How safe are your gun safes from lock pickers?

Just to throw my 2 cents in. I'm a former locksmith, and have had the good fortune of breaking into many types of safes during my years employed in that field. The best advice I can give is to get a heady duty dial safe, and spend the money/time to have it bolted down correctly, preferably into a corner against two walls. (Removes access to back, and one side of safe) Secondly, understand that every lock can be defeated, its only a matter of time to accomplish it. If the would be thief is planning a quick smash and grab, he will not be able to defeat a dial safe in the time he/she plans. Also, there is a method I used to use when bolting the safes down. They should be bolted from inside down into the floor. But they should also have solid steel angle brackets bolted on the outside around the lower edge of the safe. Then those angle brackets should also be bolted down to the floor. What this does is it prevents a would be thief from using a tool to pry the safe up from the ground, where he could potentialy steal the entire safe, contents and all. When done properly, the safe will be next to impossible to be forced away from the ground, forcing the thief to attempt entry on the spot. Most will not take the time or effort to do this. Problem solved

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Oh yeah, one more thing. All external bolts should be break away types, or one way bolts. Good luck

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When my home was invaded, the thieves tried to bash in my gun safe. They used so much force that it pretty much locked the locking mechanism in place for good. None of the firearms were stolen, but I had to have it heavily repaired. I guess it did its job?

My theory is that safes function like this:

1. Keeps out relatives, kids, friends;
2. Is a layer of the whole security package;
3. Delays any determined thief, only;
4. Weight is a key - fill bottom of cheap safe with sandbags, assure there is no easy entry flaw (like ability to peel back the top or bottom);
5. Use two safes, one with sandbags and try things like housing half of your gun/ammo in one, the other with the rest. Thief can't easily steal both, gets one and only has parts;
6. Hide the safe. It's simply a good delay addition;
7. Check plan for obvious flaws (i.e. have a 5 yo and a 10 year old try to find and defeat it, hehe).

I have an amsec gunsafe with an electronic lock and am wondering how hard it is to break into, but I can't watch the video atm. Can anyone tell me what makes it so easy to break into an electronic safe or how easy it is to force a 500lb safe open.

So how many of you know that it is a FEDERAL CRIME if someone breaks into your gun safe, and can be pursued at the Federal level AKA time in a Federal prision and not the state country club....

Sheldon said:

So how many of you know that it is a FEDERAL CRIME if someone breaks into your gun safe, and can be pursued at the Federal level AKA time in a Federal prision and not the state country club....

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Part of the reason I employ gun safe."

When my son's around, I relegate that responsibility to the government, but I retain the right to wipe it out and make a beeline. We'd not have been attop of herhad here snads begraberonil...

Or so says my keyboard when it's time to head to bead.

since9 said:

Part of the reason I employ gun safe."

When my son's around, I relegate that responsibility to the government, but I retain the right to wipe it out and make a beeline. We'd not have been attop of herhad here snads begraberonil...

Or so says my keyboard when it's time to head to bead.

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...wat?

Well after watching the video I see that when you say "gun safe" you mean the small gun safes that only hold 1-2 handguns. I thought you meant that they went over actual gun safes that one would put into their house to hold rifles/shotguns. And outside of mentioning wafer/tubular locks that some cheapo rifle/shotgun safes have they don't talk about full size gun safes. But overall it was very informative.

since9 said:

Part of the reason I employ gun safe."

When my son's around, I relegate that responsibility to the government, but I retain the right to wipe it out and make a beeline. We'd not have been attop of herhad here snads begraberonil...

Or so says my keyboard when it's time to head to bead.

Click to expand...

Aknazer said:

...wat?

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Maybe a drunk posting? Better than dialing I guess:beer:



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Found it!!!

Here is what would happen if California laws and gun safes ever get togeather.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wypFgcqHyvc

picking modern locks is a difficult skill that takes a LONG time to master, constant practice, and becomes exponentially more difficult when the picker is unfamiliar with a specific lock. I think it's safe to say that less than 1% of your average street thugs even know what a lock pick set looks like, let alone knows how to use it...

