Gun safe, any 1st hand experience with fire or theft?

[dieselrealtor]

I have done a lot of reading, but first hand information is what I would really like to know.

Have you personally seen a safe & contents that have;

• been through a fire
• broken into or attempted break in

Please post

• the manufacturer, model & the specs of the safe in question (if available)
• pics will be great if you have them but a description of the safe condition & contents condition will be greatly helpful.
• as many details as you have of the event, length of the fire, square footage of structure, safe location (basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc)

Please don't post specs or a think so of safes that you like or know about, just ones that have been through an event. I hope this thread can be a real life test results post.

I hope this will show the good, bad & the ugly.

 

[dieselrealtor]

Looking for horror or success stories.

 

[NathanJefferson]

Ok, so you say first hand - I don't have one - I do have two very close second (not 3rd) hand stories.

First a very close friend of the families house burned down = safe gone. Yes it was rated for 30 minutes at how ever many hundreds degrees and blah blah blah(sorry don't remember the specifics of the safe). The house was in the boonies and was a total loss. If your house burns DOWN your safe is going to be gone. Anyone feel free to disagree with me - but if you have a total loss on a house fire even if you safe 'makes it through' I guarantee whats inside it won't be even close to useable. But I'm not saying fire protection could/would be useful in a fire that is not a total loss.


Second was a family members house who got shredded by a tornado, safe was ripped up and found ~20 yards from where it was bolted to the floor (the floor and studs it was fastened to were ripped up of course) and was locked and fully intact, scratched and dirty but intact. Everything inside was a mess - had shifted fallen, banged against, etc but nothing destroyed. This was a cheap no name or re-branded safe they bought at sears forever ago.

All I have. Just wanted to share something since this thread looked pretty bare .

 

[Sylvain]

I have personally broken into a safe, so it couldn't be more "first hand", it was my own safe so it was not really a theft though.
It was just a cheap safe, and I just wanted to see how easy it was to break into.
Im not sure if I can post here how I opened it and with which tools since I dont want to make a "safe breaking 101".
You can find the information somewhere else anyway.
Let's just say that it was the first safe I tried to open and that I had very little knowledge about safes prior to that.
It must have took me less than five minutes, as I took my time (since it was my own safe and I was not worried to be caught by the owner), to open the door.
After that I took it apart to study how it was made.
Im sure I could open other safes the same way and it made me understand how safe works and what kind of quality and features to look in a safe.
Im sure if I can open one model in 5 minutes someone can do it in 1, or less.
All safes just give you time and you can break into ANY safe on the market if you have enough time and can work with all the tools you need.
If someone breaks into your house, find your safe, and hear the noise of a pump-action shotgun upstairs, they are not going to try to open it (even if that would take 3 minutes) and will run away.
If you are not home for weeks they can open anything.

 

[vitamink]

I have a stack on safe and a friend of mine who is a professional lock smith was able to crack it almost faster than i can open it with the proper combination. I have seen several large safe break ins, but all were removed from their original location to be worked on somewhere else.

 

[Titanium Man]

With a lot of these box store safes..............a heavy sledge and a huge pry bar will usually do the trick.

There's a youtube video out and I can't find it right now that explains my point. Somebody help me locate it. Thanks.

It's very informative.

 

[Bunnykid68]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhOjWHbD6M
This is a good video. They have safes that are harder to get into than others. 30 minute fire rating wont do much good but one with a 2 hour rating will

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Never had a safe with the door pryed open.

IME, they go in through the top. Knock it over and beat on a corner with a sledgehammer until it peels up like a sardine can.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Ok, so you say first hand - I don't have one - I do have two very close second (not 3rd) hand stories.

First a very close friend of the families house burned down = safe gone. Yes it was rated for 30 minutes at how ever many hundreds degrees and blah blah blah(sorry don't remember the specifics of the safe). The house was in the boonies and was a total loss. If your house burns DOWN your safe is going to be gone. Anyone feel free to disagree with me - but if you have a total loss on a house fire even if you safe 'makes it through' I guarantee whats inside it won't be even close to useable. But I'm not saying fire protection could/would be useful in a fire that is not a total loss.

I knew my safe was toast after my fire when I found a bullet hole in it. From the inside. Opening it took a cutting blade on my battery operated circular saw about 1 minute by cutting one side off. Everything inside was lost.

It would have protected the contents if the fire department had come quickly and put the fire out, but the cost of living out in the middle of nowhere is no fire department response because no one knew the house was on fire.

My new gun safe is inside my shooting shack which is an all-concrete building. Theft maybe if someone has time to get past the security. Fire or tornado, nope.

