Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Best gun safe?

I bought a Winchester Big Boy from Southland Safe's for $1000 it is about a 50 gun.About twice as big as a 24 gun.They have 24 gun safes for about $500.You really should check them out.I was about to buy a scratched Liberty Fat Boy for $1000 from Marks Outdoors.This Winchester is twice the safe.It has about twice the fire rating and is much heavier.The door is twice as heavy and bolts twice as big.

So I'll have twice as much trouble getting it unloaded and in the house and will have to put twice as many beams under my house to hold the floor up?

This topic seems to come up over and over every few months about "what's the best gun safe that I can buy" and most of the replies focus on safes ranging from $500.00 to $1000.00.

I realize that most everyone either can't or don't want to spend $3000.00 to $5000.00 or even more for a good safe. But the truth is all these safes that you can buy at Tractor Supply and places like that are not much in the way of a good, quality safe.

Give a thief a hammer, a chisel and a sawz-all and he can be inside most of them in 5-10 minutes (or less) because the metal used for the walls in them is so thin.

If you have guns or other valuables that you want to keep safe from thieves I'd be more inclined to spend the money to buy the best safe that I could for the money. With that in mind, that knocks out most of the Chinese built safes that you find in the lower tier pricing.

My BIL was wanting just a cheap safe to put his guns in and was leaning heavily in that direction. He came by and looked at my new Fort Knox safe and he left here and went and ordered a Fort Knox for himself.

Darryl Rowe at Southland Safes in Haleyville, Alabama is a dealer for them and is a great guy to do business with. He carries several brands of good, quality safes.

I am not saying that if you don't buy a Fort Knox then you didn't get a good safe. Fact is, there are several companies that make some very good safes.

What I am saying is if you want real peace of mind from theft, you need to step up as much as you can and buy the best safe that you can afford. That usally will take you away from the Chinese, box store type safes.

You are gonna have to pay a little more money to buy a safe with thicker walled metal.

Then just buy one of thoes cheap POS safes from Walmart.You can carry it out in the cart LOL.

They also have the smaller safes cheaper than anywhere I have seen.They also deliver.No trouble for you at all if you want to pay the $200 extra.

Seriously,good luck.I looked a long time and was very glad I went to southland.I have no affilation with the place.

I'll agree with everything Cuz-Pat says. I looked for a long time before buying a Liberty. You can pretty much guarantee that if it says China on it that it ain't worth a damn unless you're buying chop sticks.

Plus buy twice the safe you think you'll need. 24 gun safe apparently means 24 Red Ryders.

When you go to putting scoped rifles in a safe you quickly start losing space. Good advice, Dustin.

Buy bigger than you think you will need.

I can't remember now who the company is, but at the SHOT Show I saw some "in-wall" safes they had that looked fantastic. Flush with the wall, could be painted over, covered with something, large and small, etc.

One other consideration on size is the availability now of the mesh or metal rack systems for the safe doors. You can hang these inside and put smaller items - handguns, ammo, jewelry, dehumidifiers or moisture-crystal bags, etc. - in these racks. Just have to make sure there's enough room for the door to close with a rack and your gear in it.

Remember, you get what you pay for.

I understand what your saying cuz and agree..I just ain't coming off 3-5 grand for a gun safe.I mean if I had plenty of money to do so I definately would.I would love to have the best safe money can buy and the best guns to fill it up with but the fact of the matter is I am just a poor lil ole redneck that has cheap guns to fill up a cheap Safe so 3-5 grand is way outta my league for a gun safe.Your playing ball with the NFL..I'm still playing peewee ball.

Bottom line is to buy the best you can for the amount of money you have to spend. Don't just buy the first one you come across that is in your budget.

I'd pay more attention to guage/thickness of metal in the walls than I would to the fire rating.

Thanks for the advice.

Liberty will give you a new safe free of charge if your home burns too. That's what sold me on liberty and winchester safes that I looked at where POS compared to liberty

Several of the higher quality safe companies do that. I have that warranty with Fort Knox on my safe not only for fire but for destruction from theft as well.

It must depend on the model.A lot of the same name shotguns were built different depending on what the importer specified.Safes may be the same way.The Winchester I bought makes the Liberty Fatboy look like a POS.The Fatboy is an intry level and I'm sure the more expensive models are much better but at the $1000 range the Winchester Big Boy was a lot more impressive.

Trox
You don't have to spend 3K but before you spend $800 on a small light weight safe from a box store,you may want to look at some $1000 safes that are built more than twice as good.The point is that you should just look around and weigh all your options.Southland has a large selection with the best prices I saw when I was looking.You can get a very nice safe for $800-$1000.Good luck whatever you buy.

Several of the higher quality safe companies do that. I have that warranty with Fort Knox on my safe not only for fire but for destruction from theft as well.[/quote]

I thinking liberty has this as well but I didn't know for sure do you know if iliberty has it on destruction or not

Winchester will replace your safe if damaged from fire or burglary. Also has a limited lifetime warranty.

Winchester Safes

I purchased my Libery 42 gun safe at Marks a few years ago. Scratch and dent resulted in $1300 for a $2100 safe. Delivered exactly where I wanted it for $75. It will be the best $75 you ever spend. Moved my dads safe when he purchased, will never do that again!

I bought a browning last year and have been very pleased with it. Look at the fire ratings and buy the highest you can afford less $100. Use that last $100 to hire a moving company to put it in the house for you. Trust me it is money well spent!!

I bought mine from Southland. It's a 50 gun and I've had it for about 10 years. He charged me $100 to deliver it to Oneonta and it was worth every penny!
I would definitely check with Southland before I bought anything.