I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to "crack" a locked safe to test its vulnerabilities several years ago. One of the perks from working in engineering and technical fields.
I've been noticing a lot of threads asking questions about them in recent months so I thought I would share some of my findings.
First, let's be clear about one thing. I'm referring to gun SAFES and not CABINETS. A safe has a locking mechanism of choice, with a turn handle which engages large BOLTS of metal to keep the door sealed against its frame. Cabinets can vary in design, but they generally DO NOT have large BOLTS of steel sealing the door. A good rule of thumb would be that if you can bend it with your hands, it's going to be 10x easier to bend/break with even a small hand tool.
From the experiences, I learned that it can be VERY easy to gain entry if certain conditions are met. It took me and one other VERY large guy all of about 15-20 minutes to gain entry using nothing more than a large flat head screw driver and a crow bar. The metal is thin and malleable around the doors making it easy to bend out of the way of the bolts on some brands such as Stack-On. Not all safes are built with the same processes or metals however. Also this this does not necessarily mean that those brands cannot serve their purpose. Along with the right precautions, even the small $300-$600 safes can be as effective as the larger, more expensive, brand name safes.
The most important thing I learned is that little differences between one brand and another don't matter NEARLY as much as having the safe securely anchored in order to prevent its removal or tipping onto its side. Had we not been able to tip the safe on its back, it would have taken us considerably more time, tools, and manpower. I seriously even doubt we would have been successful without that benefit for a couple reasons. One, the safe being upright as intended prevents intruders from leveraging more manpower by limiting space to do it. A 4' high door standing upright only allows room for about 2 guys to pry on the "non-hinged" side at a time with any real amount of force. On the other hand, if it's tipped over you can fit double that many people, if not more. Also, being upright makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to pry and leverage any real force on the top and bottom of the door because of the floor is blocking one,and height being out of reach for the other. You can apply this same concept of restricted space by placing the safe so that the side of it which opens (opposite of the hinges) is against a wall. This limits the amount of room to be able to wedge any tools into the door or leverage any force to pry.
Being privately funded testing and not having sufficient room to do it prevented us from putting any fireproofing to the test. I merely recommend going with the best that you can afford. The hotter and longer the rating, the better. Trust in the company who designed it.If it fails, well, you can let them pay to replace your stuff if necessary.
In hindsight, if you are able to EFFECTIVELY secure the safe and keep it from being moved in any way then you don't need to worry so much about brands, quality, prices, etc. We tackled and conquered a large Stack-On in about 15 minutes. Even with the size/strength advantage provided by my partner I sincerely doubt we would have succeeded even against THAT relatively cheap safe had we not been able to tip it on its back.Hence, not staying where ever you place it is ABSOLUTELY DETRIMENTAL to its effectiveness.
Tipping a safe over allowed us enough room to effectively manipulate wedged tools into the door frame and begin bending and flexing the metal which the door bolts insert into. Thus, rendering them useless. Therefore, ALWAYS pay attention to the thickness/flexibility of the metal which the bolt insert into or rest against (door jam/frame). On a model which has bolts on the HINGED side as well, it would be next to impossible to gain access in a reasonable amount of time.
In theory, you don't want an intruder to simply be able to walk off with your safe. Therefore, securing it in place is the first priority. In the event they somehow manage to circumvent your installation, then size and weight could be the only thing stopping them. Even if it doesn't stop them from trying, it certainly won't be a speedy process. If your home has as busy of a traffic pattern as many people's, then slowing them down enough could prove to be the step which keeps your goodies safe at home. Plus, additional size means you're not going to run out of room any time soon.
It IS feasible/possible to gain entry to a safe while it is standing and secured, however it's impractical. A typical criminal isn't going to randomly carry the amount of or size of tooling with him necessary to accomplish this feat. Therefore again, size and weight are a priority too. That however, DOES NOT mean that you need to spend too much money. You can add weight to a safe fairly easily with ammo. You just want to be sure that you’ren ot relying entirely on the weight. Windows break easily, are often low to theground, and let’s face it… safes are easy to tip into a truck bed.
