Batfish Gun Locker

[Lance Dean]

By the way...

I was VERY MUCH KIDDING about the cosmoline!   

In a small damp environment, I've had better luck with this stuff called DampRid (a granular moisture absorbent) than one of those electric golden rod dehumidifiers.  I don't know what the problem was with that thing.

[Ctwilley]

Honestly, I would love nothing more than to perminantly display them but these are all privatly owned original weapons on loan to me personally by about 30 different people...except an M1, and 1919, those are my babies. I think I'd have better luck getting a bullion bar out of Ft. Knox than I would talking these guys out of their privately owned weapons.

Don't be discouraged though. I'm working on the procurement of several "non-guns" and demilled 03's. If I can get my hands on these, we will open up a perminant display.

Hey, wait a minute! I just had an idea!!!! For those of you familiar with the Tulsa area, we have the J.M. Davis gun museum in Claremore about a mile up the street from my house. I wonder if I could talk them into an intermuseum transfer or at least a loan. They have an ass-load of surplus weapons that aren't being displayed.

Rick, I'm going to try to do some sweet talking on the museum's behalf. We might be able to display this perminantly after all.

[Mark Sarsfield]

The first idea that came to my mind was finding demilled M-1's used for parades to display year round.  Non-working replicas is another idea.  Even if they are plastic, as long as they look real through the grate it's doable.  If we have plastic food on display, why not plastic (life-like) weapons?

[Rick]

This is all good.   Correy,  see what we cand do.  Keep in mind what will need to be don to make the weapons locker climate controled.  and cleande dup.  Maybe a coat of paint and electrical is in order.    Also, make sure that they are secured.   I love the idea of haveing the weapons locker open for display.  The visitors will love it.   I do not want to deal with a missing weapons.   

As an after thought,  Maybe we can remove the firing pin befor placing them inot the boat.  Just one more leavel of security to keep live weapons from going out. 

[Mark Sarsfield]

Are there any steel eyelets welded to the wall in the gun locker?  I thought most arms lockers, regardless of service, would have rods or chains run through all of the trigger housings to keep someone from walking off with one.

The light fixture down there will have to be looked into.  More than likely, the fuse holder is just missing a fuse for that particular fixture, but it may be corroded to the point that power does not adequately light a bulb, anymore.  Speaking of fuses, I have seen those types of fuses still sold at Wal-Mart and hardware stores.  Robbing them from a derelict vessel is ideal, but the next best thing is making a trip to the store.

[Ctwilley]

Ok,

I went to the gun museum today. The director is on vacation this week but I have a meeting with him next week. We'll see what he says. Wish me luck. That museum's under the microscope right now. They've had something like 20 weapons stolen in the last couple of years, three of which were used in a robbery/homicide in New York. I may get the same response as if I asked for a loan from the Fort Knox gold vault.

[Paul Farace]

You know what might also work:

clean up the compartment, put a grate or plexi cover over the open hatch, and put what you can on diplay, but on one of the mess ables, have a laminated picture of a fleet sub gun locker (NARA has at least a few)  that way folks know what it looked like and you don't have to worry!

Paul

 

[Mark Sarsfield]

They won't be able to see much through the hatch.  So, I think some photos hanging on the wall above the hatch in frames would be a good idea.

[Ctwilley]

You may have a point. The only reason why I would want some real ones is so that we can do some weapon's demonstrations. If we can't get them on loan, we can just have everyone bring their personal ones to the BLHA events and demo them for the public. 

[Darrin]

On 688's there isn't anything but the doors and a real BIG lock keeping someone from taking the weapons (the Duty Chief keeps the keys and the COW keeps them underway) The TM's used to be the only ones able to get the keys (unless the small arms PO was in the WEP's Dept) from the Duty Chief.

The USCG Cutter Taney in Bawlmore has her arms room on display, They have a simulated .50 Cal (Ma Deuce) and other weapons on display, with that being said they still have their "jail door" in place with plex covering it so you can see into the room.

In the Army's Arms Rooms they have multiple doors and locks and alarms before you can get to the weapons racks and yes those have bars on the weapons racks (with more locks) that keep them in place and the racks are chained to the ground using pad eyes and even more locks. There is a BIG process in getting access into the arms rooms and the process even being given access is a pain in the butt, Correy can tell you what it takes for his armorers even to get access.

[Rick]

This brings up an interesting poin.  I do not want to turn the boat into a bulletin board.   Placing random picutures up has a tendency to do this.  If we are going to make informational plackards, we will need to come up with a standard format that look nice but are obviously not part of the boat.