Anyone here use a Liberty Fatboy or Fatboy jr. safe??

I have a Fatboy. I can honestly say, I have no idea how many long guns it will hold but, I'll bet it's not anywhere near 64 as stated.

I'm mainly into handguns. It's a big safe, (RSC actually) and is not full yet. That's the reason I bought it. Always buy bigger than you need.

It's built well enough to keep the "smash n' grab" folks and curiosity seekers out.

Liberty's warranty is excellent, I highly recommend them.

The battery lighting system that comes with it sucks, and was replaced by a string of plug-in lights.

The door organizer is really nice, that's where I store all of my magazines and everyday holsters.
I use gun racks for the pistols.

Main thing is, no matter how much your safe weighs, (mine,880 lbs., empty) bolt it down!!
You'd be amazed what a couple of determined thieves can accomplish.

I have a fatboy with 14 long guns on one side and it is very full but at least half of those have scopes, pistol grips, and bolt actions.

Honestly, if (hopefully when) I get 15 guns on each side I plan on buying another safe and I will say with 14 on one side they bump and tap each other frequently, just last week I took the shelves out so I could use both sides.

I will say my only complaint about the safe is that I has internal hinges therefore not allowing the door to open over about 90° it would be really nice if it opened up the full 180° like others.

Also, not a fault of the safe, but if I had it to do over again I'd get the electronic lock. I'm aware everyone says the combination lock is better, but it's also more of a pita. It's a sacrifice I'd make.

I have a FatBoy, as well as a John Deere branded one built by Liberty. All my rifles are scoped and most have a pistol grip, I think there are about 12 per side. We have a show room close by and you can buy any kind of interior you need. Shelves, rifle racks, whatever you want. As stated they will keep out the casual thief or curious, not near the quality of the Browning my wife bought for me years ago. Do love the door organizer for mags and pistols.

As a Liberty dealer, I find the casual thief comment...interesting.

You should be able to get 14-16 scoped rifles per side snugly, I think personally it works better at about 12 per side.

blarby said:

As a Liberty dealer, I find the casual thief comment...interesting

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As a dealer, why do you find this interesting? It's a RSC, not a real safe. I complained to Liberty about the 1/4" gap around the door that someone could easily get a pry bar into and they told me this is normal! Really!!
That said, I still like it and yes It will keep the smash and grab theft out but, not a real thief.
I also prefer the electronic dial. It's much faster, just replace the battery every now and then.

Open the door of any safe with a composite door, then place your foot against the bottom of the open door and your hands on the top. Push away with your foot and pull with your hands, and notice how much the door deflects. You will likely be surprised, and more than a little disappointed.

Any RSC with a composite door won't hold up to a determined attack with tools for very long. But they will stop a guy with a screwdriver, and many times that's enough.

Anyone actually seen the UL tests on liberty safes?

just curious.

blarby said:

Anyone actually seen the UL tests on liberty safes?

just curious.

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Yes, but who can afford a REAL safe, like a Graffunder? Yeah, there's a few rich guys here that have them, but us everyday peons with 15-20 year old vehicles can't afford real gun safes.

I am in the process of rebuilding a brand new Liberty safe damaged in a low water flood. After gutting out the fabric-wrapped drywall that constitutes the interior...there wasn't anything else. I mean i knew there wasn't anything else but seeing it vs knowing it are two things.
That said its no different with any rsc type safe I'm sure.

Elkins45 said:

Any RSC with a composite door won't hold up to a determined attack with tools for very long. But they will stop a guy with a screwdriver, and many times that's enough.

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In my shop I have crowbars, 3-6 foot pry bars, axes, sledgehammer's, grinder's, metabo's with cutting wheels, dremel's, sawzall's, and even a torch with cutting heads.... heck, I've got a tractor with lifts and chains.

All I'm saying is that "a determined attack with tools for very long" WILL get in my safe, and likely any other safe I could buy that costs less than my truck. And to top it all off, I even provide the tools....


BTW: I really live in Maine.

DeepSouth said:

In my shop I have crowbars, 3-6 foot pry bars, axes, sledgehammer's, grinder's, metabo's with cutting wheels, dremel's, sawzall's, and even a torch with cutting heads.... heck, I've got a tractor with lifts and chains.

All I'm saying is that "a determined attack with tools for very long" WILL get in my safe, and likely any other safe I could buy that costs less than my truck. And to top it all off, I even provide the tools....


BTW: I really live in Maine.

