Gun Safes

Gun Safes

Many of us are gun owners, and being responsible owners we have a gunsafe. These safes come in many styles and shapes, from a one handgun size to a safe that handles 50 rifles and 50 handguns. Plus the wifes gems and other small treasures, and important papers

Safes come with different kinds of locks, dial a number and key lock combos, to an electric lock. They come with shelves and other goodies. They come with a fire rating of being able to withstand so much fire for a certain amount of time before you are faced with a hunk of metal , outside and inside.

Now where to put this thing. The small ones are not much of a problem. It is the larger ones that seem to be the elephant in the room. Most of the large ones I know about are kept in the house. Some in a garage, but most do not like that. You can get a safe that looks somewhat like a coffee table and place it in the den or living room. The other half might be very unhappy, though. Some are able to place a large safe in a closet. Thats what I did for many years. I bolted it to the floor and the wall. Empty, this safe hit the scales at 900 pounds. Hard to move but it can be done. Thats why it was bolted.

I am assuming many of you have a safe. I think that is smart. However, this not about what kind of safes, and where they should go, and all the brands etc. This is about being “safe” and living with a safe. Lots of bad guys out there, and as things get worse it will breed more bad guys. In any climate there are always badguys The safe in the house only goes so far.

A true story: Many years ago not far from where my house was, a man was a professional hunting guide. He had a few safes loaded (no pun) with weapons. He dealt with many clients over the years, most of them knew about or saw the safes over a long time period. One early evening a knock at the door, he opened it, masked faces and gun in his face. He was forced to open the safes or they would not only hurt him but his wife and kids. He opened the safes. They took everything , a lifetime collection of fine shotguns, rifles, handguns etc. They tied up the kids the wife and him. They were never caught.

He had a safe. However, the contents were not safe and his famliy was not safe. Those of you who have guns talk about them more than you are aware of.
You never know who the person you know might mention in passing that soandso has these really cool guns. Oh, really? You become a target, (pun intended this time ).

What to do? You need a deversion. Sure keep the guns in the safe, just not the best or all of them, depending on how large the collection might be.
The safe that is obvious, is where they will go first and mostly last. You need a few other places to stash the other weapons. If you have a deep freezer, the chest type, by bagging your guns or whatever , you place them at the bottom of the freezer, put the food over them. There are wall safes that go between the studs, by placing a “door” over the front that blends with the wall and placing a piece of furniture in front of it, you are going to be in pretty good shape. You might even do a few other kinds of safes in the house. The garage lends itself to these wall safes as well. My garage was finished with paneling. And had a “grease pit” , never used as such, but it was hidden I could stand up in it.
Great for me. But most will not have this feature. An old fridge can be a safe as well, Im sure many of you have seen these, put a few crap weapons and those crappy knives in it. A large bathroom is a great room for a wall safe as well. Install an electric wall heater, just the grill, make a box that fits inside. With the grill and the knobs etc, it looks like a wall heater.

One of the coolest safes, hidey place, I ever saw was an old TV set. The screen was there, from the back it looked like all the guts where in place. NOT. The screen opened with a push of the knob, a simple latch made from the indside, and it contained 6 handguns, with room for more. Just an old TV with no value all dusty, sitting in the garage up on a shelf.

Deversion and stealth is the game.

Misdirection is the winner

Lots of other options here and this is not meant as an end all , but should get your brainpans working. Do a search for safes and look for some unique features.

Be safe out there

By Dude McLean