Lets talk gun safes

Need to buy a safe, went and looked at a few the other day.

Pretty much settled on a 24 gun safe as being the min for what I need so I don't have my guns packed too tight in there plus leave me enough room for personal items, documents, etc.


anyone have any recommendations on brands? anything to look for, etc?


I've looked at the Cannons at academy and they seemed like a good value. I'm not looking to drop a ton of money if I don't have to, need something that looks good but will protect my stuff

Looking for safety or fire or both?

Pick a 2 plus hour safe

really both....


all the safes I have come across have been 30-45 min fire resistant @ 1200 degrees


to be completely honest, I'm not saying my house could not burn down, but I'm way more concerned about break-ins than fire

this is the one I was looking at

http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/cannon-s...amp;N=838464442

Trust me on this look at Fort Knox. Owned one for 20 years. The Browning reps buy Fort Knox.

http://www.ftknox.com

Buy the biggest you can afford. They fill up quickly. And, make sure it has an S & G lock.

what is an S&G lock?

If it is a manual dial you always want an S&G lock which is the brand. They are UL listed and have a drill proof back plate. If you get a digital lock make sure it is a LaGuard brand lock. Same deal UL listed and drill proof. Don't buy a safe with a imported lock. They do not provide good security.
As far as fire rating you normally will not find anything over 45 minutes at a mass merchant like Academy or Tractor Supply. They don't want the extra cost involved in the hour to two hour safes. Usually an hour and a half safe is the standard.
Make sure the brand has bolts on both vertical ends of the door and the bigger the bolts the better.
Get a dehumidifier if you are keeping it in the garage and a des antis pack if in the house.
Buy a UL listed safe.

huntwest, that is great info.

I was gonna get a digital.

as far as the bolts go, should I look for one that has hidden hinges IE ones that do not have exposed hinges?

Get one with poured in wallas instead of the Sheetrock type fire protection. Amsec safes are well worth the money.

Walter

Exposed hinges are actually stronger and safer. On a UL listed safe exposed hinges have stainless pins while hidden hinges are simply strap metal. If someone attacks the hinges that is good, now way they can get in a good safe even with external hinges cut off. The door will still be secured by the bolts.
Also safer because internal hinges only allow the door, which is the heaviest part of the safe, to open halfway and the safe can tilt forward. Exposed hinges allow the door to open all the way to 90 degrees and the safe can't tilt.

I'm no expert on the different brands, but I'll tell you what I have learned. Decide what size safe you need and then get one at least one level bigger.

Although very good, pored cement walls are way overkill. 1.5 hour protection at 1500 degrees is plenty for any house fire. The reason no other vault company uses that method besides unnecessary costs is because the cement they use is very porous which is excellent fire protection but also allows moisture to readily form due to condensation while fire board/ sheetrock doesn't.
AMSEC makes and sells far more fire board/ sheetrock lined safes than pour wall safes.

Grizz your observation is 100% correct. I advise anyone to get the biggest safe they can. They find out safes are used for a lot more than storing guns.

I know a guy that just lost every gun in four 1.5 hour rated safes.

Due to fire or moisture? A lot of people put safes in uncontrolled environments and due to humidity and temp changes they condensate inside. That is why they make dehumidifiers. There are several other reasons why fireproofing won't work. Just because a safe says 1.5 hours doesn't mean it really is. The only true fire test standard is UL and several safe companies do not use them but say they are independently tested. Also most people don't realize that for a safes fireproofing to work the fire seal around the door has to work. Seals dry out and need to be replaced every 4 or 5 years. The fireproof seals are available at most major handyman stores like Lowes and Home Depot. Sadly this information is not really publicized and it should be a label on the safes reminding people to do so.
Most large gun safe companies offer a 100% guarantee on any guns damaged in their safes due to fire.At least the good ones do. Winchester, AMSEC, Browning, Fort Knox all do on their higher end safes(1.5 hours or higher)

Look at tractor supply...good prices

Both fire and moisture. Safe turn into a humidifier when hit with water. But bunch of the wood was toast and anything plastic. He got a free upgrade to 2.5 hours this go round.

Bobo, that us why changing the seal us so important. If the seals had been in good shape and performed correctly as the safe heated up there would have been a vacuum effect in the safe pulling all of the oxygen out as the seal melted and sealed the door.
That is why safe companies should put reminders on the safe door to change the seal.

