I don’t care much for gun socks and other products, I prefer to store my guns with as much air as possible around them, and with as little as possible touching the guns. I have used the Versatile racks for many years, and they have worked well for me. The downside to these is that you store the guns upside down, and they are not tall enough for some of my guns. For example: The Nambu T-14 ends up with the cocking knob resting on the shelf and leaning over a bit, which is quite annoying. Another problem is that some thumb rests can make the grip too wide, for example: Getting the Ruger Mk II wiggled into the rack is a bit of a challenge.
The Armory Rack seems to do away with those problems. It stores the guns upright, and due to the space saving design I can now store eight guns on one shelf, instead of six (see picture). The guns pull straight out, so even if they are packed as sardines you won’t have a problem getting them out and putting them back in. The collection is always growing and I was actually looking into buying a larger safe, but these racks should make it possible to postpone that purchase so I can use the money for guns instead.
The one I got has the tray and the optional coating, and I was afraid that the tray would make it a bit tight at the bottom. Come to find out, even the gigantic Roth-Steyr clears the tray, so no problem there. Another thing I was worried about was if the rods would be strong enough for heavy, long barreled guns. I tried it with some of the larger and heavier ones, like a Bergmann-Bayard and a 6 ½” Smith & Wesson Model 29, but the rods didn’t budge so it should hold up well to most guns. I haven’t had time to gather up all the mags I got squirreled away in different places, but the tray should make it easy to get them organized.
Overall, this is a very nice product and the price is about the same as the Versatile racks, so it will definitely be an Armory Rack next time. You may want to take inventory before you order the coating though, I have several .25s and .22s and it seems like the coating makes the rods too large for these. A .32 fits just fine, but you’ll have to order it without coating for smaller calibers.
BTW: The Armory Rack sticker looks good on my tool chest too.
