Gentlemen Secure your Arms

[Californio]

[mike100]

I spent some years storing a couple of handguns in a bag tucked away, but when I went on a long gun binge, I bought a $200 job-site locking tool cabinet for the garage (the ones with the pockets to prevent bolt cutters from getting to the master locks). It sufficed until I bought something a lot heavier. I kept ammo in there as well to make it really heavy.

I have had a break-in before and I spent a little to get secure right away, but I can't explain why I took chances with those 2 handguns for a decade. I was more worried about a roommates kid finding them (they had the locks) than losing them I guess.

[rod]

I'm working on building a gun rack for my den that will be able to lock the guns as well as display them. I'll post some pics when I'm done. While I was designing it, I thought of several cheap ways to secure firearms. A good cable ran through the trigger guards and a stud in the wall, locked with a solid lock would be enough to keep most tweakers from running off with your guns. If it's a professional that's breaking into your house, you might as well leave your guns stacked up and ready to transport because nothing is going to stop a pro. The other reason you would want to lock up your firearms is to keep them out of the hands of unsupervised children. Again, simple is cheap and effective. Gun safes are nice and I'll probably get a couple one of these days. Until then, there are many other ways to lock your guns up to keep them out of the hands of dumb criminals.

[VeryCoolCat]

I keep my guns invisible despite being easily accessable. I used to store my SKS in my box spring. I cut a hole into the box spring and it sat inside the wooden portion of the box spring.

Short of tearing it up, you wouldn't know it was there. As for me living on the top floor of an apartment with practically NO room to place a small safe. Any safe I get would have to be less than 100 lbs and would be loosely bolted down.

My C&R's are disassembled for storage. Though I doubt a gang banger/crook would rob someone with a mosin nagant or turkish mauser. Kinda hard to do a drive by with a bolt action

All my guns are accessible but not easy to find. I've had people come over and not know they were inches from a gun

[chiefcrash]

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp;jsessionid=0K45Y05I5ANPOCWQNWQSCOIK0BW0GIWE?id=0005602226242a&type=product&cmCat=froogle&cm_ven=data_feed&cm_cat=froogle&cm_pla=0340204&cm_ite=0005602226242a&_requestid=57870

there you have it folks. A genuine CA DOJ approved gun safe for $100 and 15 minutes work. It is by no means the best, but it should stop the smash and grab types...

[EastBayRidge]

I do have a CA approved safe, but when traveling I'll usually remove the bolts or some other operating parts of my firearms and stow them @ a friend's house.

[DedEye]

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...equestid=57870

there you have it folks. A genuine CA DOJ approved gun safe for $100 and 15 minutes work. It is by no means the best, but it should stop the smash and grab types...

Quite honestly I don't think it would even stop the smash and grab types. That thing is like a school locker in terms of thickness and security. I was thinking about getting one of those for all the above mentioned reasons but couldn't because it's just too weak.

[Sam Hainn]

... A $300.00 cabinet is all it takes.

No, it doesn't. Get a full-fledged weighty safe if just one of those cheaper Home Depot Sentry models. they run about $400. Those cabinets are as easy to open as a cheap locking lunch-box. Bicycle locks are harder to defeat than those cabinets.

[MudCamper]

Quite honestly I don't think it would even stop the smash and grab types. That thing is like a school locker in terms of thickness and security.

It will stop the smash and grap types, if you take a few additional precautions. I have a cheap gun cabinet from Walmart. First, I bolted it to the floor, and the wall behind it. It's in a closet, so I bolted angle iron along both edges to both walls along side it. Then I put 2 deadbolts on the closet door in front of it. (I have an old house with solid wood doors.) All this including the cabinet cost less than 200 bucks.

[NSR500]

What kinda bugs me is how people get their firearms stolen at the range. If one of the Cardinal rules of firearms is to treat each one as if it is loaded; Why would you leave it around unsupervised?

[metalhead357]

DONT dellude yourselves....do it right; get a DECENT safe; we've a new guy on the forum all about safes. And even he has links to videos to show just how freakin' easy it is to get into *most* safes. ANYTHING, even the locking cabinets ARE better than nothing but DONT go thinking you're fort knox and everything is A++ with a cheaper safe....it aint.

But I FULLY agree...if you wanna play...you gotta pay; and with guns that DOES mean proper security for them when they're not in your hand.

[DedEye]

DONT dellude yourselves....do it right; get a DECENT safe; we've a new guy on the forum all about safes. And even he has links to videos to show just how freakin' easy it is to get into *most* safes. ANYTHING, even the locking cabinets ARE better than nothing but DONT go thinking you're fort knox and everything is A++ with a cheaper safe....it aint.

But I FULLY agree...if you wanna play...you gotta pay; and with guns that DOES mean proper security for them when they're not in your hand.

I just spoke to Ken on the phone today, amazingly helpful guy and extremely friendly and knowledgable. He told me the Sentry safes are fairly decent


Take a look at this gun cabinet/"safe." You can see the locking mechanism in this picture; it isn't a deadbolt or anything close. I saw one of these in person once and was amazed at how flimsy looking and feeling it was; you could literally open it with a screwdriver, even if that meant prying it open.

Compare that to a cheap Sentry, and you can see the difference in quality. Now this safe does warrant bolting to the ground since the steel is at least thick enough to not buckle when you lean on it. Ken mentioned that the lock should be replaced, but hopefully he'll chime in with the info on that so I don't screw it up from my memory.

It will stop the smash and grap types, if you take a few additional precautions. I have a cheap gun cabinet from Walmart. First, I bolted it to the floor, and the wall behind it. It's in a closet, so I bolted angle iron along both edges to both walls along side it. Then I put 2 deadbolts on the closet door in front of it. (I have an old house with solid wood doors.) All this including the cabinet cost less than 200 bucks.

If your cabinet is anything like the one I linked to, the angle iron was superfluous and unnecessary, as was the bolting since any thief wouldn't need to take the safe with them to get it open quickly.

[metalhead357]

Interesting he said that sentry safe......there's a lota guys on other boards that think they're crap and *only* about one notch above the other secuity cabinet you posted. No offense to sentry owners just telling ya' the wares from other boards with members who've owned them and traded up.

I'll have to poke around again later and see what's what with the Sentry on the other boards being easily defeatable....... my take from years of safe owning(s) and friends with the same....and even *just cabinets*of years andyears ago; you aint gonna *be into a SAFE* for anything less than about $700 if you wanna put a rifle into it.

[jc_stecker]

+1

I made sure to buy a security container before buying my gun.

[mrsr71]

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...equestid=57870

there you have it folks. A genuine CA DOJ approved gun safe for $100 and 15 minutes work. It is by no means the best, but it should stop the smash and grab types...

I can get into this in less than 10 seconds!