Gun Safe Question

[witler]

Santa brought a 48 Gun Safe this year.
Everyone that I have spoken with says to bolt it down due to Safe tipping when heavy door swings open.
In my situation, bolting down is not an option. My question is if the Safe is loaded with long guns and 3-5K rounds of ammo, is that enough weight to counter tipping when door swings open ?

 

[Eric Revo]

Mine sits flat on the floor and has never tipped . I'd put the ammo in the bottom 1/3 just in case .. I store my ammo in another safe. Paperwork, jewelry and guns are in the gun safe.

 

[specialk]

Keep it full and you got no problems....resist the urge to put things on top....

 

[Papa_Smurf]

what brand is it?

My field and stream 24 gun isn't the best, and the door weighs about as much as the body of the safe. I've never had any issues with it trying to tip over.

Maybe buy a couple 45lb plates to throw in the bottom of the safe if it's that big of an issue. That'll be extra weight if someone wants to haul it off anyway.

 

[QuietButDeadly]

If a safe tips over when the door swings open, you need to send it back where it came from.

 

[ncscrubmaster]

I was told to bolt it to the wall as well as the floor. The reason was if a criminal wanted to get it open they had a better chance of that with it laying flat on the floor. More leverage for the pry bars and more room to work. I would at least bolt it to the wall not for tipping but for theft.

 

[lasttombstone]

Maybe I"m in a minority here, but I have never heard of anyone breaking into a decent gun safe. I've got a Browning that i've had for over 40 year. It holds 14 long guns and a bunch of other stuff on shelfs and cubbys. It took 4 grown men to bring it into the house. I don't think it's going anywhere and it sure isn't tipping over. I don't think you have any worries.

 

[beavercleaver]

Open the door and try to tip it ,I think whoever tilt you it will tip is full of hot air

 

[Haleh]

If somebody wants to get in your safe they'll probably just saw a hole in side of it and reach in. A lot of safes have sheet metal sides and sheet rock for fire protection.

 

[QBD2]

If somebody wants to get in your safe they'll probably just saw a hole in side of it and reach in. A lot of safes have sheet metal sides and sheet rock for fire protection.

Most ‘safes’ are nothing more than fancy looking cabinets these days.

But I still wouldn’t think one would tip over when the door is open.

 

[DRS]

I bolted mine down. Thought it would at least make a theif work harder. I also put mine in an inside corner making it harder to tip over by rocking it ( trying to break the bolts loose through the floor). Nothing is completely safe. I just didn't want a couple of guys to come into my house with a good appliance hand truck and leave with a safe. Come to think about a safe might make a good decoy.

 

[pattersonj11]

I’ve only heard of a couple times someone had a safe issue with thieves around here. On both events, they used means to wrap around the safe and drag it out of the house with a vehicle.

I know of a gun store where they broke in by ramming the safe room with a dump truck. That happened twice at the same store.

 

[grunt]

My Liberty sets on the floor for the last 20 years with no problems. It gives no indication of wanting to lean forward. It should be noted that it is very deep (at least 4 rows of long guns, deep). I have seen safes that are not as deep that would fall over. So the size/shape is important

 

[DBCooper]

My Liberty sets on the floor for the last 20 years with no problems. It gives no indication of wanting to lean forward. It should be noted that it is very deep (at least 4 rows of long guns, deep). I have seen safes that are not as deep that would fall over. So the size/shape is important

My Liberty weighs 976#s, empty.

Fall over?

lol....I've never considered bolting it to anything.

 

[Firedog]

It took two grown men and an old man (and some creative engineering) to get mine into the house and stood up.. no way in hell the door would tip it, and it is small compared and that was before I lined it with sheet rock for fire proofing. First rule though is get a good safe.

 

[dc bigdaddy]

I haven't bought a 2nd safe yet. I walk by the $900 tin cans and just shake my head. My little browning safe that I bought 20 years ago has a lot more steel in it than the ones you see at big box stores that are twice as big. It's sitting on a raised boxed so it would clear the base boards and fit in the hole that it sits in and there hasn't been any issues with it wanting to tip. Plus I have stuff on top of it too.

 

[brownisdown]

There is Drake Safes and then everything else! I own a Drake so this is a fact! I also read it after I posted it on the internet which means it's double true.

 

[QuietButDeadly]

There is Drake Safes and then everything else! I own a Drake so this is a fact! I also read it after I posted it on the internet which means it's double true.

Amen brother!

