Gun Safe Photos

[Zwetschgen]

Dear Friends,
I was doing my usual online surfing when I came across a few photos of gun safes that had either A) Been pried or ripped open, or B) A miserable failure at opening a safe.

Have any of you, or people you know, have had an experience like this, do you have any photos? I wonder what it would take to actually break into a good gun safe.

I have a RedHead, not the biggest or best, but the biggest and best I could afford. Any brand will suffice though.

 

[PTK]

My gun safe is a Graffunder. Without serious (and LOUD) equipment, no one is getting into it.

 

[a1abdj]

I have several photos of burned and burglarized gun safes which have failed at their jobs. Because not all of the photos belong to me, and for security reasons, I can not share many of them.

I will say this:

Most people talk about "good" gun safes, but in reality there aren't many. 12 gauge steel is 12 gauge steel, regardless of who bends it into a box.

At 1/10 inch thick, there's nothign magical about it. It will not resist prying, cutting, or torching for very long. With a sharp drill bit, you can put a hole in it just as fast as you can pull the trigger on the drill.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and the same applies to safes.

 

[Working Man]

If you search under gun safes here you should find a few.

 

[Chipperman]

Narrow the search by user names a1abdj and CB900F.

They are both "in the biz"

 

[mrwood]

YouTube has some video that may interest you.
I think there are some other photos/video here on the THR as well.

My gun safe is a Graffunder

nice safe.

 

[PTK]

mrwood

Thank you, it is indeed a nice safe. It cost me PLENTY between buying it and getting it moved ($6k or so) but I know that very few crooks will be able to get into it.

 

[wyocarp]

Location can be just as crucial as safe quality, anything to slow a bad guy down.

That's an interesting comment. I'm not attacking it. I don't even know what was meant by it. I do wonder if location is something to think about though. I've seen pictures from many guys who have their safes down in a corner of the basement hidden and tucked away. It seems like it might be better to have it on the main floor where the noise made trying to get into it might get more attention. Just a thought.

What do you think?

 

[trickyasafox]

our safe is in the basement because it's 700 lbs empty. thats a lot of stress for some floors. location may be an issue not just as a deterrent, but as a precaution for the wellbeing of your home.

 

[Madison_ultralight]

I know several people who have been robbed and lost lots of guns, but never out of a safe that was bolted down. The most responsible thing we can do as gun owners is to be sure that no gun that we buy will ever be involved in a crime.

I have one safe in my bedroom closet, Cannon T43. It is a "real" safe with a re-locker so there will be no prying or drilling. I built the closet around the safe so you would have to remove all of the stuff from the shelves, remove the shelves, remove the drywall around the back and unbolt the studs from the top, remove the screws from the lower part of the mirror on the other side of the wall and cut the power line for the lights/dehumidifier. And then the thing weighs 1500-1800 pounds and is anchored to the floor with six 5/8" lags. I have another one in my basement, Cannon T27, that is also bolted to the floor and the block wall. It is mostly ammo so I'm sure it weighs close to a ton. I also have a BioSafe in my pantry that we keep our carry pistols in. It is recessed into the wall and bolted to the studs. I had the alarm company wire the 2 big safes with sensors on a separate circuit that uses a different access code as the house and automatically arms after 30 minutes of inactivity. The alarm company would receive a special signal so they could alert the cops that the intruder may be VERY armed. There is a motion detector pointed at the pantry door for the BioSafe.

The best way to get into a real safe is with a grinder & cut-off wheel and go in through the back or side. You wouldn't do that in someones house unless you had a lot of privacy and a lot of time. If you buy a quality safe from a reputable dealer, and make it really tough to remove, you should be fine. I justified the cost like this: If someone broke in or the house burned down and I lost all my stuff, would I pay $1200 to get it all back?

The system I described would be very expensive if I didn't do the work myself. Check out parts here:
Http://www.alarmsystemstore.com/ They have monitoring under $10/Month.
http://www.alarmsystemstore.com/Alarm-Monitoring-Service-s/64.htm