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I locked my burglary tools up in the cheap metal gun cabinet that I emptied when I bought my RSC. At least in my case they have to bring their own tools.

I have this big Liberty mamma-jamma. It's the size of my refrigerator. Can potentially hold a lot of guns. It weighs 1000 lbs empty, and it's bolted down. It's 11ga body and door.

The delivery guys were experienced, with the proper equipment, and they had to jockey it quite a bit to get it in the room.

My decision was based on my own experience. I'm a cop in a busy city woth a lot of gun owners. I've taken countless burglary reports, enteres countless stolen items into NCIC,and I've NEVER seen a decent RSC broken into. Not once. The small ones get stolen, the stack-on ones get ripped open, but that's it.

The decent RSCs usually get the dial busted off and some ugly tool/cut marks, but nobody gets inside.

The people with the know-how to break into a $2,000 Liberty, also have the know-how to breal into a $4,000 Fort Knox.

At any rate, I cross examined every criteria I could, and for the money I spent there wasn't a better option than Liberty. I was satisfied before I paid, and afterwords.

I have the Jr and I was happy about it until I recently found I must have been slumming it all along .

Small town, bored cops and firemen and it is the last layer behind a monitored security system. I am not overly concerned that it doesn't have 4' think concrete walls.

My first one had a tweak in the door and Liberty replaced it so I am good with their CS. On sale the price was right.

DaisyCutter said:

I have this big Liberty mamma-jamma. It's the size of my refrigerator. Can potentially hold a lot of guns. It weighs 1000 lbs empty, and it's bolted down. It's 11ga body and door.

The delivery guys were experienced, with the proper equipment, and they had to jockey it quite a bit to get it in the room.

My decision was based on my own experience. I'm a cop in a busy city woth a lot of gun owners. I've taken countless burglary reports, enteres countless stolen items into NCIC,and I've NEVER seen a decent RSC broken into. Not once. The small ones get stolen, the stack-on ones get ripped open, but that's it.

The decent RSCs usually get the dial busted off and some ugly tool/cut marks, but nobody gets inside.

The people with the know-how to break into a $2,000 Liberty, also have the know-how to breal into a $4,000 Fort Knox.

At any rate, I cross examined every criteria I could, and for the money I spent there wasn't a better option than Liberty. I was satisfied before I paid, and afterwords.

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What model is that? I "think" the one I want is a Franklin 50. Whatever the biggest one is.....

blarby said:

Anyone actually seen the UL tests on liberty safes?

just curious.

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If this helps, IIRC UL 1037 or UL 1038 will list the full specifics of the RSC, both in regards to the minimum construction requirements needed in order to qualify for the testing, and the minimum testing performance required to attain the RSC label. I'm not 100% on the exact specifics, but IIRC the RSC test is a one-man attack for five minutes that targets the front door only, with hand tools that may NOT weigh more than 3 pounds. The attacker does not have building schematics for the attack, and unlike the TL/TRTL/TX testing done under UL 687 for burglary safes, I do not believe the RSC time is "tool on only" (i.e., the clock runs for 5 minutes runs continuously with the RSC instead of only running when tools make contact with the safe.)

The biggest concerns with RSCs IMO is that it is not uncommon for the doors of RSCs to have 2-3 times the armor of the other 5 sides, so if the front door (with the heaviest armor) can only hold out for five minutes from light hand tools, the more vulnerable side is going to be defeated much quicker, especially with a hand tool over 3 pounds, which can be found in quite a few homes! IIRC the minimum construction standards for a RSC are 7 or 8 gauge on the door and 12 gauge on the sides. That equates to about .17-.18 inches on the door and .1 inches on the other 5 sides. I believe a UL Group 2 lock is also required.

However, there is no maximum construction requirements and so a B-rate safe (.5 inches on the door and .25 inches on the other 5 sides) could be given the RSC test, which it would easily pass, and it would provide far more protection than a RSC made to minimum building construction specifications. With that said, most RSC-rated gun safes are close to or at the minimum construction standards, which is less than half that of the B-rate.

folsoh said:

Anyone here use a Liberty Fatboy or Fatboy jr. safe??

Or have any opinions about them???

Realistically how many long guns most with scopes does it hold???

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In my opinion, it is worth paying whatever the upgrade fee is to go from the S&G 6741 lock to the S&G 6730. It is a much, much, much better lock in terms of reliability and longevity, as it is the industry standard of a durable and reliable Group 2 capable of commercial use. Liberty uses it on their higher end models by default, but I think they still use the 6741 on their entry and mid level models.

