skywalkrNCSU
Member
thanks for all the ideas guys, I am definitely thinking of putting some new things together
Securing firearms w/out a safe?
- Thread starter skywalkrNCSU
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Skywalkr;
I'd suggest going to www.corneredcat.com & reading the article there entitled "Securing Firearms In The Home?". It covers many of the points that concern you.
900F
I'd suggest going to www.corneredcat.com & reading the article there entitled "Securing Firearms In The Home?". It covers many of the points that concern you.
900F
jakemccoy
Member
In your position, I would be thinking about securing the guns from kids, wandering guests and petty thieves. A dedicated thief will get your stuff no matter what, especially if it's a humble, little apartment.
There are some good suggestions above. A small Stack-On safe may do the trick. Also, consider fortifying your bedroom door (or whatever) with stronger material and then putting a simplex lock on the door. If you do it right, it'll cost you at least a few hundred bucks, which is relatively cheap.
Generally, stop buying guns, etc., until you work on securing your guns. It is your responsibility, and it will ease your mind and save you from future heartache.
There are some good suggestions above. A small Stack-On safe may do the trick. Also, consider fortifying your bedroom door (or whatever) with stronger material and then putting a simplex lock on the door. If you do it right, it'll cost you at least a few hundred bucks, which is relatively cheap.
Generally, stop buying guns, etc., until you work on securing your guns. It is your responsibility, and it will ease your mind and save you from future heartache.
Dan Forrester
Member
Whatever you guys have, bolt it down as securely as possible!
About two weeks I helped my friend move his RSC into his new rental. When we finally got it down onto the floor I told him to bolt it down as soon as he got the chance. He and his wife thought I was crazy since it probably weighed 600 pounds. I insisted that four guys who didn’t care about scratching the paint or banging anything up could have it out of there in less than a minute.
Well sure enough as of yester day the safe is gone. Along with it went 2 FALs a home built AR and an LMT 12” barreled piston driven registered SBR AR15. Luckally he had his two suppressors and two Glocks with him at the time.
I bolt my safe down with tapcons and fender washers into concrete. It stays at my parent’s house since they don’t move around as much as I do.
I’m moving this coming Monday and am planning on tapconing a steel floor mount like this one in my new apartment for my Noveske / LMT hybrid SBR AR15 that always goes with me.
http://www.trimaxlocks.com/_e/ULTRA_MAX_CHAIN_LOCKS/product/TFA6/TFA6_WALL_FLOOR_ANCHOR.htm
http://www.lockitt.com/lockdown.htm
When I leave I’ll just pull up the tapcons.
Dan
About two weeks I helped my friend move his RSC into his new rental. When we finally got it down onto the floor I told him to bolt it down as soon as he got the chance. He and his wife thought I was crazy since it probably weighed 600 pounds. I insisted that four guys who didn’t care about scratching the paint or banging anything up could have it out of there in less than a minute.
Well sure enough as of yester day the safe is gone. Along with it went 2 FALs a home built AR and an LMT 12” barreled piston driven registered SBR AR15. Luckally he had his two suppressors and two Glocks with him at the time.
I bolt my safe down with tapcons and fender washers into concrete. It stays at my parent’s house since they don’t move around as much as I do.
I’m moving this coming Monday and am planning on tapconing a steel floor mount like this one in my new apartment for my Noveske / LMT hybrid SBR AR15 that always goes with me.
http://www.trimaxlocks.com/_e/ULTRA_MAX_CHAIN_LOCKS/product/TFA6/TFA6_WALL_FLOOR_ANCHOR.htm
http://www.lockitt.com/lockdown.htm
When I leave I’ll just pull up the tapcons.
Dan
Animal Mother
Member
If you put aside the moral responsibility to keep guns out of the easy reach of thieves, and the potential loss of a firearm with sentimental value, you may be well served by buying insurance against theft. For example, Collectibles Insurance Services LLC provides up to $8,000 of firearm theft protection (in a home with no safeguards) for less than $50 a year.
