Hi all,
I am outgrowing my little under-the-bed safe and need a big-girl safe that can hold 4 long guns confortably. The longest is a hunting rifle with a 22" barrel. I’m looking for something that is not so big that it has its own gravitational pull and can go in an upstairs walk-in closet.
Thank you in advance for all suggestions of what to get and what not to get.
Not advice on what to get, but advice on the size. Always buy bigger than what a safe says it can fit
I have 2 Safes that if I believed what the manufacturer said I probably wouldn’t need another one as badly as I do.
Hello @TB09! I highly recommend Rino safes. They are heavily built and if you get a painted finish it will be better than the painted surface on your car! I would not get an electronic lock. Get a good mechanical one. Yes, most electronic are Guaranteed Operational against EMP, but if that happens how do you collect? When you do get one have the installer place atop hockey pucks. The air gap should help to prevent corrosion and the bolts may be drilled through it. Check them out at: https://rhinosafe.com/ . Rino safes are extremely heavy and in a boating accident sink very fast. I miss my safe and guns.
Holy Crud! Their prices have gone up substantially since I bought mine!
If you want a safe that will actually slow down a determined criminal they really need to be on the heavy side. And as @Zavier_D pointed out don’t believe the advertised capacity numbers. Most safes are lucky to hold half of what they say they will. Especially if your firearms have optics and you keep any thing else in there. Plus you are likely to add to your collection in the future. It is better to go bigger now than have to buy another safe later.
Second story can be hard to get a solid safe up to. You generally need professional safe installers or movers. Or a bunch of strong friends willing to risk getting crushed who you don’t mind knowing you have a safe and firearms.
If money is no object you might consider something like this:
The pieces can be easily carried upstairs and it assembles into a very sturdy safe. And it will be shipped in a box that doesn’t look like a safe so no one will know you have one.
There are lots of cheap lite options out there but they are more of a gun cabinet than a gun safe. Most of those cabinets can be gotten into in a few minutes with simple tools.
When looking for a safe, I have one piece of advice.
I thought it would be cool to have an electronic lock on my Liberty safe.
Locking mechanisms, fireproof ratings, flood ratings and weight and anchoring are all good stats to look for. As some others have stated size matters. Within a year or less you’ll need a larger apartment!
I recommend a good old combination lock in the unlikely event of an EMP strike. Can’t be ruled out with this administration!
My safe “empty” is 375 pounds bolted to ground and wall, filled to the brim maybe a 1000 pounds.
I wanted something that didn’t look like a safe. Primary purpose was just to keep grandchildren out or curious folks but my house is also alarmed and I have a large dog. So this is what I did.
I had a closet in my home office which is also where I reload. I put some plate steel on the inner walls and then half inch plywood on top of that. I found a steel core door that looks like the rest of my interior doors. I put racks on one end of the closet for both long guns and handguns. I placed rechargeable fluorescent lighting and a rechargeable dehumidifier. A deadbolt went on the door and then the door was alarmed through my house system so I’m always aware if it is opened regardless of where I’m at but usually is locked. The cost was about $500 a few years ago that it works for me. Since I doubt anyone is going to take the time to figure out the back walls are not plated just the front walls of accessible from my office. It will hold seven long guns and 10 handguns. 22 caliber pistols will not work on the pin rack. The rest of the floor space is ammo storage. If my memory serves the racks came from a company called Secure It. The racks also provide for some bin storage.
A couple of years ago we had a big fire in the valley that wiped out whole towns. Several of my friends lost theirs, The fire rated safes where absolutely useless in that situation. when they opened them up there was nothing but useless melted metal inside. After that I think that having a safe that is more theft/ anti child proof is more important than the fire rating.
I had a Liberty safe and didn’t really care for it as it was too hard to really keep everything organized. A company called “SecureIt” makes a nice line of safes called the “Answer” and they’re different than the normal safe you find from brands like Liberty. They a variety of small safes for one or two long guns to something like I got which has two doors and a fair amount of space. I really really like this safe and a good friend of mine bought the same one and he loves it too. The owners have some good videos on their site about why they build them the way they do and why they don’t use certain materials that other brands use.
