Gun Safes or Residential Security Containers - Your Opinions and Experience

[djw]

I am looking for opinions/experience on buying a gunsafe.

What is the best value, in your opinion, in the market today?  What features are worth paying extra for, and which are just "fluff"?

Assume that I'm looking for 40-50 cubic feet, and am not that concerned about fire rating.

TIA.

Don

[AtlLaw]

I just bought 3 of the "Stack-on" brand safes from Dick's.  After comparing, pricing safes and shipping and agonizing over which safe to buy I settled on these.  Got them on sale and a little more off for buying 3 and got a better deal on local delivery and setup.  Fire rating was a consideration for me but really, anything else is just "fluff" to me.

So far I'm pleased with them but it seems safes never hold as many guns as they advertise.  I really could have used 4 of the 24 gun models.  The fellow who moved them for me has been in the safe business for 30+ years and when I asked him his opinion of their quality he told me that for all the name brands of safes you see, there are only 3 actual safe manufacturers.  So, I'd say figure out what you want, compare it with what is available and go for the best price.  Be sure to consider shipping, delivery and setup.  These things are HEAVY!

[corbanzo]

I would say in safes for the most part, you get what you pay for.

I have owned 4 different sheet metal safes (own two stack ons now) and if you had a big crow bar, you could get right in them.  If would take some bending, some muscle and some noise, but only take fifteen minutes to clean the safe out.  Mine have a three point locking system. 

Plate steel safes aren't going to let them access it with a crowbar, but they are heavy as $^#@.  If you have a way to get it where you want it, and are going to keep it there, I would recommend it.  I had to help move a plate steel safe from a basement, to the back room of another house a few years ago, it was a hassle.  There were three of us, and it was a small safe, maybe a ten rifle safe, but still heavy as hell, and a huge pain. 

I live in an area, where my safe is to keep "honest people honest."  I'm really not too worried about a break in.  If I lived somewhere else I would definitely upgrade.  I would get a plate steel safe with a double or triple cross bolt lock.  A small one like that will run you $700-1,000  Big ones up to 8 or 9 grand.  My 8 gun stack on ran me $200 I think.  When I lived in Arizona, I found an 8 gun at walmart, comparable to the stack on, for $70!!  I couldn't pass on a deal like that.  I sold it to a buddy of mine when I left for the exact same price I bought it for. 

My old man has a homak I think.  It is reinforced sheet metal, pretty good safe.  Tougher than the stack on, but similar design. 

I know people who have canons (people with much more money than I) and I tell you, they are huge.  You would need a tank to bust one of those things open. 

[AtlLaw]

I agree with Carbanzo and he brought up some points to clarify.
In my NSHO those sheet sheet metal cabinets, I wouldn't call them safes, aren't worth the money except, as he says, to keep honest people honest.  Get what he describes as a plate steel safe, crossbolt design.
Funny he should mention Wal-Mart.  They had safes at a pretty good price or so I thought.  Right at $600 for the 24 gun (you can look them up on their web site), but I think the shipping came to something like another $800 for 2 of them!  That's when I happened to stop by Dick's and found almost the exact same safe (the fire rating was 200 degrees higher - 1400) on sale.  I ended up getting the three of them for right at $500 each.
I could have gotten a 50 gun and a 24 gun for about the same price, but, like Cabanzo said, they are heavy; mine run about 400 lbs. empty.  Since my wife says we'll be buying another (hopefully our final) house in a couple of years the smaller safes will be easier to move.  Another consideration.
If I think of it the next time I go to my gun room I'll take a picture.

[GRIMJIM]

I agree you never seem to be able to get as many guns in them as they say you can. I have a cheap homak right now. I just got it to have a place to lock up away from the kids. Now I could use three more but I plan on moving in the next year or so and will wait to get a couple of decent safes. My friend bought a sentry(spell?) and when he moved last year he had to rent a stair walker to get it out of the basement. He wanted to put it in the loft of his new house but the stairs had a landing and it wouldn't make the turn. It looks good in his living room though. He even decorates it for christmas.

[AtlLaw]

I will NEVER try to move one of those things!  The guy I got to do it charged me $200 to pick them up from the store (about 5 miles from my house) deliver and set them up in my basement.  Money well spent as far as I'm concerned!  However, it would have been a lot more if there were stairs, turns, etc. involved.  As far as putting them in the living room goes... you ain't met my wife has you boy!

[GRIMJIM]

  He moved because of a divorce so he doesn't have that problem anymore.

[SDS-GEN]

If you aren't concerned about it being fireproof buy the cheapest one you can find.  None of the gun safes on the market are burglary rated.  That means they are easy for a thief to break into with hand tools and super easy for them to get into with power tools.  Like someone else said, they keep honest people honest and that's about it.

Burglary rated safes will have a "T" or "TL" rating from UL.  The tag will look like this "T-20",  "TL-30", or "TL-15"  the number following the letter is how many minutes it takes an experienced thief to break in.  If you are in no hurry to get a safe you can probably get an old vault, that is burglary rated, very cheap.  Put the word out that you are looking for one, watch for stores that are going out of business, especially jewelry stores, and let them know you are looking for a safe.  You can probably buy one and have it moved for under $1000, maybe much less.  I picked up my current gun safe for free (actually, I traded a couple hours of labor for it) the guy was closing an office and didn't have room for it.  I got several friends together and moved it, its in my basement now and will never leave.  I got a smaller safe yesterday for free because the guy who owned it didn't want to move it down the stairs, it probably weighs 300-400 lbs.  Also bought a burglary/fire rated vault for a business a month ago for $750, its big enough to hold at least 24 long guns.

[SDS-GEN]

I picked this one up for free.  It ended up costing around $100 to rent a pallet jack(that I didn't really need) and lumber to shore up the staircase it was going down, and a bunch of labor(read-buy a case of beer and pizza and invite a few friends over).  The safe weighs around 1200 lbs, it has a 2 hour fire rating and a T-20 burglary rating.  I took the shelves and a lock box out of the inside and refinished it to hold 16 long guns (it really holds 16 rifles) it could be made to hold 24 to 30 long guns except that I put in some shelves to hold other things.  It is what Corbanzo called plate steel (it is made of hardened steel plate) and is probably 60-70 years old.  The lock box is just the right size to store loose powder in.

I almost bought a new safe and am very glad I didn't now, as I said in my earlier post these old safes aren't too hard to come by.  Don't expect to get a new state-of-the-art vault cheap, the guy who owns it remembers that it cost $6000-$7000 and won't part with it for a tenth it's original price.  The guy who is closing his store to retire and bought his safe used or got it the same way you want to 30 years ago will probably give it to you cheap, old vaults add nothing to the sale price of his property and he doesn't want to move the thing.

[Land_Owner]

I bought an attractive 16 gun capacity American Security combination lock safe in Hunter Green (shown here) http://www.ammoattic.com/id68.html and have been extremely pleased.  Fire proof for two hours, weighs over 660 pounds, really nice display.

From work I received two document safes that would ordinarily hold 36" x 48" engineering drawings similar to the Ultima-file from SAFCO http://www.biz2bizonline.com/safco/ultima-files.html .  My intention is to upend them, construct shelves, and store my bullets, powders, primers, and handloading components in them.