 

[Moose]

Two average size guys brought my safe in and placed it in less then 3 minutes. They told me that if it wasnt bolted down a couple of guys with some bags of ice could slide it out the door and into a truck. I have a liberty fat boy and after seeing how eaisly they could move it Im sure some thiefs who know what they are doing could move it out pretty quickly.

 

[bwfarms]

Two average size guys brought my safe in and placed it in less then 3 minutes. They told me that if it wasnt bolted down a couple of guys with some bags of ice could slide it out the door and into a truck. I have a liberty fat boy and after seeing how eaisly they could move it Im sure some thiefs who know what they are doing could move it out pretty quickly.

…. I don’t need hep

 

[Rescue44]

If somebody wants to get in your safe they'll probably just saw a hole in side of it and reach in. A lot of safes have sheet metal sides and sheet rock for fire protection.

Concrete.

 

[brownisdown]

Concrete.

They make saws for that too

 

[Rescue44]

They make saws for that too

I don't think many crack heads have the required equipment to defeat quality safes. Especially the tools that don't damage the contents.

 

[pattersonj11]

They make the tools to get into any of them and also the tools to get any of them out of the house if they want. It just all comes down to what you want them to have to do.

you can pour a concrete pillar under the house and run anchor bolts through the floor and into the safe......they can’t defeat it.

you can really do whatever you want and it can be defeated. If you reload, throw some bags of shot around the bottom. In some safes, you can line the perimeter with shot bags and not hurt your holding capacity. On the ones with a gun side and a storage side, you can definitely add a 2-300 lbs easily.

gold coin is heavy lol. Throw all the gold in the bottom.

 

[DRS]

Just pour concrete in the safe. Most are tall enough on the inside to pour several inches. That ought to solve a weight issue. Thieves may think it's full of gold then, though. Put the gold in the pillar under the floor they won't find it there. Heck I have thought about bolting two smaller safes together inside a closet. That should be a challenge to any thief. A friend had a safe built that took about six of us to move using a dollies. If just a few thieves try to get that thing, we joked about finding them squashed under it. I'm pretty sure it weighed well over 1000 lbs empty. Yes, it sits on a tile covered concrete floor.

 

[QuietButDeadly]

1,000 lbs......a 30 gun safe made out of decent metal weighs more than that. A fancy painted, oversize sardine can, not so much though.

The majority of the safes on the market today are 10 gauge thick metal or less. 10 gauge is only .135" thick and any decent safe hack can carry all the tools he needs in one hand to be in that safe in 10 minutes or less and can clean it out in a few more. He is gonna make a little noise but if no one is home, who is going to hear it. No need to move it or tip it over and certainly no need to unlock it.

When I was dealing with Greg Drake, he had a brand name safe that one of his new customers had that was broken into and cleaned out. Thin sheet metal does not offer a lot of protection against a safe cracker.

 

[JONOV]

I don't think many crack heads have the required equipment to defeat quality safes. Especially the tools that don't damage the contents.

They make the tools to get into any of them and also the tools to get any of them out of the house if they want. It just all comes down to what you want them to have to do.

Yep...depends what/why you have the safe. For me it would be to keep the average crackhead from getting lucky finding my guns, and/or a guest's kid from finding them. Neither my house, nor my guns, have anything worth targeting by a professional crew. That isn't true of everyone. Some people have a LOT of money in their guns. Or nice enough places to be a target.

 

[sky hawk]

Reciprocating saw to the side is how a friend's safe got compromised about 10 years ago. He lost $10k in gold/cash and a bunch of guns. Manufacturers hype up the locking bolts and door thickness, but if a thief can get to the sides, they can compromise it pretty easily. Seems like the best protection would be to put it on a concrete floor and surround it with solid concrete block. If I ever build or do a significant remodel, I will try to create that type of scenario.

 

[QuietButDeadly]

Reciprocating saw to the side is how a friend's safe got compromised about 10 years ago. He lost $10k in gold/cash and a bunch of guns. Manufacturers hype up the locking bolts and door thickness, but if a thief can get to the sides, they can compromise it pretty easily. Seems like the best protection would be to put it on a concrete floor and surround it with solid concrete block. If I ever build or do a significant remodel, I will try to create that type of scenario.

The list of tools might change slightly but the method is pretty simple and not that hard to do. Certainly does not take a pro to pull it off. It is a lot like opening a sardine can minus the pull tab. Easy access and thin sheet metal is the key to quick entry.

 

[ncscrubmaster]

The only thing is that pesky beeping noise since you opened the door to break in. The Sheriff is not first on the call list I am. Your not going to jail there will be no need.