I know the Sentinel / Stack On gun cabinets aren't safes, but all knowing California says they are sufficient to secure firearms. They work to keep firearms away from little kids, etc. I bought a locked one with no key at an estate sale today on the cheap and there was no code sticker on it to order keys so Youtube yielded this gem:

Universal Vice Grip key

I tried it, sure enough, it took me less than 2 minutes to get into it working the cylinder back and forth with some vice grips. Maybe if you welded the back of the cylinder or something it might hold up better. Also, it looked like the previous person made entry by sawzalling the little rivets that hold the piano hinge on.

I bought some machine screws and nuts to reattach the hinge and will maybe add a hasp with a lock to reuse it. The glass fronted gun cabinets might be slightly more secure than these, at least you might cut your hand on the glass trying to open it after you break the glass.

I have one I bought on sale from Tractor Supply for $88. I use it for low value long guns. It falls into the category of "better than nothing".

Good luck defeating the brain of a determined person.


(Or, why do we continue to lay blame on everyone but the one doing the wrong?)

Determined thieves will get into just about any safe given time to work unimpeded. There are vids on the tube of guys breaking into fairly decent safes with pry bars in under a minute. The best defense (outside of an actual vault) is alarms paired with a decent safe that is hidden somehow. Adding in outdoor cameras that send alerts when triggered can also make a difference. Time is a thief’s enemy once they’ve been detected.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I have one I bought on sale from Tractor Supply for $88. I use it for low value long guns. It falls into the category of "better than nothing".

Got mine from there also but a small 2 shelf one for handguns. It works and I'm by myself with no kids.
I have 2 other big safes that house the majority of the collection.

Cabinets, even full-blown safes, unless bolted to a wall or floor, can simply be carted off by one or two strong men and a dolly and busted open at their leisure. Especially in apartments where people move in and out all the time, people seeing them will just think they're movers. They are to keep out, for example, small children and crackheads looking for a quick score, not any kind of determined thief, let alone a professional safecracker. Dave Truong has, presumably, state of the art safes or vaults and still got hit by pros a couple or three years ago.

I have a small pistol-sized safe that is also weighted down with ~100 lbs. of lead ingots in its floor. This is adequate for a few handguns, but now that I have some long guns again, I need one of these cabinets, mainly because I can move it by myself. I have bad memories of having to pay safe movers, eventually amounting to more than I paid for the safe, if I could even find one. As said previously, it's better than nothing.

Well, at least you saved yourself the cost of ordering replacement keys!

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
Well, at least you saved yourself the cost of ordering replacement keys!

The only thing in the cabinet was the instruction sheet with the key code...not much help for me at that point. It looked like someone had already attacked the lock with a screwdriver or something already, but I didn't notice the cut hinge rivets until I opened it with the vice grips.

Those types of cabinets are nothing more than a deterrent for kids or a quick in and out burglar.

I have one of the Stack On cabinets in addition to my gun safe.

I use it to store the boxes and pistol cases.

I have the glass-fronted cabinet my dad had a local carpenter build for him. It contains the firearms I inherited from him and sits in an upstairs bedroom. The bulk of my accumulation (I don't think it rates as a "collection") is housed in a safe in an upstairs closet. I do need a second safe, though, because there are some guns just hidden around the house that should be in one.

BTW, I live alone and there are no children around.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
I have bad memories of having to pay safe movers, eventually amounting to more than I paid for the safe, if I could even find one. As said previously, it's better than nothing.

There are safes that you assemble at home, or wherever, thus making it easy for one person to handle.

My best friend bought one just before he came down with cancer and passed way.

I can't recall the brand name right now, so I googled and found several brands who fit this description. One of those brands is Snap Safe, that might have been what he bought, or maybe Zanotti? I *think* it was Zanotti.

Anyway, you order one, and it comes on a pallet IIRC and you just carry each panel and parts etc to where you want it, and you just bolt it together. It's probably just as good or better than you might think, and you can disassemble it and move it yourself. This makes it quite discrete to avoid nosy neighbors etc.

Maybe someone can chime in on this.
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quote:

Zanotti

I have one. It's a decent safe. Not bolted, Stainless steel pins hold it together. It's larger than the door of the room it's in & not visible.

I don't have to look up the price of this Zanotti safe to know it's way out of my budget. I picked up a Stack-on from Academy. The last time I was burgled was circa 1993, and it was by the neighbor's teenage punk-ass baby shits. (So much for "neighborhood watches.") I think this is the most likely type of thief to target me.