Been looking at gun safes - specifically Remington. I was checking out their 11-gun safe with the matte gray finish at a local sporting goods outlet. Seemed like a good balance of features, weight, and price, but when closed and locked, the door had play between the jamb and the locking bolts. You could push on the door and watch it flop back and forth about 1/4 inch. My brother-in-law in New York has a similar Remington safe, and it does the same thing. Is this something that be adjusted out, or do these safes just suck that way?

And does this happen with other safes? My cheap assed Homak gun cabinets lock up nice and tight, why can't a $600 safe do the same?

I don't know about the Rem safe, but all of the ones that I have seen there is no door adjustments.

Good Luck,

On my Fort Knox there is an adjustable button on the back of the jamb that the lugs rest on. If I back it out I can make it really tight or if I adjust it in it will make the door flop. There are several around the perimeter of my door. Fort Knox has safes in every price range that are very nice.

my remington gunsafe has allen screws in the door jam for adjusting the play in the door when locked.

What ever you do, don't buy a Stack-on. I bought one of their safes and it had a god awful smell from the adhesive used to glue in the carpet. I emailed them and they denied that there was a problem. I finally took it back to the store and they agreed to swap it for store credit. I bought a Yukon Gold (Browning). Both are in your price range. The Yukon is very nice and solid and I paid like $500. Ironically, Stack-On emailed me back a couple weeks later wanting the serial number and admitted they had switched adhesives and wanted more info about my safe. I told them to contact the store. Good Luck!

I've owned an Amsec (American Security) gun safe for over 20 years. I bought it when my daughter was born. It is still state of the art. It has all the features you could ask for and looks and works like the day I bought it. The door doesn't rattle because there are nylon adjustable set screws to keep that from happening.

I am a big fan of safes as a utilitarian object and NOT a piece of furniture. I paid NOTHING for my huge and fireproof gun safe that is double doored, locks up tight as a drum, is fireproof, about 7 feet tall, four feet wide and three feet deep. If you look around, you can find safes that industrial shops or retail establishments just want to get rid of. This is solid commercial stuff, not consumer stuff that people buy. No offense to owners of The liberty or Fort Knox or Browning stuff, but I think I paid $250 to move my safe 120 miles and that was my ONLY cost incurred. Look around....you can find deals and then spend what is left over on guns and hunting.

JMHO,

JohnTheGreek

I hope that most of you don't get a false sense of security from your thin mild steel consumer gun safes. A minute or so with a Saws-all and any one of these safes are open. Just start at a corner on the side of the safe, not the door, and you can cut it like butter. It will keep the amatuers out but that is about it.I find it laughable when someone buys a gun safe and then places it in a room on display. Put the safe in a closet, bolt it to the floor and walls, and insure the contents because they aren't too safe in there. Hide the damn thing!

Just my $.02 worth. I used to be a insurance claims adjuster.

Just some advice. I have seen several bank vault doors available for $1500. They are typically designed to fit into a wall the thickness of a typical concrete block. You could build a vault room and use one of these doors. Just an idea.

First, no safe is unbreakable. if the bastards want in, they'll get in. If you are going to buy a safe, get a large one....you'll be cramming all sorts of stuff in it once you own one..papers, jewlery, cameras....whatever you don't want burnt up or walked off with. I even forget what brand mine is....but it is typical of what is on the market. But if a cutting otrch is handy or the mentioned sawzall, we're screwed. Then again, same if they play Butch Cassidy and use dynamite. MOST thieves are in a hurry, get in and get out, grab what is handy and make a get away. I suppose the best thing is to pour concrete around your guns and bury them 8 feet deep in an undisclosed area.

I own a Liberty, Lincoln series safe. It will hold 54 long guns, and has shelves above.

As stated above, they can all be gotten into, however the Liberty is going to take a lot of time!

If you can build a vault you will also have the advantage of a storm shelter or an "intrusion room". A vault will spoil you rotten no matter what size you make it.
A buddy placed plastic on his garage floor. Formed up the walls and poured them on his garage floor. Then he just built the vault using a "tilt wall" system with angle metal around the top etc. welded together to help hold the walls in place etc. When final...the vault was in one corner of his garage.
Worked slick.
The plastic sheet made for a smooth outer wall finish out on the cement. The vault door frame was welded into re-bar loops placed into the walls. He hung the door and finished out the interior like he wanted it.
Was not that expensive.

quote:

I find it laughable when someone buys a gun safe and then places it in a room on display. Put the safe in a closet, bolt it to the floor and walls, and insure the contents because they aren't too safe in there. Hide the damn thing!

OEK -- good show.

My house was broken into several years ago. Up until that time, I did *NOT* have a safe, and I did not have an alarm system. What I did have was 2 - 200 lb English Mastiffs inside my home.

My dogs had a dog-door they could go inside and out of as they pleased, and a large fenced in backyard. When I was away, there was a section of the house inside that was cordoned off to the dogs so they couldn't go into that part (namely my bedroom because those mastiffs would sleep in my bed), etc.

I had several of my guns throughout the house... in my younger days I used to keep guns of some sort in every room, along with various assorted swords, knives, battle-axes, etc.

Well, one day I came home from lunch and my back-door (in the area away from the dogs) was open, and busted off it's frame - deadbolt and all. I ran inside and the place was ransacked. All in all, the thieves took over $12,000 dollars worth of guns from me. They didn't find them all, but they took some things that I'll never be able to replace, and that I definately wouldn't prefer on the streets in irresponsible hands.

They didn't find everything I had, but they found and took enough. It took losing $12,000 worth of guns for me to wake up and realize that "it CAN happen to me" - even in rural South Alabama.

I had never bought a security system because the police department's general response time to my house is approximately 25 minutes, and I figured a thief could be in and gone before then. After the robbery - I went out that next week and bought a home security system anyway... figuring that even if it takes the cops 30 minutes to show up, I could make it home in 10 and at the LEAST, I could disable their car in my yard - guaranteed. On my alarm system, I have it key-fob code access from outside, and once a door or window is opened or broken, it goes off in 10 seconds and calls me and the police.

After that, I bought a safe, and I put it in my son's room in a small closet, and bolted it right onto the sub-frame of the house and the back wall from the inside. The safe is almost the size of the closet and I have it sitting just inside the door with no way to get to the sides unless you tear the whole closet apart around it. Basically, you can open the closet door, and then open the door to the safe - and that's about it.

For a while I actually pondered the idea of grenades on a wire on the inside frame of the door, so it can open and close fine, but if it's knocked off it's hinges or away from the frame ... I was pissed.

As it is, I didn't go that far, but anyone trying to get in now has 10 seconds to disarm the alarm (and cutting the phoneline outside or power won't help), and roughly 10 - 30 minutes before myself and/or the police get there.

I don't "think" they can get into my safe and be gone in 10 minutes... at the least, I'd hope the alarm klaxons would unnerve them and make them sloppy just knowing there's reinforcements on the way. ... and of course - there's new dogs with free range inside

I hate thieves.