Secure locker for 10 pistols

[L. Boscoe]

Ok, this might be in the wrong place, but I spent about an hour trying Google with little luck.
I don't have long guns, probably never will as I am old and home most of the time. I live in a safe residential neighborhood, with really good neighbors who look out for each other. Cops are maybe ten minutes away at the most.
I want to lock up my many pistols, none of which are collectors but most cost $1k and more, and have had a lot of work done on them.
What I am looking for is a good steel locker that will accommodate
10 or so pistols and their mags. Don't need a safe, won't spend more than $500 on the locker. It will live in a closet.

 

[L-2]

https://www.libertysafe.com/collections/centurion/products/centurion-12
Start a Liberty Safe; but there are other companies.
There are various sizes.
There are ways to configure the interior to one's liking.
There are handgun-specific safes/boxes, but these often can only hold 2-at-a-time (so you'd need 5 of those smaller boxes @~$200 each; but you can also go very inexpensive with several one or two-handgun lock boxes.
You choose.

 

[ballardw]

Maybe one of these https://stack-on.com/product/compact-pistol-ammo-cabinet/ with any of the pistol racks available.
Intended to be bolted to the top of one of the company's larger cabinet/safes but should bolt to any number of places in your house.

 

[wild cat mccane]

There is a bit of scam to safes.

Doors are made to feel secure. But a $30 sawzall from homedepot will open the side of any safe that doesn't have BODY thickness. Drill, sawzall, literal minutes to entirely open. A door isn't where you attack a safe. Even "safe" cracking experts ignore how you open a safe. You don't crack the code/hinges/pry...It's all the body. Attack the side where the manufacture used cheap metal. Or better, slide a sawzall blade under your safe, cut the bolts you thought tied it down and walk off with the safe. You in fact walked it in.

I am pretty confident most "safe" makers market and spend money on the door. It makes no sense.

"Safe" door bolts are junk metal that screw in to a bolt. Chromed to look like not junk metal. The "bolts" you see are just that. Look impressive. They are not.

V-Line Brute or Fort Knox style safes. I have several for pistols. 10 gauge steel body that clam shells over (2 layers of 10 gauge steel--though remember a 1 layer of steel is stronger than two layers). Simplex lock. Love 'em. I can fit a few full sized handguns in each of my Brutes. There is a V-line/Fort Knox knock off on Amazon that is 10 gauge too. I can't recall the name. They are my next buy.

Know that 18 gauge steel is file cabinet level (Stack-On uses 18). 16 gauge is what you find on a job site box. "good" safes are 14 gauge. The difference between 10 gauge and 14 is huge. So "good safes" aren't really good in my mind. Most 14 gauge safes tend to be 14 on the door. Again. Not where a person attacks a safe.

A Rigid or Lowe's equal job site box (all are made by Knaak) is better than a gun safe in my mind. I use one for my ammo. I HIGHLY recommend a job site box over almost all safes you can find at a sport store. 16 gauge body. Again. No good. But WAY better just by shape than "safes."

Thick Pewag or Laclede security chain around a gun isn't coming off with angle grinder or sawzall. Highly recommend security chain. There is a place called Murphies (online) that is $10 per foot for 1/2". 65 rock hardness inside and out. Bolt cutters are not cutting it. For reference, when cut with bolt cutters, they have to be 3ft long and will snap a piece of the chain back at you so hard at you it could damage you really good.

 

[lll Otto lll]

^^^^ Job boxes offer little protection in case of a fire but are better than nothing. What most folks call "safes" are actually classified as Residential Security Containers (RSC).
RSC containers are not rated against any attack by power tools of any kind, or any attack lasting longer than five minutes using common tools.
Not surprisingly, RSC's can be defeated in 15 minutes or less.
With that said, I think the emphasis should be on fire resistance and something heavy enough that would take at least 2 men to move.

 

[Schlitz 45]

I’ve got a few of these under bed drawer style safes in two sizes. This is one of the smaller ones, it’s a great use of space for me & takes a lot of pressure off the stand up safe. I got one from Midway & got another off Amazon for $100 less. Easy access in or out of bed & would be very awkward to break or pry open. Bolted to floor & cabled together will hopefully discourage someone in a hurry.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1017561442?pid=969349