stack on gun cabinet

I'm certainly no expert on RSC's, but I've always been of the opinion that the stack on gun boxes are only marginally better than nothing at all. The models I've seen are made of pretty flimsy, easy to cut sheet metal and could literally be carried away contents and all, by the average teen ager.

If it's all that's in your budget right now, by all means take whatever steps you can to secure your firearms. I'd recommend trying to save up a few extra bucks and get something a little more substantial like an entry level Sentry, or similar which would set you back around 300 bucks if you can find one on sale, and IMHO are orders of magnitude better than a stack on gun box against the average smash & grab job.

I have four, plus one pistol cabinet. Three of the rifle cabinets are full of guns, the fourth is down in my hangar holding airplane supplies (it was originally bolted to the post next to my tiedown, so I could lock up the keys for the other users of the airplane). They're a pretty good cabinet for the money, but they are by no means safes. They'll keep kids out of the guns, and you can bolt them to the wall (or to each other) to make them difficult to remove, but they're trivial to drill with even a handheld drill. I had to put a hasp on the one I took to the airport, and I was amazed at how easily I drilled the holes--it was like a hot knife through butter.

As long as you think of them as a storage or childproofing device, they're great little cabinets; if you're thinking of them as being burgular-resistant, they're pretty ineffective.

They are pretty easy to drill, but to drill one open is a little different matter.
If your burgler brought a die grinder with cutoff wheels he could get in relatively quick, maybe 5-6 minutes each, it would take a long time to drill one open.

Sam

I got two.

Keeps kids out, and honest guests honest.

On the plus side, they are smaller than heavier cabinets, you could stick them well out of sight.

Yeah, I have one just like the one in the picture. It's okay for the money - I think I payed $69.95 for mine on sale, but that was ten years ago. It sure won't provide the security of a real $900.00 or $1,000.00 gun safe, but the way I built mine right into a closet would at least slow down a burglar. It would take a good sized hammer and crowbar or a cutting torch to get into mine. The way I have it installed, only the door is exposed. Of course, it's not fireproof. I actually have a real, 800 lb. gun safe in the garage, but it's for the guns I don't use often, such as those I keep around for purely sentimental reasons. But the stack-on cabinets I have provide fairly quick access plus some security - for sure, my grandkids can't get into them without alerting grandma or grandpa.

P95loser;

At the level of protection you'll get with the Stack-on, you'd do well to consider stealthing it also. In other words, 'if they can't find it, they can't steal the contents'.

As you've been correctly advised, the Stack-on is a child-proofer & that's about it. The upper limit on that is somewhere in the 10-12 range also.

However, if you're willing to put some thought into getting seriously creative about hiding it, then the more serious threat becomes fire. Note; I didn't say it had to be expensive, thought can keep the dollars expended to a minimum, properly applied.

900F

I have two Stack-On cabinets. One is a knock-down model that comes in panels and gets bolted together. I don't recommend that one, even though the exposed bolt heads are tamper-proof types. The other is a welded, pre-assembled type.

As already noted, these are "cabinets" rather than "safes." They are good for keeping kids out and for satisfying legal requirements that your guns are stored under lock and key. As to burglar protection, a lot depends on where you live. In my town, the police estimate that burglars spend less than 5 minutes, total, from the time of entry to the time they skeedaddle ... largely because most folks in town have an alarm system and the bad guys never know if there's a patrol car on the next street. If you live in an unincorporated area where each sheriff's deputy has to patrol a few hundred square miles, the bad guys could spend all day working on one of these cabinets, and they're not capable of resisting that sort of attack. Here, they toss the bureau drawers, grab what they can, and run. The cabinets themselves aren't THAT heavy, but they aren't light. Put a half dozen guns and several hundred rounds of ammo inside, and they might be able to move it ... but they won't be moving it very fast or very far.

