How many of you keep your gun safes in the garage?

I am not really concerned about it from a theft standpoint; however I am wondering what impact the changing temperatures / humidity have?

I have limited places in the house for a safe as large as I need and wanted to know if the garage is an option without having to worry about the weather impacts on my investments.

Any input would be helpful.

I can't think of a reason why not. my guns/scopes/binos/gear all go through way worse temperature variations in the field to the truck and back again. Although I don't keep my guns in the garage... the wife, maybe, but not my guns.

I work in a gun shop and we deliver safes. We put a lot of them in garages. The main thing you want to do is put a good dehumidifier in it. Like winner said, you take them through the elements. The difference is after you have them out, you clean them when you bring them home. The moisture is the worst thing for them. Temperature makes no difference, Humidity does. good luck

x2 A thourough cleaning & nice coating of oil before storage always helps.

Personally I don't store in the garage, but I live near Houston where the humidity is a bit thick

Place a home made "salt sock" at the bottom of the safe to gather the moisture

I keep mine bolted down in the garage and have a dehumidifier in the safe. I dry out the dehumidifier every few months in order to keep moisture to a minimum. Haven't noticed any moisture in the safe, but I have only had the safe in the garage for two years.

thanks for the input guys. That is what I thought but wanted to be sure

As other have said, in the garage is fine. Mine is in the garage. I have a golden rod and an Eva Dry in my safe. You can actually feel the dry air rush out when you open the safe when it's humid outside.

Great idea .... I think.

Take a regular cotton sock and put regular table salt in it?

How much salt and how long is it good for?

Thanks

yea, good question

I have had my safe in the garage for 11 years. No problem.

Go to Home Depot and get a tub of Damp Rid. they are cheap
and remove moisture. In the garage i would change every 1-2 months. It is in the paint section.

I wouldn't use salt, it will start to rust everything.
Just my $.02

I thought I was the only one with that dilemma. I need to figure out how to bolt my safe down. I'm on a slab. I worried about the humidity but a good humidifier should fix that.

I sock filled with silica gel kitty litter works much better. You can get it at Walmart.

1/2"x4" wedge anchors will do the trick.

I bought one from tractor supply last week and I was thinking about putting it in the garage as well. I am thinking about trying to disgise it so when the garage door is up it won`t draw attention. I will deffinately be bolting it down to the slab. I was going to put it in my shop ( metal building) but I decided against that since I wanted quicker access to my guns.

I have one is an out building. I have des, and a humid. in the safe, no rust issues. Now I can"t saw the same for some of my tools in there!

As far as bolting down, what old_town said is very true. What I have to say about it though is as long as it is not a very light safe (say under 400-500 lbs)you shouldn't have to worry about someone carrying it off. With the weight of the safe, plus all of the contents at 6-8 lbs per gun, the total weight gets pretty staggering. If someone is going to carry that off, my suggestion is to hold the door open for them.

+1, although mine is not bolted. I see it like this below.



My wife asked if I was going to bolt it down, and my reply was "If they can carry it off, then I am going to open the door for them"

Here are some things an "ignorant" "40 year old toddler" like me learned to do:

Keep folks out of your garage!!!

The larger and heavier gauge the safe, the better. Drill all the way through the slab and use STAINLESS winged anchors. or epoxy in some Stainless threaded rods set as deep as you can get them in (don't hammer, might be plumbing) Have the top washers made with a ring for chaining your guns down inside the safe. You have to make it a pain in the A$$ for the thief. They can cut the top off most safes with a roto tool in about three minutes.

After a few years, a thief can bump your safe with a truck bumper and it will snap weathered cheap mounting hardware. A well prepared crook team can flip a 700lb safe into the back of their truck easier than you ever imagined.

You can add weights to the floor of the safe and you can also have an outer shell made from steel fitted and bolted to the unit.

Add an electric dry rod and you'll have no rust problems.

Dang LuckenbachTexas! I hope no one wants my firearms that bad. Some real good points and I had no idea about the roto tool issue. I will anchor it through the slab and I'll stick in a corner where it's not immediately visible. I wonder how a remote motion sensor inside would do...

Yes go to fastenal and spend the extra $$$ to buy stainless steel anchors

The ones at home depot and lowes only have a stainless expansion clip

Remember, a thief will work twice as hard to steal something as you will to protect it. You can never be too safe

How about a old sock full of rice? Most people put rice in the salt shaker to keep moisture out.. I keep one in my hard cases seems to work great!