gun safe in rented home

You could get one of the safes from Here which would hide it pretty well from the casual lookyloo though thieves look under beds as one of their first checks for hideyholes.

I would just lag bolt one to the wall. May have to patch a few small hole upon moving. They usually have holes that will hiy center on studs once lined up. We just bought a home and thats what I did when I rented. Hiding depends on how often you need to get to it. I had hid one in the back corner of my closet- what a pain to get to. Moved it to basemsnt. Now I have an area for all that stuff.
On a side note, if you are going to have a heavy safe in a trailer make sure the floor will support it and before you buy a new one, measure door width as some are not trailer friendly. Just my 2 cents. Bob

RugerBob said:

I would just lag bolt one to the wall. May have to patch a few small hole upon moving.

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Yup just bolt it in and do the wall repair when you leave, but make sure the property owner / landlord signs off on the check out.

floritucky said:

That did give me am idea.... lay the safe down like the one in your link. Build a bench around it with a henged seat.... cant see it, but easy to get too... thats a start for an idea.. Thanks! Lol

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Keep in mind that once the safe is laying down on its back, you can use your body weight much more effectively when trying to pry the door open than if it is standing up.

My solution to both the moving issue and ease of hiding a safe was to purchase a Zanotti Armor safe http://www.zanottiarmor.com/

Not only is it easier to move a modular safe than a standard one but you have the additional advantage of being able to put a full size safe in places no one would expect to find it. Sort of a "ship in a bottle" effect.

I have put mine in rooms where the door frame and hallway dimensions would make it seem impossible to place it. It has been placed behind a wall under the eaves in an attic with a simple sliding access door of painted thin plywood that had no exterior hardware.

In this application you have 2 strong magnets. one attached to the backside of the plywood sliding door that slides in a simple track hidden by molding, the other on the "handle" that can be hidden in plain sight. To operate the system you put the magnetic handle on the wall and slide open or closed. When shut remove magnetic handle and there's no outward sign that it is other than a plain wall.

To hide the handle think Base of a lamp or cheap trophy on a shelf. any hollow object that offers a grip but seems of no value. Just cover the magnet in the base with heavy felt to prevent marring the wall.

It is very seldom that a thief will not find your arms--given a bit of time. A bud lost every gun he had plus they even stole some nice clothes--and most anything else of value. They even pried open his safe. So, don't bother hiding your safe but just make it where it will take too much time for them to get into it. Have even heard of one gent who rigged his old bolt action to come apart when fired--figured he would find the perp at an emergency room or morgue. I would not do that as it is probably against the law--but then again--hmmm.

Good info in this thread.

I have been looking into buying and installing a good-sized safe for my guns as the collection has steadily grown lately.

I saw a few ideas that might be good to do if you have the money or time/skill to install.

The first one is making your walk-in closet (if you have one) as the safe. I saw a pic where someone put a real door on his walk-in closet with really good locks so you can have all your guns in there. Think of the movie "KICK-ASS" where Nick Cage had that room full of guns. This way you can openly display your guns in racks, but inside the closet. Of course get some really good locks and lock it everytime you are not home.

The second Idea (this is the costly one) is to make your dresser or cabinets as a gun safe, kinda like in the Movie "Resident Evil 1", and "The girl with the dragon tattoo" where the badguy in the end had a cabinet on the wall with a clear glass window as a safe; same with a bolted down dresser in RE1. These setups require a high-tech locking design of course and will take some $$ or just some time if you choose to build. More like a fantasy type of safe but it is very doable. All you need are plexy glass/clear fiber glass, some good locks like electronic card keys or number pads, etc.

For a rental place though, a safe in a hidden spot bolted to the floor or wall is your best bet.

I have often thought of making a reinforced room for valuables storage but the idea of working with re-bar, cement block & having to mix and pour concrete is way beyond my skill and experience level, especially on a second floor application.

For an inexpensive safe room, or more accurately a strong RSC room, why not use a type of laminated armor approach?

Years ago I was helping someone put in a staircase to their soon to be finished attic. We had to remove a wall between 2 closets to drop the prefabbed staircase in. Well, that wall was "old school" with inner and outer layers of cement on lathe with wire mesh of some kind on each side and a thick plaster outer layer. We started with an AC circular saw with a wood blade. That got bound up in the wire and dulled out in less than 2-3 feet of cut. Then we tried a carborundum blade. That cut the wire but got jammed up in the wood. We wound up using wire snips, a chisel and then cutting the lathe with a wood saw.

The point is it took much longer than we thought it would have and time would seem to be what we are buying with a safe/RSC.

So, What if you were to armor a large walk in closet with a combination of 1" plywood, heavy duty wire mesh held in place with a layer of fiberglass cloth and bonding resin that was screwed in to the joists with glue dipped screws?

Replace the existing door with a pre-hung exterior type steel door and frame held in with extra long screws. Drill holes in the hinge edge of the door and mate them up with a few 1/4" by 6" steel rods that have been epoxy set into holes in the frame between the hinges so that only 1/2" protrudes. When you close the door the lock side is held by a deadbolt and the hinge side has these pins that mate with the holes in the door edge.

I've always wondered if this could be a way to achieve RSC level of security at room size with minimal expense and DYI ability.

A thief can get anything in your house if there is enough time. A regular gun safe, bolted to the floor and wall, will deter most crash and dash criminals but not someone who has a cutting torch and time.

If you were building a new home with a basement you could build a "safe room" of concrete with a steel safe door and that would be the toughest to get into. But with time to work it they will get in it.

Yes, given enough time and effort any safe, alarm system, dogs etc can be defeated.

However, If we stay slightly this side of Mr. Phelps and the IMF team arriving at your home I agree that a layered system of sturdy doors, locks and widows that are not covered with bushes. An alarm and/or dog(s), good relationships with good neighbors and a decent RSC either store bought or of your own ingenuity properly installed will foil 99% of the threats out there.

Most thieves are stupid, lazy morons. Either of the natural of drug enhanced variety. If they had a torch, a saws all or a rescue saw etc. they would sell them at 10 cents on the dollar and buy meth n beer not use them to rob your house.

for the rest, that's what you have insurance for.