What's your budget? And always buy a safe 3x the size of what you think you'll need right now.
This little Liberty safe makes a lot of sense. It appears to offer pretty good protection and it's light enough to move to a new house or apartment with only a hand truck. When I purchased my second safe, I went with a top-of-the-line pro steal from Browning. I have never been able to fill the darn thing up. In my 69th year, gun collecting doesn't seem so important. The large and extremely robust Browning was always overkill. Moving it require the services of a professional safe expert and a sizable moving fee. I think when I purchased it, I was thinking in all or nothing terms. The little liberty safe that Mr. Dillard purchased sounds like an excellent starter safe for now and it could certainly be used later should he expand his collection to store 22 rifles, Mossberg shotgun's and other reasonably priced guns.I have a centurion 24 from liberty safe. At a cost of just $750. There are other safes but I like the warranty of Liberty.
What's your budget? And always buy a safe 3x the size of what you think you'll need right now.
My birthday is coming up. Maybe my wife will surprise me and grab a Johnson for me.
Stop right there. If you wife is grabbing your johnson, well, that's too much information!
I think this is a pretty good summation. A good layered security strategy is the best approach IMO. Buy the best safe that you can that fits your particular needs for your environment and budget and augment it with other security measures like mentioned in the post above.Use and budget are the big considerations.
Four categories as I see it:
1) Unlocked Gun Cabinets (this would be the walnut and glass display case that might have a lock, but since its glass, well... you know)
2) Locking Light Gun Cabinets (by light, I mean they don't weigh much, two people could easily pick it up and take it out of your basement and into a pickup truck or cut through it in a few minutes using hand tools) Usually the lock is a file cabinet quality keyed lock.
3) Locking Heavy Gun Cabinets (usually have some small number fire rating, are heavy enough for you to ask a neighbor to help you put it in your basement, or three neighbors to help you move it out of your basement) You might be able to find a mechanical tumbler. But probably not.
4) An honest to God safe. The only limitation is how much you would like to spend.
For me and my uses... category 2 and 3 have been and I think will continue to be sufficient. House alarm and very nosy neighbors in a paranoid neighborhood. And I always keep several exterior lights on.
I'm just trying to keep things out of reach of children and casual visitors or opportunistic thieves. But I wouldn't say "no" to a real safe if offered.
My birthday is coming up. Maybe my wife will surprise me and grab a Johnson for me.
I have a big black Johnson...