We take the time to invest in guns, ammo, training, etc., take the time to invest in a good safe too. Definitely consider “SecureIt”.
I have a Liberty safe, and as many have said, the real world capacity is about 1/2 the advertised capacity as far as rifles go. It can be defeated by a crook with an angle grinder, but it will keep children out of your guns and slow down the average burglar.
Invest in some LED rope lighting and locate the safe near an electrical outlet as it gets dark in the corners of the safe.
I need a big safe, so I just made a small room in the house a safe! I got a metal door with a triple bolt lock then made a locking hidden door on the closet and store the ammo in it!
Thank you 
!!!
That’s the dream right there!
I really like Liberty as well, the latching mechanism looks very robust. Note the material around the inside of the door jam, looks kind of like plastic magnet tape. It expands with heat, sealing the safe in a fire. The clincher for me was the weight of Rino Versus Liberty. Mine weighs around 700 lbs and is roughly the same size, possibly a little bigger dimensions as the one you listed. Weight though is not the only consideration though. The finish was available in a color I liked and it is a piece of furniture. Locking bolts are found entirely around the door too. I spent weeks trying to decide. Also look for local referrals on Good Safe Moving companies. 2 men can move an extremely heavy safe very well if they know what they are doing. 4 men may be relying on pure muscle, so choose carefully. A good mover will use teflon sheets and carpet. There are machines to “walk” a safe up and down stairs. A buddy of mine bought a Canon, decent safe and much better than a gun locker, but we found his was very easy to move when empty. Bolt it down if you are truly concerned, two burglars can roll a safe out of your house or apartment with glass marbles or broomstick rollers damaging your floor and adding insult to injury. If you have yours in a garage, make sure it is not visible from the street, also look for outlets inside the safe when you buy for lights and dehumidifiers, which is even more necessary in a garage or high humidity environment.
There are safes (which can weigh up to several hundred pounds) and there are cabinets (which seldom top out over 100 pounds). I was recently faced with a problem similar to yours. I ended up with a 12-rifle cabinet (that also has 4 shelves for handguns, etc., plus I added a solid core door and double dead bolt to the closet, which also has a fire sprinkler. The safe has two lag bolts into the wall studs plus two into the floor. My assessment was that fire is the most likely scenario I need to be concerned about, and the sprinkler and alarm system would be adequate. My total investment was about 1/5 the cost of a “safe”. I used the extra money to pick up a couple of guns. 
Thats really a great idea. I’m hoping in the next house I get to have a small closet I can takeover and make into a walk-in safe.
Where did you buy the door? Do you have coded locking mechanism or just a key?
It was a standard solid wood door. I installed both a keyed latch and a keyed deadbolt, each with an extended bolt (long enough to get into the studs. Instead of using the standard 5/8" screws I used 3" stainless steel screws (long enough to extend past the trim woodwork and into the studs and well into the door itself. It is possible to purchase steel safe doors sized for a standard closet. You not only get a steel door (options on the latch/lock) but a steel plate frame that is bolted into the studs. This option is more secure than my route, and is probably the way to go if you don’t mind spending upwards of $500.
I like liberty safes. As some have said, buy bigger than you need. First, the capacity stated, in most cases, is with the guns pretty much stacked on top of each other…if you want to use a rifle in the back, you pretty much have to take a bunch out to get to it, and there’s no storage left for ammo and trinkets lol. Second, if you need a 12 gun currently, and get a 12 gun, where will you put future purchases? Liberty safes are nice, but like almost every other safe on the market, they can be opened with simple hand tools.
I’ve had the Chinese version Winchester 26 gun distributed by Tractor Supply for a number of years now. No problems with the electronic lock, but if it should fail it comes with 2 backup keys (I have tested them 
). It probably would not take a lot of time to break into it with the proper tools on hand, but it would be real hard to break into it without the proper tools. It is on sale for $549 right now. There is a 12 gun and 20 gun as well:
Gun Safes at Tractor Supply Co.
Winchester 26-Gun 18.4 cu. ft. Safe at Tractor Supply Co.
Edit: Their link for the 12 gun is broken right now, but I know they do carry it.
