Do you have a safe in your house?

[lugnut]

I went safe shopping today (after looking at the safes at Costco, Home Depot etc, in past few weeks).
Quite a world of difference between those and the safes carried at specialty safe/lock stores.

Those of you with safes, did you end up buying the heavy monsters from the specialty safe stores, or go with one of the 12-gauge-steel types from Costco, Home Depot, etc? The fire protection rating in the heavier safes is usually at least double the cheaper ones, which are usually only rated at 30 minutes.

It seems like the best value is in gun safes (long guns), in that you get a lot of storage volume for the money. But they do take up a lot of room (I was looking at roughly 30W x 60H x 24D).

I just wondered what direction you ended up going, for those of you that have bought and installed a safe? I think I'm leaning toward believing 12 gauge is just too thin, and half hour fire protection a tad too light. Probably I'd go a step up on each of those, to 10 gauge and 1 hour fire protection. But I'm open to being persuaded it's not worth the money to do that.

 

[judge_l]

I have a long gun safe, my wife gets the 2 shelves for stuff, I get the rest for the guns and stuff the kids can't have. The large outdoor stores have them for sale cheaper then the security stores. I didn't go with a real good fire safe, most house fires don't seem to burn for too long anyway (probably an inaccurate, uneducated opinion but helps me to rationalize it). The really good or hard to replace stuff is in the safe deposit box anyway.

 

[brotsten]

I've got one of these from Costco.

I think I have 8 long guns and 3 pistols in mine. My wife keeps jewelery, passports and other important papers in the safe. She also likes to stow my camera gear in there.....

It's not that girly, it weighs 600 lbs.

If you buy a gun safe, there is no sales tax.

Brian

 

[lugnut]

If you buy a gun safe, there is no sales tax.

Hmmm, are you sure about that? It must just be in certain states.

At one time there was federal legislation being proposed that would give tax credits or deductions if you installed a gun safe meeting certain criteria. I don't think it ever passed though.

 

[Sacedog]

At one time there was federal legislation being proposed that would give tax credits or deductions if you installed a gun safe meeting certain criteria. I don't think it ever passed though.

I too have a gun safe in the garage, which is a fireproof model, about the same size as Brotsten's. I also have a small fireproof safe in the master bedroom for papers and jewelry.

I'm not sure about a tax credit. I do know that if you purchase a firearm in CA, you are required to purchase a trigger lock with it. In lieu of that, you can show that you will be storing the gun in an approved gun safe.

 

[opie]

I have one of the Sentry safes for Sam's Club I think and wish I had bought a bigger one. At first it was only for documents but as time went on we accumulated more valuables and are now out of space. Also, make sure you bolt it down. Maybe it only happens on TV but I watched the "It Takes A Thief" guy carry a fair amount of safes away.

 

[brotsten]

If you buy a gun safe, there is no sales tax.

Hmmm, are you sure about that? It must just be in certain states.

At one time there was federal legislation being proposed that would give tax credits or deductions if you installed a gun safe meeting certain criteria. I don't think it ever passed though.

I bought mine 4 or 5 years ago at Costco. There was no sales tax, the gal told me it was a federal exemption. A quick search on the web appears that is wrong and it's a state by state exemption. Thanks for catching that.

Brian

 

[GraysonPeddie]

A bit off-topic, but I have a question.

Is it possible to hook up a safe to Elk M1 Gold via a wireless door contact? This is just only for logging when I opened a safe and if left opened too long, the alarm will beep, giving me the warning to close the safe. I could assign a wireless door contact to partition 2 and arm/disarm the safe. So when the safe is armed, I could enter the code and disarm partition 2. While doing so, the disarming of partition 2 can trigger the rule, which the announcer will tell me to close the safe by 4 minutes, so then I proceed. Next, I can enter the code for the safe and gather/store things that I need. After that, I can close and lock the safe, arm it, and that's it! But if the security system hasn't been armed, then the safe will be armed after a 4-minute timeout.

Well anyway, I don't plan on buying a safe pretty soon, but I might do that in the future.

 

[murphy]

I have no safe in my house.

But years ago I drilled a well, 100' away from my house. And a friend advised me, to store the pump this way, that nobody can put another pump aside. So I build a real safe pumphouse: inside 10' x 10', 8' high. Completely from concrete with a lot of rebar in the walls as the ceiling. No windows, only some vents. And the door is a rather thick ironplate. 4' wide, opens to the outside, but the hinges are inside. With special selfmade hinges as furniture-doors. And the lock is a german double-beard lock. If ever, much more difficult to open than a so called safety-lock. The outside of this compartment is covered with insulation and old looking plywood sheats.

So ... if you think, this is a shed and you can run it over with your truck as shown in the movie Bonny & Clyde ... you will sure kill your truck. Of course you can enter with heavy tools as big saws with watercooled diamond-blades or welding torches and some hours work ... But there is no simple way to enter, except with the right key.

Why I built this? Only for a waterpump? No. Also because I'm frequently in Germany for long times, mostly several months. I also needed a safe room for tools, for my guns and for the ELK-System etc. BTW all supplylines (water, electricity, phone, signalwires) are underground to this real tornado-safe room.

There is only one thing better and more safe against burglars:

A good neighbor with a good rifle.

 

[paulw11]

I have one of the Sentry safes for Sam's Club I think and wish I had bought a bigger one. At first it was only for documents but as time went on we accumulated more valuables and are now out of space. Also, make sure you bolt it down. Maybe it only happens on TV but I watched the "It Takes A Thief" guy carry a fair amount of safes away.

Sometimes even bolting the safe down isn't enough. Friends of my parents had their house burgled. The only thing stolen was the safe, which was bolted to the floor. The thieves simply cut the floor boards and took the safe. Unfortunately there wasn't even anything particularly valuable in the safe; they just used it for fire protection for items of sentimental value

Paul

 

[DavidL]

A friend earlier this year had his house broken into while he was at work. His several hundred pound safe and a hand gun were stolen. His truck was also stolen from his garage as the keys were on the kitchen table.

The good news is that months later, some hunters found the truck in good condition in the woods. Later, the police caught the thief who confessed to that burglery and many others. He said in his confession that he stole the truck to transport the safe!

He also said that he drove his car a ways down the road, and while walking back to the house to steal the truck, the police picked him up, asked what he was doing, and then let him go (to finish the "job").

None of the safe contents were returned nor the hand gun.

Ends up the 20ish yr old burgler was the son of another that had just been released from jail. In the confession the "kid" said "yeah, my father told me I was going to get in trouble stealing trucks and stuff....he had some balls...he was driving a stolen truck at the time he was tellin me..." Apple doesn't fall far from the Tree.