Fella's;

Keep in mind that an RSC with internal hinges is basically a sheet metal box. If that box gets distorted, frequently you'll have hinge and door alignment problems. Having been a locksmith specializing in safes & safe sales, I've seen warped RSC's. I've also told the prospective customer that the fix will almost certainly cost as much as the thing did new. In other words to, put it bluntly, you couldn't pay me enough to share your pain. You will not see a true safe with internal hinges because they are absolutely not necessary if the unit is properly designed.

If you have to move an internal hinge RSC, be careful. Bolt it to a good pallet & protect it from excessive side loading. Warehouse forklift drivers can destroy an anvil with a rubber mallet.

We always knew when a true amateur had been at a unit because the hinges had either been cut or otherwise abused.

900F

I'll just leave this here.....

In my opinion, if you are looking for burglary protection it is worth pricing up several models that are better at resisting attacks with basic hand tools. It's your call, but for a relatively small increase on your investment you can get ahold of a product that isn't going to be rapidly defeated by the basic hand tools found in almost everyone's home. Beyond the security improvement, IMO it is nice peace of mind.

There is a Safe Seller on on this forum that offers a B-rate gun safe with fire protection for only a few hundred bucks more than the Liberty.

The Liberty's side walls have about .12 inches of steel, which is roughly the thickness of two pennies. The B-rate has twice the armor at .25 inches of steel.

The implications of this can be significant. You can easily do this to a 12-10 gauge safe with lighter hand tools, but you can't do this to a B-rate.

Elkins45 said:

Open the door of any safe with a composite door, then place your foot against the bottom of the open door and your hands on the top. Push away with your foot and pull with your hands, and notice how much the door deflects. You will likely be surprised, and more than a little disappointed

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I've been meaning to reply to this, a few weeks ago I remembered to do just this at your recommendation. I must say I was surprised, their was essentially no movement.
Now, I don't really know what that is worth, (burgulers use tools) but I suspected (after reading your post) their would be at least easily noticeable flex and it just wasn't.

DeepSouth said:

I've been meaning to reply to this, a few weeks ago I remembered to do just this at your recommendation. I must say I was surprised, their was essentially no movement.
Now, I don't really know what that is worth, (burgulers use tools) but I suspected (after reading your post) their would be at least easily noticeable flex and it just wasn't.

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While the door isn't a whole lot better, the biggest concern IMHO is the other sides. Most RSC rated products have side walls that are around 1/10th of an inch of armor, and are vulnerable to light hand tools. FWIW, in my own playing around, 3/16 to 1/4 inch seems to be the threshold where many (maybe most?) hand tool attacks become impractical, provided the safe's structural design & locking mechanism is solid.

The biggest single identification difference I have noticed is that if I knock on the side of a B/C/E/+/-rate safe, the only noise made is the thud of my knuckles hitting the sidewall and it physically hurts, where on much thinner safes the sound sometimes echoes, there may be some give, and it isn't very painful to the knuckles.

cdk8 said:

While the door isn't a whole lot better, the biggest concern IMHO is the other sides. Most RSC rated products have side walls that are around 1/10th of an inch of armor, and are vulnerable to light hand tools. FWIW, in my own playing around, 3/16 to 1/4 inch seems to be the threshold where many (maybe most?) hand tool attacks become impractical, provided the safe's structural design & locking mechanism is solid.

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I would agree with that to be honest, I don't pretend to know much about safes but I did work in a sheet metal shop in my early 20's and I'd say if you get under 3/16 you could fairly easily start a hole with a good axe, assuming you had plenty of room for a good swing. And once a hole gets started it's all over but the crying. At a 1/4 you'll need more than an axe, and even once the hole gets started your still not in great shape.

My safe is mainly to protect my guns from crackheads that aren't known for their intelligence, and I feel comfortable it will stop them.

I just bought a Fatboy Jr - it was the largest size I could maneuver through a tight angled internal door to get into the desired location.

My main concern is my own (young) kids accessing guns. Beats hiding handguns in closets. A determined thief can access any safe. I'm in an industry where 4000lb+ TDRs with 4" slab doors and walls are part of the office environment, they're simply overkill for the home setting unless you're planning on putting serious amounts of uninsured wealth in there too.

Great thread! My plan right now is to buy a used 'real safe'. I may have a line on a Mielink safe, an older one but it's a true safe. Often real safes can be had for ten cents on the dollar if you buy used. A used TL-15 or TL-30 will cost about what a new RSC costs but there's no comparison between the two.