Gun safe recommendations

[savagedasher]

lets get back on track. the op asked about buying himself a new safe. not about dogs and hamburgers.we have all seen enough movies to know how to defeat "the dogs" "the cameras" " the safe". some safes are better than others of course. costco, sams club, cabelas, liberty, cold steal, even home depot. for me,I am concerned about fire rating. that would be the worst, to have your house burn down and loose all you guns also. my biggest safe has a 3 hour fire rating and it only holds 24 scoped rifles 44x30x60 outside.. it is an older double door meilink

I have two basics size of yours I can't get that many scope guns in one as you stated .
Doesn't matter As for fire rateing They say 3 hr . Fire rateing is a joke . Where they are in the house changes everything If in the basement the heat would be far less then in a interior wall on the second floor .
Mind back up to a concrete wall in are side beside . One has a concrete wall on both back in the side both are secured to the concrete wall in at floor. . I consider the one with the concrete wall on the side of the back to be the safest. For someone to get into it he would either have to go through the top or the door which is probably the hardest part to do or you have to cut through the second safe to get to it.
My first security is a fenced yard for my dogs for the people think that works or not so be it .I have security in my house many a times that's just to identify the crook got in there .
I could put six of my target guns with scopes on in in remove them without beating them all up .
The sign on the gate says dogs bites owner shoots .
So far I haven't had fire or illegal entry .
But to me buying a gun safe to keep your gun secure is a lot of false hope
A friend had his woodframe house burned down on it he lost over 300 guns they were many of them were in a gun safe and they were ruined also.
My advice would be rather to take peoples information on here I would check the Internet. Larry

 

[JRS]

A gun safe isn't much more than a means to keep children/others from gaining access to your guns. A thief and a small porta-power will quietly open it in short order.

 

[JRS]

If you need to store a boatload of guns, you can always go the big yellow route. 4000 pounds, 24 - 2-1/2" door bolts, 240 cubic feet of space, 10'x6'x4'.

 

[Eddie Harren]

Locks only keep honest people honest!

 

[rogn]

Its been said to some greater or lessor degree. A safe will probably defeat an amateur theif and the damage they may do will probably be prodigious. A good percentage would just be discouraged and look for something easy. Professionals on the other hand will expend as little time and effort as possible and they will get your stuff. Dogs cameras, concrete, rebar , Ad Naseum theyll have worked it out and it will be done. Efficiently. I think someone mentioned that you shouldnt put your safe in the garage(home shop) cause thats where all the good tools are.
Question for and earlier poster, what advantage is provided by fireboard over sheet rock.?

 

[savagedasher]

Its been said to some greater or lessor degree. A safe will probably defeat an amateur theif and the damage they may do will probably be prodigious. A good percentage would just be discouraged and look for something easy. Professionals on the other hand will expend as little time and effort as possible and they will get your stuff. Dogs cameras, concrete, rebar , Ad Naseum theyll have worked it out and it will be done. Efficiently. I think someone mentioned that you shouldnt put your safe in the garage(home shop) cause thats where all the good tools are.
Question for and earlier poster, what advantage is provided by fireboard over sheet rock.?

I think fire board has non combustible paper on it . Larry

 

[savagedasher]

I think fire board has non combustible paper on it . Larry

 

[hoz53]

Well, the video that @teele1 posted showed that they aren't all the same.

thanks i should watch it- i just think a determined thief will get into any of them in a few minutes so they are only good for the smash and grab. its why i wont pay three times the money for a little thicker metal, a little more drywall and a little better lock ect ect

 

[hoz53]

If I needed a safe, I would never let anyone deliver it. A few years back, in Rancho Sante fe (San Diego Old Money) a large boom truck drove up to the gate of a mansion. The driver had the code, entered it and drove up the long drive through the orange groves to the home that was not visible from any neighboring estates. The security system was disabled, again by someone who had the code. A couple of holes were poked through the walls in the right places and a cable was placed around the very large jewelry safe and it was pulled through the wall with the truck's winch. Then the safe was loaded on the back with the trucks boom, covered to look professional, and the truck drove slowly away. Security companies who install safes and security systems do their best to ensure nothing like this happens but every company has bad employees, ex-employees, and perhap disgruntled employees; not to mention if a hacker gets into their database a large population could be at risk.

