$1000 to spend on a gun safe...

Check out the Winchester safe's at Tractor Supply Company.. I picked up a "24" Gun one for around $650 and installed it on the third floor. Take the door off it when you go to move it, that will help.

I moved mine in with me and 3 other guys. It weighs a little over 500lbs

I know when I move out, the safe conveys with the house though. I'm not moving it again.

** I just wanted to update that I have insurance for my guns and valuable. You can get into any of these "safe"'s with the right tools and enough time. You need to ask yourself why you are buying it. In my situation, it's to keep the smash and grabbers out as well as kids away from the guns and ammo **

Tracotr Supply Sells a decent cheap safe made by Cannon, not best quality but not worst either, good size for money

doofoo said:

Check out the Winchester safe's at Tractor Supply Company.. I picked up a "24" Gun one for around $650 and installed it on the third floor. Take the door off it when you go to move it, that will help.

I moved mine in with me and 3 other guys. It weighs a little over 500lbs

I know when I move out, the safe conveys with the house though. I'm not moving it again.

** I just wanted to update that I have insurance for my guns and valuable. You can get into any of these "safe"'s with the right tools and enough time. You need to ask yourself why you are buying it. In my situation, it's to keep the smash and grabbers out as well as kids away from the guns and ammo **

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I was looking at that safe also, just wanted to see what some other options were that someone more knowledgable than myself might know of. Def a good possibility there

MDZGS said:

Tracotr Supply Sells a decent cheap safe made by Cannon, not best quality but not worst either, good size for money

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I looked at the canon but didn't care for the way the door opened and I didn't really like the interior material, didn't seem very sturdy

Any thoughts on this? Looking at the 25 gun electric lock.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabe...Ntt=Gun+safe&WTz_l=Header;Search-All+Products

Most of the safes in the $1000 range are very similar. I have a second floor safe weighing around 400 lbs. Look for fire resistance rating, thickness of steel, number and size of bolts.

Don't forget to include the cost of shipping and moving it upstairs. Frequently the door doesn't come off on the better safes. You will want to hire people to do it. If you or your friends get injured, you will wish you hired guys who know what they are doing. It is just money.

Try to find an outfit with free shipping, whether it is Amazon or Gunsafesnow.com
Otherwise, you will spend much more than your budget.

Personally, I would get an older plate safe like a Mosler in the Class C or TL-15 range from one of the members here who does sales and installs, some paint to cosmetically refinish it, some of the soft lining used for the interior, and a fireproof lockbox to secure documents inside of the safe. In terms of burglary protection, you get the furthest with older plate safes as the armor can be 15 times or more thicker than a new entry model with significantly better than mild gauge steel used on many imported models and the locks used are significantly harder to defeat. Most new models in the $1,000 range will, unless very small in size, offer more fire protection than brute force protection and gaining entry to most safes in the $1,000 range is often not very difficult. Many people are often surprised by the lack of protection their safes have from a brute force attack, and some makers advertise in a fashion that may not represent the safe's features. The weight of a plate safe with 1 inch steel all-around makes it difficult for anyone to haul away, and even a skilled burglar with tools is going to struggle to defeat a safe in a house in which the time it takes them to be discovered is less than the time it takes them to penetrate the safe. High security composite safes are generally more expensive, but they are really the benchmark for both fire and burglary protection in one package. Fire protection found on some entry gun safes may not provide protection to a high enough temp or for long enough time, in some instances...especially if one lives in an area in which a fire response is slower. Makers like Sturdy and Fort Knox often customizable levels of fire and armor plates, but the price adds up quickly on newer models.

I am a fan of the FireKing Dauntless and Amsec CSC models, which offer great fire protection and good break-in protection, but still these safes favor fire over break in. But for the price, it's a good bang for buck.

Also, if you don't have a spare, something like a S&W Model 64 or 10 to store loaded inside of the safe in the event someone makes you open the safe at gunpoint.

That's all just me.

^^^ All this is good info. I just bought a used jeweler's safe from these guys. It is quite a bit more expensive than anything you'd see at Walmart, Bass Pro, etc., but it's TL-30x6 rated, and accessing the safe will pretty require a professional safe cracker. A couple crackheads with a pry bar and a fire axe won't stand a chance.

Ragnar said:

^^^ All this is good info. I just bought a used jeweler's safe from these guys. It is quite a bit more expensive than anything you'd see at Walmart, Bass Pro, etc., but it's TL-30x6 rated, and accessing the safe will pretty require a professional safe cracker. A couple crackheads with a pry bar and a fire axe won't stand a chance.

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That's the way to do it! Did you get one of the ISM's? Anyone trying to break into your safe is in for a really bad day... Most of the safes at Bass Pro can literally be cut in half, drilled with a common drill bit kit, pried open with a cheap pry bar or crow bar, flexed, peeled up like a tin can, or just penetrated with a fire ax through a wall of thin mild gauge steel. And the fire rating is often not sufficient to protect against many home fires. They don't have any ratings on burglary resistance. I'd argue that most of the safes at Bass Pro are a better bullseye to criminals than deterrents given all of the literature available now showing structural weaknesses of most 'gun safes'. I'm sure they sell some safes of better quality, but the ones I have seen aren't very good.

Now with that said, the safes are inexpensive and so, for some applications, they may be well-suited. However, the degree of fire protection it gives and that the little security it gives to a penetration attack is worth consideration IMO. It's also worth noting for the entry safes that their fire protection they provide is often less than a homeowner may want. Not all UL fire ratings are the same...and not all ratings are even independently certified. For example, the Meilink Dauntless is UL350 rated to 1700 degrees for 1 hour. That rating is suited to paper documents (paper combusts around low-mid 400s IIRC)...however, that rating is NOT necessarily good for other materials such as magnetic hard drives. My TL-30 is rated for an internal temp that is under 275 for the protection of some valuables that would be safe at 250-ish but not at 350-ish.

Bass Pro's Redhead safe, a common model, gives 20 minutes of fire protection and at only 1200 degrees...and it does not note who did the rating nor what the internal temp rises to. So this 'fire resistent' safe simply is not fire resistent because a house fire may burn hotter and longer than the safe is rated for...and without knowing the internal temp, the internal temp may still rise high enough to destroy electronics/wood/etc. A thread on this forum speaks to how much burglary resistance it [doesn't] give.
http://www.basspro.com/RedHead-Outdoor-Series-14Gun-FireResistant-Safe/product/10213059/

The Dauntless isn't much more than the Redhead and in addition to the better fire protection, it has a hardplate, a better lock, a relocker, bolts on both sides, recessed bolts, and is made of significantly better materials. It's weight reflects the usage of high density composites. While still favoring fire protection over burglary resistance, it's a huge step up for not much more IMHO and it's made by a company with a large worldwide infrastructure suited for on-site service, if ever needed. Fireking's large network is a major reason I went with a Meilink.
http://www.fireking.com/mk_safes_dauntless.html

It's also worth noting that safes can mean a discount on a few different types of insurance. In some cases, these discounts can only be applied if the safe meets certain requirements. And in some cases, policies require owning a safe and that the safe have certain ratings.

Of course this is all my personal opinion.

i have a browning safe for sale for under a grand. Its a 24 long gun gold series safe. Send me a pm.