Buying a gun safe.. Need ideas

[MasterBates]

AW Crew,

Now that I have more or less settled into my house, I need a gun safe. What I am looking at is at least 20 long gun capacity, and 30 minute fire rating.

For location, I have a couple choices:

Location 1: Stuck in the closet in my bedroom
I have 24" Depth and 5' width available. Up to 6' tall. Weight may be issue, as it is in the house, which is beam over crawlspace. I can reinforce floors, to a point.

Location 2: Just out in the open
Anywhere in the "spare bedroom" which is more or less an office for me.
Again, beam over crawlspace. Maximum dimension is 31" (can be wider, but it has to be 31 or smaller to fit through doorways on the narrow dimension)

Location 3: Garage
Size becomes less of an issue. However, keeping guns rust free becomes more of an issue. If safe is less than 25" deep, it can be "hidden" in a storage area.

I'm looking for ideas.. I'd like to buy a safe and be good for a while, so I am looking at a 20 gun as the smallest.

 

[Pugs]

I have what was a 16 gun Fort Knox I bought in 1990 that I rebuild the interior on and it now holds... ummm, a few more so going with 20 is a good call. You're likely going to want to toss a few more things in anyway. Including a fireproof box with those important docs.

Location - Over the years mine has been in closets and garages in rentals an in homes I've owned but now resides in my basement on a raised floor so I could attach it to the floor and wall with lag bolts. That's also my workshop so it's where all my reloading stuff is. The only problem I had with closets is stuff tended to get put in front of it and I couldn't swing the door fully open so consider that. If I had the spare space in an office/bedroom and could attach it to a wall/floor I'd go with that.

 

[gaijin6423]

Mine is in my garage, on a 4inch slab of concrete that I imbedded the mounting bolts in before it set. It added an extra couple hundred pounds to it's mediocre weight. I use a combo of a dehumidifying rod and one of the ionizing rust inhibitor doohickeys, and even here in swampland NC, I have no rust issues in the safe. (Typically my 870 will get some surface corrosion after just a light 3 hour range day in the summer, if that's a good reference.) Stay away from the ionizing things if you're going to store paper in the safe, though, as the fumes will discolor them. This isn't really an issue for me, as I have a smaller safe that we keep documents and my wife's bling in.

My safe isn't anything special, and I'm going to replace it in th next couple of months, likely with a Sturdy safe (someone here recommended them, btw). The bang v. buck ratio on them seems pretty great, IMO. Mine gets the job done, but it's crowded as hell in there, thanks to my dumb ass trying to save a couple bucks.

 

[Tex_Hill]

I'm the service manager at a John Deere dealer and we sell the John Deere safes. They are made by Liberty and have the same specs as the Liberty Safes, but have the Deere logo on the front and a Deere price. Liberty's come with a lifetime warranty against fire or theft. I suggest you take a look at the Liberty site to see if they have what you're looking for. Personally, I wouldn't get less than a one hour fire rating.

Here's a video of a fire test of the John Deere (Liberty) safe vs. Winchester's safe: http://www.deere.com/media/player/e...nName=parts&Video=jd_fire__security_safes&r=l

The test starts at about 2:30 into the video.

 

[CAMike]

It all depends on how serious you are in regards to the fire proofing. Mass marketed "fireproof" safes are $500 to $1000. Unfortunately most of their ratings are very low for temp and duration. Why? A house fire usually exceeds 2000 degrees. The standard Costco specials, Knox and Cannon's are OK for typical druggy burglar types but are rated well below 2000 degrees for less than an hour.

One item that you'll likely pass on in your probate avoidance trust is the Sturdy Safe. Sturdy uses ceramic wool in their fire liner which costs more but if you intend to keep valuables -it's a no brainer. Most safes in the less than $2K price range use sheetrock or similar media for their fireproofing which doesn't perform very well in real world house fires. http://www.sturdysafe.com/

Now if you want to spend well over $3K then that's a different market with several other options. I'm NOT associated AT All with Sturdy. Just a customer who appreciates the quality of their product.

 

[gaijin6423]

I dealt with Sturdy once before, when I was initially considering one of their safes. (Damned deployment got in the way.). They are absolutely great to work with. Professional, prompt replies, knowledgable...the list goes on. That, combined with what I perceive atheir overall value, is why I'm looking to upgrade with them.

 

[H60Gunner]

I have a 13 gun Browning. It sits in a spare bedroom lagged to a concrete slab. I am thinking of swapping the dial lock for a digital one because the old dial failed on me once.
I cleaned it and it works fine now.