But ... hunting season is almost upon us, and within a few weeks Wal-Mart will be stocking real gun safes again. Theirs aren't fireproof, but obviously neither are the Stack-On cabinets. Overall, the Wally World gun safes are a better deal than these cabinets. (IMHO)

They're better than nothing. Just remember, if a professonal thief wants your property, they'll get it. Your best bet is to make the thief work so hard, he'll give up and look for easier pickings.

For the money they are great

they will keep out the average teenage or druggie burglar unless well armed with tools. Bolt them into narrow spaces & closets etc and there isn't much room for prying leverage. Perfect for smaller inexpensive collections.

Hawkmoon;

Wal-Mart never has & almost certainly never will stock real gun safes. An RSC is not a safe, it's a Residential Security Container.

There are serious differences between the two. A search here at THR for 'RSC' should bring up several threads that will give you the information.

900F

i have three of these cabinets

they are a good thing to slow down the thieves. generally speaking theives do not come well equiped with tools to get into one one of these quickly. best defense is like said above, hide them, bolt them down good and put them in a tight place to limit prying. then do not let anyone know what you have, if they know they will come prepared. even if you have a high dollar safe they could come prepared if they know what they'll need.

edited to add: lock up all your tools to keep the burglar from useing your own tools to get into the cabinet. i heard about a man in the county that locked all his tools in a cabinet in the garage with a big padlock. not only did they steal all his tools, but also took the pair of bolt cutters hanging on the wall beside the cabinet.

I looked at that option--primarily concerned about my kids and their friends. Instead, I spent a few hundred more and found a 14 long gun fire rated Sentry safe with an electronic lock for $450 at Academy (a sports and outdoors store in this part of the country). I mounted it in my closet, attached to the foundation.

Of course, my 8 yr son decided to see how much water the shower pan would hold (only as much to the bottom of the door). The shower is on the other side of the wall from where I mounted the safe. Only a week after busting my butt moving a safe in there, taking the closet door off, etc., I had to unbolt it, unload the safe, move it out of the closet, pull up carpet and baseboards, and dry everything out before I could put the safe back in. It's a relatively small safe, but still weighs around 500#.

On an off thread topic, I asked my son several years ago what he would do if he was at a friend's house and found a gun. He answered appropriately (it's loaded, don't touch, find an adult, tell daddy so he could yell at the irresponsible neighbor, ...). I asked my daughter who is two years younger (3 at the time). She hit the ground and started yelling STOP, DROP, AND ROLL!!!!.

Hawkmoon;

Wal-Mart never has & almost certainly never will stock real gun safes. An RSC is not a safe, it's a Residential Security Container.

There are serious differences between the two. A search here at THR for 'RSC' should bring up several threads that will give you the information.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but you're wrong.

Maybe your Wal-Mart doesn't but around here they bring them in every Fall, for the hunting season. They are Sentry brand gun SAFES, with rotary dials and 1" diameter locking bolts. I just posted that I have two gun CABINETS -- I do know the difference. There's no question that there are better (and more expensive) safes available, but the Sentry SAFES that Wal-Mart sells are head-and-shoulders above the Stack-On cabinets that are the subject of this thread.

They stock a 10-gun size and a 14-gun size. I just spoke with the sporting goods guy at one of the Wal-Marts near me to ask when they'll be coming in this year and he said they'll be here within a couple of weeks, although they won't go on display until a bit closer to the season.

They are similar to this one:

I use mine to store ammo only. Lost the the key once. Took me about two minutes to drill the lock out with a cordless drill and get it open. Good enough to keep the kids and the grab and go crack head out of the ammo but that's about it. If a real thief want's your stuff he'll get it.

I have one of those and like other people said it's better than nothing. That's about the best thing you can say about it. There is a security system installed that calls the local police if any of the doors or windows are forced open or the security company detects the telephone isn't working.

Basically I'm hoping the little sheet metal box will delay and frustrate any gun grabbers long enough for the cops to arrive.

A company like Sentry brands their boxes a "safe" and everybody thinks it's the next best thing to a bank vault. Afterall, it's got a dial, so it must be secure right?

