Gun Safe Dealers

I always avoid digital locks and stick with quality mechanical only.

I purchased an American Security from Gunsafes.com and had no issues.

Check out Sturdy Safes

I bought a SM25 in 2012. I love it. Wow, prices sure went up since then. I paid $2100 delivered; Now the same safe on the website is $4799. Plus delivery. Thanks, Joe.

Nice safe!

I’m curious if you considered any gun storage options such as secure cabinets from Stack-On or SecureIt?

Was fire protection a key factor for you?

Charger442 said:

Has anyone had experience with a large online safe retailer/dealer? im looking at an American Security and Dean Safe seems to come up and Safe and Vaults comes up. They have the same price on the model I want and ship for free, 2-3 days to my door.

anything stay away from?

the safe in question

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I've had a good experience with Safe and Vaults. Their prices are competitive and the free shipping is a big plus. Plus, the 2-3 day delivery time is super fast! I've heard American Security and Dean Safe are both solid brands too. Just make sure to read the fine print on the warranty and return policy before buying. Worth checking out!

Maybe let it sit a day or 2 in the room you plan to keep it in, but empty and with the door open? Let it adjust to the temp/humidity of the room. Maybe some moisture or dampness got into it from factory/shipping. Just an uneducated guess.

If you want a real safe for pennies on the dollar, don't buy a "gun safe".

Searching the craigslist business ads for "vault" or "safe" will typically yield a used safe dealer.
The one near me has jeweler quality TRTL30 rated safes (look it up) for $5000.

More practical large sized TL15 rated safes can be had for half of that.

I was able to purchase a used commercial safe that was "mini fridge" sized for a weekend place of ours. It is made of 3/8 steel plate in the body and 5/8 in the door. It has a commercial quality S&G lock on it. It weighs 600 lbs, with about 200 pounds in the door. Since it has external hinges, the door lifts right off, which makes it easier to move.

I paid $400 for it. Cash and carry.

I would also recommend checking these out as well: https://zanottiarmor.com/ they build
'breakdown/modular' safes. The biggest issue, as I suspect you already know, is not the cost of the safe but the cost of moving it. I've got a big-ass Champion 50 sitting in my office that will be there long after I leave, the cost of moving it is prohibitive. At least with the breakdown safes you can take them with you. The ones Zanotti are making would be the best of these in my opinion.

Charger442 said:

i mean, the cost to move any of my safes is very minimal. i have access to a pallet jack, etc. My new safe weighs 1100 lbs. I could move it with just another set of hands and a lift gate box truck. its just not very hard at all.

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It all depends on how serious you get.

I know an idiot with $50k machine guns sitting in a $700 tractor supply safe.

There is one other thing I wanted to mention.

Most of us know that insurance for guns is severely limited on our home owners policy when it comes to theft. Typically the limit is $2000 to $4000.

What most people DON'T know is that when it comes to fire or flood, the limit on firearms is typically set at the limit of the contents of your home.

Insurance companies tend to provide more contents insurance than you need because they know it sells and that people never get near the limits. Contents insurance typically covers 50 to 70% of the value of the dwelling.

A policy on a $600k home will typically value the dwelling at $400k of that. (the rest is land. You don't insure the land against things like fire and flood). 70% of $400k = $280,000. If your furniture, pots pans, sporting equipment etc is worth $200k, that's $80k in insurance on your firearms against fire and flood included at no extra charge.

For this reason it's advisable to spend part of your budget (in both cost and weight) on a pure anti theft safe. If you forgo fire protection the safe can be cheaper and lighter. This allows you to bulk up the metal and theft protection for the same weight.

I have one of these safes. In it are items with no historic or emotional value. They are typically relatively high value guns. Typically modern rifles and shotguns are in this safe.

Which leads me to one other thing. If you are buying used commercial safes for pennies on the dollar, they tend to be heavier than gun safes. To help manage this, it's good to buy multiple smaller safes. When you have multiple safes you can break things down by need.

You can have a non fireproof high security safe like I mentioned above.
You can have a fireproof, high security safe.
And you can have a "convenience" safe with an electronic lock for the stuff you use often.

Just my .02.
Oh yeah. One more thing. Smaller safes are easier to hide. They can't attack it if they can't find it.

