Well for those on a budget I though of a great gun safe idea just use a upright freezer. Most have a built in lock and as long as your the only one that knows and put it in the right spot at your house no one will guess.
gun safe
- Thread starter snowdin5000
- Start date
Don't your scopes fog up when you take them out!!
Too funny. Neat idea on the freezer.
I had seen a picture a few months ago with this done and thought it was a decent idea. I like the idea that it would be a decent hiding spot. Were you thinking of locking it? The old vending machine is a fantastic idea as well and already has a locking mechanism.
If you get some flat steel, say 3 inches wide by 1/4 inch, and build a frame up and over the top and secure to the floor (I am thinking concrete basement). Then, around the back and sides to the front and just have it where you can remove the front bar across the door. Say a good lock on each side. Probably wouldn't have $50 in steel, if that, and you could find an old freezer for free I'm sure.
I think you missed the point, I think the idea is that it's a cheap alternative that is very inconspicuous. Wrapping it in a steel frame and adding locks to it all over just screams "something valuable is in me".
So when the bad guy gets in the house and sees all of the reloading equipment, ammunition, and gun cases in the closet, if there is no obvious gun safe they may figure out rather quickly that the locked fridge that is not plugged in may have guns in it. Additionally, they can open it with a pocket knife. Get proper fire protection and theft prevention and get a real gun safe. If you can afford to spend thousands on firearms, why would you hide them in a 200 dollar refrigerator. JMHO
I just saw a post on another site last night where a guy made is gun safe he bought at an estate sale look like a freezer by painting it white and adding a handle . Not sure what kind of safe it was because it didnt have the combination dial on the front.
Not to say that I'd trust my toys to a refridgerator in the event of a house fire but when I was younger we did have a house fire that originated in the electrical outlet behind the refridgerator. Nearly the entire first floor was burned out and the rest of the house/contents were ruined or damaged by smoke. Toward the end of extinguishing the fire the fire department ended up pushing the refridgerator over and the contents looked undamaged. There was actually a case of MGD in there that spilled all over the floor when they tipped it and I'd show people the pic of the golden bottles laying amongst the burnout kitchen and ask "You ever partied this hard?" I don't know how hot it got in there but it wasn't hot enough for any of the plastic interior panels to melt or the bottles to burst.
I'll see if I can track down the pic, its great!
I'll see if I can track down the pic, its great!
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my father-in-law and I both do this it works great... If you can get the OLD Freezers with the pull handle and lock they work best but this is how we store ours....I also use a MINI Fridge for powders and primers. Just unhook and remove the A/C part then wire the light so that is stays on(just enough heat to push out dampness) and your G2G...If I think about it I will post pics on here one day.
Cheap alternative and probably 99% moisture proof with one or 2 of those 1lb dessicant bags tossed in. Not bad at all.......
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Meat and guns. Sounds like the perfect spot for everything I treasure. Only one of those is good on a fire though.
My safe is much more for fire protection than it is for theft protection. I could hide my guns in 20 different places in my home...but only in my safe are they secure if the house burns...
This. I don't know why some people are so cheap when it comes to protecting their investment. I have a Diebold TL-30, and a AMSEC BF and I still worry when I leave my house for long periods of time. There's no way I would ever skimp on protection for my valuables. I know what insurance companies pay out and you'd be lucky to buy a single Remington 700 and a Glock if an extensive collection was stolen.
i use an old ATM machine that i bought for $50 the facade has a key and when you open it up it has a programmable dial lock. and it also has another lock box inside that was used to hold the cash. its even big enough to fit my mosins. not fire proof by any means but certainly good enough for theft protection or to keep out the hands of children.
Used contractor boxes are relatively low cost and quite secure. How secure? We keep low level nuclear devices locked in them on job sites. $200-$300 will get you a used 48".
Purely for security the job box would work well, however tools can be sold faster than firearms. That attracts the attention of thieves. I suggest insurance on your collection. That is the best protection you can get.
Chip
Chip
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NRA has a pretty reasonably priced insurance program for fire arms. You need to list the value of any one single piece if it exceeds a certain figure---can't remember but I think it's $1500---but you do not list total numbers, nor serial numbers. It also covers the glass and other accessories that are attached to the rifles or hand guns. It covers theft from a locked car as well as at home. It covers all your firearms and in pretty much every scenario possible. I would suggest you check it out. I got $15,000 coverage for $187/year. Probably should add this coverage to your existing safe/storage plan, just in case.
It isnt really a safe, but I converted an old stand up dresser into a gun cabinet for a little over $80 bucks in lumber and plexiglass. Inside is lined with Cedar and the racks divider and shelves are all made out of Aspen.
When I bought my house, it had a pretty large walk-in closet due to some renovations surrounding that closet. So my friend and I framed in the last three feet and built a false wall on hinges. Even if the closet wasn't poorly lit, which it definitely is, you simply can't see anything. Not fire proof but once I put a safe in there, it will be. Pretty proud of that one!