Another thing you may want to think about is adding security in layers, by the time the perp has made in to your safe or non-safe, they've already breached your best deterrents/protection.
First off, don't advertise to people that you have guns in your apartment. Many people who are victims of burglary are robbed by supposed friends or by acquaintances of friends who blabbed. Don't put stickers on your car or front door advertising "Protected by Smith and Wesson" or some such nonsense. Do put stickers on your front door/window advertising that you have a monitored alarm system even if you don't. However, there are security systems out there that don't require permanent modification or monthly monitoring, X10.com being one example. An X10 system can be installed in a day and removed later leaving only a few tiny holes that can be touched up with a little cup of drywall spackle. There is a Moderator on this board that uses one of their systems and likes it. You can get a decent little system from X10 for a little over $100.
When you move to a house, add deadbolts and a dog. Cut back high shrubs and heavy vegetation that would provide cover for someone coming through a window. Build good relationships with your neighbors, they can keep an eye out and call you if they see something suspicious going on around your house. Inside your house, hide your guns or gun safe as well as possible. A false wall in a closet can be made for just a few bucks and can be removed with just a little work without permanent damage to an apartment or house. Lock up any tools that could be used against your cable locks, or gun safe or whatever you are using to secure the weapons in the house.
The key is to just make your place an unattractive target. You don't have to make it a fortress, just unattractive enough that the bad guys will go elsewhere.
Another thing you may want to think about is adding security in layers, by the time the perp has made in to your safe or non-safe, they've already breached your best deterrents/protection.
First off, don't advertise to people that you have guns in your apartment. Many people who are victims of burglary are robbed by supposed friends or by acquaintances of friends who blabbed. Don't put stickers on your car or front door advertising "Protected by Smith and Wesson" or some such nonsense. Do put stickers on your front door/window advertising that you have a monitored alarm system even if you don't. However, there are security systems out there that don't require permanent modification or monthly monitoring, X10.com being one example. An X10 system can be installed in a day and removed later leaving only a few tiny holes that can be touched up with a little cup of drywall spackle. There is a Moderator on this board that uses one of their systems and likes it. You can get a decent little system from X10 for a little over $100.
When you move to a house, add deadbolts and a dog. Cut back high shrubs and heavy vegetation that would provide cover for someone coming through a window. Build good relationships with your neighbors, they can keep an eye out and call you if they see something suspicious going on around your house. Inside your house, hide your guns or gun safe as well as possible. A false wall in a closet can be made for just a few bucks and can be removed with just a little work without permanent damage to an apartment or house. Lock up any tools that could be used against your cable locks, or gun safe or whatever you are using to secure the weapons in the house.
The key is to just make your place an unattractive target. You don't have to make it a fortress, just unattractive enough that the bad guys will go elsewhere.
Last edited:
LibertyCalls
Member
If you were a thief, would you look in a box of (insert food product here) for firearms or jewelry?
nope. you wouldn't.
try putting them in places that aren't "all the normal places."
plus, you're popcorn will have that nice, pistol smell you like so much.
nope. you wouldn't.
try putting them in places that aren't "all the normal places."
plus, you're popcorn will have that nice, pistol smell you like so much.
jakemccoy
Member
I have to imagine that smash-and-grab thieves go in and rec everything - turning crap over, busting walls, breaking stuff, etc. There's no "looking". There's "going in and tearing crap up with maniacal force."
Plan accordingly.
Plan accordingly.
Nate1778
Member
Get a Stack On, they are beefy enough to keep the kids and most adults out. It would take a bit of work to get into one.
hogmanahoo.com
Member
ive seen a friend use 2 eyebolts and chain and a padlock to secure his weapons in the closet
I've often used the cable and added a small security alarm. I like to use the alarms that are wireless and dial several preprogrammed numbers. The alarms are there to rush the theives so they don't have time to thoroughly search or cut the cables...
Yoda
Member
Get out of the box
Thieves WILL almost always look in all the obvious places. The suggestions to hide things in food boxes in the pantry is a good one. Also think of hiding small firearms under bathroom sinks, behind pots and pans, and so on. Make the bad guys take the time to play hide and seek.