Sentry makes their fireproof "safes" out of plastic, and even though they weigh only 80 pounds, people feel secure locking their valuable posessions in them. They do offer a line of RSC gun "safes", which are at the lowest end of the RSC spectrum.

Something is better than nothing, as long as you're aware of what that something is really going to do for you. If I wanted to protect some paperwork, a Sentry just might do the job. I'd never store anything valuable in any Sentry product.

a1abdj --

I understand that you are a security professional and that you have your professional biases, but in the interest of conveying information objectively I take issue with your use of the word "safes" in quotation marks, as if to say that a Sentry "safe" isn't a safe. It is. It may be a low-end safe that has only a "Residential Security" rating from U.L., but that doesn't make it not a safe -- it only makes it a less expensive and less secure safe than a more costly safe providing a higher rating.

I hope you would not disagree that even a Sentry gun safe is more secure than the Stack-On gun "cabinet" that engendered this thread.

For those who may be confused by references in this and other threads denigrating anything with a U.L. RSC (Residential Security Container) rating, it is probably best to get your information directly from what U.L. says about the various ratings, and then make your own decision after balancing cost against security level.

http://www.klsecurity.com/ul_fire_rating.htm

The Sentry I have is a safe. It's smaller than say a large Browning or something similar, but it is a 14 long gun, Steel fire rated gun safe weighing 500#. Sentry does make the smaller plastic fire safes a1abdj references, but their GUNsafes are a good bargain

Sentry makes a fine product....for what it is. I even use a few Sentry fire rated safes/cabinets for my personal paperwork. I don't have anything against Sentry products, or those who use them.

The reason I use "safes" when referring to Sentry products is that they are extremely low security (with a few exceptions). By your definition, a safe is something with a dial and locking bolts. I could build something out of cardboard that used a dial and locking bolts, but it wouldn't do very well protecting valuables.

The problem with calling low security boxes safes, is that the general public then believes that they are OK for storing valuable items. When their $15,000 worth of jewelry ends up stolen, they say "but we had it in a safe".
Sentry products are not designed for valuables.....period. Regardless of what their marketing says, they are "safes" (boxes with the appearance of a safe), not safes (boxes designed to protect valuable assets).

For the record, most of the Sentry line is imported from China. You can find identical safes marketed under various names, including Stack On.

I found a use for my Stack On Cabinet:



I used it to store rifles in for a couple years, but I have a new safe being delivered tomorrow so I converted it to hold some ammo I had laying around

Apologies to P95loser--I hope your questions regarding the Stack-On cabinets was answered before we turned this into an argument over the definition of "safe".

I purchased my Sentry gun safe (not gun cabinet) because at only a couple hundred dollars more than a locking sheet metal cabinet, it was an exponential improvement in security and peace of mind with two young children and their friends in my house. I didn't have several thousand dollars to spend on a glossy safe I could park a Mini Cooper in, nor do I have room for something like that. Do I have illusions that my firearms are as secure as the gold in Ft Knox? No. Do I feel I have acted in a responsible manner in protecting the children that rampage through my house? Yes. Do I feel that when I'm not home, a determined BG can get past an alarm system, large herding dog with a VERY protective instinct, and spend the time to break into the safe with the proper tools? Probably, but they would have to be VERY determined.

Great for your vehicle

Check this model out. I have a Ford F-150, standard cab. I mounted it vertically behind the passenger seat for my handguns. It has an exceptional lock and a quarter inch steel door. The rest of the box is only eight inch steel but enough to deter a thief and hopefully satisfy the law.

http://www.stack-on.com/securityplus/strong_box_safes/ps-512.html

I've got that 8-gun stack on - it's for airguns. Centerfire long guns are in the big safe; rimfire rifles in the little safe, handguns in the workbench-top sentry fire safe (and scattered around the house), and airguns in the stack-on cabinet. If you mount the stack on to your wall on top of a carpeted floor, then put a 1x2 board along the front, just under the front edge of the safe - this will put it up enough so that the door swings closed, rather than open, when left to its own devices (gravity).