Security For Your Guns

[alamogunr]

Another recent thread(probably not far below this one) asked about recommended game cameras. Got me to thinking about using one for security. My gun safe is located in a detached shop containing both reloading/casting equipment and miscellaneous tools. Yes, it is crowded.

The larger question is what security would be adequate for the shop. I know a camera would not prevent a break-in but could identify those doing the breaking-in.

In four or five years, I've never had a problem, but a few people around this small town know I have several firearms in my safe. In moments of foolish pride I have actually shown the contents to friends. I don't do that any more but having done it, I am concerned about security. I know nothing about alarms or their installation.

A couple of neighbors are aware of the shop and do look after things when we are away for short trips. I have notified the county sheriff when we are going to be away for any extended period, but worry that someone in the department may mention that fact to an acquaintance who may be a less than upstanding citizen.

Aside from good locks, securing the safe, etc., how do others ease their minds about security for their guns?

John
W.TN

[JJC]

A game camera would be better than nothing. I like the idea, may do the same in my house and I have an alarm. You do not want your guns stolen! That's how I ended up with an alarm in the first place. You can have an alarm put in the shop that runs off a cell phone. My father has one at a rental property set up that way. If the alarm is activated it works like a normal alarm: It goes off, alerts alarm co via cell phone, alarm company calls you to check, send police if not false alarm.

[lylejb]

Unfortunatly, I don't think there's any way to 100% stop someone who knows what their doing. The best you can hope for is to make it hard / too time consuming for the punk / crackhead thieves.

A SOLID door, not hallow core, a good deadbolt with reinforcement to the door frame. A good safe ( not like some with a heavy door and tin can sides) bolted to the floor. Bars Inside the windows, so they can't be worked on from the outside.

A camera may help identify the bad guys, but by then it's too late, your guns are already gone.

Also, don't store anything inside the shop that may help get in the safe, like a cutting torch.

[geargnasher]

+1 on disarming your own, handily supplied break-in tools.

Gear

[HeavyMetal]

My buddy "Chip" move to SoCal in the mid 80's with a Class 4 FFL.

City had a SNIT! Gave him all kinds of greif including BS about alarms and Bars and Kidnap prevention.

After the fact it was halirious but during what a joke.

What finally got them off his back?

An alarm system wired right on the safe with an uniterruptable power source. Made the city guys happy.

Turns out all it was was a hole drilled in the door with a flashing Red light (LED) epoxy'd in place. Power source was a computer back up system so it ran forever.

As long as it was flashing it was "ON"!

Say's he read an article where in the author interviewed several B&E types, home break in's car break in's that sort of stuff.

To a man they avoided the obvious "HIGH RISK" alarm systems which always seem to need a flashing light of some type to let the owner know it's primed!

Suggest you get an alarm upgrade from Radio Shack ASAP and don't show anyone how it works!

[alamogunr]

My buddy "Chip" move to SoCal in the mid 80's with a Class 4 FFL.

City had a SNIT! Gave him all kinds of greif including BS about alarms and Bars and Kidnap prevention.

After the fact it was halirious but during what a joke.

What finally got them off his back?

An alarm system wired right on the safe with an uniterruptable power source. Made the city guys happy.

Turns out all it was was a hole drilled in the door with a flashing Red light (LED) epoxy'd in place. Power source was a computer back up system so it ran forever.

As long as it was flashing it was "ON"!

Say's he read an article where in the author interviewed several B&E types, home break in's car break in's that sort of stuff.

To a man they avoided the obvious "HIGH RISK" alarm systems which always seem to need a flashing light of some type to let the owner know it's primed!

Suggest you get an alarm upgrade from Radio Shack ASAP and don't show anyone how it works!

Where I live it's doubtful that any thieves would take notice. They would just think it was a "pretty" light without a clue what it could represent. I'll look into the Radio Shack thing.

John
W.TN

[Recluse]

I polled a few convicts during my LE days about best ways to keep my house safe, and without fail or exception, every one of them said they feared big dogs that acted aggressive.

Sure, they said, they could shoot them but then that opened up a whole NEW slew of problems and criminal charges for them, not to mention the additional time, the noise--and in my particular case, the sheer rage and fury of the homeowner.