#1 Ability to adequately secure the safe into its position in your home
#2 Thickness/strength of metal around the door frame and bolt entries
#3 Design of the door frame can prevent unwanted utensils from slipping in
#4 The more bolts, the marrier..on ALL sides of the door
#5 Fireproofing; the hotter and longer time frame in rating, the better
#6 Finally, BIGGER IS BETTER (as long as it fits)
If you're able to properly secure your safe then you are merely opening up your shopping market. Properly secured, I would not doubt the ability of a large Stack-On but once they get into the $500-$600 range you will find much more bang for your buck in safes at Tractor Supply Company. From there, the sky is the limit.
I wanted to keep this short and sweet to help those who might need assistance in choosing and I don't have a lot of time to write out all the detail that I would like to. Plus, I don't want to lose people's interest in a long, drawn out detailed account and wanted to share what I feel to be the top PRIORITIES in safe considerations. There ARE methods to secure a safe no matter your circumstances even if you live in an apartment, as I currently do. If you have further questions regarding considerations and what I was able to learn several years ago, feel free to ask here. Hope this helps some.
1. If you're going to bolt the safe to the wall, make sure you secure it to TWO studs rather than ONE. If only one, it would be relatively easy to get a grasp of the safe and use leverage to twist it enough to break the scews free from the single stud.
2. If you're limited in funds or space and must purchase a smaller safe, it's a good idea to weigh it down if at all possible by filling the bottom with ammo. If it's a fireproof safe, this will also help at ensuring your goodies are safe during a fire because if rounds are being cooked off for HOURS the fire department will not handle it until it's safe. Thus, allowing enough time to defeat your fireproofing and destroy your investments.
3. As mentioned earlier, place the safe against TWO walls. One against the back of the safe and the other against the side of the safe that is OPPOSITE of the door hinges. This removes area for criminals to gain any leverage or even ability to insert a tool in the door.This method however, will only help if you DO anchor it in that location.
4. Don't leave tools lying around in plain sight which a criminal could use against you in your absence.
I've been noticing a lot of threads asking questions about them in recent months so I thought I would share some of my findings. First, let's be clear about one thing. I'm referring to gun SAFES and not CABINETS. A safe has a locking mechanism of choice, with a turn handle which engages large BOLTS of metal to keep the door sealed against its frame. Cabinets can vary in design, but they generally DO NOT have large BOLTS of steel sealing the door. A good rule of thumb would be that if you can bend it with your hands, it's going to be 10x easier to bend/break with even a small hand tool.
From the experiences, I learned that it can be VERY easy to gain entry if certain conditions are met. It took me and one other VERY large guy all of about 15-20 minutes to gain entry using nothing more than a large flat head screw driver and a crow bar. The metal is thin and malleable around the doors making it easy to bend out of the way of the bolts on some brands such as Stack-On. Not all safes are built with the same processes or metals however. Also this this does not necessarily mean that those brands cannot serve their purpose. Along with the right precautions, even the small $300-$600 safes can be as effective as the larger, more expensive, brand name safes.
The most important thing I learned is that little differences between one brand and another don't matter NEARLY as much as having the safe securely anchored in order to prevent its removal or tipping onto its side. Had we not been able to tip the safe on its back, it would have taken us considerably more time, tools, and manpower. I seriously even doubt we would have been successful without that benefit for a couple reasons. One, the safe being upright as intended prevents intruders from leveraging more manpower by limiting space to do it. A 4' high door standing upright only allows room for about 2 guys to pry on the "non-hinged" side at a time with any real amount of force. On the other hand, if it's tipped over you can fit double that many people, if not more. Also, being upright makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to pry and leverage any real force on the top and bottom of the door because of the floor is blocking one,and height being out of reach for the other. You can apply this same concept of restricted space by placing the safe so that the side of it which opens (opposite of the hinges) is against a wall. This limits the amount of room to be able to wedge any tools into the door or leverage any force to pry.