I have one friend who made up a dummy plenum coming off their furnace. It wasn't even a safe. Because he was confident nobody would ever find it. It looked like part of the furnace. But when you removed the cover there was a wood structure that held up some of his more expensive modern rifles and shotguns.

I bought an AMSEC BF6030HD safe from an on-line dealer (Safe and Vault Store in Spokane Valley, WA). According to my local locksmith, the safe was assembled incorrectly. AMSEC gave me the run-around for months, and eventually I gave up dealing with their terrible CS and paid the locksmith to fix the safe, which has operated correctly ever since.

Don't know who I bought my AMSEC from, been 20 years...........

Here is a link to an auction from my brothers estate............an individual bought the house, and everything in it.

It's a nice safe, I think he paid 6-7K for it when he bought it. Passed my self imposed limit. Would like to see someone get an good deal............

I have no connection to this auction, and get nothing for supplying this link.

Dirt cheap for this safe..........

Condolences to your family for ya'lls loss sir.

I was watching that auction - last night it was at $2800. Now that it ended it doesn't show the price - for future reference does anyone know what it sold for? I would have been a serious buyer but figured that the logistics and freight to TX made it a no-go for me. I bet somebody got a deal though...

fanninland said:

Condolences to your family for ya'lls loss sir.

I was watching that auction - last night it was at $2800. Now that it ended it doesn't show the price - for future reference does anyone know what it sold for? I would have been a serious buyer but figured that the logistics and freight to TX made it a no-go for me. I bet somebody got a deal though...

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Sold for $4200............I think it was a good buy for what it was, like I said 6-7K new,
but I had a budget...........someone did good...........

Hell I could have picked it up, and we could have figured out the shipping............short drive, only about 5 hours.........

Regardless of what kind of safe you have, insurance is the way to go.

A safe doesn’t protect you necessarily in a fire or a flood depending upon the circumstances, but that’s exactly what we’re talking about: things that probably will never happen but if they do, you’re screwed

Safe won’t protect you if you forget to lock it. You say it will never happen but…

It doesn’t protect you if somebody figures out the combination (inside jobs) or if they have enough time and the right tools

Safe Doesn’t protect you if your guns are in your car or your truck or being shipped or traveling via airlines or you don’t put them in the safe because you just finished using them at the range an left them in the garage for cleaning, etc

Insurance covers all of those things

And when I say insurance, I mean a firearms specific or collectibles insurance policy like I have through Eastern insurance group

I still would like to buy a large TRTL60 and put it in my garage because there’s no way you can get some of these safes into your house unless you have a really special house

But if you’re talking about a five or $10,000 safe that weighs several thousand pounds, you’re going to be in this unfortunate position if you ever want to move because it is going to be thousands of dollars to move that damn thing

So I’m right back to my $500 cheap ass gun safes, and a good insurance policy

fanninland said:

Condolences to your family for ya'lls loss sir.

I was watching that auction - last night it was at $2800. Now that it ended it doesn't show the price - for future reference does anyone know what it sold for? I would have been a serious buyer but figured that the logistics and freight to TX made it a no-go for me. I bet somebody got a deal though...

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Safe brought 4200.00 plus buyers premium plus tax on total amount. They charge .03 for Cc too. So you have to watch internet auctions. Some times things sure ease up, no problem when its a 2 or 3 hundred dollar buy but on a 4200 that becomes 5100 walk out door price. Just saying...

secondofangle2 said:

Regardless of what kind of safe you have, insurance is the way to go.

A safe doesn’t protect you necessarily in a fire or a flood depending upon the circumstances, but that’s exactly what we’re talking about: things that probably will never happen but if they do, you’re screwed

Safe won’t protect you if you forget to lock it. You say it will never happen but…

It doesn’t protect you if somebody figures out the combination (inside jobs) or if they have enough time and the right tools

Safe Doesn’t protect you if your guns are in your car or your truck or being shipped or traveling via airlines or you don’t put them in the safe because you just finished using them at the range an left them in the garage for cleaning, etc

Insurance covers all of those things

And when I say insurance, I mean a firearms specific or collectibles insurance policy like I have through Eastern insurance group