Pretty sure they where brand new. Just finished building everything, loaded up safes and two days later burnt down.

Wow, that is a bad deal

Yelp, gorgeous place. Had like 10 brand new beretta ou and he lost bunch of AR's.

Cannon has a hassle free warranty. I like mine.

I found out the china made safes have no testing means. I would stay so far away from them if I were you. Remember what your Dad always said . You pay for what you get......I have found this more so true than not

Man, ever since we had that bad rash of forest fires in 2011, I've always wanted to get a better, "fireproof" safe.

Just did a search on 2 hour fireproof gun safe and found an interesting web site on the myths of fireproof safe.

http://gunsafereviewsguy.com/articles/myths-about-gun-safe-fire-ratings/

Buying a safe is easy. Getting it into the house is a different matter.

There was a guy on here that had his house catch on fire and I believe he had a Canon safe!!! The contents in the safe survived the fire and Canon actually sent him another safe pretty quick so obviously they stand behind their product guarantees well!!!

I have heard way too many horror stories about digital locks. I wouldn't get one. Had to look a little longer to find one that had the features I wanted without a digital lock, but well worth it.

Great review except one thing. If you read what I have said it was buy a UL fire rated safe. And the author here basically is doing a plug for AMSEC. Which is a good safe. There are at least 2 other companies on the market that have UL rated safes that use Sheetrock. Those safes protect just as well as poured wall safes. There is a lot that goes into the manufacture of a safe to make them perform as advertised.
The author is correct in that several companies out there do the independent testing because they cannot pass UL tests. Just make sure you buy one that says UL fire rated. A couple of the other companies put stickers on their safes to fool you that say UL rated lock. Don't fall for that.
And believe it or not product s made in China can and are UL tested. Most. Are not but UL labs are available over there for about anything made whether it is a home appliance or a gun safe. I can assure you that a UL rated sticker will not be on the product unless it has passed their standards.

Make sure you bolt down your safe if you put it in an accessible location. With all of this fire talk the most important thing to remember is that a burglary is 100x more likely than a fire.

They make some digital locks with a key override, can't remember if I saw that
feature on the higher end safes or not.

A 24 gun safe will hold about 4-5 scoped long guns unless you take out all shelves. I have one and hate it.

Fire rating is most important in my book.

Hinges, locks, and bolt size is BS. Anybody planning to break into a safe brings a rotozip and a good bit and goes thru the top using your electricity. The top is usually very thin metal. Most at tractor supply I can make flex with my fingertips.

Your most important papers and cash should be kept at the bottom of the safe for the above mentioned reason and the fact heat rises. The bottom foot of the safe is seldom damaged in a fire as long as you have some kind of fire rating. Most people keep their cash on the top shelf because it's nice to look at. Bad mistake.

I am by no means an expert but I did spend a lot of time researching before I bought mine. And it's too dang small.

I also found whatever tractor supply carries atwoods has the same safe with a higher fire rating for about a $100 more and about 125-150lbs heavier. (More sheetrock)

I got these two last year...I like 'em.

http://www.heritagesafe.com/heritage-safes-legacy-series.html

Here is what little I know from my experience:

1. Get the longest and highest fire rating you can afford.
2. Think about how many guns you'll have in 10 years, and buy a safe sized for that number and not what you have now.
3. Take the advertised capacity, multiply it by .67 and whatever number that is becomes the actual number of guns you can realistically fit in a safe (long guns). Multiply by .5 if you have a high number of scoped rifles.
4. Leave room for other valuables - wills, jewelry owned by the missus, etc. I pretty much have an entire shelf dedicated to this stuff. It also helped me on selling the idea of a safe to The Rib.
5. You will run out of room before you can blink. It's amazing how they fill up, and how fast they do so.
6. Keep a dessicant pack or hot rod in the safe to control humidity. Inside the house should be fine without one, but a small dessicant cannister is cheap insurance due to the lack of air movement in the safe when the door is closed.
7. If you are going to get in the safe regularly, get a digital lock. I hated mine at first (mostly because of looks), but I have come to appreciate the digital lock and quick access over time. Especially when I see my buddy take forever and a day to open his. If you aren't planning on accessing it regularly, either type of lock works just fine. I replace my 9 volt battery 1x a year on mine and have never had an issue. In the event of a fire, Cannon sends a locksmith with a new digital lock to open the safe back up.