--Jerry

thats wat i think to

 

[perry42]

I have 1 Liberty Presidential safe in the house and a cheap Homak in my loading room. The Homak houses barrels & stocks and the Liberty long guns and hand guns. Rifles with big scopes and long barrels take up a LOT of space. A decent house alarm system with battery backup helps give me peace of mind. I'm thinking of installing some game camera's along side the house and in the back yard as it might give you a heads up that some one is casing your home/property, Lights activated via motion detectors are always good. Being without power for 4 days after IRMA I was either armed or close to a firearm. A small motor generator that powered my fridge and freezer will soon be replaced buy a 100 gal propane stand alone motor generator set up. Be prepared not victimized.



perry42

 

[Ledd Slinger]

After endless hours of research over the course of a year to learn everything I possibly could about gunsafes, I finally made a decision on Steelwater Xtreme duty 45 gun safe. My decision was based on quality first and foremost, second was fire rating, third theft. Steelwater 45 gun Xtreme duty has it all. 2 hr fire rating tested in temps to 1875 degrees, 1/4" steel plate on top of a 9 gauge steel composite firewall door, Eighteen 1.5" locking bolts encompassing all 4 sides of the door, gear drive locking system (not cam drive like cheap safes), 9 gauge body (not 12 gauge like cheap safes), heavy duty relocker system, 1250 lbs so it can't be carried off by thieves with a dolly, and many other features that you can only find in the highest of quality safes on the market. Yet the Steelwater safes can be had for a much better price point.

Your run of the mill Liberty and Cannon safes are just expensive tin cans. Liberty makes some decent safes once you get into the $3K+ price range. The cheaper box store safes have fire ratings are based on low 1200 deg temps, fit and finish is second rate in most cases, door seams are wide and not stepped, door flex is horrible, dont have locking bolts on all 4 sides of the door, locking bolt contact points are not re-inforced, they have thin 12 gauge bodies that are very easy to cut through, no relocker system to protect against a lock attack, etc.... I would recommend staying away from them. I personally went and checked out all of the Liberty and Cannon safes first hand. None of them impressed me much for the price point. Will they do the job in a fire or theft attempt? Maybe, but I want top notch protection for my investments and family heirlooms.

Steelwater Xtreme duty safes come with a 1 year manufacturer defect warranty and a Lifetime warranty against fire and burglary.

Below is a link to the Steelwater safe I finally decided on. I have had it for a handful of years now and the thing is an absolute fortress. Everything about it still works and fits like the day I bought it. Top notch quality. Hands down the best safe you can buy for the money in my opinion. You would have to pay $4K-$6K with other brands to match this level of quality.

https://www.steelwatergunsafes.com/product/steelwater-xtreme-duty-2-hr-fire-hd724228/

Be sure to watch the safe attack videos to get all the info. They take the same safe and punch out the lock, try to pry it open with 4 men, beat the handle off, chop it with an axe, then drop a safe from as high as they can get it on a fork lift after being attacked in every other way and try to pry it open again.....It would take a long time with very noisy power cutting tools to defeat these safes and thieves don't like to make noise if they can help it because that draws attention to their crime.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

A friend had his woodframe house burned down on it he lost over 300 guns they were many of them were in a gun safe and they were ruined also.
My advice would be rather to take peoples information on here I would check the Internet. Larry

I guarantee he didn't have good quality gunsafes. 30 minute fire rated safes basically offer NO protection at all. 60 minute safes at 1200 degrees are the bare minimum anyone should ever consider purchasing, but even those don't actually offer very much protection. 90-120 minute safes are the way to go, but you also have to pay attention to the temps they are tested. My safe is rated for 2 hrs at temps up to 1875 degrees. That's probably well over 3 hours in 1200 degrees. My guns will be safe, heck even the cash and paper documents will probably escape a house fire unscathed. There's a lot of videos on youtube where the contents completely survived in safes with good fire ratings after major fires with total structure losses.

 

[savagedasher]

I guarantee he didn't have good quality gunsafes. 30 minute fire rated safes basically offer NO protection at all. 60 minute safes at 1200 degrees are the bare minimum anyone should ever consider purchasing, but even those don't actually offer very much protection. 90-120 minute safes are the way to go, but you also have to pay attention to the temps they are tested. My safe is rated for 2 hrs at temps up to 1875 degrees. That's probably well over 3 hours in 1200 degrees. My guns will be safe, heck even the cash and paper documents will probably escape a house fire unscathed. Look up videos on top quality fire rated safes that have been in fires where the safe was the only thing left standing in the ashes after the smoke settled. Their contents survived.

