Gun Safes

D

decanuck

Member
I am starting to look for a gun safe to secure my guns. ANyone with some experience with them? What do I need to look for as far as fire rating? It will be stored in my garage/basement. I couldn't seem to find much info on the web regarding fire ratings and consistency among safe manufacturers. Budget is up to 1500ish, but I'm looking for quality.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
I used to sell gun safes in my gun shop a few years ago. The safes that we sold are constructed in total using 1/4" plate. We had a customer that had a break in, his safe had a 1/4" door with gage material for the top and sides. The perps busted the sides and top of the safe with a pick-ax. Between guns, girlfriends jewelery and camera equipment he lost around $34,000. The safe company replaced the safe for free, which he sold and then bought one of ours. The safes that we sold are Drake Safes built locally here in Roxboro, Carolina. Greg Drake builds a first class safe and if you want to talk with him you can call him at 336-597-5059 I'm sure he'll be glad to talk to you. I have one of his safes in my home right now and probably have somewhere around 70-75 k worth of guns and jewelry inside. Keep in mind to keep your tax records in it and you can write it off on your taxes.

Just my experience! Sniper270
 
The best fire rateing you will get is an hour at 3000 degrees. If you have a house fire that burns that hot for that long nothing is going to help anyway. I like the sentry line of safes they are the makers for many of the Brand safes Browning, Cabelas, ect.Make sure you put your safe on a solid cement floor with no basement or crawlspace under it. They can be anchord down to a cement floor with very little problem and that make the safe a part of the floor so it cannot be moved whole. Oh yea, one other thing.
When looking at a safes capacity make sure you get half again or better yet twice what you need now. other wise you run out of space, and banging them around getting them in and out just will damage your firearms.
 
Buy one bigger than you think you need and get the best fire rating you can get. I bought one last year that was a what they call a 23-25 gun safe. 12 long guns. Seven of which have scopes on. It is getting pretty full. Due to the fact that every gun that has a scope on it takes up the space of 2 guns without. It has a fire rating of 1250 or 1425 degree for 45min. It was the best money that I spent. If I get a few more guns I'm going to be looking for one the same size or a little bigger to add to.
 
I think a minimum to start with is a 1500 degree burn at at least 45 minutes of burn time. But with the gun safe it truly is get the absolute best you can afford.

Heritage safe company was founded and is still local to my home town. I worked there for awhile while right after graduating High School and they are good quality safes. You may want to look into their safes.
 
I had a Fort Knox with a dial lock for several years and moved.I sold it and bought a bigger one last year from Cabela's.It was made by cannon and I had the electronic by S&G.Long story short I got locked out and it took a lock smith 2 days to get in it with drilling!! S&G is crappy to deal with as they would not return his calls while he was doing the work! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif It seems they changed the lock to a R something and they have a lot of problems like I had!!GET A DIAL LOCK with key!Cannon was also terrible to deal with!!! Yea I know the comercials and blah blah blah.I was lucky cause I had Cabelas to back me up and they took care of me.I ended up with one of there NEW Bronze series made by Liberty as a replacement.Its the Franklin series from Liberty made for Cabelas.Even the nice Lady at Liberty told me to get a Dial lock as they had issues also with the Electronic S&G.Surprised she told me that too.You see no one knows which ones they are installed on at this time.They look like there older ones by apperance.My lock smith never seen one so it took longer to drill it as S&G was no help!I love my new safe and it was a pleasure dealing with Liberty and Cabela"s as they even put it in my house up a flight of stairs at no charge to me!Not curbside.The fire rating stuff is nothing more than sheetrock on all of em.Get a big one as they fill up fast /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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The guys at Homeland Safes were very easy to deal with. I ended up with a great safe at a reasonable price that was customized to my needs, with a lot of extra features. Of course, now it's too small. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Check 'em out here
 
I recently (February) purchased a Remington, which is made by Liberty. If I remember correctly the one I got was 1500 degress for thirty minutes. My local Gander Mountain had them on sale at the same time I had made up my mind to get one. It was great for the piece of mind. Now all my guns (less one) are locked up with the important papers and jewelry that doesn't get worn too often.

My wife and I figured the worse the economy gets worse and gas gets higher and higher the more people are going to resort to stealing.
 
Quote:
The guys at Homeland Safes were very easy to deal with. I ended up with a great safe at a reasonable price that was customized to my needs, with a lot of extra features. Of course, now it's too small. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Check 'em out here



I have one of their dubbledore safe /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I had the little hangers on the back of each door installed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
I am glad I did /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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The advice about getting a bigger one than you think you will need is solid....
http://www.championsafe.com/



I can't say how important it is to listen to the advice above.

+1, +2, +3 etc... Spend the money now or you will have wasted it later.
 
The other thing you'all need to watch out for is the bolt guns in your safe will scratch the finish on your other guns and scopes in the safe with it.I scratched a nice Leupold my son gave me for Christmas. Remove the bolts from your rifles and it will allow more room also_Oh Yea! Don't forget to put the bolt back in the rifle when you go hunting, I drove 30 miles to hunt and pulled out the rifle at the tree stand and guess what.That safe is one of your most important investments.
 
I have had a Liberty Lincoln for two years now and am very happy with it, it's rated at 1200*F for 75 min. Like most are recommending get a safe bigger than what you need or expect your going to need, for some reason they fill up fast /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. And the bolt guns take up more than one spot(with the bolt in).
 
I recently ordered my 2nd safe due to serious gun overflow. I have a Browning with an S&G dial lock. After some research I was sure I wanted another dial lock & no electronics. I don't feel the need for extreme fire protection. Any solid safe provides better fire protection than the closet or under a bed. Of course it's a trade off with finances too. My main reasons are theft & unauthorized access.
My new safe will be a Zanotti, it is of the type you put together in the location where you want it. I've heard to many stories about electronic locks & it comes with a dial.
Anyway, that's my plan.
 
Make sure you buy all you can afford and get one twice the size you think you need. I bought one at bass pro that said it would hold 22 long guns and it is way to full with 15 in it I am in the market for another one now.
 
Check out Libertys Omega fire rating versus how the others are rated. As Stated in all other posts, buy the biggest and the best that you can afford!
 


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