Firearm safes

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ENCORE50A

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Read an interesting article written by a safe professional and our gun safes are really not what we might think they are, but only a momentary obstacle.
It appears that those really thick pins that lock the door, are very short and not connected to a large gear system inside. Actually they're connected to very thin metal rods that make up the tracking system. Therefore very easily opened in about 10 minutes by an amateur with a couple pry bars. Those large pins are actually only as long as what we see sticking out the door.
The safe professional states that safes basically fail because the safe body and the door body is too thin. It appears most modern gun safes are built with thinner 14-gauge steel, when it really needs to be a minimum of 10-gauge steel, much heavier and nearly impossible to pry open. Of course a thief with metal cutting equipment, saws and torches, is going to get into any of them.
His next complaint is about the cheap China built digital locks on the units. He states locksmiths make a lot of money opening them. He recommends changing these cheap digital locks to locks from S&G or KaGard. I know I had to have a locksmith open a safe, once. Its not cheap!
His next complaint is about fire protection. He states that only a safe with an UL Class 350 rating, is actually fireproof, but such safes are not available for retail. He states that paper will ignite at 451° and if the inside temp reaches that, all papers within the safe will ignite, including money. Wood stocks are finished with petroleum-based stains and oils, which are very likely to burn, become compromised and be permanently disfigured. Plastic or other stocks will simply melt.
His only recommendation for fire proofing paperwork inside a safe, is to put all those items in another small fire proof box, then put them into the gun safe.
Just an FYI...........
 
the safes have a fairly good thermal barrier actually, yes bad things can happen when temps get high inside but it takes alot of heat and some time for that to happen. im a fireman and have been with homeowners when they open the safe after a fire. iv seen papers slightly currled and discolored but that safe got so hot it burnt every speck of paint off of it.
 
I don't look at my safe as impenetrable. If someone wants in bad enough they can get in to anything. Mine is in my house so my daughter doesn't accidentally find a gun and bullets. Granted she's only 6 months old.


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ENCORE50A said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPUrqStiSTQ&feature=youtu.be


This is an eye opener on the ‘budget’ type Safes you see on sale from time to time. I stil look at a safe as keeping the honest guy out, a thief will find a way, even if it’s wrapping a chain around it and dragging it out the side of your house. I like the feeling of having a safe, my thoughts are they will likely detour a thief that is looking for quick and easy things.
 
Thieves are good at what they do and not much is beyond them. I know a person who had "eye" plates welded to the bottom of a medium sized floor safe. He took out some ceiling in the floor below where the safe was put...in a closet yet....and used steel plates bolted to the joisting and added eye plates to the joists. 3/4 steel rod was fabricated into hooks that went thru the eyes of both the safe and joist plates before bolting the joist plates in place. Seemed theft proof. This person dabbled in gold and silver coins as well as gold and silver jewelry and of course some diamonds and other precious stones. While he was at work people got into the house and sawed a wall out where the safe was located and wrapped chain around the safe at the floor. They backed a truck up to the chain/hole in wall, attached it somehow and drove forward tearing the safe and floor joisting out. The safe apparently land inside the bed or the truck and they just drove off. At least that's how the cops think it happened. The safe was found a couple counties away with the hinges cut off with a torch of some sort and a side torn/cut out to access the contents after the pins that went thru the top/bottom edges failed to pop free while prying. If they want it, they'll get it and sometimes at a great cost to where the safe is kept.

There have been instances locally over the years where smaller gun safes have been taken in their entirety. One thing that seems almost universal in the gun thefts is that when it came time to prove what the contents were a lack of detailed descriptive information was available by the home owners. I have pictures of every gun in this house that include close-up shots of all of their serial numbers. I have also done a whole-house video showing in detail the antiques and other valuables me might have here. We also have a safe deposit box at the bank for stuff we want protected to the max. Not one of my guns in the house is in eye sight of anyone, ever, unless I have one or two out to use and I do not let anyone, save for the little lady, know where they are at in the house. Personally I'd support any "booby trap" legislation that would give home-owners some legal rights to hyper-protect their property instead of letting thieves have the easy road in and out.
 
That's a crazy story, MrTom. I would have thought a safe that you described would be 100 percent safe. No such thing I guess. I really ought to do an inventory of everything we have like you did, I've just been putting it off for some reason or other.
 
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