How safe is a safe?

[TexasTK]

All I can say is buy the best safe you can afford. I had one of the box store/cheaper models and thieves broke into it w a pry-bar.

[Freer]

Bingo! A RSC is NOT a safe or vault... To read about the difference and see what a real safe looks like, go to www.lonestargunsafes.com and look at their Graffunder safes... Only column you need to look at when deciding is the column that gives the weight of the "safe"... If it's not in the thousands of pounds and it's big enough to hold a long gun, it's a RSC not a Safe...

This.... i had a Sentry safe 26 gun ($999.00 at home depot). I had 1 thief brake in , pry the RSC open and leave all under 3 minutes.

[BrianL]

I actually keep 2 safes. I "nicer" (though not as nice as I ultimately want) in the house, out of sight for the guns. Another, store brand, off the shelf "safe" to lock up ammo that I keep in the garage. Maybe it's a mental thing, but I feel like guns and ammo in separate places adds extra security.

In keep a "self-defense" handgun and ammo close to where I sleep in the event it's needed.

In the past I had one that I kept all my reloading gun powder inside, at times up to 30-40#.. Figured if someone stole it, and tried to use a cutting torch or grinder, the whole county would know when the sparks made it inside.

[cattlelackranch]

If you store ammo or powder in a metal container you essentially are creating a bomb.

Both should be stored in a wooden cabinet/box

Just a friendly PSA

[SCREAMINREELS]

I know my brothers place got broken into and they spent some time there. He had his safe in a corner and built a closet around it just to fit safe only, they couldn't lay it down. They broke every single screwdriver he had in his toolbox and they were in pieces on the floor. Wasn't enough room to get a crowbar in or they prob would have gotten in. Building structure around a cheaper one helps alotm

[locknload]

Nice big safe to store everything important

[BrianL]

If you store ammo or powder in a metal container you essentially are creating a bomb.

Both should be stored in a wooden cabinet/box

Just a friendly PSA

40# of gun powder is a bomb regardless of how you keep it. I have since moved it offsite for that very reason.

From test I have seen, if kept in safe it would be a directional blast, and blast pattern can be better controled in terms of direction. Door is blown out direction it is facing and safe goes in opposite direction.

[Bkvill]

Depends on what quality of safe. The tractor supply and academy ones will slow them down but they'll get in them. I did a ton of research and decided on the Liberty fatboy 64 based on a lot of reading and videos. It's much much better built that the box store "safes". I did look at the higher end Amsec ones and some others but didn't want to throw $5000+ at it. Fire rating and protection is what I look at. If anyone has enough time and tools they'll get into any of them.

My company is a dealer of AmSec safes and can attest to their quality. In my experience if a person wanted to break into a safe they wouldn't go through the door, they'd cut the side of the safe. That's why we only sell AmSec now.

[dphillips62]

I was in the fire service for 30 years the last 10 I was an investigator. If you are worried about your guns being damaged by fire moving next door to a fire station is better insurance. If you live in the country they will be toast safes just can't hold up to the heat for that long.

[35remington]

Will try but it's difficult to find an hour of free time, someone help me out and tell me what the verdict is?

Why do your own research when you can have someone else do it for you for frizzle ?

Interesting approach.

[Pullersboy]

One of our customers went to the store and had his safe pulled out of the garage with a pickup and a chain while he was gone. He was only gone for 30 minutes in the middle of the day. The concrete anchors didn't help a bit.

As someone who has a pretty large amount of experience dealing with burglars and burglary investigations, I can confidently say that this would be an extremely rare type of occurrence.

It's been my experience that if your safe is large enough that it can't be just picked up and carried out, then it won't get touched in the vast majority of cases. Any safe can be defeated with enough time and a few tools.

All of the residential safes I've personally seen defeated were defeated by someone the victim knew and the suspect knew the victim would not be home any time soon. The vast majority of residential burglaries happen in less than 5 minutes. I used to conduct surveillance on burglary suspects and have watched many burglars break into houses. Only a handful of times were the burglars inside the house for more than 5 minutes. The longest I ever had a burglar in a house was for 45 minutes. That was an extremely long time. The 2nd longest was maybe 10 minutes at most. Most burglars want stuff they can grab and get out. A safe, especially one large enough that it can't be just picked up and carried out, will save you valuables from theft in a burglary. My safe weighs over 940 lbs empty. It's not bolted down. But, it's also in a spot in my house that would be impossible to get to and remove it without destroying an exterior wall and then destroying multiple interior walls just to get to it. The only reasonable option would be to defeat the safe on sight. It is possible, but is extremely unlikely as most burglars don't want to spend that much time inside the target residence. There's just to high of a likelihood of getting caught. They can hit several houses in a day and there is never a shortage of valuables that are easily grabbed and made off with.

[Charles]

A thief isn't going to spend a lot of time trying to pry open a safe when the siren of your burglar alarm is blaring in the back ground and you have camera's surrounding your home.

Between the alarm, cameras and safe I'm pretty confident my stuff will stay my stuff.

[JBT]

some good info on this thread!

[Man]

We are about to buy a retail store Cannon Gun Safe. We just need to keep the turds from getting our guns. We don't expect any James Bonds to come breaking in.

[bowsticker]

Interesting