Choosing a Gun Safe

[Russ McDonald]

I would check out the liberty safe dealer in eatumclaw. They seem to have the options dialed

  nw safe in enumclaw. Best place to buy, and customer service.

I got a 42 Summit Teton there. Awesome safe.  Also look in their scratch and dent back room.  You can get great deals and some of the safes you can't even tell where the problem is that put it in scratch and dent.  For bolting you safe to the floor.  It shouldn't matter what size it is.  Bolt it to the floor.

[Widgeondeke]

Farm & Feed stores are a good place to look also. I like have seen the Canon 48 gun safe at Del's for $900.

[magnanimous_j]

Expect about 2/3 stated long gun capacity, especially if ARs are in the mix.  I'd go with a mix of smaller safes for more flexibility.  You can always buy another safe.

There's an idea. I never even thought of that.

Look at the door lugs. How far do they go to lock in? 1 inch can easily be pried open.

Liberty has a safe with 4 inch wide locking bars, a lot hardor to pry.

Week spots on safes corners and bottoms.

Knew a guy who had his safe hauled out of his house by low life's. Found later with bottom cut out of it.

Anchor them down. In a corner good spot.

I plan to bolt it into the wall. But to be honest, I'm not that worried about theft or fire. The place I live in now is poured concrete and I've got fire sprinklers all over the place. The building is already controlled access, you need to swipe a keyfob 3 times before you get to my front door. And all my guns are very much 'consumer grade.' No heirlooms or customs (yet).

I want a quality safe, but it's mainly for liability. The weight is my biggest concern, for structural safety. I've got a pretty big fishtank going as well.

[Knocker of rocks]

If your building is modern concrete construction on all floors, consumer grade weight is no issue

[Bofire]

My safe is 3'X3' and very heavy. holds about 20 long, 10-15 short easily plus ammo and "stuff". For important papers put them in a fire rated box and put that in the safe. Better organized and easier to get to anyway.
You can build your safe in to a closet or someplace with a small amount of framing and sheet rock, easily doubling the fire rating.
My safe sets on 9 square feet, if your floor is rated for a 50lb live load(common) that is 450 pounds on 9 sq.ft. design load.
Sounds like most any safe will work for you.
Carl

[Boss .300 winmag]

If your building is modern concrete construction on all floors, consumer grade weight is no issue

 

Those concrete floors will hold more than you will ever load them, unless you stockpile large amounts of gold or lead in a pile. 

[Stump]

Most floors are designed at #50 psf, so to help with the weight buy a 1" thick  ply cut to span a few joist and it will spread he load out. You should be fine. It will also help to be near a bearing wall, exterior or interior. Good luck!

[Knocker of rocks]

He says he lives in a condo with concrete floors.  That would indicate PT slabs if the building is of recent construction.  There better not be any joists.

Your recommendations would apply if it was a condo of modest height, built of wood with gypcrete floors

[Wacenturion]

I would check out the liberty safe dealer in eatumclaw. They seem to have the options dialed

  nw safe in enumclaw. Best place to buy, and customer service.

Highly recommend.  Call them or go there and tell them your situation, and they'll have exactly what you need.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Did you buy this one? 

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,168764.msg2235890/topicseen.html#new

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

I would check out the liberty safe dealer in eatumclaw. They seem to have the options dialed

  nw safe in enumclaw. Best place to buy, and customer service.

Highly recommend.  Call them or go there and tell them your situation, and they'll have excactly what you need.

 

[magnanimous_j]

If your building is modern concrete construction on all floors, consumer grade weight is no issue

 

Those concrete floors will hold more than you will ever load them, unless you stockpile large amounts of gold or lead in a pile. 

The place I'm living in now is concrete, but we're trying to buy a place at the end of this year, so I don't know what that building will be made of.

[Mongo Hunter]

Try Cabala's. their safes are made by Liberty and are the Franklin series so you can check more specs on their website. They also have "Cool" pouches in the door that have a foil liner so they will have a little extra protection from heat. also the interior is somewhat flexible so you can add or remove shelves as needed. So now a couple bits of advice;

1. Take the amount of guns you have and the ones you plan to buy in the near future. now double that number, that's the size you should probly look at. Im not kidding, scopes and pistol grips take up more room than you would think. 1 AR with a scope takes up 3 slots for the most part. just keep that in mind.

2. BOLT IT DOWN! if your land lords will allow of course. first thing thieves do is push the safe down so they can get more leverage on the door.

3. Buy from a company that gives you a good warranty against break in, damage, fire ect.

4. do not buy the cheap sheet metal safes at Costco. you can literally get through them with tin snips, false sense of security.

5. get a good dehumidifier. if you have it inside and temp is fairly consistent its not as big a deal but keep your investments rust fee and spend the extra money on a good one. I bought the liberty Gold rod, its 110V so no batteries or chems to change.

6. This is optional but considers lights. they just come in hand and now that I have them I don't know how I ever did without. plus they look cool showing off  .

Best of luck to ya!

[Rich_S]

If you have a Skilsaw with carbide blades, put the blades in the safe. A carbide blade mounted backwards in a Skilsaw will cut through most residential safes like a hot knife. Not sense in supplying the BG with the tools. Also, keep your cutting torch tips in the safe. Where applicable, of course.