Buying a safe/RSC - spending $500. Suggestions?

[Vegas Silver]

I'm looking to buy a RSC/safe for my home. I only want to spend $500 + tax, tops. I know I would be much better served spending more, but that's all I can do for now, and I want one now. I am planning on storing the usual valuables, documents, a couple of rifles, and a couple of handguns.

Any suggestions? As of now, I'm looking at the AMSEC (LP) 5517W. It's a combo lock, not electronic. The price I have found in town is $499, which seems like an OK price. With the weight of this model, me and a friend are planning on moving it ourselves w/ a furniture dolly.

Is there better for the money out there?

Can I get an equal quality RSC/safe to the one mentioned above for less money?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Vegas Silver]

Bump since I posted it late last night and it got buried....

 

[scrat]

for a local purchase id say your ok. make sure you mount it correctly. ie bolt it to the ground.

 

[yeti]

I'm no safe expert by a long shot, so I took a few minutes and looked up this safe (I know RSC, but I'm used to safe.). While the door of my 'vault' weighs almost the same as this entire safe, in the price range you are looking, this seems like a reasonable deal. $500 for, what looks like, a fairly secure cabinet, with, at least, some fire protection, well it has got to be better then hiding your guns under the mattress, more comfortable also.

I have never seen this safe, so I really can't comment on weather it is real quality for the price. I can say, I like that it does offer some fire protection, loaded with guns and some ammunition, it starts to become a little to heavy to casually carry off, and if you can bolt it to the floor..........

You know the old saw, given enough time, and the proper application of explosives.........But you are trying to defeat your common, garden variety, residential thief, I assume your not in fear of an invasion by the 'A' Team. This looks like it will suit your needs.

I'm sure someone that knows more about safes will come along and give you better advice, all I can really say is this looks OK, and anything is better then nothing. It appears to me to be a good use for that $500.

I know that isn't much, but I hope it helps you, at least, a little.

 

[springmom]

The American Security safes are quite good. If you do a search on here using that search parameter you ought to find a couple of very long and helpful threads from last year about them. Our first safe was a small AmSec and our current safe is a large AmSec. You can buy more secure safes but then you're talking about things like jewelers invest in for their stores (which are a whole lot more than $500).

You're looking at a good choice.

Springmom

 

[xjchief]

Consider used or plan on spending more money. Craig's list is a good start but you need to look every morning and pounce the second one is listed or it will be gone.

You can buy a cheap-junk-file cabinet strength RSC starting around $200 if that's the route you want to take.

Reviewed the model you wanted and you do realize that 12ga steel is pretty darn thin right? It will probably do a reasonable job of securing your guns, you just need to decide if that's enough protection or not.

 

[ilbob]

As another poster mentioned, this does not have all that much steel between you and someone trying to get at your stuff. It is far better than nothing, and will probably suffice to keep curious children away from your guns, but I would not expect much more than that from it.

Bolt it to the floor and to the wall if you can. Make it as hard to attack as possible.

Try to disguise it.

There is nothing really wrong with it. It just is not a high security safe.

Rather than starting with a price, you might want to look at what you expect from such a container first.

 

[MAKster]

The low end AmSec gun safes are made in China if that matters to you. For around $600 look at the Winchester brand safe sold at Sams Club. It's made by Granite Security in Texas. It's probably the best deal in the low end gun safes. Much better than the Stack On and Sentry models.

 

[leadcounsel]

As others have mentioned, $500 doesn't buy much safe - probably only keeping out children or the laziest of theives. You could probably break into a $500 pretty easily with common tools (ax and prybar).

Unless you can score a great deal on a used safe, which is difficult but possible at an estate sale, you would probably be better served just hiding your stuff for 6 months and saving for something in the $1000-$1500 range. In my experience, the good safes were in the low $1000 range and seemed to peak around $1500 for size, fire resistance, etc. for the typical home gun safe.

 

[Vegas Silver]

I am looking for something to cause problems for smash and grab thugs. This RSC would obviously be more than enough for children, but that isn't much of a concern. We don't have visitors that would be aware that I even had one, so I'm not worried about premeditated safe break in attempts. As someone said above, I don't expect the A-Team to make attempts on the safe.

I realize it is only 12 gauge on the sidewalls, but don't believe $500 is going to buy me any better protection. If there's anything better for the money, let me know.

 

[NAK]

I did a lot of shopping and comparison early this year. Academy Sporting Goods won hands down.

Their low end Sentry Fire Safe with a digital log was $528.31 out the door less than 6 months ago.

Not Fort Knox, but it gets you basic protection with a some fire protection.