Gun Safes - Opinions Sought

[Anthony]

Hello Everyone,

I have been looking at gun safes lately and have been rather bewildered about the various brands. I'm interested in one of the larger models in the 50 rifle range.

In this case, money is not a consideration. Quality and performance are paramount over everything else.

Currently, Fort Knox seems to be the brand to beat based on my limited research.

Is there a brand that really stands above the others in quailty and performance?

What features should I be looking for?

Any personal experiences are especially welcome.

Thank you for your time and attention.

 

[dinosaur]

Have you given any thought to building a gun room? A 50 gun sounds big but if you`re a 50 gun kinda guy, you`re really a 100 gun kinda guy.

 

[clown714]

a coupla buddies have ft.knox safes and

seem pretty satisfied with them.

i'm happy with my liberty

seems there are a bunch of quality safes out there.

as a rule of thumb-buy one larger than you need

they seem to fill up faster than you think

clown

 

[0007]

You might check out the Champion brand. Also a company called Sportsman Steel Safes(?). I have one of each. The Sportsman was my first one. It's very big and has a pretty good fire rateing; a little less finished then the more expensive ones, but a good buy. On my second one I ended up with a Champion. Mostly because the distributer was close and I could get it delivered and installed at no extra cost. I talked to several distributers. The general consensous was that the Ft. Knox had the best fire rateing, but was also more expensive by an order of magnitude. If possible try to avoid the three spoked ship-wheel type handle. It sticks out a lot more then a single handle. If you are working with a very big budget, you really should think about setting up a large closet with a door. A sneaky thing to do is to buy a safe and just set it into the doorway of the room you are going to use. then just cut the rear out of the safe. Instant door. The thing to remember is that a safe will still only keep an honest man honest. Sneak thieves, crack heads, etc will pass on to the next easier target. A professional who knows what you have and wants it will get into any safe that most people can afford in under an hour. Usually less then 20 minutes.

 

[Hal]

If money really isn't an issue the I suggest you PM or email fellow poster CB900F (if he doesn't happen to come across this thread first)
and/or do a search for "residential security container" (include the quotes).Or search by member for his name. He's a locksmith by trade and has written a bit about how unsafe safes are.

What most places sell as a "safe", isn't really a safe.

PS: FWIW, I own a Browning brand. It's ok as far as doing what I bought it to do, which is to slow down someone or deter someone.

 

[Greg L]

Dinosaur pretty well nailed it. If you've got a dry basement building a vault isn't a bad idea.

Greg

 

[Rembrandt]

There are better safes out there than Fort Knox...some years ago a group of 5 of us decided to buy safes. We investigated the specs on each and every brand, money was not an issue. We came to the conclusion National Security's Magnum Plus was one of the best. Outer door skin alone was 1" thick "drill plate", not sure they make these any longer. Has an inner steel liner and superb fire rating, about 1500lbs. One rule of thumb is to calculate the weight per cubic inch, the heavier the number the better the safe. Locks are available in different catagories, class I, II, etc. Here are some links to help.



http://www.libertysafenorcal.com/safe_magnum.lasso

http://www.libertysafenorcal.com/safe_magnum inferno.lasso

http://www.libertysafenorcal.com/

http://www.brownsafe.com/gun_safe.html

http://www.21stantiques.co.uk/indextfca.html

http://www.hiddensafes.com/

http://www.sportsmansteelsafes.com/index.htm??!!!

 

[Preacherman]

Another point to consider: do you plan on moving in the next few years? If you are, don't buy one big safe: rather, buy two or three smaller ones. These are much, much easier to get in and out of your house! They also have a number of other advantages:

1. You can put them in different areas of the house, so that if a fire occurs, one or more of them may be outside the fire zone;

2. If a burglar breaks in, he may only find one of them, so that even if he succeeds in breaking into it, your other safe(s) will remain intact;

3. You can segregate your firearms by type. One safe could be for long guns, or one for shotguns and one for rifles, or one for handguns... and so on.

4. If your floors are not capable of supporting very heavy weights in any given spot, smaller safes will "spread the load".

 

[Kentucky Rifle]

I realize you said money isn't a consideration (and, I agree)

However, I purchased a couple of Browning safes about a year ago that were classified as "Scratch & Dent" models. I looked them up & down and I couldn't see anything wrong with them--so I asked the salesman. He pointed to a small rough area on the botton flange of these "S&D" models. At first, I thought he was joking! That little bit of "roughness" saved me almost 50% on both safes. Plus, a bottle of touch-up paint was included with each safe. Thirty seconds of "touch-up" painting saved me nearly 50% of the cost on BOTH safes. Might be something you'd want to consider.

KR

 

[feedthehogs]

Things to consider regarding the safe only:
1. Fire rating
2. Thickness of sides and door
3. Number of locking bolts and diameter of bolts.
4. Type of lock and anti theft protection.
High end safes have anti drill plating and lock mechanisms that will default to permanent lock incase of tampering. After that the safe will need to be opened by a locksmith.

In most cases a professional thief/safe cracker only prowels neighborhoods with million dollar homes hoping to score jewlery and other easily fenced items.
Your average thug carries a screwdriver or crow bar and wouldn't know how to pick a lock without one. Then the door thickness and bolt quantity and diameter are the priorities.

 

[HankL]

Anthony, You really do need to think about size. A gun cabinet rated for 50 firearms will hold 50 pump guns and single shot break opens. Scopes and bolt handles eat up room in a hurry. You can pack more in the safe by stowing some barrel down and wedge them in but this is no fun and contributes to scratching and marring of your firearms.
The 52 gun Ft. Knox interior would hold around 36 scoped rifles comfortably.
HTH

 

[Topgun]

A safe without an alarm is useless for burglary protection.

A ....local....alarm (non monitored) is only a few hundred dollars. Add 30 buxx a month for monitoring if desired or if in rural area.

The alarm beats the safe all to heck.

I use both.

 

[CAP]

If you are any where near 50 long guns now, 1 safe isn't going to be enough unless you plan on downsizing.

Get the biggest one you can afford, then go bigger if at all possible. Many places will do a 6 or 12 month same as cash deal.

The vault is the ultimate if you can swing it logistically and finacially.

CAP