Some other observations:

1. The sides and back of almost every brand of safe (top too) are the weak points. Every safe company brags about the number of door bolts, exterior or interior hinges, size of the bolts and they type of lock and anti tamper devices in the door. But the door is the area least likely to be breached because it's 2" thick. The sides and top are usually 1/4" A-36 mild plate steel (even fireproof only have 1 external layer of steel). 15 minutes with a rip saw and an abrasive blade and you can cut the entire side off of almost any brand safe on the market.

2. Safes are made to look pretty, but that doesn't mean you need to put them in a highly visible area. Put them in a closet where you have limited access to them and they are hard to find or are at least lower priority areas for bad guys.

3. Safes will only deter the snatch and grab type bad guys. If a dedicated bad guy breaks into your house with time and tools, your safe will be breached.

4. Bolt to the walls or floor if possible. A poster above mentioned how hard they are to get into a house - which, unfortunately is woefully incorrect. A 1000 lb safe can be moved by 2 guys and a few golfballs or pieces of PVC pipe with very little effort. I know this for a fact, to be honest - I've moved my safe (780 lb empty weight) twice. Both times it took 2 people and I had it from the room to the trailer in less than 15 minutes and from the trailer to the current location in about the same amount of time.

5. There are ways to increase the fire rating and protection of the safe and both protect it from break in if you are willing, but that requires building a structure around the safe.

^^^^^


Great advice, thanks for posting

You confused yet?

What am I supposed to be getting?

Lone Star gun safes just put in a new warehouse on IH10 around fair oaks. I have two safes from them and have never had a problem. I recommend a dial versus electronic key pad

gonna check them out too.


what is the one on I-10 and De Zavala?

so I'm supposed to buy something to not protect my valuables?


if someone is going to break into my house, and take the time to crack the decoy safe, they are going to have the time to rummage thru the rest of the home and find the real safe....

Check out patriot safes tactical unit

maybe good sports not sure if they carry safes.

WATCH THIS!!!

Best info I've found.

Just so you know from a fire stand point a closet burns hotter than most other areas during a fire. Which means the fire rating will be shorter than advertised.

I have a 24 gun safe and should have bought a bigger one. 1/2 of it goes to ammo and personal stuff and the other half hold 7 guns. The misnomer is the fact the side slots hold nothing if most of the guns have scopes on them. I have 3 shotguns, 1 has a scope, 4 rifles all with optics and they take up a considerable amount of room. My mini 14 tactical has a front vertical handgrip/bi-pod and it takes up more room than any other weapon in the safe. I've never heard anyone say they wish they had a smaller safe.

Great thread...watching

Might need to get a bigger one then

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Browning, Liberty, Canon all make great safes. We are lucky in West Texas to have an awesome safe builder in Odessa,,, Sage Brush Safes. They custom built one for me and designed the inside for my specific needs.

I have a 24 gun Cannon Safe from Academy with a digital key pad. Had it for years with 0 problems. I bought the 24 gun because at the time I didn't have room for a bigger one. Now that safe is getting pretty stuffed, I see another/larger safe in my future. I also store my ammo (rifle & pistol) in smaller safes that sit on top of the big safe to make room.

This is the one I bought because I was on a tight budget and wanted the biggest bang for my buck. I studied for months before buying it(drove my wife nuts!). It's rated for an hour @ 1875, has a LG mechanical lock, lifetime fire and burglary warranty, came with free garage delivery (not just curbside!), and came with a free dehumidifier. It was at my house in two days and the customer service is outstanding. It's not a Liberty, Ft. Knox, Amsec, etc., but it does what I need it to do. You can also get it in a 2 hour rated model.
http://www.steelwatergunsafes.com/index....t&Itemid=41

I have never understood why people waste valuable safe space storing ammo in it.

this is the safe I ended up going with. its a redhead brand but made by browning for Bass Pro. I liked this one because I can store my shotguns in the door and my scoped rifles inside and still have room to have the shelves up. I plan to add a few more shotguns to the collection but I'm pretty much set on rifles, may add 1 or 2 more but after that I'll be good


has the S&G lock which many of you said was high quality. I really wanted digital but I can make do with this

http://www.basspro.com/RedHead-1856-Coll...OSSSELL_PRODUCT


I plan on storing my ammo on top of the safe or in the closet. no need to take the space up in the safe on ammo