If you need to worry about someone picking the locks on your gun safe, then you have MUCH bigger problems than working about the average B&E. If there is a genuine threat that a prowler will break into your house and pick the locks on your gun safe, then your phone is probably being tapped, your email is all being intercepted by ESCHELON, your car has probbly been GPS tagged, and you probably have a satellite trained on your house.

In other words, the VAST majority of illegal entrants to your home who have the ability to successfully pick a decent gunsafe lock are, in fact, probably working for Uncle Sam. In which case, it doesn't matter WHAT sort of locks you have--they WILL get into the safe, and probably ALREADY have a set of keys anyway...

Dreamer said:

picking modern locks is a difficult skill that takes a LONG time to master, constant practice, and becomes exponentially more difficult when the picker is unfamiliar with a specific lock. I think it's safe to say that less than 1% of your average street thugs even know what a lock pick set looks like, let alone knows how to use it...

If you need to worry about someone picking the locks on your gun safe, then you have MUCH bigger problems than working about the average B&E. If there is a genuine threat that a prowler will break into your house and pick the locks on your gun safe, then your phone is probably being tapped, your email is all being intercepted by ESCHELON, your car has probbly been GPS tagged, and you probably have a satellite trained on your house.

In other words, the VAST majority of illegal entrants to your home who have the ability to successfully pick a decent gunsafe lock are, in fact, probably working for Uncle Sam. In which case, it doesn't matter WHAT sort of locks you have--they WILL get into the safe, and probably ALREADY have a set of keys anyway...

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Um Ah you don't need to pick the lock have a look at the video.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhOjWHbD6M

Sheldon said:

Um Ah you don't need to pick the lock have a look at the video.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhOjWHbD6M

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Nothing is 100% secure and I get the point of the video that cheap isn't good/better but how many BG really travel with the long/large crowbar like the one that they had in this video?

Steeler-gal said:

Nothing is 100% secure and I get the point of the video that cheap isn't good/better but how many BG really travel with the long/large crowbar like the one that they had in this video?

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More often than you may think, most robberies are not random acts but have been planed out, they know your work hours, they know what you have, where it is, and most likely have been in your home, (kids friends, a friend or friends acquaintance). I have a friend who was an FFL, had three gun safes, and they broke into all three while he was at work.....

Dreamer said:

picking modern locks is a difficult skill that takes a LONG time to master, constant practice, and becomes exponentially more difficult when the picker is unfamiliar with a specific lock. I think it's safe to say that less than 1% of your average street thugs even know what a lock pick set looks like, let alone knows how to use it...

If you need to worry about someone picking the locks on your gun safe, then you have MUCH bigger problems than working about the average B&E. If there is a genuine threat that a prowler will break into your house and pick the locks on your gun safe, then your phone is probably being tapped, your email is all being intercepted by ESHELLON, your car has probbly been GPS tagged, and you probably have a satellite trained on your house.

In other words, the VAST majority of illegal entrants to your home who have the ability to successfully pick a decent gunsafe lock are, in fact, probably working for Uncle Sam. In which case, it doesn't matter WHAT sort of locks you have--they WILL get into the safe, and probably ALREADY have a set of keys anyway...

Click to expand...

Very insightful. Gunsafes are a delaying tactic against B&E/HI and are part of a layered defense of the home. I never put all my firearms in one place. I have multiple safes. I don't think a B&E guy can find them all, I don't think he can carry them all away, or break into any of them in a few minutes. I hide my stuff, hide my safes, use layered defense, live in a gated community (which is a bit of a joke but prevents drive-bys).

I don't even LOCK my document safe(s). I consider them fire resistant devices, robust file cabinets.

(I suppose if I were a criminal and I wanted to rob a gated community, I could just get a UPS truck and a brown uniform and load up houses with a pile of newspapers outside, lol.)

I think it's safe to say that less than 1% of your average street thugs even know what a lock pick set looks like, let alone knows how to use it...

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More like less than 0.001% of street thugs these days knows how to use a lock pick, haha. More dweebs and nerds and hackers know how to use those than criminals. In the 1970s, I bet your average cat burglar did know, but now, you don't really have the same kinds of burglars.

Q. How safe are your gun safes from lock pickers?

A. Better than average.