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School me on gun safes

Lbhsbz said:
I have an AMSEC

https://residential.amsecusa.com/product/tf5517/

I got it through a locksmith dealer buddy for about $650, and it seems at least 3 times better (and heavier) than the $300 versions of a similar size. Feels sturdy, 30 minute fire rating...might suit your purposes. It's an import, but my guy says he's never had a lock/keypad failure, but told lots of horror stories about the cheap ones malfunctioning.
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Certain AMSEC safes are truly safes, 1/2" plate doors not stamped steel. and a real plate steel edge for the bolts to lock into.

Again, shop for a real safe not a "Gun Safe" that is barely better than a reinforced File cabinet. Most of the safes listed are not real safes, They are glorified gun cabinets. Cannon Costco safes are China imports, look at the weights, equal REAL safes of the same size weigh considerably more. I just bought a real older safe, 2 hr fire rating, real poured concrete rather than drywall liner.

find a real used safe and build a gun interior for it.

also the fire rating is once it reaches whatever the rating is. so just because a house fire burn 3 hrs, its when the safe is exposed to the temp rating advertised.
 
I bought a Liberty USA 50 on sale at Tractor Supply this year. It’s a RSC, not a true “safe”, but I can’t swing $5k + for one. It’s about layers of security. Deadbolts on doors, alarm, safe that’s bolted down, sides and back aren’t accessible due to wall behind it and built ins next to it, and it’s in a room with a view from a fairly busy road in our neighborhood. It’s hard to see the safe from the road due to the hill and window screens, but when you’re in the room it looks like you’re on stage with your pants down. :laughing:

The fire ratings are based on the number of layers of drywall inside the safes, so you can “upgrade” a lower rated one for $15, aside from the door, which is usually insulated more than the rest of it.
 
WaterH said:
Ive often thought it might be better to buy a cheap safe and display it prominently. Put a grand in cash in it and a cheap gun. Then hide your important stuff somewhere else.
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They cant steal what they cant find.
 
Stingray said:
Certain AMSEC safes are truly safes, 1/2" plate doors not stamped steel. and a real plate steel edge for the bolts to lock into.

Again, shop for a real safe not a "Gun Safe" that is barely better than a reinforced File cabinet. Most of the safes listed are not real safes, They are glorified gun cabinets. Cannon Costco safes are China imports, look at the weights, equal REAL safes of the same size weigh considerably more. I just bought a real older safe, 2 hr fire rating, real poured concrete rather than drywall liner.

find a real used safe and build a gun interior for it.

also the fire rating is once it reaches whatever the rating is. so just because a house fire burn 3 hrs, its when the safe is exposed to the temp rating advertised.
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My goal was to be able to lock things up and then have it unlock reliably should I need to unlock it in a hurry, it's bolted down such that it won't go anywhere. If I lose it all in a fire, that's the least of my worries. It's fits my needs. It's better than the same size thing in the $300 range available everywhere else. It's not the best, but it's better than a cabinet or shitty safe.
 
Landslide said:
I remember the days of just having a wood with glass panels gun cabinet was all a person needed.
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This, but the key was lost from the get go. How am I suppose to shoot a coyote with the gun locked in a safe?
 
but but but it's for the children......bullshit. .my guns are still in a glass case.
my kids grew up that way.
i grew up that way. my grandkids will grow up that way.
 
jeeptj19992001 said:
but but but it's for the children......bullshit. .my guns are still in a glass case.
my kids grew up that way.
i grew up that way. my grandkids will grow up that way.
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Growing up I can see it that way, for sure. Things aren't the same as they were however. My kid has been exposed to firearms since infancy. He understands not to touch them. But, throw in peer pressure and the existence of social media, who knows what could happen when he gets older. It used to be get bullied during school hours, then come home and play Nintendo for a couple hours to deal with it. Walk it off. Nowadays you have people on you 24/7. I know all about it after having people text me pictures from my driveway while I was at work several years back. As a kid, I was bullied HARDCORE. I didn't have a single friend. None. I was beat up constantly. It was a daily occurrence. I fought the thought of suicide daily. I couldn't imagine what would happen if I came home to only more of it via social media. 13 years old? Getting beat everyday for the past six years? Ridiculed to the point of suicide? Absolutely nothing to lose? Now throw in social media and instant access 24/7? Knowing Dad keeps the rifle and spare mags in the glass case in the living room?

$1000 is cheap insurance to keep the kiddo out for if he should ever get pushed over the edge and you becoming a glaring example for a Democrat pushing gun control.

