Secure gun safe for $1000 a reality?

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You can get some pretty good deals on Craigslist. Not sure where you are in Southern Idaho, but here's an ad for a safe in Boise. Cash is king. Tell them you have $1,000 right now, I'm sure they will negotiate.
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I just sold an almost identical safe for $1,000. I think he's asking too much, but if it can be had for $1,000 it's not a bad deal.

hinges are the weakest point on a safe-and the easiest to break, allowing entry.

get one with internal hinges.
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External hinges are much better than internal hinges for a number of reasons. Breaking or cutting the hinges on most safes will not allow entry into the safe.

Look around at most commercial safes and vault doors. Note how many of them use internal hinges.
 
No expert, just someone trying to research a better solution, but the hinges should have no weight on security. Bolts should* be holding that door in, the hinges should only be there to allow you to open and close the door. Meaning when some yoyo cuts them off, the bolts in the door will still be holding strong... all the while said yoyo is burning valuable time that your alarm system cut in 1/2, with the po's about to roll up in force to your house. The thing with the hinges is that when they are on the outside, you have a greater range of motion to open the door with
 
With external hinges bad guys could cut them, but I would think having the bolts on the 3 of the 4 sides would still make it difficult to get into the safe. And if the bad guys have this amount of time and noise to get in then I would think having internal hinges wouldn't bother them that much.
 
The hinges aren't a security feature, all they do is allow you to conveniently swing the door open. If they are going to cut the bolts, they will cut the bolts, external hinges or otherwise.
 
once the hinges are out of the way, the door can be open, either with prying, or cutting the bolts with a saw.
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How thick is the steel/weld on most of these external hinges? 1/2"?

Why would somebody with the means to cut through 1/2" steel waste their time on the hinges when the bodies of many of these safes are 1/10" thick? They could cut the entire safe in half faster than they could cut both hinges.
 
The next RSC I get will have external hinges. I have internal now and the door doesn't open nearly as far as I'd like. The hinges are just to hold the door up, the bolts (on all 4 sides preferably) are what's securing it.
 
Why would you bother with the hinges, have you even looked at the youtube videos, it would take longer to cut through the hinges with a TORCH than it take 2 guys who know what they are doing to get into the safe.

OH the 200lb door can also be removed for transport,
AND A safe with external hinges opens wider

BUT the best part is that guys who think like FMJ waste time trying to bust them.
 
BUT the best part is that guys who think like FMJ waste time trying to bust
them.
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A quick story about how external hinges caught a burglar.

A local restaurant had an old TL-15 plate chest poured into a concrete wall in their office. They are broken into at night, and the bad guy(s) go after the safe. After breaking the dial and handle off with a hammer, they go after the hinges with a sawzall.

The blade on the saw kept hitting the concrete wall the safe was in as they attempted to slice the hinge pins. They gave up and decided to unbolt the hinges (believe it or not some are bolted on). In order to do this, they needed a 3/8" hex socket, and a breaker bar to get enough torque to unscrew the bolts.

Most guys don't have these types of tools in their box, and bad guys don't usually carry them either. After I looked at the safe, I spoke with the detective handling the case and gave him a lead. Guess who was caught on tape at the nearby Wal-mart at 3 AM buying a set of hex sockets? An employee of the restaurant.

Moral of the story. You go for the hinges, and you'll go to jail. :D
 
Shadow 7D said:
Why would you bother with the hinges, have you even looked at the youtube videos, it would take longer to cut through the hinges with a TORCH than it take 2 guys who know what they are doing to get into the safe.

