Since I have zero experience with them, I'm curious. Has anyone had a car gun safe that actually kept the weapon from being stolen during a car prowl? My concern would be, that the prowler would just crow bar the thing out of whatever bulkhead it'd been fastened to, and crack it open away from the scene?
Anyone?
Thanks!

Hey man,

I've got a Center Of Mass safe (google it) that connects to the car seatframe with a cable.

All any safe can do is slow a thief down - I've yet to see the one that can't be defeated. So, my thoughts are that my handgun is substantially more safe inside a safe that's attached to the car with a hardened cable than if it's just sitting under the seat.

What are the odds that the thief is going to have cable cutters with him, and have the time required to use them to saw through the hardened cable? Not too good - the smash-and-grabbers that break into cars don't have their lives together in other areas, so I'm not thinking that they're likely to be bringing proper tools along for car burglaries. They're mostly opportunists, and your car with the alarm blaring is not a place that they want to be staying around. Really, any safe is likely to be enough, but the cable ones can't be pried off the way the bolt-down ones can.

Good on you for worrying about this: I work in criminal law and I understand that more guns are stolen from cars than from anywhere else.

When I was safe shopping a few years back, i got a brochure that said, "the average burglar is armed with a tenth grade education and a screwdriver".

quote:

Originally posted by flop-shank:
When I was safe shopping a few years back, i got a brochure that said, "the average burglar is armed with a tenth grade education and a screwdriver".

Flop, I think that is too charitable with relation to education level...

If you shop law enforcement suppliers, you can buy racks to hold M4s or shotguns out of the way in a vehicle, often overhead or in other positions as you might desire. The usual arrangement is to have a hidden switch and to use a standard handcuff key for the manual override. Specialty security goods providers can also offer safes designed to be built into various nooks and crannies.

As with any safe, I'd be concerned that someone is simply going to take the whole car. The local chop shop will have the tools to get the safe open of any sort.

Yes; I have the "mini" and it is bolted through the floor and has worked to keep things safe and fast to access. It is hidden from view and has a key override. It was $100.00 and took about an hour to install.

http://www.gunvaultsafe.com/

I have an old gun test magazine that gives the gun vault very poor ratings. They were able to defeat the lock without tools. Any lock box slows down a thief. So something is better than nothing. The Tuffy Lock boxes look promising. Relatively inexpensive and specific for your vehicle type.

Regards,

Dave

I've got the COM safe for the truck (wish I'd bought two keyed alike now), and a small fireproof lockbox for the car trunk. The lockbox isn't secured, but according to my CCW instructor's advice, a thief would look pretty obvious carting it down the street. I keep the trunk locked and the popper inside is locked as well, so they'd have to work to get in there.

I also have a DAC sportsafe in the house, which is available at Wallyworld for about $65. The box is separate from the frame, which is fastenable to the floor, truck bed, wherever, and detachable, so you could use it as a travel safe and move it from the house to the car and back. Runs on 8 AAs, also AC power, has a key and four pushbuttons for a code you set. Works slick.

I've got a Gun Vault secured with a cable and HD padlock to the seat frame in my "extra"cab pickup. It could be defeated by ardent application of elbow grease and the right tools, but it won't easily surrender its contents without a lot of fuss and bother, much cursing, and lot's of racket. Even at that, I don't routinely leave guns in the vault, only expensive small objects that would otherwise be easily stolen. I can replace binoculars or etc., without worry that they'll be used in a crime of violence...