Questions about safes

[ruggedruger]

Need to buy a safe. Funds limited as is SPACE to put it.

1. When a safe is described to hold x number of guns, it seems to be double what it looks like it could hold. What do you take to be the effective number of guns a safe can hold and have room to take guns in/out without taking them all out to do it? i.e Claim vs. Reality.

 

[Cooperhawk]

Lots of them out there. Ours is a Morgan Fort. Holds lots of guns but if you want to take them out with ease it would probably hold eight or so long guns. Be more concerned with their fire tolerance.

 

[clbshooter]

In my experience the rating is too high to safely get your rifles in and out while trying not to scratch them.

 

[Cholo]

The amount of handguns a safe is rated to hold is simply how you store them. Figure 1/2 the rating for rifles.

 

[Jim Puke]

The amount of handguns a safe is rated to hold is simply how you store them. Figure 1/2 the rating for rifles.

X 2

And, for the affordable..consumer grade...safes, the fire rating will not buy much time in a hot fire. According to fire folks that I have talked with, more than half of the time with even the best of the consumer safe's...the guns will be ruined. Essentially, an affordable safe is protection from theft and unauthorized use, more than anything else.

 

[Mtneer]

In my experience the rating is too high to safely get your rifles in and out while trying not to scratch them.

I store my nice, heirloom rifles in those silicone impregnated gun-socks inside my safe(s) for that very reason. Even if I accidentally bump one rifle against another when I'm taking one out or putting one back in the safe, there's no damage. The silicone impregnated gun-socks only cost five bucks apiece, and as far as their drawing moisture goes - nonsense. Not in low humidity Idaho anyway. :)

 

[ruggedruger]

Nothing heirloom here, although they are in excellent condition and take good care of my stuff. Probably equal # of hand/long.

The answer about 1/2 the rating of long guns is what I was looking for specifically, but interested in all comments.

Thanks!

 

[Ray Newman]

In my experience, bolt guns and scoped rifles seem to take up more space.

 

[john guedry]

That's correct about scoped,bolt action taking up a lot of room. (I learned the hard way)

 

[Pat-inCO]

Make sure it is fire rated AND you can anchor it from inside.

Non fire rated tend to be things that "keep honest people honest"
and nothing more.

 

[pete44ru]

.

My older, 22-gun rated Cannon holds 30 long guns, jewelry, important papers (deeds, insurance, SS#'s, Credit card #'s), coins, bullion, and knives on shelves & in slots.

I installed one of the multiple shelves 4" up from the safe floor, on one side, where my shorter long guns (carbine's/etc) normally reside above the lower shelf. (My longer long guns go into the full height side).

Both the RH & LH long gun storage areas in my Cannon are open to the front, w/o a slotted shelf that mandates threading the gun's barrel up/into/out of when R&R'ing long guns).

In 25 years, I've never damaged anything (I don't own a gun sock), removing or replacing it/them in the safe - but then I look at removing stuff, to get at whatever I want, as a pleasure, and not a chore.

I do, however, rotate the guns I use most (depending upon the season) to the front.


.

 

[Jeepnik]

Bought a Sportsman twenty odd years ago. They are a local company. Delivered it free. If you're not near the place you bought it delivery can cost a bunch. I'd measure the space and see what's available locally in your price range.

 

[noahmercy]

The "1/2 rating" is pretty spot-on if you have scoped rifles, bolt actions, or military-style rifles with pistol grips in the mix. I also recommend giving serious consideration to the difficulty of getting the safe open if it is in a fire and the keypad or tumbler handle is destroyed. Another feature to look for is the seal around the door...much damage occurs from the water used to extinguish house fires and the smoke and creosote sucked into the safe as it cools. Look for safes with Palusol fire hot/cold smoke seals, which expand when heated and form a hermetic barricade against damage.

I went with a Stack-On Total Defense safe which has a 75 minute fire rating and will resist 2 feet of standing water for 72 hours. It was also reasonably priced and comes with a key to open the safe if the keypad is incapacitated.

 

[rugerjunkie]

On my Liberty the bottom 3/4 is all for long guns. The right half has a "u" shaped piece and the left has space for rows of 5 from the back to the front. The front row is pretty much wasted space and I cannot put rifles in there and close the door. About all i can do there is put 2 rifles in somewhat sideways so the buttstocks dont interfere. And there is no way I would be able to use the inside of the door for any handgun or accessory storage because the interior racks are too tight to the door.

 

[finesse_r]

If you put custom shelves in for the handguns and really arrange the interior you can get quite a few guns in the typical gun safe. However the length of the barrels of long guns will determine how you can build out your safe. Without really planing the interior build out, you will have trouble getting the 24 guns that most standard saves advertise, in the safe with ease of use.

 

[wolfsong]

I rather enjoy taking out X number of long guns to get to the particular one I want. Any excuse/reason to handle my firearms never fails to bring some joy and a smile.

I, too, am a big believer in silicone impregnated gun socks. For handgun storage I drape silicone impregnated cloths over the racked guns.

I don't hang anything on the peg board that is affixed to the interior of the door on some safes. I had a binocular strap somehow get caught on one of the horizontal door bolts and it locked the door up tighter than a, well, you know. I thought the lock tumbler had failed so I called in a locksmith. Fifty dollars later it was a simple matter of working the combo and pulling VERY hard on the door. Expensive lesson learned.

A general rule of thumb is by a safe with double the capacity of the number of guns you currently own. Those damn things breed and multiply seemingly overnight!

 

[ruggedruger]

Thanks, everyone. I always appreciate the advice. Some day, I'll know enough to help someone out, too. Cheers.

 

[XP100]

I take the bolts out of my rifles(store them in a separate location). Mainly for security purposes but it also allows more guns to be put in safe. I put them in gun socks and then put one in butt down and the next barrel down. This allows just about the amount of guns to be placed in the safe that the manufacturer states.