Gun safe

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Graybeard
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Gun safe

Post by Graybeard »

Going to purchase a gun safe in the next couple weeks. Looking at the Liberty Lincoln. Or the Browning Rawhide 33. Any info on these safes would be great. Thanks.
Randy Bohannon
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Randy Bohannon »

I am partial to the Liberty being American made,don’t know who or where the Browning is made by. Not partial to digital locks either and replace them with American Security mechanical dial lock,easy to replace if you can follow directions .
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desert deuce
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Re: Gun safe

Post by desert deuce »

"DITTO" what Randy wrote. Make sure it is tall enough to 'easily' store your longest rifles upright, muzzle straight up.
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Woody
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Woody »

Ditto.

I finally bought my first safe 15 years ago. I bought a Liberty with a dial lock and have zero complaints or issues. As DD stated, make sure the internal height will meet your needs. Don't believe the stated capacity. Get one bigger than your current needs.

Woody
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pacecars
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Re: Gun safe

Post by pacecars »

https://www.storemoreguns.com/

If you want to get more guns in your safe
Real gun powder is black.
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bpcr shooter
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Re: Gun safe

Post by bpcr shooter »

Liberty, but I would save my money and get a Ft. Knox. they have better fire rating and you can custom build it if need be.
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Don McDowell
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Don McDowell »

Liberty, and I much prefer the electric lock over the dial. The dial is very touchy about stopping in exactly the right place. The electric lock much quicker and easier to get into.
And yes I have 1 of each...
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Ray Newman
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Ray Newman »

For what it is worth-- my experience with an electronic safe lock.

Back in 2016, the electronic combination lock of my 10 year old safe would not open, even after installing 2 new batteries. Called the dealer who advised me to call Champion Safe. After jumping through a few hoops, Champion sent out a loaner master key pad. Still did not open.

Dealer representative came out and unsuccessfully tried several more Champion provided "master codes" as well as two more new batteries. He called Champion and again unsuccessfully tried other master codes. Dealer rep said that it was probably failed computer chip. He drilled one hole in the safe door to remove the computer chip, open it up, and install a time-tested S & G dial lock.

Old lock sent back to Champion to test. Champion found a problem in the computer chip as there was power from the battery and keypad to the computer chip. But, the computer chip would not accept the combination or the master codes. Learned the difficult way that electronic safe locks are unreliable and like a home computer, they will fail. All that for a mere US$475.00, tax included.

Something else: When I had the dial lock installed on my safe I asked the repair tech about any maintenance on the dial lock. The tech said that dial combination locks are just about maintenance free, but-- and there always is a 'but'- you get what you pay for. He then said if the number sequence is too close together that can/will cause unusual tumbler wear and lead to locking/unlocking problems.

According to the tech, unusual tumbler wear could/can also occur if quickly spinning the dial several times before applying the combination sequence to unlock. Supposedly people do this to "align everything up." He said doing the same after locking the safe dial can/will cause excessive tumbler wear.

There just might be something to what he said. A friend had his safe dial lock replaced because he said the tumblers were worn. He told me that two numbers were very close and the locksmith told him that was the problem. Now I do not recall the age of his safe and/or if the dial lock was "quality".
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jackrabbit
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Re: Gun safe

Post by jackrabbit »

The electronic locks are reliable and much, much morer convenient. We have several of them around my place and have had no problems. The newest one is probably 10 years old and I open them frequently. I am an old school kind of guy, but I say forget the mechanical dial locks. They are slow to open and a real pain in the butt compared to the electronic ones. I keep my safes locked because they are easy to open. Most of my buddies that have them don't use them because they are such a pain. They just close the safe door and don't lock them. What a waste! If you are not going to lock it, why have a safe?

In all seriousness, don't put too much faith in gun safes. My first concern is fire and not theft, but even the highest fire rated safes will not save them if your house burns completely down. Living in a rural area like I do, the odds of the fire department being able to save my house are slim. As far as for theft, a Milwaukee rechargeable 4" grinder with a cutting disc can zip into the side of most gun safes in a matter of minutes. Everybody worries about the front door, but in reality the sides are the easier way in. The other thing we have seen multiple times here on the front range is the thieves will just take a saw, cut a hole in your wall, throw a chain around your whole safe and yank the whole safe out of your house with a pickup. They then load it into the pickup with a tommy gate and are long gone. The whole they cut to get the chain through the wall has not been large enough for the safe either. The folks come home to hell of a mess and all their most valuable possessions gone.

I have gun safes and use them and think you should have one too, just don't have too much false security in them. In reality, the thieves easily know where all your most valuable possessions are when they enter your home, they only provide partial protection against fire, and are far from being impervious to a thief.

Just my two cents,
Cody
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Lumpy Grits »

I say stay with a mechanical lock and get one commercially rated.
Seen to many electronic locks fail to ever trust them.
Gary
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Ray Newman
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Ray Newman »

Agree with you about the slowness of the dial locks. As for the electronic locks, I just wish I had your confidence in them.
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DeadEye
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Re: Gun safe

Post by DeadEye »

I have an inexpensive Brinks Safe ($600), eight guns, 400 lb. and it has a digital keypad and a tumbler lock for when the batteries go dead or you forget the combo. Just recently the keypad did not want to work and so I got the key from another safe only to discover the key would not go in the tumbler. Upon closer examination I saw that someone had driven a flat blade screw driver (at least that what it looks like) into the key slot and tried to break into the safe. The tumbler held and nothing was/is missing. A whack on the door jolted the batteries and I got one more opening out of them. That's the good part. The rest of the story is this. A few years back when we were spending a lot of time at Ben Avery / Phoenix I would get someone to check the house while we were away. Insurance regulations here state it has to be checked every day during heating season. Over the years I had hired a number of people with no problems. Then the last year (2014) I hired the town shop foreman, someone I thought I knew well, to check it for us. I gave him the keys and watched as he dropped them into the ash tray of the town truck. We were gone from November to April, the usual snowbird stay. When we returned as soon as I opened the door I knew we had problems, the house was freezing. The furnace had gone out and everything was frozen. I called the man and asked for our keys, he snickered and said he'd bring them right over. After two more requests I gave up and changed the locks on the house. A neighbor told me later that he never saw any sign the house had been checked. I got the furnace working (thermocouple) and when we warmed up I tried the water shut-off. Water poured from the water meter and a few other spots as well. I called the town office and advised that I needed a new water meter. The 'new' town foreman came to install it and I tried turning the water on again to discover two burst pipes (I had drained everything, so I thought). I'm enough of a plumber to take care of that so a little later I tried again. I could hear water running but couldn't see where. Then suddenly the water softener overflowed and all the resin poured out on the floor. The inner tank had burst. New water softener time. And so it went, all-in-all the damage was about $2000 and having had our faith in human nature damaged severely (it's since been restored), we sold the motorhome and stay where it's cold in the winter now. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, I have. I'm just glad that little tumbler held or it would have been much worse.

That's a long story but it's a cold, rainy day with a little snow here and I thought I'd share that with you.

Paul
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sackett
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Re: Gun safe

Post by sackett »

Dial lock....they don't fail, period

Safe: neither of those you listed. I have both a Liberty and a Sturdy Safe. I prefer the Sturdy Safe, but if those listed are then only options, go with the Liberty.

https://www.sturdysafe.com
charlie young
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Re: Gun safe

Post by charlie young »

Good to hear from you Paul. Heck of a story.
Graybeard
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Re: Gun safe

Post by Graybeard »

Thanks for all info. Anyone know about Rhino Iron works. Thanks
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