That being said, my step-daughter and her husband had their house broken into in the middle of the day. The husband-and-wife burglary team was not very astute. They took the computers, but they didn't find the .357 on a closet shelf nor the .22 rifle under the bed, which are probably the two most obvious places. My step-daughter had the serial numbers for much of the computer gear, and that helped A LOT when the stupid criminals tried to pawn them.
I'd leave a small $50 pistol or document safe visible in an obvious place. Keep it locked. Also keep if filled with some heavy piece of metal junk. Let the burglars run out the door with that. I do something similar already. Some in-laws were keeping ammo in a small battery operated safe that I loans them, and they didn't change the battery after the safe started beeping, and now the ammo is locked up tight. In fadct, I can't get into the safe at all! If some crook wants to run away with that little safe, it's no big deal to me but it will be a big disappointment to him! As I said, this isn't hidden, so maybe they'll see this first and take it before the cops respond to the alarm.
Another thing I do is keep big jars full of loose change around the house. There's probably several hundred dollars in these. If some kids break in, they might be tempted to take these and run. They won't be able to run very fast, and with their arms full of glass jars filled with hard coin, they won't be able to carry much else with them.
Before I got my gun safe, I kept my guns at a friend's house. He didn't have a safe either, but he was home all day, so at least they were under observation. At other times, I've kept my guns in a climate-controlled self-storage unit. If they were stolen, there would at least be video of who was in the area at the time.
- - - Yoda
======================
Thieves WILL almost always look in all the obvious places. The suggestions to hide things in food boxes in the pantry is a good one. Also think of hiding small firearms under bathroom sinks, behind pots and pans, and so on. Make the bad guys take the time to play hide and seek.
That being said, my step-daughter and her husband had their house broken into in the middle of the day. The husband-and-wife burglary team was not very astute. They took the computers, but they didn't find the .357 on a closet shelf nor the .22 rifle under the bed, which are probably the two most obvious places. My step-daughter had the serial numbers for much of the computer gear, and that helped A LOT when the stupid criminals tried to pawn them.
I'd leave a small $50 pistol or document safe visible in an obvious place. Keep it locked. Also keep if filled with some heavy piece of metal junk. Let the burglars run out the door with that. I do something similar already. Some in-laws were keeping ammo in a small battery operated safe that I loans them, and they didn't change the battery after the safe started beeping, and now the ammo is locked up tight. In fadct, I can't get into the safe at all! If some crook wants to run away with that little safe, it's no big deal to me but it will be a big disappointment to him! As I said, this isn't hidden, so maybe they'll see this first and take it before the cops respond to the alarm.
Another thing I do is keep big jars full of loose change around the house. There's probably several hundred dollars in these. If some kids break in, they might be tempted to take these and run. They won't be able to run very fast, and with their arms full of glass jars filled with hard coin, they won't be able to carry much else with them.
Before I got my gun safe, I kept my guns at a friend's house. He didn't have a safe either, but he was home all day, so at least they were under observation. At other times, I've kept my guns in a climate-controlled self-storage unit. If they were stolen, there would at least be video of who was in the area at the time.
- - - Yoda
======================
Hungry Seagull
member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2009
- Messages
- 2,167
My safe is bolted down. It is also at least two walls towards the interior of home away from any window. Any doo hickey billy john with a long chain through winder with pickup truck can yank the whole thing and gone.
What Billy john does not know is that safe only contains papers. Stuff that can be canceled in a few moments phone call. But it might contain a pistol from time to time. But since I have recieved CCW, that is no longer true.
Now the guns? Hmm. The guns... really cannot do too much about them. I am sort of working on a premise that the home is occupied 24/7 and at least one gun will oppose the break in.
If we are away from the home... well, all guns are insured and the handgun rides with me on my belt along with C2 Taser. If we come back to a home broken into, we stay out of it and call in the LEO's to clear it.
