RSC/Safes... Unsure What To Buy

[V1x3nV]

Why does something that should be easy... like buying a gun safe... have to be so confusing

New to firearms, have a growing pistol collection plus a shotgun. Maybe an AR one day. Small house, detached garage, no basement.

I almost bought a winchester 24 Silverado but saw they were built in China. Then a bighorn... alas similar issue.

Every time I think I have one picked out reasonably priced I find a bunch of info showing how easy they are to break into... it's daunting.

At this point I feel like I need to spend 2500-3000k on a safe... which seems kinda crazy.

I might be down to the liberty revere or the rhino ironworks.

Small house = has to look nice because there is no where to hide it. But the price hurts...

I don't know what to do in the short-term while I figure out my long term selection.

And then... is it a waste of 3k if everyone can break into these things called safes that are ready "residential security containers"

I've been looking at the furniture style concealment but no fire protection and my house would have to have all things firearm related concealed right... or a clever thief will know they are somewhere.

No kids, really just theft protection. I'm not going to go long gun crazy but my pistol collection will grow a bit more.

Opinions appreciated :)

[mikeb32]

Basement or not?

[V1x3nV]

No basement. Small little lake "house" (renovated cottage)

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[mikeb32]

You may want to consider the weight of the safe, and you may have to reinforce the floor in the crawl space, under the floor in the area where the safe is kept. Also Bolt that rascal to the floor!!

[Roundballer]

Why does something that should be easy... like buying a gun safe... have to be so confusing

New to firearms, have a growing pistol collection plus a shotgun. Maybe an AR one day. Small house, detached garage, no basement.

I almost bought a winchester 24 Silverado but saw they were built in China. Then a bighorn... alas similar issue.

Every time I think I have one picked out reasonably priced I find a bunch of info showing how easy they are to break into... it's daunting.

At this point I feel like I need to spend 2500-3000k on a safe... which seems kinda crazy.

I might be down to the liberty revere or the rhino ironworks.

Small house = has to look nice because there is no where to hide it. But the price hurts...

I don't know what to do in the short-term while I figure out my long term selection.

And then... is it a waste of 3k if everyone can break into these things called safes that are ready "residential security containers"

I've been looking at the furniture style concealment but no fire protection and my house would have to have all things firearm related concealed right... or a clever thief will know they are somewhere.

No kids, really just theft protection. I'm not going to go long gun crazy but my pistol collection will grow a bit more.

Opinions appreciated :)


Basement or not?

My only advice on the purchase of a safe is to carefully determine how big of a safe that you actually need, then DOUBLE it!

[V1x3nV]

You may want to consider the weight of the safe, and you may have to reinforce the floor in the crawl space, under the floor in the area where the safe is kept. Also Bolt that rascal to the floor!!
Are you kidding!! Ugh. How much can a typical floor hold...

How bad is concealment vs safe? And just taking out a rider for the value of the guns...

I feel though my guns on the street with thieves would make me feel very guilty

Is detached garage horrible idea? It's a concrete floor at least

[Norton]

Look at fire ratings and use that as a comparison.
A safe is to discourage some one from breaking in. Even bank vaults can be defeated given enough time & energy.
Bolting to the floor is an excellent suggestion.
You can use the detached garage but it will make it easier to access by anyone. When ever the garage door is open it may be seen.
Also, you may have more moisture problems.
Moisture can be controlled by a golden rod. Golden rods need a outlet power, in the garage? Most safes these days have a plug built in.

[matt11]

I think the term "safe" is misleading, it should be a little safer than left out, or deterrent. I lived in small homes and apartments for a while, had a stack on in the closet as well as a small fire safe for some documents and small valuables and a few handguns, cost about $150. Most thieves want in and out as fast as they can, grab what they see that they can flip quick and go. Any type of locked cabinet ( not the glass doored cabinets) will deter many thieves. I was robbed years ago, stole gums from closet, money on dresser and watches I had left in the open, they didn't even take the bolt for the 30-06 that was out of the gun and on the dresser, as I mentioned, in and out. You can spend much more on a safe to get a good one that the value of the items you have in it, to me that's like paying $2,000 a year full coverage on a car that's worth $500. And your in an older lake cottage with a crawl space, your floor will certainly be overly strained with a larger heavy safe.

