Gun Safe Recommendations

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If you locked your door, that's enough. Felony burglary is far from the easiest way for a criminal to obtain guns like the ones you have. You're wasting your money if you think you're protecting society. Buy a locking cabinet you can move and bolt-down as needed. Save the difference for a better future. It will do a lot more good than an overpriced steel and gypsum box.

I don't think I'm saving the world, but keeping them from burglars seems like the main reason for a safe. If people wanted to keep them away from children they'd just put them in a closet or cheap box and lock it. I guess it begs the question if a safe is even necessary at all. A locking cabinet seems like a waste if it can be easily broken into, might as well just leave them in a spare room or closet and let insurance reimburse if stolen.
 
I'm not going to recommend a particular brand of safe.

I happen to have a Liberty but the thing that I want to point out is that I looked around on for sale pages in my area and I found one essentially like new and I think I paid $325 for it.

The guy I bought it from was an officer who was on his way to SHAFE and didn't want to take the safe with him.


So if you really want to stretch your dollars look around and see if you can find one used

I'm looking on Offerup and Craigslist too. That's a smoking deal!
 
You're right. The lock on the box is primarily to keep children out. Since you don't have any, all you really need is a cabinet that organizes the guns and keeps the long guns from falling over on the ground or knocking each other, and has some method of storing the handguns so they're not just in a pile or end up under other clutter.

To give you another perspective, I remember shopping for a safe, a Liberty safe. I was at a local hardware store that stocks and sells them. There was one model there that caught my interest for its size and features. Another customer saw me looking at it and said, "That's a nice safe. I've got one just like it." I said it is nice but I wasn't sure I needed the fancy champagne paint job. He explained that it's what you want if you have it in the middle of your living room.

I realized that I just saw a safe as a utility cabinet for storing guns that I have no intention of showing or displaying because they're just tools to me. But many people will prominently display their safe in their living room, their garage, or wherever they have their "man-cave." The champagne gloss paint might not be everyone's taste, but even a "textured black" can be an aesthetic choice for the connoisseur of "black" guns. I realized that I've seen numerous Youtube videos where people display their guns safes in the background, or even stand in front of them to show off some of the contents. I get it. There's a social aspect to gun storage for some people. The open or glass-front gun case or wall-mount racks now carry a stigma of irresponsible gun-ownership. The gypsum-stiffened steel boxes with fancy paint and chrome knobs are in fashion.

To organize guns, I bolted a louvered steel panel designed for mounting Akro bins to the back of the cabinet. Long guns rest in the cradles, and handguns can go in deep Akro bins. If I needed to dedicate more space to storing guns, I would get Sandusky Lee cabinets. The "wardrobe" cabinets would be ideal for storing long guns or Akro bins with handguns. They also have cabinets with shelves. With a shelf-liner or a wire pistol holder or rack, they would work well for handguns and ammo.
 
Interesting video. Shows how easy it is to get into even a really expensive safe that has 1/4" steel all around. Saw cuts through 1" of steel!

 
Interesting video. Shows how easy it is to get into even a really expensive safe that has 1/4" steel all around. Saw cuts through 1" of steel!

There's an old saying in the battle between Warhead and armor Warhead always wins
 
This is on another forum this week. Cheap lock boxes hidden in a hidden compartment drawer didn't stand a chance. Thieves didn't even touch his very average Liberty safe. This is what you are protecting against, not power tools.

 
I bolted my safe down. And added a couple eye bolt lag screws to 2×4. Ran a bike lock thru. It want stop a pro but will slow them down. We have a big dog. He did run a bugler off a few years back. All the cars were gone my wife was home with kids. He walked to front door and beat on it. Digger dig ran to door barking he hauled butt.
 
This is on another forum this week. Cheap lock boxes hidden in a hidden compartment drawer didn't stand a chance. Thieves didn't even touch his very average Liberty safe. This is what you are protecting against, not power tools.


I've been looking at stuff like murphydoor.com. Was thinking of converting a storage closet to this. It's in a place that I don't think would be very obvious there is actual space behind the shelves. It's hard to tell how based on pictures online how well it actually blends in or if it's would be obvious it's not a standard set of shelves. This would be just for concealment, it would be easy to get to if someone figured it out. But at the same time if someone has a $20 power tool from home depot they can get into a basically any safe on the market in less than 5 minutes.
 

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I've been looking at stuff like murphydoor.com. Was thinking of converting a storage closet to this. It's in a place that I don't think would be very obvious there is actual space behind the shelves. It's hard to tell how based on pictures online how well it actually blends in or if it's would be obvious it's not a standard set of shelves. This would be just for concealment, it would be easy to get to if someone figured it out. But at the same time if someone has a $20 power tool from home depot they can get into a basically any safe on the market in less than 5 minutes.

