VMI77 wrote:If you have a gun safe you could look at an air conditioned storage unit......
I manage a storage facility (not near Austin tho), and I have seen a gun safe or two hauled in and out of our climate controlled units. There might be better choices but I don't know what they are or I would tell you. I can point out a couple things about storage facilities tho:
- I would suspect pretty much all storage facility leases explicitly release the facility from any liability for anything that happens to the contents of a storage unit. You will need to make sure you have your own insurance. Homeowners and renter's policies often cover storage units, but you would need to make sure that yours does, and that it covers firearms. Also check to see how big a deductible you would have to pay. Sometimes the deductible is 1% of the overall policy, so if you have $100k policy, your deductible is $1000. Storage facilities often have insurance available if you don't have other insurance. Or even if you do, insurance targeted at storage units often has no deductible (at least the one we use does not).
- Climate control facilities heat in the winter and cool in the summer, but the lease likely says they don't guarantee a specific temperature, just the they will try to keep the temp between a lower and upper bound, say 55-85 degrees F. The A/C will help with humidity, and a well designed climate controlled facility will have separate outside entrances, with the storage unit entrances opening onto an inner hallway. That makes the place much cleaner, and much more bug/rodent-free. Some older places have taken regular ambient drive-up storage units and stuck air conditioners on them, then advertised "climate control", but I wouldn't go for that.
- I would go with a facility that has fences in good repair, gates that are locked all the time except when passing through, lots of night lights in good repair, and security cameras. I would not go with any storage facility where you can walk right off the street up to a storage unit door. If the manager lives onsite, all the better. Also make sure the place in general is in good repair, well paved, fresh paint, that's probably an indicator that all the security items are maintained as well (i.e. the management is not cutting maintenance corners to save $$).
- Choosing a nicer well maintained facility will probably be more expensive, but those features need to be paid for, and it has another benefit as well-- your neighboring tenants will be paying those prices as well, which means usually means they are not right on the edge of financial disaster, and probably less likely to think burgling a storage unit is a good idea.
- I definitely would put a safe of some type, even if only a Residential Security Container, inside the storage unit. If all the cameras and such fail to deter someone, that storage unit door is not Fort Knox. And yes I would try to put it in there when things are quiet. Ask the manager when that is. You could even ask the manager if you could move in after-hours, if access is restricted to certain times.
- The lease will probably also forbid storing gun powder, ammunition, and pretty much anything else that is more flammable than a piece of furniture. I'm sure people sneak stuff in, but if something bad happens and it is discovered you had prohibited items in there, your insurance claim may have a problem. So not sure what to recommend to you about that. If you have a lot of factory ammo, maybe you can sell it and order new to be delivered to your new home when you get it. As for powder and primers and all that -- maybe same thing, sell it and buy new here. If you are in rented housing, I suspect the lease for that might not be ammo friendly either.
I've seen a lot new, well maintained storage facilities with climate control in the Round Rock area (was going there a lot lately), I'm sure there are others all around the city.
Best wishes and welcome to Texas.
(btw: "ShrinkMD"? Are you a psychiatrist?)