I still would like to buy a large TRTL60 and put it in my garage because there’s no way you can get some of these safes into your house unless you have a really special house

But if you’re talking about a five or $10,000 safe that weighs several thousand pounds, you’re going to be in this unfortunate position if you ever want to move because it is going to be thousands of dollars to move that damn thing

So I’m right back to my $500 cheap ass gun safes, and a good insurance policy

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Agree! No safe is perfect and they are a deterrent only. If someone is targeting a safe they are getting in and most safes are likely not going to fully protect from a catastrophic fire. I can’t stand too deep safes - I don’t want to ever have to move, or maneuver around, anything to get to a gun out. My previous traditional “safe” was a joke. With optics, etc. mounted that “capacity” went south quickly and it seemed like something had to be moved out of the way every time I wanted to retrieve a gun. I think the only way to fully utilize the stated capacity of some of these monster safes is if you have a collection of Daisy BB guns.

I not a collector either (limited number of guns) so went to a cabinet style system and will never go back to a traditional style “safe”. They’ve drifted into the land of Fudlore for me.

I can grab any rifle quickly without bumping anything, it’s light enough that getting it upstairs wasn’t difficult. I’m about a mile from a fire station and the house has fire sprinklers and is fully alarmed so I’m not worried and fire. Break-in, in the unlikely event it happened, would be more smash and grab than anything - most likely they’d never figure out there was a gun cabinet. I don’t advertise that I own guns and keep everything put away but accessible.

I have the SecureIt Agile system but there are other similar systems that look just as good - maybe better in some ways. Its modular so easy to add on if needed. Might not work for everybody but check them out before you buy another cluttered by design, overly bulky, drywall box.

I found my local Amsec dealer was within a few dollars of dean safes price, so I went with my local shop, who was able to do delivery, install, bolt down, complete turn-key service. If you don't have a local dealer who is reasonable on price, that might be a reason to go with the online-sellers. It almost feels like Amsec is doing the MAP game, so prices might not vary by much.

Insurance is a very necessary thing to have, but when you have a bunch of one of a kind, out of production, or sentimental pieces, no check will erase the sting of it being gone. Well any check they are reasonably going to write.

I found www.collectinsure.com was very reasonable on $/100 pricing, and didn't have a problem with high-value items like some insurers did. When you've got old British doubles, NFA items rare/unique etc. getting full-value coverage is important.

jdonovan said:

I found my local Amsec dealer was within a few dollars of dean safes price, so I went with my local shop, who was able to do delivery, install, bolt down, complete turn-key service. If you don't have a local dealer who is reasonable on price, that might be a reason to go with the online-sellers. It almost feels like Amsec is doing the MAP game, so prices might not vary by much.

Insurance is a very necessary thing to have, but when you have a bunch of one of a kind, out of production, or sentimental pieces, no check will erase the sting of it being gone. Well any check they are reasonably going to write.

I found www.collectinsure.com was very reasonable on $/100 pricing, and didn't have a problem with high-value items like some insurers did. When you've got old British doubles, NFA items rare/unique etc. getting full-value coverage is important.

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You mentioned the old doubles issue with insurance. I had a recent eye opening discussion with Larry DelGrego. He's basically the top Parker repair and maintenance guy in the country.

A friend gave me a Parker D model to ship out to Larry for a good going through. He was in his 60s and hadn't shot it since his teens. He wanted to use it again and wanted the gun to be right.

I spent some time figuring out the value and shipped it out to Larry via UPS with $5000 of insurance.

When the gun arrived Larry called me to discuss the work to be done and then asked, "you do know what this thing is, right?".

Yes, it's a D grade Parker.

Uh no, was is reply. It's a DHE in 20 ga with ejectors and factory upgraded wood. Plus some other things, including an un-restored condition that was pretty exceptional.

In the end, I realized that the gun was worth more like $25k than the $5k I had insured it for.

Then he informed me that UPS and FedEx have a history of limiting their insurance exposure on these kinds of old guns to "new price" which on this gun was about $180!!!

For any future shipments, he advised me to call him first to establish a value and then to ONLY ship USPS registered mail. Registered he explained was slow, but every time the item moved someone had to sign for it and was accountable. ALSO they insurance would be for stated value, rather than some other value the shipper determines.