Gun safe?

[Petrie]

I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on gun safes. I have 4 handguns and two 22 rifles. Up until now I've been content stashing them under dressers or other sneaky places I can think of. Today I go out to my truck and somebody had ripped the stereo out of it. A month ago somebody broke into my garage and dug around in my glove compartement and tossed things around. The cops said there has been several reports of theft in the area in the last couple of months. I wanted to get a gun safe in case these criminals decide to graduate into buglarizing apartments.
Here's my living situation. I live in an 8 unit apartement building and you need a key to get in to building. Once inside it is an open area with two staircases accending to the second level. I live in one of the four upstairs units. So, for a criminal to make off with the safe they would have to carry it down the stairs where if any of the 7 other tenets where comming or going they would be caught. Somebody would see them steal it. So, I need something heavy and awkward enough that nobody would consider draging the whole thing down the road, but not so much so that I can't get it into the apartement. Could you guys give me some recommendations. I'm thinking I'd rather put some heavy weights in the bottom instead of fastening it to the wall.

[bigfelipe]

I would bolt it down if possible. I got a nice stack-on safe cheap from dickīs. Not one of the steel cabinets, but a real solid safe. Canīt beat their prices.

[PI GUY]

seeing the current events in your area, good thinking on your part. it would be best to bolt it down if your landlord wouldn't mind. or bolt on some extentions from the secure inside so it wouldn't fit through any door openings, and added wieght wouldn't hurt. if you had some high priced guns you might opt for a hidden gps type unit which also operates not only on gps but cellular which would notify you by calling your cell phone to let you know your safe is moving. it will even tell you where it is going! check out some of the PI / security sites. Many frieght companies will hide one in sensitive cargo. you don't need direct line of sight to sateillite. they operate on batteries for months on standby before need of a recharge. some thing to think about for you folks with a cache of high priced weapons

[Petrie]

On you tube they have a video of two guys breaking open a $1000 safe with a crowbar and a long pry bar in about 4 minutes. They just hammer the crowbar in the door crease and work back and forth with both pry bars till they pop the door open. The safe they are breaking into is better than one I would get. I was looking at the Sentry 10 gun safe. It has hidden hinges, 3 bolts on side opposite hinges, and a big combination lock. The sides are pretty thick. Regardless of what kind of safe I get I'm not going to stop the real determined criminal. Right now finding a gun at my house is like going on an easter egg hunt. And I think this sentry safe would be better than that. I have around $2000 worth of guns now, and they are nothing real special. So, If they were stolen I could replace them easy enough with insurance money. Any body ever have a sentry gun safe?

[NYPD]

A quality gun safe has locking bolts on all 4 sides of the door. My Ft. Knox safe has (2 1 1/2 inch locking bolts. NO ONE is getting it open.

[Petrie]

A quality gun safe has locking bolts on all 4 sides of the door. My Ft. Knox safe has (2 1 1/2 inch locking bolts. NO ONE is getting it open.

I was watching videos on youtube about the Fort Knox safes. Hard to believe the punishment they can stand. If you can't get a good safe should a person just hide the guns with the action locked out?

[Steelheart]

I've got a 14 gun Sentry that works well. It's not fireproof but you aren't going to just waltz out of here with it. However, you can move the thing with a dolly by yourself if you need to. Mine's 300+ lbs empty (which isn't often). Mine's main floor as I wasn't willing to try to get it to the basement (where it would never leave from without a winch).

You may already know that the long gun capacity rating is fairly optimistic. I'm reduced to putting some guns in there barrel down to free up space (I don't like it but I'm out of options for now).

A 10 gun model will be a little lighter but it will still be a bear to get up a a flight of stairs, plan on having a couple of guys on hand. Then lay in a fresh bottle of pain killers, food and some kind of refreshment to bribe them with afterwards.

Don't forget that you will have to haul this thing back down those same stairs at some point in the future.

There used to be a company that advertised in the back of some gun magazines that made a safe that you could disassemble to easily transport it up/down stairs. I don't remember the name but someone here probably does (or can find the add). I've seen the add recently too.

Steelheart

[Chas]

I have a Sentry 10 gun safe w/comb. lock and love it. It's good for a small number of guns. You can also put other items in it as well Medicine, important papers, jewelry etc.. I have my wife to thank, she won it from a drawing at Budsgunshop a few months ago. It is heavy enough that one person will not carry it out. I think around 200lbs. or so. Now I wish it was bigger, mine only has one shelf. Once you get one you'll find all kinds of uses.

[bigfelipe]

On you tube they have a video of two guys breaking open a $1000 safe with a crowbar and a long pry bar in about 4 minutes. They just hammer the crowbar in the door crease and work back and forth with both pry bars till they pop the door open. The safe they are breaking into is better than one I would get. I was looking at the Sentry 10 gun safe. It has hidden hinges, 3 bolts on side opposite hinges, and a big combination lock. The sides are pretty thick. Regardless of what kind of safe I get I'm not going to stop the real determined criminal. Right now finding a gun at my house is like going on an easter egg hunt. And I think this sentry safe would be better than that. I have around $2000 worth of guns now, and they are nothing real special. So, If they were stolen I could replace them easy enough with insurance money. Any body ever have a sentry gun safe?

Check with your insurance agent. If you donīt have special insurance specifically for your guns your insurance wonīt pay anything for them. They typically donīt cover guns, jewelry(unless itīs stated and documented on policy), or cash. I found this out the hard way. I had a 30 gun safe stolen from the upstairs of my house. It was bolted down too. Didnīt pay a dime on it.

[Petrie]

Check with your insurance agent. If you donīt have special insurance specifically for your guns your insurance wonīt pay anything for them. They typically donīt cover guns, jewelry(unless itīs stated and documented on policy), or cash. I found this out the hard way. I had a 30 gun safe stolen from the upstairs of my house. It was bolted down too. Didnīt pay a dime on it.

I called my insurance agent when I started to get a few guns and double checked. I have $2500 worth of coverage with a $500 deductibe.