Have you ever been burglarized? When my dad went to a nursing home we held on to his place for a while in case something changed. Within a couple months his place was broken into. They had all the time in the world as it was over a weekend and one of the few weekends I didn't go by to check on it. NOTHING was left untouched. I found stuff all over the floor in the front bedroom that was from his master bedroom on the other end of the home.

You want to limit their time in your home with alarms, dogs, etc. and make sure they can't get in your safe very quickly. If they have time they will poke around at everything. With the other security enhancements and placement of a decent safe, hopefully you buy enough time for the police to get there before they can get in your safe. They aren't bringing power tools with them, but they might use yours if you give them enough time. Lock your power tools up if that's a concern for you.
 
I haven't. But I have met some people that did that somewhat as their living and they always had tools. They weren't what I'd call professionals, but they had basic stuff they could put into a backpack. I have other security measures in place so like you said hopefully either a safe or concealment would buy enough time. I don't think most thieves would start prying cabinets off walls unless it looked like there was something behind it or they had a lot of time on their hands.
 
I just had my 1977 five drawer military surplus safe drilled open because the original lock failed. I should have replaced it earlier, but, this is a case of pay me now, or pay me later. The original lock was a Government lock with delrin rings and extra springs. Apparently the plastic rings were so the safe could not be X rayed and the tumbler position determined. Well, delrin rings wear. Also one of the extra springs in the Government lock broke and jammed up the mechanism.

Based on the number of safes he drilled open, the locksmith recommended mechanical locks over digital locks. He said digital locks were a wonderful source of revenue. Broke multiple times more often than the mechanical. He also recommended the S&G 6700 series of locks, specifically the 6730. Has brass wheels, will last forever.
 

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Both Sportsman Steel and AMSEC make safes with 1/4 doors. Both are a good deterrent for the average thieves bolted down in corner or closet. Both just a little over budget, but not much.

If you can find some large safe stores you can often find deals on quality used safes even heavy TR safes. I have bought two such safes at 20 cents on the dollar. The fun part is moving them.
 
You buy the best you can afford, bolt it down and to the wall, etc. have a good lock helps but be assured if no one is around to hear or see, and a thief wants your stuff you’ll have a tough time stopping them from successfully Ripping you off.
J
 
My driveway is alarmed my house is alarmed and my safe which is a Liberty is alarmed and all send a signal to my cellphone if they go off. I am retired and my neighbor works nights and is home during the day we try to watch out for each other. I feel my guns are pretty secure. Also I highly recommend an item that Liberty Safes sold me . It's called SafElert sensor that is powered by elertus. It's a unit the sends me an alert if my safe is opened or detects movement or vibrations, it will also send me an alert if the temp or humidity levels go beyond the parameters I have set. It also sends me a status report every week letting me know if anything is out of limits including humidity, temperature, movement ,door open or closed and battery life. Also I can go online and check all of these things at any time and it gives me an up to the moment report .
 
I'm not going to recommend a particular brand of safe.

I happen to have a Liberty but the thing that I want to point out is that I looked around on for sale pages in my area and I found one essentially like new and I think I paid $325 for it.

The guy I bought it from was an officer who was on his way to SHAFE and didn't want to take the safe with him.


So if you really want to stretch your dollars look around and see if you can find one used

That's exactly what I did. Buying new my budget put me in safes that would have been 90% full immediately. I decided to wait until something a little larger showed up on Armslist or Craiglist, and eventually found a 39 gun safe, like new, that fit my needs for roughly 60% off the retail price.

The best part was when I was getting ready to head to the bank to pull out cash my girlfriend handed me an envelope with enough cash inside to cover the cost. She'd skipped 18 months of birthday and Christmas presents for me and decided this was the time to make it up!

Yeah, I married her.
 
How many burglars carry an ax with them?
How many of us here have the tools handy for the bad guy once he/she breaks in? I know I do. Have a Sawzall handy? A Skillsaw? They will zip right through 12/14 gauge steel.
 
How many of us here have the tools handy for the bad guy once he/she breaks in? I know I do. Have a Sawzall handy? A Skillsaw? They will zip right through 12/14 gauge steel.
Yes, I have both of those tools but they're locked up in a storage building behind my garage so that slows them down ever further. I also live on a corner lot on a somewhat
busy intersection with neighbors that are always home.

My move here was very intentional 24 years ago.

Bill
 
You could start with a couple Caiman, work up to Crocks.
The trick to having a mote is to disguise it as a wet land that way the liberals will assume your a green eyed tree hugger and leave ya alone and the rip offs will naturally assume no firearms in a liberal house.
 
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