gun storage

[cottonstalk]

I wasn't sure where to put this.but here goes.


I am curious as more room may be needed.Safe,fire proof or non,or home made or wood or other.What and reasoning behind choice.
I am doing something soon and was curious as to what other folks have.

My father always had a custom built wood cabinet,I have used the cheap metal one from walmart(as at the time money was an issue),and a friend had a big safe from winchester that recently went through a fire and even though fire proof,guns and papers inside were damaged and at first winchester said they would stand behind their product and they maybe but way behind,so far they haven't been seen or heard from yet.

So that said what do you choose and why?

[dougader]

I just went with a Cannon safe bolted to the floor beams. It offers security from opportunity burglars and IMO even the fire "proof" safes don't offer much in the way of protection from fire. Usually its only at fairly low degrees and only for a limited time. If there is a major fire in the house then its gonna get damaged anyway.

And if a pro safe cracker or "peeler" has enough time he's gonna get inside that safe eventually. Maybe things have changed since I got my safe, but that was the reasoning behind my purchase at the time.

[blacktailslayer]

In the latest issue of HANDLOADER Brian Pierce discusses a product that seals the door of a safe during a fire (it expands to seal the door) so the smoke and other nasties do not get drawn into a safe when things cool down after the fire. This is in response to an article that he had done a few issues back where he describes what happened to a friend when his house burned. The guys guns were in a fire-rated safe and were OK metalurcially but sustained a lot of smoke and water damage that basically turned all of them all very rusty and had to be refinished.

I have had a large Fort Knox safe for the past 14 years and I hope that I do not find out how well it does during a house fire. At the time of purchase they were the highest rated safe as far as fire rating goes. Not sure about now.

I decided on a good heavy safe when I found out that my homeowner's insurance only covered $X of firearms and covering more was prohibitavely expensive. The cost of the safe was equivilant of one of my rifles. I think it was money well spent.

Don D.