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Old October 30, 2002, 03:38 PM   #8
Preacherman
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 9, 2002
Posts: 791
I'd just like to second re1973's comment about electronic dials being bypassed with the aid of a 9 volt battery. I, too, learned about this from a convict (I'm a chaplain at a maximum-security penitentiary), and it's a well-known trick to those "on the inside". For obvious reasons, I won't post how it's done on this public forum, but it's frighteningly easy... As a result, my gun safe now has a standard dial-type lock with key. Slower, perhaps; less convenient, certainly; but a heck of a lot harder for a crook to open in a hurry!

As for fire-resistance rating, etc.: bear in mind that any safe in a normal residence is unlikely to be exposed to prolonged contact with flames, or great heat. The average frame-and-siding house won't burn in any one area for a very long time: within ten to fifteen minutes, the walls will give way, and the burning material will fall away from the safe. Of course, if your safe is in the basement, or on the ground floor of a two-floor building, then it's likely to get covered with burning fragments, and get much, much hotter: but in that case, even the best fire-resistant safe will probably succumb to "heat soak" after an hour or two, unless the fire department can dampen things down before then. Ergo, I don't know if it's worth paying a whole lot for maximum fire protection - this will depend on where and how you site your safe.

Another factor: if you plan on moving the safe at some point, it's a heck of a lot easier to move two smaller safes than one big safe! I've bought two 25-gun units, and placed them in different rooms, so that if a fire happens, one may be unaffected by it. Also, this allows me to segregate my firearms by type, length, etc. If I have to move them, it's not too difficult to get one 700-pound safe onto a dolly and push it around. However, a 35-50 gun safe, weighing over 1,000 pounds, and much longer and wider, is a real swine to get through narrow interior doorways.
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