Where did you mount your gun safe?

[spectra]

Not to be argumentative, but rather food for thought....I'm guessing that when the forklift tried to pull out those anchors it was hooked fairly low to the ground (please correct me if I'm wrong).


DocZ

Actually we tried it in all sorts of areas. What we were pulling at the time were walls that were cut at the cieling and just tied to the ground with anchors. If you can believe it we were demoing the Federal Reserve Bank in Portland The stuff I saw that we took out well lets just say who knows what we tax payers had to pay for it Most of these were frames that at one time had bullet proof glass in them and sliding doors. Basicaly I would hook a tow strap to the things and then to a forklift and kind of like a skier would say hit it and off went the forklift. Sometimes they would move and others well lets say it took a few pulls.

I know what you are saying about te average thief. Most will take what is easy to get to. But like they say locks are just to keep the honest people out. I do know when my safe goes down it will have at least 4 Hilti anchors on hte floor and who know how many into the wall

 

[Will]

I wouldn't consider an out building. The garage makes sense but in most cases the garage door isn't part of a home alarm system and when you open the garage door all the contents are in view unless your driveway is long. You can cover it with a sheet to hide it but why wouldn't the bad guy look under a sheet? I have mine mounted in the walkin closet in the master bedroom. Few people ever go into my bedroom let alone my closet, while neighbors, friends and family all have been in my garage. I also like the climate control better as well.

 

[Dr.Z]

Actually we tried it in all sorts of areas. What we were pulling at the time were walls that were cut at the cieling and just tied to the ground with anchors. If you can believe it we were demoing the Federal Reserve Bank in Portland The stuff I saw that we took out well lets just say who knows what we tax payers had to pay for it Most of these were frames that at one time had bullet proof glass in them and sliding doors. Basicaly I would hook a tow strap to the things and then to a forklift and kind of like a skier would say hit it and off went the forklift. Sometimes they would move and others well lets say it took a few pulls.

I know what you are saying about te average thief. Most will take what is easy to get to. But like they say locks are just to keep the honest people out. I do know when my safe goes down it will have at least 4 Hilti anchors on hte floor and who know how many into the wall

Nice!!!! Getting to demo the Federal Reserve Bank, how stinking cool is that?!?!? Hopefully some of that bullet-proof glass 'accidentally slipped and fell' into your truck bed.
Sounds like I need to invest in a few concrete anchors, that uncle sam uses!

 

[spectra]

Nice!!!! Getting to demo the Federal Reserve Bank, how stinking cool is that?!?!? Hopefully some of that bullet-proof glass 'accidentally slipped and fell' into your truck bed.
Sounds like I need to invest in a few concrete anchors, that uncle sam uses!

No glass but I did get a few kevlar panels that were in the ceiling. I worked at a glass dealer when I was 18 so bullet proof glass to me was well just junk Like I said all the stuff that was there was really neat. **** they even had a 2 lane shooting range in the basement.

 

[tionico]

One thing that helps strength in floor mounting is to cut a huge thick steel plate, maybe half inch thick, to put on the bottom of the safe. Bore through that and set your fasteners through that. The way most such things are pulled out of the floor is the metal comprising the bottom of the unit gives way, the head of the bolt being small. Next best would be to have someone cut and make up a set of six or so steel plates, maybe six inches square, hole in centre, and use these as huge washers. By increasing the area of bottom that must be torn, you increase the force as the square of that increase... twice the area, four times the strength. So, instead of using a standard fender washer of about 3" diameter equals 7 sq ", a plate 6" /side is 36 sq", five times the area, 25 times the strength. Use six fasteners to the floor, check for ANSI or ASTM ratings into the concrete. When you think you've decided on one big enough, go one size larger.

For attatching to a wood frame type floor, it gets a bit trickier. Consider fitting a 4 x 8 sheet of one inch car-decking plywood to the bottom of the floor joists, then a steel plate the size of the floor of the safe, centred on that sheet. Now, through drill and use something like half or five eights grade eight bolts, still using the steel plates mentioned above. Maybe take another piece of plywood, could be a half inch sheet, over the bottom as a mask. Maybe double nut at the bottom, or use some smooth head/security/one way heads, and put those at the bottom, with self-locking nuts, doubled, inside the safe. Have to get to those while holding the ones under the house..... pretty tough.


