everything from the old place to the new place in a cargo van. For the long guns, I had them cased or in boxes then put those inside hanging wardrobe boxes so passers by wouldn't see anything gun related. I had friends stay with the van while loading and unloading. All this stuff went into one bedroom of new residence so that movers would not see any of it. In the end, I sold the safe at the old place for a bit of a loss, but that loss was insignificant when compared to the possibility of theft.

Ammunition and reloading bullets were actually the hardest part, I ended up buying a bunch of MTM ammo crates for the loose boxes as trying to pack that kind of weight into moving boxes doesn't work very well.

You can rent a heavy duty motorized stair climbing dolly from United Rentals and other such places.

 

[Chaffee]

Years ago I had a customer had the whole uhaul stolen from the motel parking lot while he slept. I circulated a list and serial numbers on the boards. If it were my guns, I would not take my eyes off of them!

 

[Martini_Up]

I personally drove all mine. Stayed in a one night in a motel with car parked just outside the door. No problems and no worries.

 

[leadcounsel]

I used a POD when I moved here from Seattle. The ammo/etc. went in the pod, the guns went with me in a car (I made multiple trips). The POD was good in that I could take my time loading/unloading. But don't count on it being waterproof (mine had no water damage, but they mention that IIRC) and the sides are not metal, they are some kind of plastic. The cost for me was $1200 to move most of my household goods. I also loaded up my car, drove it down here, then took a train back up and loaded up my flatbed truck and drove it down here.

Well, I recently priced a POD for a household move 500 miles. Price was over $3000. And express prohibitions on anything explosive, ammunition, gas, propane, etc. Roll the dice if you want but the liability of a total loss AND being sued by PODs or maybe even breaking laws is simply not worth it... especially since - for MY move - rending a box truck and driving was 1/3rd the cost and not significantly more work.

 

[leadcounsel]

Load the safe first. Pull the shelves out of your safe and load everything in with soft cases. Fill the gaps with towels, pillows, blankets, etc... When you park, box the truck in with your other vehicle and use a steering wheel lock. If you are still worried you can pull a wire off the ignition.
Plan your stops ahead of time! Look at the parking lot via sat image. Some hotels will tell you that they have truck parking on the phone but when you get there you have to park in a dirt lot off to the side - you want to be able to park as close to outside the door as possible. Moving trucks take 10 to 20% longer on the drive than the map will tell you. You are going to get tired in the wrong place at the wrong time and then you are going to have to just keep driving while compromised.
I'm realizing I've done this too many times!

This is an excellent post worth repeating.

If you must park, box the truck in as best as possible and use a steering wheel lock. Also use a premium padlock on the box truck.

 

[EPP]

This is an excellent post worth repeating.

If you must park, box the truck in as best as possible and use a steering wheel lock. Also use a premium padlock on the box truck.

I haven't moved in years, but when I moved with a U-Haul cross country, I pulled against concrete walls chocked the tires and pulled several spark plug wires; but that was a gas engine.

 

[Dr Prepper]

use a steering wheel lock. If you are still worried you can pull a wire off the ignition.

This is the other thing i forgot to mention. Or pull a fuse. Or ignition relay or flatten a tire or two and refill them with a little portable air compressor which are cheap and decent quality in my experience.
Id be wary of any locking devices. You know what they say. They are only for the honest people.. They are easily picked and defeated in most cases.

As a side note. My mom had a rental in apache junction her tenant basically disappeared without a trace. Like an idiot i left my pistol at hoke because i didnt want it stolen by the baggage handlers. Of course once i got there rumor has it, it was home to a major biker gang and not a good one.. Cant remember which one. But we were wondering if they had something to do with the tennant. She wasnt a bad looking lady.

 

[Dr Prepper]

Also keep in mind probably the first thing these low lifes look for when casing stuff like this is.. How low its suspension is riding.
I wouldnt be a bit suprised if some have gone to measure stock height and have it gauged out how many pounds ride at what height and have friggin spread sheets in excel.
I think thats all i got. Im getting to angry thinking about this.

Good luck Sir.

 

[Dan Adams]

I wouldn't trust a locking bed cover overnight. In that case I would back up the pickup to a motel door to minimize visibility when you do the shift. Or backup the truck to your motel door and instead of only relying on the bed cover, run chain through the pelican case handles and padlocks and lock the chain to your truck. If someone is breaking into that setup ten feet from your motel bed I'd think it would make enough noise to wake you up.