OH the 200lb door can also be removed for transport,
AND A safe with external hinges opens wider

BUT the best part is that guys who think like FMJ waste time trying to bust them
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actually, the best part is that you consider a youtube video valid research on this issue.

you don't need a flame to cut the hinges, and you won't find many home burglar/crackheads that are also master safe crackers.

believe what you like though, it's a free country. ;)
 
You don't need to spend a fortune for a gun safe, but you don't want to go on the cheap either. I own a Liberty Lincoln. It barely holds my collection of rifles and pistols, but hold them it does. A well made safe properly anchored to a cement floor and equipped with a dehumidifier is worth its weight in gold. Fortunately doesn't cost anywhere near that much to own a secure gun safe. Get one that you have room to grow into. You'll regret getting one that only holds what you have now plus a few papers and other valuables. JMHO
 
External hinges are not an issue unless you're buying a safe so cheap that it doesn't have hinge side locking bars. And like shadow said, the ability to easily remove the door when the safe is open greatly increases the ease of installation/moving.

But, most people wouldn't grab a torch as their first choice, most would, like a1abdj's former employee, grab a sawsall or prybar. Which means that the thickness/toughness of the steel around the locking bolts and the number of locking bolts would be the most important consideration.
 
Actually if I were to try for a wall safe set in concrete, first I would see if they had left the back open, yep I'd bust through the wall backing the safe to see if the whole thing is in concrete or just the face.

Then I would go after the door with
Cutting tool other than torch or sawzall ( torch is about the fastest, hence my prior reference)

Or cold chisels and a sledge

I wouldn't bother with the hinges, then don't matter

The reference to youtube is from a prior thread about RSC and how a "gunsafe" really aint a safe, and after you see the videos of how to bust them in 2min or less, you start to think, is this worth my money? Also the reason I haven't got one yet, just can't bring myself to pay for a paint job and fancy name.

FMJ before you go spouting safe master and crackhead jedi, go search failed gunsafe pics, my favorite was the sledge hammer, no cutting, just a few minutes to knock a 2 foot hole in the back, I believe it was the owners sledge hammer too.
 
Shadow 7D said:
FMJ before you go spouting safe master and crackhead jedi, go search failed gunsafe pics, my favorite was the sledge hammer, no cutting, just a few minutes to knock a 2 foot hole in the back, I believe it was the owners sledge hammer too.
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right. you're the expert here.
 
I'm having a gun safe installed tomorrow, Friday, there is a gun safe builder here in the town I live in here in Emmett, Idaho that builds very nice quality safes, he worked for Fort Knox safe builders in Utah for 20 yrs building there gun safes, these are not your
5-600.00$ safes these are very nice, give him a call, his name is Eric and his number is
369-1388, where abouts in S. Idaho are you located?? thanks.

Ron
 
Going out on a limb here, but..................... I bought a safe at Sam's Club a few years ago. I've been very happy with it. 1/4" steel plate for body and door, 1" chrome steel locking door pins, external hinges, @700lbs empty, and it cost around $700. Is it "the best"? Nope. Is it the most expensive? Nope. Will it do the job for the vast majority of "security detail" that I need? Yep. It's UL fire rated, but I don't recall the exact rating at this moment.

It is UGLY green, but hey, "I" wasn't buying a piece of designer furniture, some folks do. Sam's Club still sells it, it just says Winchester now, and NO, it is NOT made by Winchester. The manufacturer just paid a price to put the name on the door. Take a look at it and see what you think, it definately fits your budget for under $1000. It is around 60"t x 26"d x 30"w.

700lbs empty, and a thousand-ish "fully loaded", noone is going to toss it in the bed of a pickup. They might drag it out of my home with one, but that "might" get some unwanted attention. Get the picture? Given enough time and resources, NO safe is 100%, guaranteed, break-in proof.

External hinges do NOT make a safe easier to break into, provided it has internal locking pins. Once the hinges are cut, torched, whatever, the pins still hold the door in place, provided the pins are on ALL 4 sides of the door. Anyone that has that much time, will eventually get into it one way or the other, and most likely destroy the contents in the process. "Home" safes are designed to stop smash and grab, as well as motivated home burglars. They will NOT stop professional thieves, the FBI, CIA, or any other Government black ops group that are stealing your secret stash :banghead:

Just my .02
 
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