doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun Safes

What are the best gun safes available???

I think you'll receive a lot more useful responses if you descrie your requirements for the safe in a little more detail. Are you just looking for a list of name reputable brands/makers who can provide a high-quality, fire-resisitant safe?

There is no one "best" safe. There are several makers who can provide an quality gun safe. Eveyone has their favorite, but you would be splitting hairs to find agreement on a "best.". Just like there are many high-quality car makers who can provide you an otustanding automobile.

Not trying to be flippant.

Ken

Ken is quite right. If you have the room, IMO the better bet is to buy a vault door and construct your own vault of reinforced poured concrete, walls, ceiling, and floor, and install a nice dehumidifier system. I did, and wouldn't have anything else now. I bought a Browning vault door, there are others available as well. Finish the interior with carpeting on the floors, a commercial grade grey plain carpet on the walls (has a foam back and helps deaden any accidental blow of a barrel against the walls) and whatever you want on the ceiling. Add shelving, racks, suit yourself.

Looking for a safe that has very good burglar resistance and fire retardant, most important burglar resistance. Spoke with a locksmith once who said most were very easy to break into. Any safe can be opened but if it is hard enough they will not try. Just looking for a Brand name recommendation. The locksmith said that it is easy to break into the side of most gun safes and reach in and take out the guns. Thanks

Gomiata,
I am the Field Services Manager for a company that supplies most of the weapons/classified document vaults to the government. Any good vault and safe tech should be able to defeat a safe after having a little time to examine the locking/latching mechanism. A good thief is capable of doing the same. The problem I have with commercial gun safes is they are available for inspection in multiple places, with brochures describing how their mechanisms work.
When I built my personal safe, I did it in a way never done
before, with a locking mechanism of my own design. It would take a while for anyone to get in, even a skilled vault tech. I am completely confident that no burglar would be able to open this unit. Unfortunately, the way it is designed, any forced entry attempt disables the mechanism, and the only way in at that time is cutting it open, even for me.
Any commercial gun safe will provide the average gun owner with protection from the typical home break in. For examle, a druggie, or a couple deadbeats looking for some easily obtained loot. If you are looking for protection from any skilled burglar, the vault door on a poured concrete vault is a much better option.
As for fire protection, take that with a grain of salt. My safe is made of 5/8ths" Astroloy plate. For heat protection it has a layer of 5/8th" cement board against the steel, followed by a layer of 1 1/2" Kaowool fire blanket, then a second layer of 5/8ths" cement board. The final interior finish is a high temperature textured paint. I didn't want anything flammable next to the items inside, so no carpet. I don't know what the outcome would be in a fire, but I would not expect things to be undamaged.
If you have a high dollar collection, I would opt for a custom built safe, or better yet go with the reinforced concrete vault and a GSA certified vault door. A monitered home protection system, would alert police and allow them to respond quickly enough to stop the thieves before they could open the vault door.

It sounds like you are looking for a ready-made unit. You'll want to take measurements carefully including any doorways you want to get through. Ultimately, when you get it where it will sit el permanente, BOLT it to the floor. I don't think any yahoo burgler will take the time to defeat that precaution. Also, you might want to re-construct door ways to make it that much more difficult to get the thing out. I did that sort of inadvertently by buying a safe that would not fit through one door that it had to go through. No problem, I ripped the door frame off; put the safe where it was going, then rebuilt the door frame. I think that was a pretty good solution until it's time to move it down the road.

I have two. An American Security and a Cannon. I don't care at all for the Cannon even though it is a lot fancier. Sometimes I have to run the combination on the Cannon six or seven times before it will open. And yes I am doing it right. It has been doing that since it was new and it is very frustrating sometimes. When I first got it I kept hearing something rolling around in the door when I opened and closed it. I finally took the inside cover off of the door and there was a large pin about four inches long laying in the bottom of the door. It was off of the locking device, but it was a spare that someone had dropped when they made the safe. I noticed there was an identical pin in the lock. But, I bought it at Tractor Supply for a very good price, so I don't complain that much.

Several years ago I researched the same question. My decision was to have a safe built for me by Graffunder safes.

http://www.graffundersafes.com/

Their product is head and shoulders above any commercial "gun safes" on the market.

Curl

Gil,

Remember most burglars will go the fast and easy route- I doubt they would take the time to move the safe out by doorway.

I method we saw a few years ago was to pull the safe through the side of the house by use of a wire rope and lift the safe into a truck and drive. These folks hit more than a few houses in the area. Damage to the houses was extreme as well as loss of the guns.

Bolting to the floor is a good move in any event.


al

Mine is in the basement. 28 gun capacity waterproof/fireproof for an hour or so. Weighs 800 lbs. It took 5 of us to get it down the stars working WITH gravity and a right hand turn. It barely fit through the doorway, I mean it squeaked. I don't think any crook could get it out of there. I will sell it with the house when the time comes.