Apartment Safe???

[dpmac83]

I am in a bit of a pickle!!! Has anyone ever had to put a gun safe in an apartment?? No bolting to the floor, no room in the closet, not leaving it in the garage!! What the heck am i supposed to do?? Where am i supposed to put it??? Am i expected to stop buying guns because I have no place to lock them up?!?!?!

 

[clint_lnl]

I rent and I have it bolted to the wall. figure I can partch the wall when I go. plus the weight of the safe no one will carry it off

 

[mgjohn]

Bolt it down now and patch it later.

 

[klondike]

Zanotti Armor makes a safe that can be dismantled.
Gun Safes for your home or business | Zanotti Armor®

 

[dpmac83]

Those zanotti safes are really nice!! I have only 1 place it can go in my apartment and I wont have a problem getting it there so i will probably opt for a one peice. How does the bolting to the wall affect the fire resistance of the safe? And what safes are best at <1000$

 

[BarbC]

If you bolt it to the wall, make sure the bolt end doesn't stick out of your neighbor's wall.

 

[cmort666]

If you don't want to bolt it to the floor or wall, bolt it to something that won't fit through a doorway. You can either bolt it to a metal plate (which will make it hard even to move) or to metal bars. The plate is probably the easiest. Burglars trying to cut through that will make a lot of noise or potentially set the carpeting on fire, neither of which is conducive to stealth.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

I've read that the Zanoti Safes are nice, but also very expensive. Anyone know how much one of these costs?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[carbuncle]

When I used to live in apartments I had a gun locker-style safe that served me well. I used to put all my ammo in the bottom, it would have been a chore for an apartment smash and grab thief to get out of there with how much it weighed.

 

[P&R Fan]

I have two Zanotti safes. One with a conventional combination lock and one with an electronic lock that you spin a collar around the keypad and it generates enough electricity to power it up. Very cool. I've had them both for more than 10 years so I'm not sure of current prices, but I think they were about $1200 when I got them. Mine are pretty large, I think they hold 32 long guns with an upper shelf and you can hang handguns on the door. They make smaller sizes. They are very solid and incredibly easy to assemble. Took me and a friend less than 15 minutes to assemble a 300 lb. 5 foot tall safe. Check them out.

 

[Farmer17]

You could buy two smaller safes and bolt them together, and they would take twice as long to break into and be too large and heavy to move.

 

[Gary]

A gun store near me offers firearms storage. You might ask around and see if it is offered where you live. That way all you would have to keep in your apartment is whatever firearm you used for personal protection.

 

[84CJ]

If the floor is carpet who would ever know? But you.
Better to have a safe not bolted down than to have nothing.
I like the Idea of bolting it to a plate larger than the door opening. Most safe are front heavy (door) and need to be bolted to the floor or a base with a larger foot print. With a little work I bet you could make a really nice base plate to anchor the save to and make it look really nice to boot. I have done this twice for customers in the past. The base plates were really nice raised platforms nailed to the floor and then the safe was bolted to the platfrom. Then trimmed with quarter round. They built or had their own built. I just put them on the platform and anchored them down.

Dont skimp on your safe if a thousand wont get you what you need save up. Most good safes a Guaranteed for life and are a tough resell if you want to upgrade later. Most people loose their buts by doing this.

 

[dpmac83]

Barbc you had me cracking up with the thought of my neighbor having bolts sticking out his walls!!!

I am going to look into the Plate idea, The space i want to put it in is narrow enough for the plate to go under the molding on 3 of the 4 sides which will keep it anchored enough to keep it from tipping or even being carried off. I do not have many guns but it seems like I have no plans to stop buying them!! So i will be buying bigger than needed. I just am not sure how big is going to be big enough. Any rules of thumb to go by??

 

[akviper]

Considering a quality hunting rifle with a good scope costs about the same a decent safe I figure it's worth the money to spring for a good one. Spending a thousand plus to safeguard what might be several thousand dollars worth of goods is not a bad trade off. I keep my wife's jewelry as well as old family photos in my fire resistant safe. After my next move I'll probably add a Zanotti or Snapsafe for my upstairs safe. Snapsafe makes a very nice closet size safe.

 

[moonclip]

If you bolt it to the wall, make sure the bolt end doesn't stick out of your neighbor's wall.

Oooops!