Gun Safe

[Echo]

I am finally biting the boolit and buying a gun safe. I lean toward a Zanotti pre-fab assembled on site. Anyone have any experience with this manufacturer? Any suggestions?

[Sweetpea]

No experience with them, but it seems interesting...

BUY BIGGER THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED!!!

Brandon

[Duckiller]

Much bigger than you think you need! They fill up awful fast.

[DRNurse1]

I saw a bank building for sale to day while I was looking at commercial space. Was I wrong to think it might be a great place to store my guns and reloading projects???

[Czech_too]

The main disadvantage I see to this safe is the low fire rating. The advantages are being able to assemble it on site, especially if it's going in a basement. The major players in this area will do free delivery within 75 miles. That might be something to look into, if you haven't already.
I bought what I thought, at the time, was a large enough safe. Forward a few years and it's full.

[contender1]

My wife told me a few years ago; "No more safes." (I have a couple.) She says we are gonna build a "safe room." My man cave will be a big vault. We are awaiting the loan approval as I type this.
Buy the biggest & strongest you can afford.
I had a home break-in in Sept 2012. He got her jewelry, and only one gun. The one by the headboard of my bed. The safes saved my guns.
Fire rating is very important too.

[Iowa Fox]

I am finally biting the boolit and buying a gun safe. I lean toward a Zanotti pre-fab assembled on site. Anyone have any experience with this manufacturer? Any suggestions?



Yes, Know them well. I think it was about 10 years ago I got mine. They are about 60 miles north of me so one day when I was in Waterloo for work I stopped. Mark the owner gave me a tour of the place from raw material to paint, packaging, and shipping. During the tour I looked at a lot of different interior options they were working on and that was all it took, I knew I was going to get one. I took his literature home and figured out what I wanted and gave him the order about a month latter. His production lead time when I ordered was 26 weeks from order to completion for pick up. About five years latter one of the guys at work and a neighbor who knew I had mine stopped for the tour and also ordered one, lead time was about the same. The reason I even considered the Zanotti modular is because my Brother-in Law got one from them when they first went into business and had a good chance to look his over. They are a very small operation and the owner when not on the phone is working right along side of the guys fabricating & painting safes. I don't know what their current lead time or prices are like and they will build any interior you can dream up, or help you as they have probably done it before. I still look at all the safes when I'm at Gun shows and places likes Scheels & Gander Mountain. I'm glad I got the Zanotti.

[Echo]

Thanks for the critique, IF. I will order one today - my neighbor has a spare I can use until I receive my Z.

[Uncle Jimbo]

Much bigger than you think you need! They fill up awful fast.

And then when you think you have it big enough, double that and you might have one that will house everything you want to put in it.
BUT, I doubt it.

[snuffy]

I got a cheap one, from the Fleet Farm sporting dept. It COULD be carried off, or broke into quite easily. But it would take a couple of BIG DOODS or a couple of professional booglars to do it.

http://photos.imageevent.com/jptowns/general/websize/pid-heater-luber%20008_3.jpg

Now that's what I call interior decorating!

It would work for a smash and grab robbery, maybe a return with more muscle or a couple of big prybars. I may look into anchoring it to the floor, but I'm retired and home most of the time, they'd have to get by me and one of several firearms at the ready!

[L1A1Rocker]

[QUOTE=snuffy;2520980]I got a cheap one, from the Fleet Farm sporting dept. It COULD be carried off, or broke into quite easily. But it would take a couple of BIG DOODS or a couple of professional booglars to do it.

http://photos.imageevent.com/jptowns/general/websize/pid-heater-luber%20008_3.jpg

Anchoring it to the floor is a MUST.

I recall a rash of gun safe thefts not too long ago. The cops finally broke up the ring and then it came out that a carpet cleaner was the forward guy. He spotted them and then he and his crew broke in and took the whole damn safe.

Years ago when a bank branch that I was manager at closed down, I bought the safe. A basic TL-15 that I gutted, fireproofed, and then cribbed out as a gun safe. I really like it. IF you can afford it, Brown safe company does make TL-15s cribbed out for use as gun safes. http://www.brownsafe.com/

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have thought for a long time that I would like to buy an empty bank building, move into and it live there. My wife didn't think much of the idea.