[V1x3nV]

That's very good to know and makes sense, I have probably 4 pistols that were each over 1k so it's not like I'd be replacing glocks... (haha couldn't resist)

I didnt even think about weight limits... do you have an idea what I should target?

I'm feeling like concealment stuff may work well for my scenario.

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[V1x3nV]

I mean after reading your responses it feels less and less like a 3k safe is the way to go...

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[matt11]

Is your house on a slab or crawl space? Slab should be no issues with weight, crawl space you may be able to look into some floor safes you can hide.

[V1x3nV]

Spider filled crawlspace in the house

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[smitdawg]

I have a browning medallion 36 gun and it's only about 600 lbs, good floor should handle it. I agree on the size, mine was perfect 15 years ago but with adding guns, coin collection, wife's jewelry, etc it is now overflowing. Liberty makes nice stuff.

Keep on mind all you are doing with a safe is stopping the lazy criminals and slowing down the determined ones. Bolt it to the floor/wall and don't worry about it.

Oh and a golden rod is a must.

[LivinTheDream]

I picked up one of these from Costco(spent a little less than $250), took out the drawer and put the shelf in the center. I've got 8 pistols in it but I can easily fit 3x as many AND it can be bolted to the floor. The shotgun I'd just put a trigger lock on and throw it in the closet.
http://m.costco.com/Sentry[emoji768]Safe-1.23-Cubic-Ft.-Electronic-Big-Bolt-Fire-Safe[emoji768].product.100021781.html
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160917/fc7d3090f5b3a6106029da99f7c7b1ef.jpg

Disclaimer....I do have one Glock, a 30s. It's a .45 and I'm an equal opportunity.45 owner! lol

[kicker42]

Liberty safe.

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[V1x3nV]

These are all great suggestions, I'm starting to lean towards concealment vs safe considering some of these things. But still thinking through all of the options .

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[flylo]

Make a sofa safe from a nice pull out sofa by making or have made a steel with good locks or find a Job Box that is the right size. Out of sight out of mind. Bolt it to the floor. A friend of mine did a freezer & worked very well. You can by "safe furniture but it's expensive & easy to build. Just an idea.

[AxlMyk]

Our Daughter and SIL have a large Lincoln. They put it in a corner and braced the floor in the crawlspace.
Some safes will lock up tight, requiring a locksmith to open, if you tip them over too far. Consider that when moving one.

[VIGILANT]

I picked up one of these from Costco(spent a little less than $250), took out the drawer and put the shelf in the center. I've got 8 pistols in it but I can easily fit 3x as many AND it can be bolted to the floor. The shotgun I'd just put a trigger lock on and throw it in the closet.



How to Open a Sentry Safe in Less Than 5 Seconds
https://youtu.be/ApJQ2wcYjBo

[Maxwelhse]

These are all great suggestions, I'm starting to lean towards concealment vs safe considering some of these things. But still thinking through all of the options .

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My personal opinion is that if your firearms are currently not secured at all, get them secured as fast as you can in any way that you can. An old trunk with a padlock is better than nothing.

With that said, I'm also in the camp of having a cheap, junk, easy to break into, consumer grade gun safe. My logic here is:

1 - It's better than nothing by miles and also helps keep honest, but curious, people out of trouble in your home.
2 - It still LOOKS like any other safe to 99.99% of people. The typical methed up thief isn't going to spend hours on YouTube figuring out how to break every cheap safe in the world. They're going to snatch and grab the other obvious expensive stuff laying around (like TVs, stereos, cash, prescription drugs, or whatever else they want) and not screw with ANY safe. They're also going to toss your entire house, including flipping over couches and such, so "hiding" guns is something I can't really endorse, unless you get insanely crafty about it. Like hinged false floors that lead down to a compartment in the crawl space. An expensive safe would be cheaper.
3 - A professional theft ring will take whatever they want regardless of what you do. In your case, they would cut the floor joists and wall studs out, take the safe, and leave your house with a hole in it. That's 5 minutes or less of effort with a sawsall, a couple of guys, and a cart.