I understand that keeping the rifle up on the mantle should be the way. But unfortunately today, there are some factors we cannot control.
 
like others mentioned, buy bigger than you need now. You will find yourself putting a lot of other things in there for safe keeping. I use one of the small fire lock boxes for docs and keep it inside the gun safe, hoping that the docs will remain mostly legible if fire.
 
Harry Johnson said:
Yeah, haven't seen it in person. How about less laughing emojis and more links to gun safes that some meth head with a 4.5" angle grind and cutoff wheels can't zipper the back open with no issues while I'm gone from home instead?
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A safe is just a theft time extender. Sadly there are many ways into a safe and most all of them under 2-3k are like that. Even the “good ones”. If your looking for plug and play around a grand I would look at Liberty or Cannon. I went Liberty and am happy. Building a vault room is the best way to store firearms but probably not tge most convenient. I am safe shopping again. Probably buy the same one again or its newesr incarnation.

If the safe can be moved it can easily be opened by a thief. You would be surprised just how easy it is to move a safe with under $50 worth of tools and supplies.
 
jeeptj19992001 said:
but but but it's for the children......bullshit. .my guns are still in a glass case.
my kids grew up that way.
i grew up that way. my grandkids will grow up that way.
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Yeah, I'd actually be alright with a glass case too, I figure if I'm going to spend the money and take up the space to lock stuff up, it might as well serve a dual purpose. Way better than hiding my passport in my underwear drawer anyway. :rolleyes:

Also, it's not like I'm so proud of my shitty shotgun collection that I need a window into where I'm storing it.
 
Harry Johnson said:
Welp, I'm mainly looking to keep my 3 year old toddler away from my shitty gun collection, with the option of also having a fairly safe place to keep passports, ss cards and whatnot. We have fire sprinklers in our house and no threat of wildfire where I live, so even a short time for fire protection is fine by me.

People do bring up a good point however. I don't want to suddenly make something that wouldn't be a target (ss numbers and passports buried in a random filing cabinet file with a bunch of documents, vs a safe sitting in the closet.

Maybe I just need a metal cabinet to lock the guns up.
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cabinets are awesome for that.

built my buddy a shoe box molded around some handguns because he is an antiques kind of guy.

even hooks on the wall that are more than 4' off the ground would work well. i'm a big fan of glass or visibility, takes the mystery out of it for kids
 
TheFlyingDildocupine said:
A safe filled with primers and/or powder is a bomb. (if you have a pile of them anyway) Those really should go into a flammables cabinet or the like.
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A flammables cabinet isn't insulated/fire proof and wouldn't put up much fight in a house fire. The safe I have the primers in "should" keep them from going off if my house burns to the ground. At least that's my reasoning.
I'm not worried about the powder, even though I have ~50lbs on hand of varoius types.........it goes fizz. Each primer is a little bomb, and I'll have up to 100k of them at times.

My other issue is I have a shit ton of loaded ammo just sitting on shelving. I still don't think that's as bad as the primers.
 
Mattafact said:
If I had unlimited bucks I would get a Chubb Sovereign. They don't make them anymore or come up for sale often. Last one I saw went for $50k :eek:

https://www.lackasafe.com/products/...ck-now/best-safe-world-|-chubb-sovereign-6428

Because I care about you, Harry, I think you deserve one to put granddad's shotgun and your AR-14 in. :flipoff2:
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Maybe, but how long before landslide's guy with a cordless angle grinder gets in? Do I have time to stop for a burrito before I have to intervene?
 
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Like has already been mentioned, any residential security container should be fine to keep the kids out and offer some protection from smash and grab burgers. If true fire protection or knowledgeable thief’s that will be targeting your safe, you’ll need to step it up.

A TL rated safe is a must for real valuables. A TL-30x6 is a true safe. If you know what you are looking for, you can get the exact same safe without paying for the 6x rating. Many safes are built exactly the same on all 6 sides, but the manufacturer opted out of paying for the additional testing to get the rating. A TL-30 with wall construction the same as the door is going to be equivalent to a TL-30x6 when it come to a thief cutting into it.

A real fire safe is a must for valuables. This is another one that you can save money if you know what you are looking for. Some safe/vault manufactures have their safes independently tested rather than paying for UL fire rating. If it’s a reputable safe/vault manufacturer, and the walls are a couple inches plus composite construction, chances are their independent fire rating is legit. Plate steel safes are not fire safes.