Here is a pretty cool safe I saw in a magazine recently, not much more than I paid for mine in 1993.


http://www.browning.com/library/infonews/detail.asp?id=198

 

[Bevo16]

I have mine in my office. It's not bolted to the floor. I figure that the odds of someone breaking in with the tools needed to cut through the floor of the safe can have 'em. That's what insurance is for.

Bass Pro has 10% military discounts one week a month. It's worth looking at the calender for a purchase like this.

 

[insanebikerboy]

I think it really depends on how much you wanna spend.

I have a Patriot that I like and have no complaints about. I bought it several years ago and it does the job, I countersunk some bolts into my garage floor to keep it steady. I've yet to test out the fire protection but I'm comfortable with the 30 minute rating.

 

[feddoc]

AW Crew,

Now that I have more or less settled into my house, I need a gun safe. What I am looking at is at least 20 long gun capacity, and 30 minute fire rating.

For location, I have a couple choices:

Location 1: Stuck in the closet in my bedroom
I have 24" Depth and 5' width available. Up to 6' tall. Weight may be issue, as it is in the house, which is beam over crawlspace. I can reinforce floors, to a point.

Location 2: Just out in the open
Anywhere in the "spare bedroom" which is more or less an office for me.
Again, beam over crawlspace. Maximum dimension is 31" (can be wider, but it has to be 31 or smaller to fit through doorways on the narrow dimension)

Location 3: Garage
Size becomes less of an issue. However, keeping guns rust free becomes more of an issue. If safe is less than 25" deep, it can be "hidden" in a storage area.

I'm looking for ideas.. I'd like to buy a safe and be good for a while, so I am looking at a 20 gun as the smallest.

I suggest the garage because...1. You will eventually need a bigger safe. might as well get it now. Use a goldenrod de-humidifier or two to take care of rust issues. Bolt it to the floor.
I have a basement in my house access to which used to be a set of stairs. I first put a sheet of 1/2" steel plate down the stairs, then slid my safes down the stairs. Bolted the steel plate to the concrete using 1" titanium bolts I found in maintenance. Then I welded the safes to the steel plate. Then I yanked the stairs and put in a vertical ladder.

If you decide to put it in the spare bedroom, see if your floor has 2X6 floor joists. If so, I think almost any safe you put in there will easily be suppoted by the joists. I had one of my engineering buddies give me the load bearing capabilities of 2X6 joists, 16" on center. I forget the numbers, but he told me that that floor (I have a safe in my bedroom as well) will easily hold any safe I want to put on it. If you are feeling a bit iffy about the load bearing ability of your floor, in an ideal situation, you can crawl under the house and use some 2X whatever planks and some mobile home jacks to shore up your floor. If access to the floor is not good, you could consider laying down a sheet of 3/4" hardwood plywood before you put the safes on top.

 

[E5B]

I have no basis for comparison but I have a Champion and I'm happy with it. It's a 25 gun fire safe. The golden rod keeps the humidity down and I haven't seen rust in the safe yet.

Below is a picture of my oldest son with last years Christmas present from Santa (Henry Mini Bolt Youth 22LR). You can see the smaller gun safe that I inherited when my father-in-law passed away last year. I need to get a larger safe and just combine the two.

I keep them in the living room.

 

[gaijin6423]

He looks like he's ready for some immediate action drills. You spent too much time around Sketch in 08, didn't you?

 

[E5B]

You spent too much time around Sketch in 08, didn't you?

He was my boss....so yes.



My son is actually shooting that thing fairly well. It's fun watching him progress.

 

[gaijin6423]

I figured. He used to talk about the fields of fire he'd assigned his boys, and the drills they ran.

As soon as my daughter is old enough to safely and consistently follow instructions, she's going to be shlepping my gear for me at the range. She already likes explosions, despite the Nick Jr brainwashing she's gotten.

 

[FlyinRock]

FWIW
Back in the day, my X and I had nearly 200 guns, long and short. My first safe was a Treadlock and it was bolted to the wall. Then we got a couple of combination safes and they were also anchored. I ran a waterline with a fire sprinkler over them just in case it got hot with a fire?
Keep in mind, all a safe does is buy time. If there is a dedicated burg coming after your goods, they can get in. For the most part, home burgs are a hit and run deal/in out in :05.
In my case, apparently the word went out there were several safes in the house and a concerted effort to hit my place took place folllowed by a fun shooting complete with comical comments by the investigating police officers. Didn't kill anyone but that was by my choice.
If you get a safe, keep in mind heat rises. A safe can be anchored to a floor or wall but still can be pulled out with a wrecker? My Treadlock defeated the best efforts of a locksmith friend to pick it. Again, a safe just buys time. The choice is yours.