Ok not sure where to post this. I want a gun vault. What is a good buy that is fire proof and holds more than 14 guns?

I purchased a 11/22 gun safe from Bass Pro shop for ~$900 (1999) when I lived in Illinois and picked it up. I see the same safe in Cabelas for $1300 (item #CD-22-2720). Buy the biggest you can, those darn guns seem to multiply worse than rabbits when left to their own devices!

I wnt to a local safe company and bought a used Mosler for $500. It has a 3 hour fire rating, is 40 inches wide, 65 inches tall and 22 inches deep. Inside.

I paid $150 to have it delivered (it weighs 3500 lbs) and set up in my basement.

A pretty good deal I think. They had about 5 different used ones.

One thing to remember when looking at safes is that none are fire proof. Some will give your guns a better chance of survival than others, but if your house burns to the ground, no safe in the world will keep them from being destroyed. The rating system for heat endurance is 'X degrees for X hours.' ie. 1500 degrees for 3 hours. Compare those figures.

Other things to look at:

# and position of bolts. You want at least 7, two on top and bottom, three on the side.

Steel thickness. 1/4" minimum. 3/8" better. 7/16" really good.

In my experience, Remington and Browning make the best safes, although there are other very good one's available. I agree with SnakeLover, buy one that holds at least 1/3 more guns than you own now.

All that said, you can get top-of-the-line 30 gun safes for $1200. I wouldn't skimp in this area.

I will second getting the biggest one you can fit/afford. I left a few guns in there alone and unsupervised and they have multiplied.

A 22 gun safe is now barely adequate. Do not get anything less than a 22 gun safe ... even if you only have two guns!!

You can always order a vault door (Browning Pro Steel) and build one the size you want. A walk in vault is a much better deal as it also becomes a storm shelter too. You can have a small safe inside the vault if you wish for personal papers, jewelry, mad money etc. that you do not want laying about with the firearms.
You can have shelving for ammo, cased guns, handguns, and don't foget to put in things like photo negatives of lost parents and your kiddos. Things that will help you replace items that might somehow be lost in different ways.
You can put a plastic sheet on say maybe your garage floor. Built a form for a wall on the floor and pour in place. Leave rebar out on the sides you wish to weld to the top and other sides and to weld in the door frame. You can then do a tilt wall construction with a cap welded around or poured one in place. It will make one hell of a vault. Consider putting in a de humidifier inside with a drain to the outside so you do not have to go hand dump the drain pan.
Once you have a walk in vault...no matter how small...you will not go back to a safe. I have had / have both.
We live in tornado alley and it is really nice to have that vault to step into when the warning sirens go off. Also great in case of home intrusions.
It cost less to build one than you might think. Food for thought.
IF you get a safe...do like Wendell said...if you have only one gun and even if it is a small 25 ACP pistol....you need a 23 gun safe!!!! I have yet to meet a gun owner that had too much room in his gun safe.

[ 07-02-2003, 19:03: Message edited by: Harry ]

Thanks for the info guys. There are dozens to choose from and lots of options. This will help me narrow it down,.

Good safes are heavy, be carefull where you put them.

I looked at American Security, Browning, Zanotti, and Fort Knox. I purchased the Fort Knox because I felt it offered the most features/protection for the buck.

I have a 37" wide safe designed for 22 guns. The shelves are great for photos, CD/disks, papers, etc. I don't plan on ever having that many guns which is good because taking into account for scopes, handles, etc., I'd realistically rate my 22 gun safe as a 10-15 gun safe.

Another thing to look at is the inside design. it may say its a 22 gun safe, but look at how difficult it will be to get the guns in and out. I have a local company that makes safes for military and police, very durable but not pretty or fancy. I had them do a custom rack system to let me get the guns out easier, cuts down capacity but makes it easier. Mine is something like 36w x 27d x 60h or so. www.sturdysafe.com good to visit just cause they give you some things to look at when buying. I paid 850 or so out the door on mine, but I picked it up, 650lbs.!

In retrospect I should have gotten a bigger safe, it is way too small for what I have now, I have rifles crammed all over the house now since they can't all fit. I might build a walk in safe like some of the guys are saying.

Red

I, too, have noticed the tendancy of firearms to multiply when left unsupervised. However, instead of getting an ever-larger safe, I prefer to have multiple smaller safes in different locations within the house, or "outstationed" as I do at my son's house. There's something to be said for not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Harry's suggestion of a vault room is not a bad one. We are currently planning new home and this is a central concept. Not expensive at all, when you're starting from scratch and incorporating it into the house from the beginning, but it can be a challenge to retrofit an existing house.

There's an excellent article in this month's Rifle magazine. I forgot to mention the Fort Knox and Heritage.

As Nebraska mentioned, the FK has a great bang/buck ratio, as does the Heritage, mostly because they tend to not be as fancy in paint/pinstriping, etc. Very functional, though, for the $$.

i agree with all to get the biggest you can, to help give myself more room i take all bolts out of guns and put on top shelf, this allows me to pack-em in. I got the 40" browning and am looking for another.

I like the walk in vault idea, but I had one real bad experience with one. I went into Harry's to look at some stuff (he has some really cool stuff) and his vault door slammed closed behind me. I about jumped through the ceiling. It scared the crap out of me.

He thought it was real funny.

There are a lot of discussions on safes on various firearms discussion boards, as well as websites for various manufacturers that can give you insight on features that will serve as a basis for asking good questions. Some things that stuck out in my mind in reading various posts are:

1. There is some debate about the use of electronic keypads and their ability to be circumvented.
2. A lot of safes say they hold x amount of guns, but this may be overly optimistic if all of your guns have scopes, slings, bipods, etc.
3. The bigger the safe, the harder it is to move, so decide if you are going to be in the same place for a while before making a decision.

Here are a couple of many links:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17979

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=137906

Good luck!

I think the capacities are set using Daisy "Red Ryders" or H&R "Toppers" Because they sure don't allow for bolt handles, scopes, slings etc.
Get the largest one you can fit into your house.
With the help of 4 friends I installed a 1300lb 52 gun FK safe in my basement. All it took was a little thinking outside the box (we ramped it down thru a window, instead of thru the door and down the stairs).
A lot of safe stores will loan you the dollies and stair climbers if you purchase the safe from them.

i use tags with string that i got from staples for each bolt eliminating that problem, suppose i should of noted that, too.

I have so much crammed into my safe, and overflowed into closets and under beds. Luckily 3 of my rifles have the stocks off so I can put the barreled actions up on the top shelf. and the safe I have has shelves in the door instead of the nice carpeted inner door.

Get this, I called the safe company yesterday after reading the thread, they are only half a mile from my office. Asked about Vault doors. They just started making them, 80"x36". Cost 1200. BUT, the guy said that they still have the prototype there, unpainted, he'd sell it to me for $650 bucks!!!!

Unfortunately I live in a mobile home and the door is so heavy that the frame needs to be bolted to something real solid and I don't think my trailer could handle it. :-(

Red

i have no idea where to start