IF anyone manages to figure out you've a large gunsafe inside the house, and they are skilled and patient, they could manage to observe, and plot your timings, and hit when they;'ve some time. Not the smash and grab lot, for sure. The cheap tin safes are short work in these days of battery powered portable hand tools... even a portable MAPP gas torch could make a mess,,,,,.. and start a dandy fire as a cover for their heist.

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

I love reading some of the posts in threads like these. The level of paranoia abounds. "But what if someone shows up at your house with a tow chain, a trucks, and knows where you safe is mounted???" Really? C'mon people. Let's try to stay at least a little focused and deal with reality here. The VAST majority of home thefts involve smash and grab techniques and the thieves are in the home less than 10 minutes. Any substantial safe is going to save your bacon 99.99% of the time and the times it does not the chances that the more expensive safe would keep out skilled and determined thieves is also slim.

You can waste your time and money buying multi-thousand dollar safes and planning for the smallest possibilities but you would be much better served not stressing yourself out and spending a small fraction of the cost of an expensive safe on better replacement insurance.

A $300 safe and a $10 a month rider on your insurance is worth ten times what a $3500+ safe is when it comes to actual security.

 

[tionico]

So,Penguin, is that ten dollar rider an agreed or stated value, naming each covered firearm? And what total value of your collection would that tenspot cover? And WHO sets that value for each item, and on what basis?

Then, there's the issue of the unreplaceable rare or custom pieces.... things plain old money can't find or buy.

I'd say the thousand dollar safe, properly positioned and secured, would take care of nearly every attempt on it. A little extra care and attention during the actual installation would make a HUGE difference.

You are correct in that the vast majority of heists are very fast, smash and grab affairs. BUT-- consider this: lately there have been many more car prowls at Park and Ride lots.... most happen earlier in the day. The interesting thing is, theives go after the quick grab easy sell stuff... but they almost always find the registration and insurance papers..... which have, guess what? Your RESIDENCE ADDRESS. Now the thieves know two things... where you live, and the fact that you are NOT HOME for the day. Clues such as an NRA or 2nd Ammendment sticker on the car will tip them off to the likelihood they'll find arms when they pay you a visit. Which they almost invariably will. That day. And arriving at ten ayem, they can rest fairly secure in the knowledge you won't be back until at least three pee em. Some are sophisticated enough to show up in a van or truck with some company name on it, posing as servicemen of some sort. They can be there for a few hours, if need by, and not arouse the slightest suspicion in the neighbours.

I've got a couple of cheap hundred buck eight gun "safes", mainly nuisances to smash and grab goons. They would yield to anything resembling a half-hearted attempt at entry. The punk walking in off the street would likely be deterred... too lazy to make the effort, and too clueless as to what to do. Its the more serious semi pro I fear... and I am NOT protected. I need to find and buy a more serious safe, but have nowhere to put it, let alone how to get it IN to anywhere that might work. Narrow doorways and halls, not sure the floor would handle a thousand pounds of safe, guns, ammo.

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

Tionico,

You couldn't be more wrong. That $1000 safe is not going to offer much more resistance than a $500 safe...no matter how you position it or what your safe salesman tells you. When we bought our safe for work the guy that opens safes for them said it did not matter if the safe was $500 or $5000 as long as it does not need to be usable after he gets into it. He can get into it in a matter of minutes. It's when it needs to be usable after it is opened that it gets difficult.

In my case that insurance rider covers replacement cost up to $50,000. Since it is replacement value the dealer would be deciding the guns value.

As for something irreplaceable, a good hiding space like a floorboard or hidden wall safe is much more valuable than a larger and more visible safe. Or do like I do and keep these items in a bank deposit box.

So not matter what you want to think a good safe and good insurance is better than an expnsive safe any day.