What About keeping an EMPTY gun safe?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Cosmoline

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
23,646
Location
Los Anchorage
The thought of putting all your best iron in a safe always seemed odd to me. It's the first place theives will go, and with some fairly basic tools and sufficient time they will get in. So why not simply buy a safe and leave it in the open, then conceal your iron in the frame of the house itself. Inside a wall, for example, behind a false partition.

I'm currently building my own house (well, big cabin) and my imp of the perverse would like to build a false safe against a wall which leads directly to a dog run, and train the dogs to come launching through the open safe door if anyone cracks it :D
 
Fake walls and hidden spaces are good, especially if they're only a few inches thick. Hardly anyone will pick up on them.
 
Where I live, all I do is put a 12pk of beer and a couple of bottles of MD 20/20 on the top of the safe. That way they will lose interest in the safe and just drink my cheap booze. j/k (maybe).

bob
 
Since I reload shotgun shells, a decoy safe might make a nice storage locker for 30 or so bags of shot.

Let's see them try to wrestle that up a flight of stairs. :D
 
Fire can find all your hiding spots and may not be able to get in the safe; which to me can be a more likely situation than theft.
 
The problem with "secret" hiding places is that they are rarely as secret as you think.

Also, unless you live in Ft. Knox, you can't really prevent a highly motivated, well-equipped professional burglar from getting your stuff.

The best you may be able to hope for is to sufficiently discourage teens, crackheads and other such riffraff.
 
I use a cheap handgun safe for the deception ruse. It has a .22 Co2 pellet gun and an old Daisy BB pistol inside it. A fake A/C vent can be a good hidey hole for a pistol. The real one's not so good as the air contains alot of humidity. The way I feel is: Take my TV, telephone, computer, microwave etc. just please don't take my guns.
 
Also, unless you live in Ft. Knox, you can't really prevent a highly motivated, well-equipped professional burglar from getting your stuff.
Click to expand...

Sure you can. You just have to spend millions on a vault/security system. :)
 
then there is the old quote;

"if you can think of a place to hide it, a burglar can think of a place to find it"


(especially, when you post them on the internet;) )
 
Nipprdog, i was thinking the same thing - "I'm so smart I keep a handgun in a plastic bag in my toilet tank, They'll never find it there"

If anybody who posted on that Cleveland Plain Dealer thread posts on this one......

If you want to find something hidden in a room, ask a hotel maid. They've seen all the hiding places.
 
"..and with some fairly basic tools and {{{sufficient time}}}} they will get in."

There ya go. Most burglars don't want to spend that much time in a house.
Concealing the safe is a good idea though.

I'm getting a safe for more than one reason. 1) It makes me feel better (if only an illusion) 2) Your avergage thief (juvenile) has no idea how to get in one. A safe full of guns and ammo is HEAVY and most thieves are not motivated or equipped to move it. 3) Bolted in the basement against two concrete walls offers a heck of a lot more fire protecion than nothing. 4) I don't want to keep a mental map of where my guns are and .....more importantly who might have access to them. A friend and co-worker of mine died from of a massive heart attack the other night. If something like that (or anything else) happened to me - I don't want my wife to have to have an Easter gun hunt in my home.
 
I think Atticus is right. Most burglars won't take the time to find creative hiding places. The obvious places are where most people keep pistols anyway - top shelf of closets, under the bed, dressers drawers, etc.

If you don't have a safe, less obvious places are the way to go with extra pistols not needed for defense - like in a pot in the back of the kitchen cabinet, behind some books in a bookshelf, in a flower pot with artificial flowers in it, the breast pocket of a suit hanging in your closet and whatever you can imagine. I think most burglars are after the quick items that can be fenced quickly like VCRs, stereos, jewelry, cash, etc. Most won't take the time or have the time to search every nook & cranny of your house. No hiding place is foolproof of course but if you don't have a safe don't make it easy for them.

I broke down a few years ago and got a safe and some gun vaults. I might lose the ones in gun vaults as those can be taken but I've got a number of back-ups.
 
Cos-"with some fairly basic tools and sufficient time they wiil get in." Not so. A myth perpetrated by TV/movies. I live in a log house. Took 7 people and a "chariot" to get my safe in. Had to reinforce the floor it's so big and heavy. Would take a lot of explosives to get it out. Basic tools will not get in my safe nor any "quality" safe. If you're talking about one of those lightweight, cheap, key-lock safes, then don't even bother getting one. A couple of good ole boys, a few six-packs and a pickup truck and your "cabinet" is gone. If you're gonna do it get a good quality safe that is both burglar and fire rated. And no, it won't be cheap. And by all means if you're in doubt as to size then get bigger. I have several friends who now each have 2 safes because they got the minimum size they needed, and after purchasing just a few more guns and some ammo they were out of room. Size matters-bigger is better.:D
 
Nipprdog, i was thinking the same thing - "I'm so smart I keep a handgun in a plastic bag in my toilet tank, They'll never find it there"
Click to expand...

If I were a burglar, that would be one of the first places I check while going through a house. People hide drugs there.

Also- I know how to make effective shaped thermite blocks for cutting into steel and iron. If I were a burglar, and I encountered a safe, I would break out the bricks, mag tube, blowtorch and mini fire extinguisher, and (eventually) drop the door off it.

It's a good thing I'm not a burglar.
 
Most burglars are in a hurry. They don't want to be caught. They know the common hiding places...sock drawer, under bed, top of closet....and they are also looking for other things like prescription drugs and the like. They are going to toss your place and run, probably within a couple minutes. A well made, secured, and anchored safe is the best way to go.
I'd love to hear from the cops here how many decent safes they've seen cracked...I'll bet its a low number.
 
A few basic tools won't get in my safe no matter how much time they have, and they sure aren't taking it anywhere since we had to remove a sliding glass door (both sides) to get it in. If they try a torch or a big hammer they'll trip relockers and then no one will get in!

I like the false safe/dogs idea though.... :p
 
I think the best safe would have to be build with the house under the slab. It would be made of poured concreat with rebar and have a good steel vault door. To get into the "antiroom" you would have to open a steel door with a good lock on it that is flush with the rest of the door.

So the robber would have to get past the first door and then into the vault to get at the guns.
 
You guys have a lot of disposable income if you're buying decoy safes and cheap guns for decoy purposes. I couldn't devote that much money to decoys.

Chris
 
"Not to mention a couple of cheap guns lying around for bait."

Sounds like TallPine finally found a use for the Hi Points.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

5
  • Locked
Safes and storage
Replies
10
Views
912
General Gun Discussions
Carlos Cabeza
C
S
  • Locked
interesting gun safe idea
Replies
15
Views
2K
General Gun Discussions
dmazur
D
Z
  • Locked
Gun Safe in Garage?
Replies
3
Views
612
General Gun Discussions
Pat-inCO
P
S
  • Locked
something to think about gun safes
Replies
33
Views
3K
General Gun Discussions
gulogulo1970
gulogulo1970
P
  • Locked
Gun safe in mobile home?
Replies
11
Views
8K
General Gun Discussions
just carl
J
Top Bottom
Back