Recommendations for gun safe.

S

Spider Monkey

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Apr 18, 2014
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I've been looking at gun safes for years now. I have two kids now and need to lock things down. Only have a few long guns, so shelving is way more important. We don't have jack for selection here in BFE, Mississippi. What do you have? What features would you get if you were in the market now?
 
Do you have a Tractor Supply anywhere near you? They handle Winchester safes at a reasonable price and have them on sale periodically. They aren't the best, but they aren't the worst, either. I picked one up a couple of years ago and have been very happy with it. It has a lot of shelf space and also pockets on the inside of the door. Here is a link to their ad that I saved a while back: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/winchesterreg;-gun-safe-24-gun-capacity
 
Don't know how close you are to Birmingham, but Marks Outdoors always has some great deals on safes.
 
Keep in mind....once you get a safe, you'll put more than your guns in it. Get one that can be bolted down. And make a spot for the wife's valuables......only speaking from experience on that aspect.
 
Best advice I can give is find the crane company that retofits safe at banks.
I bought a couple of used bank safes for about the same as buying a new "gun safe".
Way better theft and fire protection and waaaaaaaaaay heavier so be prepared to pay some delivery and set charge.
Also agree with the above that lots more than guns will go in there, photo's or hard drives, valuables, will's etc.

Update/fyi, the one I bought was 6'x4'x4' and 1" thick all the way around and weighed about 4K pounds, cost $2500.

dave
 
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Get one that's rated to hold about twice as many guns as you'll ever think you'll need to put in it. I have a 12-gun safe, really can only put 5 or 6 long guns in it. My 28-gun safe similarly only holds about 14 comfortably. Especially if any have scopes or tripods.
 
BIG
Because if your like most of the people here, you keep buying.....
 
There are 2 types of gun safes; most brands that you can find in sporting good stores are useful to keep the kids out, and possibly casual thieves, but are frighteningly easy for anyone who is determined or who knows what they are doing to break into. Do some quick internet video searches and you will see people getting into popular brand name safes with $20 fire axes and crowbars, much less a cheap acetylene torch. If you are mostly looking to keep your kids out then stuff from Gander Mt. is fine, otherwise, best bang for the buck from my research will be http://www.sturdysafe.com. (althogh Mulder's advice above sounds interesting). For something a little shinier Fort Knox is my choice and you can basically pick your features and steel thickness. Amsec is also a good brand, but I think Fort Knox is better.
I found this video helpful, this guy seem to know what he is talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltK-bDbADa8
 
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Choose one that is big enough to hold everything you think you would put in it and then go a size larger. I'd rather have more fire rating than the ones the big box stores sell typically have, if I could afford it. Don't worry too much about safety features in the door. Anybody would be stupid not to go in the side if they wanted what was in it, unless they couldn't access the side (hint).
 
I'm currently looking for an upgrade to my safe as well. In addition to guns knives, jewelry, misc odds and ends and the often over looked fire protection. I'd love to be able to store a few thousand rounds of ammo in there also.

I'd love to find a store safe for sale somewhere. 1" thick all around of theft protection.

I really like the look of the Rhino Ironworks series, but $4500 for the size I want just doesn't fit my budget.
 
roenman said:
BIG
Because if your like most of the people here, you keep buying.....
Click to expand...

I've been through the safe shopping experience many times and there is only one safe brand I would recommend and that is Liberty brand. They are made in the USA and without question are just as nice or better than the competition. They also have a lifetime warranty for most of the different grades they offer. Take a look at Cabelas as they offer Liberty brand safes that are identical to other Liberty's but say Cabelas on the front and you can find all of them on their website. Cant go wrong with them brand wise and always buy bigger.

The model for shelving I own and would recommend is the Liberty Colonial 50 or Franklin 50, They are a 64 gun safe with two very large storage shelves on top. Its abour 72(H) x42(W) x30 (D) and weighs half a ton empty.
 
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knifeleather said:
Get one that's rated to hold about twice as many guns as you'll ever think you'll need to put in it. I have a 12-gun safe, really can only put 5 or 6 long guns in it. My 28-gun safe similarly only holds about 14 comfortably. Especially if any have scopes or tripods.
Click to expand...

+1 to this.

As others have pointed out, more than just the guns end up in the safe, and the capacity isn't really quite what it may seem. I was originally going to pick a much smaller safe than the one I got, but they were out of the size I wanted, so they gave me a deal on the bigger one. I have been so grateful to have that extra space I didn't think I would ever need. With people visiting, and occasionally needing to store stuff during things like deployments, my safe has been totally full a number of times, even though I don't have that much to put in it myself. Right now I have a friend's recently inherited knife collection housed while he is on the other side of the planet doing government work, and I am glad to be able to do that for him.

Long story short, that safe is going to get more work than you think.
 
As one of the other posters mentioned, there are 2 kinds, 1) Security cabinets made of thin sheet metal best used to keep guns away from kids and such, but offer very little true theft or fire protection BUT much cheaper...side note-they also advertise where your guns actually are, so a true thief can much more easily focus his time and energy or 2) a true safe made by Liberty/AMSEC/Cannon, etc, etc that are much more expensive yet offer varying degrees of true theft protection and varying degrees of fire protection. Also, as mentioned, buy the size that is at least double whatever amount you actually need. Your gun collection will grow and you don't want to have to buy another safe 10 years from now IF you can avoid it. Good Luck.
 
What you have to understand is, most gun safes are thin-guage sheet metal lined with drywall. Some like ProSteel (the maker of Browning safes) will be reinforced in the corners, and some like American Security use a fireproofing akin to concrete that is pumped in liquid form. I have experience directly or indirectly with Heritage, Browning Prosteel, American Security, Liberty (also marketed under Remington, John Deere, and others), and Homak, and I certainly think the only one that would make a dime's difference to accessibility is American Security, only because of their fireproofing.
 
Of the "Gun Safe" manufacturers out there, Graffunder is the only brand I have found to be of similar build quality to a Busse. Yeah, there are a lot of cheaper options out there, but none that will hold up to as much abuse when it counts most. ;) :thumbup:
 
I got a liberty presidential 50. I was torn between it and an Amsec safe. The liberty had a couple of more refinements and i couldnt find any reviews on Amsec good or bad. Liberty had a couple of bad reviews but the company seemed to correct their mistakes. This made me feel more comfortable. Dont get an electronic lock. I was afraid of a dial lock and the company offered to upgrade an electronic lock for free but discussed the pros and cons of each. I can open my dial lock in 2min. Im thinking of getting a small pistol safe thats electronic once my kid gets older. Get a big safe they fill up fast.
 
[video=youtube;ltK-bDbADa8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltK-bDbADa8[/video]


When you buy a safe, don't go cheap, Rural King, Tractor Supply stuff. Fortess have cheapened their safes to be more budget minded and Heritage is apparently going to hell too.

Whatever size you think you need, get bigger. Whatever you're willing to spend, spend a little more.
 
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