Being privately funded testing and not having sufficient room to do it prevented us from putting any fireproofing to the test. I merely recommend going with the best that you can afford. The hotter and longer the rating, the better. Trust in the company who designed it.If it fails, well, you can let them pay to replace your stuff if necessary.
In hindsight, if you are able to EFFECTIVELY secure the safe and keep it from being moved in any way then you don't need to worry so much about brands, quality, prices, etc. We tackled and conquered a large Stack-On in about 15 minutes. Even with the size/strength advantage provided by my partner I sincerely doubt we would have succeeded even against THAT relatively cheap safe had we not been able to tip it on its back.Hence, not staying where ever you place it is ABSOLUTELY DETRIMENTAL to its effectiveness.
Tipping a safe over allowed us enough room to effectively manipulate wedged tools into the door frame and begin bending and flexing the metal which the door bolts insert into. Thus, rendering them useless. Therefore, ALWAYS pay attention to the thickness/flexibility of the metal which the bolt insert into or rest against (door jam/frame). On a model which has bolts on the HINGED side as well, it would be next to impossible to gain access in a reasonable amount of time.
In theory, you don't want an intruder to simply be able to walk off with your safe. Therefore, securing it in place is the first priority. In the event they somehow manage to circumvent your installation, then size and weight could be the only thing stopping them. Even if it doesn't stop them from trying, it certainly won't be a speedy process. If your home has as busy of a traffic pattern as many people's, then slowing them down enough could prove to be the step which keeps your goodies safe at home. Plus, additional size means you're not going to run out of room any time soon.
It IS feasible/possible to gain entry to a safe while it is standing and secured, however it's impractical. A typical criminal isn't going to randomly carry the amount of or size of tooling with him necessary to accomplish this feat. Therefore again, size and weight are a priority too. That however, DOES NOT mean that you need to spend too much money. You can add weight to a safe fairly easily with ammo. You just want to be sure that you’ren ot relying entirely on the weight. Windows break easily, are often low to theground, and let’s face it… safes are easy to tip into a truck bed.
Considerations by priority:
#1 Ability to adequately secure the safe into its position in your home
#2 Thickness/strength of metal around the door frame and bolt entries
#3 Design of the door frame can prevent unwanted utensils from slipping in
#4 The more bolts, the marrier..on ALL sides of the door
#5 Fireproofing; the hotter and longer time frame in rating, the better
#6 Finally, BIGGER IS BETTER (as long as it fits)
If you're able to properly secure your safe then you are merely opening up your shopping market. Properly secured, I would not doubt the ability of a large Stack-On but once they get into the $500-$600 range you will find much more bang for your buck in safes at Tractor Supply Company. From there, the sky is the limit.
I wanted to keep this short and sweet to help those who might need assistance in choosing and I don't have a lot of time to write out all the detail that I would like to. Plus, I don't want to lose people's interest in a long, drawn out detailed account and wanted to share what I feel to be the top PRIORITIES in safe considerations. There ARE methods to secure a safe no matter your circumstances even if you live in an apartment, as I currently do. If you have further questions regarding considerations and what I was able to learn several years ago, feel free to ask here. Hope this helps some.
TIPS AND TRICKS
1. If you're going to bolt the safe to the wall, make sure you secure it to TWO studs rather than ONE. If only one, it would be relatively easy to get a grasp of the safe and use leverage to twist it enough to break the scews free from the single stud.
2. If you're limited in funds or space and must purchase a smaller safe, it's a good idea to weigh it down if at all possible by filling the bottom with ammo. If it's a fireproof safe, this will also help at ensuring your goodies are safe during a fire because if rounds are being cooked off for HOURS the fire department will not handle it until it's safe. Thus, allowing enough time to defeat your fireproofing and destroy your investments.
3. As mentioned earlier, place the safe against TWO walls. One against the back of the safe and the other against the side of the safe that is OPPOSITE of the door hinges. This removes area for criminals to gain any leverage or even ability to insert a tool in the door.This method however, will only help if you DO anchor it in that location.
4. Don't leave tools lying around in plain sight which a criminal could use against you in your absence.
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