Gun safes---Who has them, what brand, opinions

Bought a Liberty Washington about 10 years ago and love it. Couldn't get the sides to bulge enough so put a Liberty Lincoln in another room last year.

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Have a Browning and I also love it as somebody said earlier, its a 24 with the elec lock the batteries seem to last about 2 years and it gets opened about every other day (not bad on the batts) ,its really fast to open also ,only 6 buttons to push no tring to hit 3 or 4 # under any pressure if you know what I mean!!!!!!!!!
 
I like my Lincoln safe. I like Browning safes too and almost bought one but did not like the rack mounted on the inside of the door. That did not work for me. If you can afford one the National Security safes are real nice too. Get a safe bigger that what you need now. Keep it low profile and it will provide you with some piece of mind. They are pretty heavy duty so you should be able to pass it on to your kids! Greg
 
Grizz here.
I bought a Browning pro steel about 20 years ago it weighs 800 lbs empty it's a great safe the locking bolts each have indvidual cams that retract the bolts. The new Brownings
are no longer built this way the bolts are attached to a vertical bar that is tied to the retract mech. A shortcut in the manufacturing process. Also the fit and finish is not what they use to be. This year I bought a Fort Knox Yeager safe. I had it built to order. It took two months. It is 72 X 42 X 27 and weighs 1850 lbs empty.
I researched all brands this time. Deans security in Van nuys Cal is the largest gun safe dealer here on the west coast and they have all brands in thier showroom. I got to compair side by side and nothing compared to the Fort Knox
Yeager. The fire rating, steel thickness, finish ect. It has a stainless steel liner inside safe within a safe to guard against a torch attack. It has 27, 1 1/2 inch dia locking bolts each on thier individual rack and pinion gear system. It even has locking bolts on each corner at a 45 degree angle. Ball bearing hard plate in critical areas, stainless steel out side door plate so a magnetic drill can not be used. the main door plate is 3/8 inch thick. The overall thickness of the door is about 6 inch thick, on and on it's not a safe, it's a freaking vault. Has far as finish, it is platnum in color with four external heavy duty hinges that give it that old west style. Black chrome hardware on the dial lock frame, hinge caps and five star handle. Dark grey Fort Knox logo, pin stripeing, of course a "Grizz" with the mountains in the backround silhouette graphics. It looks good in my living room under my 350 net BC 7X7 bull elk. My second choice would be the Fort Knox Titan, or the Liberty Presidential safe. Rick
 
I have an older Browning Gold and it does the job well and looks good doing it. I have seen a lot of nice safes lately at the gunshows. I think that they are all pretty good, it would just depend on how you wanted the inside to be laid out.

One trick to increase the capacity of your safe is to alternate muzzle-up, muzzle-down along the rails. Frees up a lot of room and eliminates dinged up stocks and barrels.
 
I have been a Locksmith and Safe tech. for 7 years now. If you look at an Amsec (American Security) these are excellent safes. If you get the Fire/Burglary safe and you have a fire or if someone attempts to break in, Amsec will pay to have the safe opened and replace it at no charge! I have done three of these like this, they stand behind their product fantastic.

With that said take a good look at the Fort Knox safes. Most safes have 6 bolts in the door (to prevent prying) the last Fort Knox I looked at had 14 or so. Both are American made. Also I have had several customers either buy another safe or camplain because they didnt get a large enough one. You will buy it for the guns and then realize how much other important stuff you really should put in there.
And finally don't get to hung up on how long the fire rating is. Remember paper burns at 451 degrees and most will keep a inner temp at 350 degrees from anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours at outside temps of 1200 to 1850 degrees. Most house fires last less than 40 minutes and would not sustain those temps the entire time. Good Luck
 
+1 on buying bigger than you currently need...though maybe not twice the size. Safes of that size/weight are a bear to handle if there are stairs or tight corridors or door openings involved.

I bought a nice Fort Knox, fire resistant model with a 3/4 gun- 1/4 shelves interior. It claims to hold 24 guns, but that would be 24 un-scoped guns. Be sure to factor this in if you have many scoped rifles, especially large varmint or target scopes!

Also, especially long rifles (my Serbu .50, and my Trapdoor Springfield) will only fit in the front, where the overhead shelf doesn't extend to. This means they have to be moved every time I need access to the rear guns. Just something to consider.

+1 also on bolting to the slab, and to the GoldenRod dehumidifier.

Interior lighting of some sort is a huge help as well

Oh, and manual combo lock vs. electronic is good advice.
 
Quote:
I have been a Locksmith and Safe tech. for 7 years now. If you look at an Amsec (American Security) these are excellent safes. If you get the Fire/Burglary safe and you have a fire or if someone attempts to break in, Amsec will pay to have the safe opened and replace it at no charge! I have done three of these like this, they stand behind their product fantastic.

With that said take a good look at the Fort Knox safes. Most safes have 6 bolts in the door (to prevent prying) the last Fort Knox I looked at had 14 or so. Both are American made. Also I have had several customers either buy another safe or camplain because they didnt get a large enough one. You will buy it for the guns and then realize how much other important stuff you really should put in there.
And finally don't get to hung up on how long the fire rating is. Remember paper burns at 451 degrees and most will keep a inner temp at 350 degrees from anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours at outside temps of 1200 to 1850 degrees. Most house fires last less than 40 minutes and would not sustain those temps the entire time. Good Luck



+1 on American Security safes. Just wish I had more to put into it. Also, if you have a Tractor Supply company nearby, check out their safes. Good buys on all the models I've seen.
 
Champion... From the right dealer you can get a great price on a large safe. I bought the largest Champion they make and it was the best decision I could have made.
 
My dad has a Liberty, and it is a nice safe. I looked at a lot of safes before I bought mine, and I found that the Browning safes were the best buy for the money. They had all the bells and whistles at a reasonable price. I looked at the cannon safes but decided that their construction just wasn't that good. There was a noticable difference in quality between the Browning and the Cannon, so I went with the Browning.
 
Thanks for all the replies, gentlemen. I think I'm going to continue to do my homework, wait for Uncle Sam to send me a refund (if there's any left), and look for a sale. Feel free to continue to post up opinions or pics of how you have your safe configured.

Thanks, again.

Pete
 
I have a custom Sturdy Safe that I got in 2000 for a bit under $600 delivered to my door. I found out they ran a special with heavy & thicker steel, just primer painted for xmas that year and although not fire lined I bought it. Yes get one bigger then you think you will need, mine is 36" wide X 28" deep, holds 40 long guns and has shelves for your other stuff.
I ended up lining it myself with fireboard for under $100 total, same stuff in every fire line safe that you can get at the big box improvment stores.
 
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