Sooo.. If the issue is that you can't afford a "good" safe, buy a cheap one. I'd like to upgrade my safe at some point, but right now I feel that filling it, and hardening the overall security of my house as a whole, is a better investment. If my house is the hardest one to break into on the street (which right now it probably is) they'll move along.

In any event, I probably would brace the floor under it. It's cheap and fairly easy to do and its better to do it now than have problems later. Keep in mind the weight of the safe, the all guns/accessories/ammo it might ever hold and 2 people (because someone else may be standing there next to you waiting to be armed while you're opening the safe) when you do it. You could be pretty easily talking about 1000-1500lbs pretty quickly in a fairly concentrated area. I might also consider pouring a couple of pylons of concrete in the crawl space that you can sink some log chains down into and tie them off to the safe as well. Again, it's pretty cheap and easy to do (it wouldn't need to be pretty, it just has to weigh a ton and be strong) and is some good peace of mind. A buddy of mine did exactly this, except he knocked down a wall and then later rebuilt it, to install the biggest Liberty safe in a room in his house I have ever seen. To say he's a collector puts it lightly.

You mentioned gun insurance too... Unless you've already talked to your insurance company, you may be in for a shock. It would cost me $250 for $1000 of coverage and I can only buy $2500 of coverage total. My company is the same way with hand tools, cash, and jewelry too and when I called around no one else was much different. The best deal going is the NRA insurance, and you can buy as much of that as you want and you get $2500 included with your membership (which also covers accessories and mags, which home owner's insurance won't.. Some call it personal property, some call it a firearm, but none of them even want to talk about it which is about the last hassle you need if your house burns down) for $40 annual dues (or "free" if you become a life member). At one point I was carrying $10k total (so $7500 extra), I think, and it was under $200 a year. So.. I would probably put some of the money you'd spend on a fire rated safe, which may or may not save your stuff, into buy insurance that WILL replace it if lost.

I hate to burden you with even more things to think about, but there is a lot of angles to consider here. The one take away I do hope you have is to get a safe, any safe, to immediately secure your firearms from crackheads and other amateur thieves, which is the vast majority of B&E jerks.

[AxlMyk]

Liberty safe.
..at Gander Mountain. Made in USA
I'm looking at the 18gun Centurion.
http://www.gandermountain.com/search/safe#filters?do=json&i=1&q=safe&q1=Liberty-Safe&x1=brand&cat_depth=0&matched_cat=

[kicker42]

Good choice

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[dstallguy]

Black Friday sales for gun safes...coming up soon!
With that said I moved and my Canon 24 gun safe won't fit down the basement stairwell (curved wall midway down). Going to sell it for 2 smaller ones. Orig price 1099, Black Friday price 699. Would let it go for a little less...Open to the OP first

[hendo]

..at Gander Mountain. Made in USA
I'm looking at the 18gun Centurion.
http://www.gandermountain.com/search/safe#filters?do=json&i=1&q=safe&q1=Liberty-Safe&x1=brand&cat_depth=0&matched_cat=

Definitely buy more than you need. They fill up quickly, and from personal experience, there's not as much room as it looks. Usually the door takes up some room when it's closed and you have to take that into account. JMO

[migunsarefun]

Struggling with this decision too. I needed a good fire safe for important documents and ID. Couldn't afford a large enough one to fit guns, so bought a smaller one figuring I need those things protected from fire. Guns a behind a locked door, etc. Would like to get a safe, or even a locking cabinet to put them in. Fire protection is great, but the good ones are so expensive. Right now, rely on smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.