I currently use freezer, job box and safe. Not having a bunch of extra cash I inherited a stand up freezer that I took all the shelves out of for my guns and ammo. As I got more money I found an inexpensive job box and lined it with 2" of fire resistant sheetrock so I moved my powder, primers, bullets and cases into that and left loaded rounds and firearms in the freezer. Last Christmas my wife bought me a safe so the guns/optics/dies go in that, the powder/primers/ammo is in the freezer and bullets/brass/Forster press in the job box. Ideally, I would have a big safe in the house but our house is not large enough to accomodate it.
Get USAA insurance tell them you want your guns insured, I did this and had a custom 308 stolen I called them and they said to get a quote to replace it I called surgeon they emailed it and I sent it to USAA in 5 minutes they called and asked if I wanted the money wired to my account or a check. It does not get any better for customer service.
16 years on a fire department and I can contest that a freezer is a very good place to save things. We have pulled TONS of freezers out of burnt houses and as long as you don't open them they will keep whats in them cold for a while...
Great idea....besides...if my house burnt I would be upset about my guns being gone but I think the things that could never be replaced would bother me much more
Great idea....besides...if my house burnt I would be upset about my guns being gone but I think the things that could never be replaced would bother me much more
Agreed that a proper safe is the way to go, but I'm not sure I understand your comment about insurance companies. If my guns are insured at "x" dollar amount and they are destroyed or stolen I get a check for "x." With my insurance company a dollar amount was set and the premiums reflect that figure. Saying you "know" what companies pay out is very silly.
I assumed that's what he meant as well. But it's still a silly and uneducated statement. If my "extensive collection" is insured for $20,000 and I take a 10% hit to depreciation, which is likely high for firearms, I'll still get a check for $18,000. I'll cry a hell of a lot more due to the sentimental loss than the dollar figure.
Thats what I did. Pretty cheap IIRC I have 10K worth of Insurance. I took a few pics of each Gun with a newspaer and stored them on my skydrive as proof of ownership. My experience with USAA Claims have all been positive. Even when I totaled my Corvette at the racetrack.
Basic Homeowner Insurance wont cover Firearms you get a certain amount for valuable property which is not much. I have add on insurance for firearms. In fact most people who only carry basic homeowner will be sorely disappointed when there house burns down and their $30,000 hot wheel collection is covered. I literally spent 2 hour on the phone with USAA when I bought my house going over what if's when I set up my home owners ins.
If you were to think about a gun safe - well, think again and do your research carefully. Here in Colorado we have had a couple of pretty bad wildfires and it prompted me to think about what is truly protected (fire and theft). The popular "gun safes" that are thought so highly of, at least until I did some research, showed that the common gun safes are actually not safes at all but are referred to as "Residential Security Containers" or RSCs. These RSCs typically run the gamut of fire protection from 30 minutes to 2+ hours. But you need to look at the details because it seems that there are different standards and measurements. Some rate fire protection at 1200 degrees F and others rate at 1700+ degrees F. Also, depending on where the safe is located will play a big role in how much heat the RSC is exposed to and for how long. One thing that occurred here in Colorado out in the Black Forest area was folks who had safes up on the second floor or not in the basement level had safes that fell to the basement level - exposing them to an impact that could damage the contents or rupture the seal of the safe. So, location is really important. Safes are also not water tight so if your safe is in a basement, better be sure there is going to be adequate drainage - else things can get water damage. Talking about theft protection on safes - the term RSC refers to TL-5 - that means that the RSC will with stand up to five minutes of work by skilled a team of thieves with nothing more than a hammer and a crowbar. After five minutes all the RSC's will generally fail. You can watch some pretty shocking videos of guys cracking open gun safes in just a few minutes. This is very discouraging when you think about what you might think is secure. You can up the security reating with TL-15 and TL-30 - but again, these still don't really provide much in the way of real theft protection against the more skilled thief. In a sense the RSC is more of a security container to prevent kids, friends, and law abiding people from gaining access to your guns. It will provide some measure of security against inexperienced thieves - like a teenage who busts into someone's house for kicks or for a fast get away. But, as far as security for the seasoned and prepared thief, you may need to rethink your security plan. Also, don't even think about trying to booby trap your safe in some way and don't store anything that might explode or "cook off" like ammo. There have been cases where thieves attempted to break into a safe with ammo/explosives, and set things off, got hurt and, yes, you guessed it, successfully sued the owner of the safe.
Anyone looking further, should read about the various types of safes, their ratings and what they mean as well as some strategies for a more comprehensive method of securing one's valuables; fire protection, theft protection in safes combined with concealment, combined with a home security system with an alarm etc. Else, you may wind up throwing away a lot of money on a safe with the mistaken impression that you bought yourself a piece of Fort Knox rather than a flashing neon sign that says "help yourself boys."
Anyone looking further, should read about the various types of safes, their ratings and what they mean as well as some strategies for a more comprehensive method of securing one's valuables; fire protection, theft protection in safes combined with concealment, combined with a home security system with an alarm etc. Else, you may wind up throwing away a lot of money on a safe with the mistaken impression that you bought yourself a piece of Fort Knox rather than a flashing neon sign that says "help yourself boys."
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