Gun Safes

Any recommendations from gun safe owners, looking to buy one and was hoping for some advice on what to look for in quality,
or what not to buy that may just be fluf or sume kined of unneded sales gimmick?

The number one thing to compare is the fire rating for temperature and time. Liberty Safes are probably the best. They also come with a Premium cost

The biggest thing I’d look at carefully is does the safe REALLY have enough space?

The number of guns the manufacturers claim these safes will hold is total BS. Unless your gun collection is all Daisy Red Ryder BB guns, there is no way most 24 gun safes will hold 24 real guns.

Also, the vast majority of safes out there have limited spaces to accommodate scoped rifles, which needs a deeper offset to accommodate their scoped height. And if you have scoped AR platforms, it’s even worse. Some safes will not handle these at all. This is a constant issue with my safes, I don’t have near enough slots for scoped rifles.

IMO, if you took the average number of guns the maker claims the safe will hold, then cut it in half, you’d be far closer to the actual, comfortable capacity of the safe. This is certainly one of those times when you want to go bigger beause otherwise, you’ll end up like me, with multiple safes.

Also, invest in good lights inside the safe and a good dehumidification system. I added LED lights to mine because otherwise, it’s dang near impossible to see inside these things.

I’m not as concerned about fire rating or massive size/metal thickness. No burglar is going to try to crack a gun safe. Today’s house fires tend not to be jetfuel infernos, they tend to be smoldering fires that do lots of smoke and water damage. Also, the biggest threat to most homeowners firearms is flooding and water damage, not fire. Homes are far more likely to experience flooding than they are a significant fire and water does far more damage, more quickly than fire. IMO, good insurance is a better investment.

Grouse

One thing that I am think, are Digital key locks or mechanical locks the thing to use?
seen a deal on Old Glory safes still more that I was spending, never heard of them before?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

The biggest thing I’d look at carefully is does the safe REALLY have enough space?

The number of guns the manufacturers claim these safes will hold is total BS. Unless your gun collection is all Daisy Red Ryder BB guns, there is no way most 24 gun safes will hold 24 real guns.

Also, the vast majority of safes out there have limited spaces to accommodate scoped rifles, which needs a deeper offset to accommodate their scoped height. And if you have scoped AR platforms, it’s even worse. Some safes will not handle these at all. This is a constant issue with my safes, I don’t have near enough slots for scoped rifles.

IMO, if you took the average number of guns the maker claims the safe will hold, then cut it in half, you’d be far closer to the actual, comfortable capacity of the safe. This is certainly one of those times when you want to go bigger beause otherwise, you’ll end up like me, with multiple safes.

Also, invest in good lights inside the safe and a good dehumidification system. I added LED lights to mine because otherwise, it’s dang near impossible to see inside these things.

I’m not as concerned about fire rating or massive size/metal thickness. No burglar is going to try to crack a gun safe. Today’s house fires tend not to be jetfuel infernos, they tend to be smoldering fires that do lots of smoke and water damage. Also, the biggest threat to most homeowners firearms is flooding and water damage, not fire. Homes are far more likely to experience flooding than they are a significant fire and water does far more damage, more quickly than fire. IMO, good insurance is a better investment.

Grouse

Ditto to every word! Make sure you have enough space for your guns, if it says 24 it is really 12. I like my Field & Stream I picked up on the cheap at Dicks!

I have a Liberty 36 gun. I wish now I would have gone with the 60. After you have one, you will wonder why it took so long to get one. Half of our safe has our kids scrapbooks in it. One of the better investments I made. Just get a big one.

Have a liberty wish I had gotten a bigger one. Personally I’d prefer a combo lock over electronic. less to break. if the electronic part malfunctions and you can’t go in there to go hunting can’t imagine the frustration.

thanks all, that helps narrow the choices

Also, be sure to have plenty of help putting it in your house, especially if it involves going up/down stairs. If needing to go downstairs, rent a “lift dolly”…it’ll be so much easier, but you’ll still need a lot of help. I bought a Liberty “Fatboy”, and had to go down 7 steps…”let’s just say that if I ever move, it gets sold with the house!”

I do like the safe though.

Grouse is partially right with the fire comments. Yes, in most cases the safe isn’t subjected to 1600 degrees at 1.5 hours.

Safe companies do not rate safes for smoke and water. In a residential house fire, the majority of damage is water and smoke. Therefore, having the best sealed safe will protect its contents from more than just heat.
If you doubt this, I have a client you can speak to. Cheap safe in a non-fire effected part of his home. Smoke and water destroyed all his firearms.

I thought size was just a common sense thing, so I didn’t mention it. Go at least 3 x what manufacture claims. I have 4 – 24 gun safes. My long guns average 8 plus accessories. We also use for documents, so shelf space in 2 were critical

Jim Clark wrote:

Also, be sure to have plenty of help putting it in your house, especially if it involves going up/down stairs. If needing to go downstairs, rent a “lift dolly”…it’ll be so much easier, but you’ll still need a lot of help. I bought a Liberty “Fatboy”, and had to go down 7 steps…”let’s just say that if I ever move, it gets sold with the house!”

I do like the safe though.

X100! I recently got roped into helping a buddy move one into his basement. He had it dropped on a pallet on the gravel driveway and we did the rest with 3 guys.

He owes me a lotta beer now.

If you put a safe in during home construction, these will save your back

Attachments:

1. 

   JLG_G6-42A.jpg
   

And BTW, does anyone have any net solution to keep the rifle slings from becoming a tangled freaking mess inside the safe? What a cluster…

And no, I do not want to remove them every time I store a rifle or shotgun with a sling. I must be the King of Slings, I have them on all rifles and even on predator/turkey shotguns, so more than half my “active service” guns have slings.

Grouse

Grouse, I run into that with a few of my double cases. I have neoprene wraps with Velcro. Very soft on the gun and holds bipods and slings tight

Old thread on the same topic had one other point. Are you going to put this on slab or on an upper floor? If an upper floor is it structurally sound enough to handle the weight?

Thanks to some of the same folks above it prevented me from putting a big safe in my place(upper floor was the only option). Still appreciate the good advice

My needs were about keeping kids away, not thieves.

Didn’t read through the whole thread, as a heads up.

Take fire ratings with a grain of salt. Also take safe “gun” ratings with a grain of salt. If you have 25 guns to store, get a 48. If you have 10 guns, get a 25. 50 Pistols and 10 long guns? 36+ for sure. Liberty safes will offer the best bang for the buck in safes and they have a great reputation. Fire ratings are just that, fire ratings. Be more worried about water and smoke damage if a fire occurs.

Do some research, make a budget based off your findings and buy the best liberty you can afford within your budget. Notice I said best, not biggest. Liberty makes some seriously large safes with lower fire ratings. If you are more worried about theft and not fires, it may be your best option.

I have had mechanical and digital SG locks. I liked them both and don’t necessarily have an opinion for or against either one. I also don’t bolt my safes down, but they are both over 700lbs empty. When bolting down, it can give added leverage to assist in the break-in process.

You might be surprised how relatively easy it is (with the right tools) to break into most large gun safes. Watch a few youtube videos to get an idea.

Neoprene wrap with Velcro

Whats the price difference between http://www.Libertysafes, or Cabelas? There seems to be a wide gap in cost for the same model.
Not a fan of seeing cabelas add on the safe door in the house.

Keep in mind as with any safe or heavy object, when there is a fire and the floor is weakened, the safe or other heavy object is going to fall through the floor. Hopefully not on a FF or other person.