Bought a toy to hold my toys

[Arty]

Got me a gun safe. 24 gun Winchester.
Already wishing I had went with the 48 but im still having fun wit it and I may just have a reason to buy another one day.

Couldn't afford nor could I justify a Fort Knox safe. This fucker is heavy (520 EMPTY) and its upstairs in my office. And it is bolted down through the floor in a way that you'd have to have a truck to pull it over. So I'm happy with it.

Just finished placing an order on my wife's amazon account for several cool "must have" accessories.

Emptied and repacked it 3 times today. May do it again before bed.

Question- is it a good idea to store ammo in it with your guns?

I have roughly 2500 rounds stored in there. Mostly handgun and rifle. Some shotgun. No black powder.
Just wondering what would happen in a fire ??

[Buckrub]

I have some ammo in there. I have heard both sides. If a fire, ammo ain't gonna do well in a 'hot box' and guns might suffer.

I got the Winchester big old boy, 54 guns, I think. Remember the trip from h#$# we took to buy directly from the owner (Granite Security Products), that my buddy knew? Then six months later I found it locally for $600 less than the 'wholesale' price I paid? Ha. Mine is so heavy I didn't bolt it. Dang thing won't hold 54 guns, I know that. I don't know where my next guns are gonna go!! I need four of these things!

http://winchestersafes.com/Legacy53-7-1.aspx

Man. They've gone up. I paid about 1/3 of what this URL lists that one for. And I got Black but not Gloss........what I got, they don't even advertise here. Black matte, rough sorta finish, no fingerprints.

Airplanes ought to be built out of the same materials those 'black boxes' are built out of.

And every house should have one entire huge room built out of whatever safes are made of.

And yeah, Ft. Knox is the Caddy of 'em all, but wowzers...high dollar.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Congrats Artie! Upstairs? I'd like to have WATCHED that move. Had to have been Ben Gay and vodka involved if I'd have done that.

I still have a wild idea in my head to build a safe room in my house. I have a good spot for it if I can ever afford it. Be a good spot to hide from tornaders too.

Ps, I personally wouldn't store ammo in my safe, for the reason Bucky said. A guy really nned two safes. See how that flies with the War Dept.

BKB

[Niner]

Actually Barry......believe it or no.....the Mrs. has suggested that we need to get another...BIGGER safe. Keep the gun stuff in one and other "important stuff" in the other one. It's kindof on the back burner right now...but it's in the queue so to speak.

[jb]

Best investment I ever made, well sort off anyway. Mine was a 36 gun safe but cut it down to 22 guns by installing a series of shelves on one side. That way it holds our important papers and other junk that belongs in safes.
The only ammo I store in the safe is in the clips and mag's for my guns, all the rest is stored in an ammo storage unit I have or in my reloading room.
I think my safe was listed a 800# lb's and is in my lower walk-out basement, didn't bother to bolt it down as it took my three sons and I just to move it where it's at. If some SOB wants it that bad they can have it.

[Niner]

I looked at the ones that Tractor Spply carries and was able to do a side-by-side comparison with the Canon safes they also carry. The Winchester safes have much nicer interiors than the Canons do. I see the one that Bucky bought has a 10ga body, and the one's at TSC have 12ga bodies. What is the "real world" differance between 10 and 12 gauge steel?

[BarryBobPosthole]

.03 in.
What that means in fire protection I couldn't say.

BKB

[Niner]

The steel thickness has very little to do with the fire rating. That comes from how much "fireboard" (sheetrock??) is inside.
I'm not AS concerned with max fire rating because the location of the safe is in my unfiinihed basement/workshop. If it were going in the den, that'd be a whole different deal.

[BarryBobPosthole]

My parents' neighbor lost their house in a fire. The guy had a very nice gun safe (a doctor), and it ruined all of his guns. I don'tthink there's a whole lot short of reinforced concrete that foolproof for fire.
Unless its location, like you said.
BKB

[Buckrub]

Being a noticer and a math major, Posthead is wrong (as usual). It's .02..........10 gauge is .100 and 12 gauge is .120!!!

And that's a lot. Check the fire rating of both safes. Mine is 2.5 hours at 1400 degrees. That is why I bought that safe, and not just the space. Most safe companies make 2 or 3 safes in EACH size. It's the fire rating that matters. Sad as the world is, more safes are needed for fire than for theft.

[Arty]

I agree with the notion that a big bad prolonged fire is gonna burn whatever it comes in contact with.
As far as fire protection goes I am not sure there is any safe that would make it through a fire where the entire house was a total loss.

Even though mine is upstairs ( it really wasn't that bad between me, My strapping 14 year old and two of my strongest friends. ).
The house is fairly new and I'm 500 yards from the fire dept.

If the house does go up In flames God forbid, hopefully they will get it put out within 60 minutes and before it reaches 1400 degrees