How Safe Is A Gun Safe?

How Safe Is A Gun Safe

Bad guys exist, and safes are meant to stop them. Gun safes have been around for a long time, but they have become more sophisticated over time. Safes are now made with the latest in security features to protect your valuables from theft or natural disasters.

The purpose of a safe is to protect the valuables inside it from harm or theft. Safe manufacturers continue to innovate and create new ways for safes to be better at protecting your valuables.

Some gun safes have fingerprint scanners that allow you access only if you can identify yourself with your fingerprints. Other safes are designed to be fireproof, waterproof, or even earthquake-proof!

But are home and gun safes really secure? People will always find ways to break into safes. This is why there are safes in the first place. Safes are meant to stop bad guys from getting what they want.

Here’s how safe your average gun safe from a big box store is. It takes just a few minutes for a thief to pry open a safe door with a few crowbars, and a bit of elbow grease.

The only way to stop a person from breaking into a safe is not by making the lock better, but by making the safe better.

Bedside Gun Safe

How Secure Is A Gun Safe?

Gun safes are not as secure as you might think. In fact, there are many ways to break into a gun safe that can be done with household items or a simple screwdriver.

The best way to protect your guns is by making sure they are not visible to burglars or thieves, and by storing them in a locked room or cabinet where they cannot be seen.

With that being said, let’s dive into how your safe might come under attack and what you can do to make your gun safe more secure.

How Safe Is A Gun Safe?

Gun safes are a popular choice for firearm owners. They provide protection against theft, fire, and natural disasters. But how secure are they really? