There was a guy on here that had his house catch on fire and I believe he had a Canon safe!!! The contents in the safe survived the fire and Canon actually sent him another safe pretty quick so obviously they stand behind their product guarantees well!!!

I have heard way too many horror stories about digital locks. I wouldn't get one. Had to look a little longer to find one that had the features I wanted without a digital lock, but well worth it.

Great review except one thing. If you read what I have said it was buy a UL fire rated safe. And the author here basically is doing a plug for AMSEC. Which is a good safe. There are at least 2 other companies on the market that have UL rated safes that use Sheetrock. Those safes protect just as well as poured wall safes. There is a lot that goes into the manufacture of a safe to make them perform as advertised.
The author is correct in that several companies out there do the independent testing because they cannot pass UL tests. Just make sure you buy one that says UL fire rated. A couple of the other companies put stickers on their safes to fool you that say UL rated lock. Don't fall for that.
And believe it or not product s made in China can and are UL tested. Most. Are not but UL labs are available over there for about anything made whether it is a home appliance or a gun safe. I can assure you that a UL rated sticker will not be on the product unless it has passed their standards.

Make sure you bolt down your safe if you put it in an accessible location. With all of this fire talk the most important thing to remember is that a burglary is 100x more likely than a fire.

They make some digital locks with a key override, can't remember if I saw that
feature on the higher end safes or not.

A 24 gun safe will hold about 4-5 scoped long guns unless you take out all shelves. I have one and hate it.

Fire rating is most important in my book.

Hinges, locks, and bolt size is BS. Anybody planning to break into a safe brings a rotozip and a good bit and goes thru the top using your electricity. The top is usually very thin metal. Most at tractor supply I can make flex with my fingertips.

Your most important papers and cash should be kept at the bottom of the safe for the above mentioned reason and the fact heat rises. The bottom foot of the safe is seldom damaged in a fire as long as you have some kind of fire rating. Most people keep their cash on the top shelf because it's nice to look at. Bad mistake.

I am by no means an expert but I did spend a lot of time researching before I bought mine. And it's too dang small.

I also found whatever tractor supply carries atwoods has the same safe with a higher fire rating for about a $100 more and about 125-150lbs heavier. (More sheetrock)

I got these two last year...I like 'em.

http://www.heritagesafe.com/heritage-safes-legacy-series.html

Here is what little I know from my experience:

1. Get the longest and highest fire rating you can afford.
2. Think about how many guns you'll have in 10 years, and buy a safe sized for that number and not what you have now.
3. Take the advertised capacity, multiply it by .67 and whatever number that is becomes the actual number of guns you can realistically fit in a safe (long guns). Multiply by .5 if you have a high number of scoped rifles.
4. Leave room for other valuables - wills, jewelry owned by the missus, etc. I pretty much have an entire shelf dedicated to this stuff. It also helped me on selling the idea of a safe to The Rib.
5. You will run out of room before you can blink. It's amazing how they fill up, and how fast they do so.
6. Keep a dessicant pack or hot rod in the safe to control humidity. Inside the house should be fine without one, but a small dessicant cannister is cheap insurance due to the lack of air movement in the safe when the door is closed.
7. If you are going to get in the safe regularly, get a digital lock. I hated mine at first (mostly because of looks), but I have come to appreciate the digital lock and quick access over time. Especially when I see my buddy take forever and a day to open his. If you aren't planning on accessing it regularly, either type of lock works just fine. I replace my 9 volt battery 1x a year on mine and have never had an issue. In the event of a fire, Cannon sends a locksmith with a new digital lock to open the safe back up.

Some other observations:

1. The sides and back of almost every brand of safe (top too) are the weak points. Every safe company brags about the number of door bolts, exterior or interior hinges, size of the bolts and they type of lock and anti tamper devices in the door. But the door is the area least likely to be breached because it's 2" thick. The sides and top are usually 1/4" A-36 mild plate steel (even fireproof only have 1 external layer of steel). 15 minutes with a rip saw and an abrasive blade and you can cut the entire side off of almost any brand safe on the market.

2. Safes are made to look pretty, but that doesn't mean you need to put them in a highly visible area. Put them in a closet where you have limited access to them and they are hard to find or are at least lower priority areas for bad guys.

3. Safes will only deter the snatch and grab type bad guys. If a dedicated bad guy breaks into your house with time and tools, your safe will be breached.

4. Bolt to the walls or floor if possible. A poster above mentioned how hard they are to get into a house - which, unfortunately is woefully incorrect. A 1000 lb safe can be moved by 2 guys and a few golfballs or pieces of PVC pipe with very little effort. I know this for a fact, to be honest - I've moved my safe (780 lb empty weight) twice. Both times it took 2 people and I had it from the room to the trailer in less than 15 minutes and from the trailer to the current location in about the same amount of time.

5. There are ways to increase the fire rating and protection of the safe and both protect it from break in if you are willing, but that requires building a structure around the safe.

^^^^^


Great advice, thanks for posting

You confused yet?

What am I supposed to be getting?

Lone Star gun safes just put in a new warehouse on IH10 around fair oaks. I have two safes from them and have never had a problem. I recommend a dial versus electronic key pad

gonna check them out too.


what is the one on I-10 and De Zavala?

so I'm supposed to buy something to not protect my valuables?


if someone is going to break into my house, and take the time to crack the decoy safe, they are going to have the time to rummage thru the rest of the home and find the real safe....

Check out patriot safes tactical unit

maybe good sports not sure if they carry safes.

WATCH THIS!!!

Best info I've found.

Just so you know from a fire stand point a closet burns hotter than most other areas during a fire. Which means the fire rating will be shorter than advertised.

I have a 24 gun safe and should have bought a bigger one. 1/2 of it goes to ammo and personal stuff and the other half hold 7 guns. The misnomer is the fact the side slots hold nothing if most of the guns have scopes on them. I have 3 shotguns, 1 has a scope, 4 rifles all with optics and they take up a considerable amount of room. My mini 14 tactical has a front vertical handgrip/bi-pod and it takes up more room than any other weapon in the safe. I've never heard anyone say they wish they had a smaller safe.

Great thread...watching

Might need to get a bigger one then

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Browning, Liberty, Canon all make great safes. We are lucky in West Texas to have an awesome safe builder in Odessa,,, Sage Brush Safes. They custom built one for me and designed the inside for my specific needs.

I have a 24 gun Cannon Safe from Academy with a digital key pad. Had it for years with 0 problems. I bought the 24 gun because at the time I didn't have room for a bigger one. Now that safe is getting pretty stuffed, I see another/larger safe in my future. I also store my ammo (rifle & pistol) in smaller safes that sit on top of the big safe to make room.