I have driven through the aftermath of many of the towns devastated by California wildfires. There's no way I'd rely on any of the common RSCs to survive. Sure, the manufacture may cherry pick on example of one surviving, but think about how many didn't.
 
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woods said:
Growing up I can see it that way, for sure. Things aren't the same as they were however. My kid has been exposed to firearms since infancy. He understands not to touch them. But, throw in peer pressure and the existence of social media, who knows what could happen when he gets older. It used to be get bullied during school hours, then come home and play Nintendo for a couple hours to deal with it. Walk it off. Nowadays you have people on you 24/7. I know all about it after having people text me pictures from my driveway while I was at work several years back. As a kid, I was bullied HARDCORE. I didn't have a single friend. None. I was beat up constantly. It was a daily occurrence. I fought the thought of suicide daily. I couldn't imagine what would happen if I came home to only more of it via social media. 13 years old? Getting beat everyday for the past six years? Ridiculed to the point of suicide? Absolutely nothing to lose? Now throw in social media and instant access 24/7? Knowing Dad keeps the rifle and spare mags in the glass case in the living room?

$1000 is cheap insurance to keep the kiddo out for if he should ever get pushed over the edge and you becoming a glaring example for a Democrat pushing gun control.

I understand that keeping the rifle up on the mantle should be the way. But unfortunately today, there are some factors we cannot control.
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You have some deep seated issues. I dont know if it was poor parenting or what.

Saying easy access to a firearm is potential for suicide is bullshit. There's knives in the drawer, and 1000 more ways a kid could off themselves.
 
We watched these tweakers work on this for probably over a week. They were out in the open using prybars, sledge hammers, jacks, and dragging it around with trucks. Then they attacked it with the demo saw. I guess they wanted to take it somewhere more discrete, so they loaded it on a trailer and moved it to a more hidden field across the street. After a bit more work with the demo saw, they caught the field on fire. I'm not sure what happened to the safe after that, but I doubt they ever got into it.

If this was a residential security container, it would have taken them longer to start the demo saw than it would to cut a hole large enough to climb into. Granted, if they had any clue of what they were doing, they should have been able to get into this with a demo saw in a reasonable amount of time.
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meth

anyone else woulda cut the other way round, then the door pins don't hold the halves together
 
TRINDU said:
You have some deep seated issues. I dont know if it was poor parenting or what.

Saying easy access to a firearm is potential for suicide is bullshit. There's knives in the drawer, and 1000 more ways a kid could off themselves.
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I had awesome parenting. Childhood was brutal for me as a hemophiliac not being able to defend myself.

And I wasn't referring to suicide either.
 
2big bronco said:
Haha. Bolting into concrete in every way imaginable has been a big part of my job for the last 18 years.
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What is my strongest drill in anchor to a standard concrete slab less than 10 years old? 4" thick guessing. cause I know we didn't pour a 6" slab.
 
Stingray said:
What is my strongest drill in anchor to a standard concrete slab less than 10 years old? 4" thick guessing. cause I know we didn't pour a 6" slab.
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I’d look at making it as hard as possible for someone to get a strap around. A truck yanking on the top of a 5’ tall safe is going to have enough leverage to blow any anchor out of a 4” slab. Maybe, a combo of anchors and epoxying the bottom of the safe to the slab would resist a bit better.
 
Simple. Waterproof and fireproof document container for important documents.


Locked glass cabinet is about the best security your can get unless you want to get serious.


If it doesn't have a UL listing, it's not worth paying for a "safe". Seriously, they're all complete garbage.

Get into a real safe and you're looking at $10k+, so most people choose the little gun lockers with deadbolts and think they're ok. They've not, and can be open in less than 5 minutes. Cordless grinder and a death wheel had me into my buddies safe with a failed lock in 3 minutes.



So, insurance, fire sprinkler, and a sheet metal locker are much more cost effective.
 
300sniper said:
I’d look at making it as hard as possible for someone to get a strap around. A truck yanking on the top of a 5’ tall safe is going to have enough leverage to blow any anchor out of a 4” slab. Maybe, a combo of anchors and epoxying the bottom of the safe to the slab would resist a bit better.
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Probably all tru, Garage is behind the house behind a security gate, security cameras alert me, and I've got a well armed neighbor. A truck getting near enough to the garage to get something around it is fairly remote.

Guessing the largest anchor Possible would be the answer.

I just dont want it flopped over and have the bottom cut out of it. It's three feet away from just about any tool to open it.
 
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