Rifle storage! My new (to me) truck is a 95 Chevy regular cab K-2500. The question is, where/how to carry a rifle? In my 87 I used a two-gun rear-window hard-mounted rack. It was steel with rubber-coated hooks that rubs the finish off the stock and the bluing off the barrel. I kind of liked the location, because it has easy access but I dont think there is as much room in the new truck. The seat has headrests that are pretty close to the rear window.
The reason I want to carry my guns in some sort of a rack is when I am hunting. The areas in Maine where we hunt are paper company land. I drive miles of gravel roads to hunt certain areas. Before I get barraged with nasty responses, let me tell you in no uncertain terms: I am not a road-hunter. I will and have however, bailed out of my truck in a hurry when a deer has crossed in front of me. Two years ago I was driving my cousins Jeep Grand Cherokee out of the woods as he followed me in my truck (he had shot a deer and we put it in my pick-up so his Jeep wouldnt get dirty. In Maine, you have to accompany your deer until its officially checked in at the tagging station) His Jeep didnt have any rack for guns so I put my rifle in the very back of the Jeep. As we drove out, a very nice buck crossed the road in front of me, ran about 10 yards off the other side of the trail and stood there. I opened the door and the deer still stayed where he was as I got out. Only when I walked around to the back of the Jeep to attempt to get my rifle did he bolt. If I had been in my truck we would have been bringing two deer to town that night. Anyone who hunts big woods (or deer in general) knows that you take advantage of opportunities when they are presented, because they arent presented very often!
I also drive on some very rough twitch-roads so whatever I get needs to secure my rifle well. I tried the Sky-Bar system that mounts to the ceiling of the truck cab, but at 6-2 I would have been banging my head on every bump. I also tried the Rifle-it system. This is a shelf type unit thast mounts above the rearview mirror. It mounts in the visor mounting locations and re-locates the visors onto it. Unfortunately, the visors are useless after that as they hang down too low to see anything. Behind the seat is not an option either. I have a regular cab and my height dictates that the seat be positioned as far back as I can get it, plus I have a custom speaker box/jack mount shelf behind the seat that takes up what little room there is.
Any custom ideas that you all have come up with or seen over the years?