Our guns, with the exception of the ones we carry or keep handy, reside in gun safes that are hidden. We have a large, well-trained Doberman who hears, sees and senses everything and patrols the house and perimeter. Normally we have two dogs, but at the present, we're down to just one.

Solid doors, good locks, and good neighbors.

It's enough to keep the riff-raff punks discouraged. Nothing stops a true professional burglar, but we don't have anything such an alpha-hotel would want.

[Storydude]

Also, don't store anything inside the shop that may help get in the safe, like a cutting torch.

:agree:

Good friend showed me his "ubertough security room" he slid his safe into. concrete block that the safe slid 3' inside the outer edges. Think a safe sized tunnel. He said" Nobody with a prybar is gonna get in that..no room to swing it."

I walked the 3 feet to his hardwired Hypertherm Plasma cutter and flipped the on switch, dropped the torch at the door of the safe and walked away giggling.



A week later it had a mesh screen door over the end, safe was on the other end of the shop, too far for the torch to reach and the plasma cutter was locked in the safetunnel. LOL

[lwknight]

Luckily 99.9% of all burglaries are just grabs. The heavy safe is like 99% insurance anyway.
If someone knows you and knows that they have all day to work , then you can't stop them no matter what you do.

[beagle]

I was in California back in the late 60s. One gunshop there had a huge rattlesnake in a glass cage in the window. The place was pretty secure but the owner removed the rattler when he left and turned him loose in the shop. He didn't seem to have many problems./beagle

[firefly1957]

An old timer in my club had a old large bank safe in his garage with all his guns in it. Next to it was a cutting torch I said do you think it is a good idea to keep a torch next to your safe somebody could cut it open. He smiled and said I would like to see that I keep 50 lbs. of black powder in there too !

[azcruiser]

had the perfect system guess I made it myself took about 10 years ? Had for 37 yrs
1-married my 110lb high school sweetheart
2-she gained 200 lbs the 5 yrs
3- then she took up drinking
4- then she developed PMS
5- THEN MENAPAUSE
6- so i ended up with a 300lb CPA drunk woman with
menopause holding a gun in my living room
That will keep the thief's away.
Now I'm divorced and found that if you look you can find a stand up refrigerator that just bigger than say your Browning Safe gut it out slide it over your safe and nobody seems to notice or bother with it.But the game cam sounds like a good idea was thinking of putting one in the driveway for Halloween just for fun

[cbrick]

A game camera could be a good idea though it's true that unless the bad guy knows the camera is there before hand it will only help to identify him later unless it flashes, then he'll just steal the camera, if he knows it's there first it may help keep him out.

I keep the guns and some other valuables in the safe but with the value of tools and other things that cannot be kept in the safe, if someone broke into the shop I could take a severe hit even if they never touched the safe. Firearms are not the only things with value or that can be stolen.

My shop has two doors and no windows, each door has a sign on the outside that says - Wireless video surveillance. If they go in anyway I'll have pictures of them and that might help get some things returned. One of my biggest security features is that I could count on one hand the number of people that have ever been in my shop over the years and I know them very well. It is my shop, not a party room. As was mentioned, if you show one person and he could be perfectly honest and above board but he tells someone else who tells someone else, all perfectly innocently but sooner or later that story gets around to someone that you very much do not want to know what's in there. If you value your guns, tools etc. don't, do not, never advertise.

Years ago I rented a house that had no place for a loading room so I built one. In the back yard I built a free standing building that was quite nice inside, insulated, dry wall, heat & A/C, my benches, safe etc. For the outside I intentionally made it look a bit cr*ppy, T-111 paneling a bit crooked, lousy paint, hung a few rakes and shovels on the wall on either side of the door. For all practical purposes from the outside it looked like nothing more than a lawn and garden shed. That house was broken into while I lived there, many things were taken including tools, VCR's, jewelry etc. but the garden shed was not touched. Good chance it wasn't even looked at.

As for my current shop, well let's just say that anyone looking at the outside would never think . . . Shop, tools, guns.

Rick

[Milltown353]

Well you could always set up your shop with a metal grate and 440 volts going to the door knob. A guy that my dad new did that after his shop got broken into for the second time. I guess the thief damn near died and this was back before people would sue for that sort of stuff.

Another good one was in a house a friend built for this rich old guy. the poored a concrete walk-in safe. It was reinforced with re-bar and had a safe for a front door.