In situations like these, I use a cheap motion-detecting alarm attached to my luggage and/or gun case(s). Never mind that I sometimes wake up people de-activating the alarms when I'm ready to get back on the road. You do get a few seconds to disarm them (by code) but if you jostle one while disarming another.... However, for my peace of mind, I'm certain I would wake up if someone breaks into my vehicle and touches anything with the alarm attached.

By the way, I would not trust anything like this to a trucking outfit. I moved from the midwest many years ago, and not all of my stuff arrived. Get this: the box count was correct, so somebody must have gone through my boxes and repacked them so I wouldn't know anything was missing until everything was unpacked.

 

[Alaska]

This seems like such an easy move compared to what we are facing. We need to get a bunch of guns and reloading stuff from Alaska to Idaho and we can't take much of it through Canada. It is really tough trying to figure out the best way that doesn't cost 10x more than just repurchasing everything down there, or handing it off to some moving company. Loading it all in a truck and driving is a piece of cake, we've driven the Alcan probably 30 times. It's them stinking Canadian gun laws that are causing us grief.

 

[slimmer13]

Give them to Holder and tell them they're for the cartel.

 

[11Charlie]

This seems like such an easy move compared to what we are facing. We need to get a bunch of guns and reloading stuff from Alaska to Idaho and we can't take much of it through Canada. It is really tough trying to figure out the best way that doesn't cost 10x more than just repurchasing everything down there, or handing it off to some moving company. Loading it all in a truck and driving is a piece of cake, we've driven the Alcan probably 30 times. It's them stinking Canadian gun laws that are causing us grief.

Buy a boat and bypass Canada!

 

[Alaska]

Thinking about the option of car on the ferry, but not sure how that will work. Not cheap either.

 

[oldcars]

Big wooden crate with " used septic parts, save" written on the side ?

 

[Member 5605]

Go get some thick cloth from the fabric store. See some ugly sleeves.

May be the cheapest option.

 

[L84Cabo]

Go get some thick cloth from the fabric store. See some ugly sleeves.

May be the cheapest option.

Just wrap them in blankets that you have to move anyway.

 

[Member 5605]

Just wrap them in blankets that you have to move anyway.

I personally don't have enough blankets. And most are thin.

 

[Member 38805]

My daughter rented a pod to move locally. It was loaded at the curb and we began filling it the first day. Not much of value that was inside yet, and what was there was big furniture. But the next day I went to open it and the hasp had been cut. Nothing missing as I think the thieves saw what was inside and determined they couldn't carry it off.
But what hit me was how wimpy the metal was that the lock went through! I could have easily cut through with tin snips or diagonals! I wouldn't trust those pods for anything that was out of my sight!

 

[osprey]

This seems like such an easy move compared to what we are facing. We need to get a bunch of guns and reloading stuff from Alaska to Idaho and we can't take much of it through Canada. It is really tough trying to figure out the best way that doesn't cost 10x more than just repurchasing everything down there, or handing it off to some moving company. Loading it all in a truck and driving is a piece of cake, we've driven the Alcan probably 30 times. It's them stinking Canadian gun laws that are causing us grief.

The ferry probably is one of the few options other than shipping them all to an ffl. You should be able to drive long guns through Canada with the proper paperwork as long as the are not the scary ones.

 

[Alaska]

The ferry probably is one of the few options other than shipping them all to an ffl. You should be able to drive long guns through Canada with the proper paperwork as long as the are not the scary ones.

That's one of the problems, we have a couple "scary" ones. Mostly a pistol problem. We can actually take quite a bit of powder and reloading stuff down the can and expect to make at least 2 trips, but we have more than the limit most likely. Can't ever pass up a bargain at a garage sale you know. The other scary part is getting off the ferry and driving across Washington with a car load of guns/ammo/reloading stuff. I can only imagine what hell we could pay if we got stopped and searched for some reason. It would look like we were about to start WW3. We would have everything crated up and basically inaccessible, but liberal fear of guns knows no bounds.
Might just fly a load in baggage. Cheaper than the ferry, if they are even still running by then, they are having lots of problems and budget cuts.
Can't ship to an FFL either. I was going to do that with my carry gun one year since we were driving down to visit and I was told by the range that is in Post Falls that once they go to the FFL it has to be transferred back, and since I was not a resident they couldn't transfer a firearm to me. I ended up just mailing it to myself down there.