We have been making plans to put a small gun safe that can be bolted to the wall and floor. It wont stop any real thieving only slow them down.
One local told me I was very stupid to put all this money into guns and not a few hundred for a basic safe. We are working on it.
One of my previous friends owned a home that had places in the walls where you simply had paper in specific spots. Punch, wrap fingers around a panel and rip and voila! A gun compartment ready to go between studs. One was in the ceiling itself over a archway between rooms.
Who knew?
Maybe one day both shotguns will find a home in a certain spot without a safe and I dont think anyone is that tall and willing to go hollow space knocking all the day looking for wall vaults. (There are none.)
You will be surprised what two or three BIG fellas can do when motivated for time and money.
I remember a pair in Georgia who unloaded my trailer one day. Each stood 6 foot 8 and thier weights were simply past 350. I was looking at thier belt buckles as big as they were. Thier arms were bigger than my legs. I stand 6 foot but man, what lifting they did.
I had iceboxes on that trailer... the kenmores and such, the ones you store food in the kitchen.
One will pick it up and walk away with it while other assisted with rounding corners and such.
Whew.
I know for a fact that both of them can rip safe out of floor and throw it through the winder into thier truck. No need to walk out door carrying the thing as heavy as it is.
It is a wonderful gift Me thinks as long it's used for good things. And really evil when used for criminal enterprises.
What Billy john does not know is that safe only contains papers. Stuff that can be canceled in a few moments phone call. But it might contain a pistol from time to time. But since I have recieved CCW, that is no longer true.
Now the guns? Hmm. The guns... really cannot do too much about them. I am sort of working on a premise that the home is occupied 24/7 and at least one gun will oppose the break in.
If we are away from the home... well, all guns are insured and the handgun rides with me on my belt along with C2 Taser. If we come back to a home broken into, we stay out of it and call in the LEO's to clear it.
We have been making plans to put a small gun safe that can be bolted to the wall and floor. It wont stop any real thieving only slow them down.
One local told me I was very stupid to put all this money into guns and not a few hundred for a basic safe. We are working on it.
One of my previous friends owned a home that had places in the walls where you simply had paper in specific spots. Punch, wrap fingers around a panel and rip and voila! A gun compartment ready to go between studs. One was in the ceiling itself over a archway between rooms.
Who knew?
Maybe one day both shotguns will find a home in a certain spot without a safe and I dont think anyone is that tall and willing to go hollow space knocking all the day looking for wall vaults. (There are none.)
You will be surprised what two or three BIG fellas can do when motivated for time and money.
I remember a pair in Georgia who unloaded my trailer one day. Each stood 6 foot 8 and thier weights were simply past 350. I was looking at thier belt buckles as big as they were. Thier arms were bigger than my legs. I stand 6 foot but man, what lifting they did.
I had iceboxes on that trailer... the kenmores and such, the ones you store food in the kitchen.
One will pick it up and walk away with it while other assisted with rounding corners and such.
Whew.
I know for a fact that both of them can rip safe out of floor and throw it through the winder into thier truck. No need to walk out door carrying the thing as heavy as it is.
It is a wonderful gift Me thinks as long it's used for good things. And really evil when used for criminal enterprises.
See if your local library can obtain a book titled "Everybody's got something to hide". I can't recall the author's name but he started a one man company in New York City by building secret places into people's homes and apartments. If you use your imagination you'll start seeing opportunities everywhere. Most smash and grab theives won't spend the time required to do a detailed search of your premises. In most homes the bedroom closets have hollow walls that can only be seen from inside the closet. Cutting them open and building simple shelves into the studs is effective after the closet is filled with hanging clothes because you can't see it unless all the clothes are removed. The wall above a sliding closet door inside the closet can be opened up and used to store handguns. A full length mirror for your wife can cover an opening in the wall. False walls in the back of a closet also work well. Remove and hinge a stair tread board. Most criminals don't have the intelligence or imagination or the time to find hiding places if they're well camouflaged. If you know someone who does drywall work they can create great hiding places.
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