 

[Sylvain]

It all depends if you bolt your safe down to the ground or not, like showed on that video it's very easy to open the safe when it is on its back.
Even cheap safes would be much harder to open when bolted down, especially in a corner.That way it's much harder to have any leverage to knock it over.
Of course having the safe bolted to the floor and walls also prevents people from just taking the whole safe away too.

 

[amhenry]

I saw a Liberty Centurion safe that thieves had tried to open with a sledgehammer. It was pretty well smashed up, but they hadn't succeeded in getting it open.

It was heavily bolted to the floor, and they knocked the dial clean off the face. If they'd been able to lay it down on the floor they might have gotten it open. The contents were unfazed by the beating the exterior had taken.

 

[Brandon]

Without telling to much about my safe's location. It would be all but impossible to put a 4 foot or longer prybar in the area. You could get a sledge hammer in there, but limited room to swing on it. It is bolted to the ground so tipping would be a little difficult for a smash and grab type theft. Fire is not really what I was planning for. Nothing of great great value is in there and nothing that can not be replaced. Then there are the other layers of protection but that is a different thread (monitored alarm with fire monitoring).

 

[in812]

Ok first hand had I had an old safe sit through a very bad 5hr fire the safe was only rated for 1/2hr the next day i was still able to dial it open had to pry the door after the bolts were back the guns and paperwork were just fine IMO the older ones are built a lot better not the slick beauty queens but battle axes they build some good ones today but they are very expensive
If your looking for a real good safe get a TLTR rated safe they are not cheep
looking for a safe 1st thing to look at if they rate the sides in gauge run sheet metal shouldnt be used on a safe exterior
a lot of newer safes use couple layers drywall for fire protection
I have several TL safes they are 1" thick solid steel sides 1 1/2 door
dont buy into the large bolt BS if the safe is rigid enough a couple 5/8 or 3/4 bolts will get the job done (i just sold a TLTR rated safe off memory it had 3-5/8 bolts ?)

here is a link to a good sounding safe by specs
look down to F rated safes
http://www.graffundersafes.com/products/safes-weapon.html

 

[dieselrealtor]

Ok first hand had I had an old safe sit through a very bad 5hr fire the safe was only rated for 1/2hr the next day i was still able to dial it open had to pry the door after the bolts were back the guns and paperwork were just fine IMO the older ones are built a lot better not the slick beauty queens but battle axes they build some good ones today but they are very expensive
If your looking for a real good safe get a TLTR rated safe they are not cheep
looking for a safe 1st thing to look at if they rate the sides in gauge run sheet metal shouldnt be used on a safe exterior
a lot of newer safes use couple layers drywall for fire protection
I have several TL safes they are 1" thick solid steel sides 1 1/2 door
dont buy into the large bolt BS if the safe is rigid enough a couple 5/8 or 3/4 bolts will get the job done (i just sold a TLTR rated safe off memory it had 3-5/8 bolts ?)

here is a link to a good sounding safe by specs
look down to F rated safes
Graffunder Safe and Vault Doors from Sage Safe Co. | Products | Weapon and Multipurpose Safes

Do you know if yours had the concrete, drywall or ceramic insulation?

Thanks to all who have contributed so far.

 

[in812]

not sure what it was exactly definitley was not drywall to light for std concrete maybe lightweight concrete ? what ever it was it was poured in it formed to the door around everything

 

[MontereyC6]

Bolted down makes no difference in getting into a typical gun safe. If it's not concrete lined, you don't even need a sledge hammer. A hole saw and a sawzall will get into a safe in minutes.

 

[snapping turtle]

Fire no thief no. A bad sump pump with a safe in the basement yes.

He brought all the guns over to me to clean, save, help out. He was going to be busy with the basement and they needed attention fast. If you don't want to spend money on a backup/battery powered sump or two don't put it in the basement.

I was able to save most of the handguns with minimum damage.(top shelves of the safe) swelled wood and pitting in the metal of almost all the longguns. The safe semi floated in the 3 feet of water in basement.(not bolted down) A few seemed to survive better that others. A couple of long guns were mainly ruined. It seemed that the ones with the fancy flashy wood (Brownings and a few japan winchesters) did not soak up water in the stocks. A few old oil stocked marlins soaked up and swelled a good 1/4 inch. Thanks to marlin (pre rem take over) They saved two family heirloms with a total cost of 315 plus shipping including one that was reblued. They look as good or better than they did before the flood.

If anyone remembers a memirial day weekend and a very large rainstorm several years ago that is when it happened. He was on vacation at the time and they floated for a few days.