I have a modest gun collection. A couple handguns, a couple deer rifles, a shotgun, and a smoke pole. Only two of them were purchased new- a pistol and the smoke pole. The rest were either given to me or purchased used. The point is, I don't consider any of my guns to be exceptionally valuable or irreplaceable. Even the cheapest gun safe would far exceed the collective value of my guns. Also, a safe in my home really isn't "geographically feasible" right now.

Anyway, I'd like to consider some alternatives to safes for storing my guns. Although I don't have a pile of money invested in my guns, I recognize the importance and responsibility of at least storing them somewhere secure. I don't have kids yet but plan to someday, and in my rural area the #1 target of burglars is guns. I want to find a way to store my guns securely so they are safe from curious kids and not a soft target for burglars, but I'm not too concerned with a container that will survive a nuclear explosion.

Right now I am simply thinking of keeping them in an upstairs closet with an exterior key-locking door knob, and pinning the hinges so the door can't be removed if someone pops the hinge pins. This is probably a good enough system to beat wondering kids, but it's worth consideration that any thug who finds himself standing at this closet door has already gotten past the same level of security on my front door. Along this same theme, I plan to finish my basement in the next few years and I'd like to build a secure closet down there for the same purpose. So, anyone have any suggestions on how to beef up a standard closet, or any other clever ideas for secure gun storage without a 1,000 pound safe?

One more thing to add is that I did recently consider buy a locking metal cabinet (much like a locker) from Cabelas or Bass Pro for locking my guns, but at $300 I figured I could spend much less to proof my closet.