Your correct
The one he has now is good . It is double wall 8" block with One filled with fire proofing the out side has rebar and concrete Same build on the roof He got a bank vault door . The guns were insured .. the mounts is what hurt Lost 25 years of them .
Mine install the cheap safes One set in a corne
With behind and one side It has double 3/4 Taped and plastered off set jjoints all are painted with fire proof paint They are bolted togethe and to the floor and wall painted the out and inside with paint and added 3/4"rated blanket to the inside .
Fire scares me more then theft .
The only gun I have had stolen was on the bench at the gun club Went down to paint the gongs whe we got back the gun a the bullets were gone . My worry is fire
In Florida all guns must be locked if you have children . My children are in there late fifths 0nly one of my grand children is under 18 . I would have a cheap gun safe with a homade fir cover . Larry

 

[370bc]

Friend of mine built a false wall for storing his guns. (Like the pivoting wall book case in old horror flicks.) He told me to try to find the wall's pivot point. I looked, and I couldn't find it. I stepped back, and I watched him open it. Too long ago to remember on how he did it. None the less, it was impressive.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Your correct
The one he has now is good . It is double wall 8" block with One filled with fire proofing the out side has rebar and concrete Same build on the roof He got a bank vault door . The guns were insured .. the mounts is what hurt Lost 25 years of them .
Mine install the cheap safes One set in a corne
With behind and one side It has double 3/4 Taped and plastered off set jjoints all are painted with fire proof paint They are bolted togethe and to the floor and wall painted the out and inside with paint and added 3/4"rated blanket to the inside .
Fire scares me more then theft .
The only gun I have had stolen was on the bench at the gun club Went down to paint the gongs whe we got back the gun a the bullets were gone . My worry is fire
In Florida all guns must be locked if you have children . My children are in there late fifths 0nly one of my grand children is under 18 . I would have a cheap gun safe with a homade fir cover . Larry

Yeah fire is my biggest fear as well. I've never had anything stolen from me in my neighborhood. That's why I went with the best fire rated safe I could find. Generally the safes with the best fire ratings employ really beefy security measures too. Seems like they go hand in hand. Thus 30 minute fire rated safes always offer the least amount of security.

 

[JRS]

Ignore the rope-a-dope sales pitches the manufacturers use. www.gunsafereviewsguy.com/articles/myths-about-gun-safe-fire-ratings/

 

[rmr]

"I've discovered that my impressive-looking safe is really just a 12 gauge box with a bunch of drywall for insulation."

this is the major issue that I have with most "fire rated" safes. Even if they have a UL Rating, the problem is the way they achieve "fire protection"

As the box heats up and the Gypsum (or firelite, even 2" of concrete) gives up its retained moisture, all that steam gets trapped inside your safe. this effectively steam cleans your contents at 300F. unless you can crack open your safe and spray down your guns with a rust preventative immediately after the fire, they are all going to be heavily damaged by rust. Even stainless steel will rust under these conditions.

If you want true protection from theft and fire, a concrete gun room is really the best way.

 

[LHSmith]

My advice would be rather to take peoples information on here I would check the Internet. Larry

I was under the impression that Accurate Shooter was part of the Internet......and based on this advice - why are we wasting our time on here if it's not credible info? You mean ten years of interaction on this site was all for nothing?

 

[savagedasher]

I was under the impression that Accurate Shooter was part of the Internet......and based on this advice - why are we wasting our time on here if it's not credible info? You mean ten years of interaction on this site was all for nothing?

The information on the gun safes is on the internet . That is what the manufacturers list.
Nothing is second handed .
Myself I check what is the best rated .
Then I make my desion on what to buy .
Works for me you can do it your way.
Consumer report is a great place to start .
Larry

 

[LHSmith]

The information on the gun safes is on the internet . That is what the manufacturers list.
Nothing is second handed .
Myself I check what is the best rated .
Then I make my desion on what to buy .
Works for me you can do it your way.
Consumer report is a great place to start .
Larry

Consumer Reports.........Forget it.......they are so politically biased it's laughable. My cousin gets the rag and bought their top ranking products for his last three appliance purchases, and every one needed call backs. Sad thing is if he had kept the old appliances from the '70's (all worked well, just thought he would avoid breakdowns) he probably would have avoided service calls. News break- manufacturers lie.
( I think I just wasted another few minutes of my life)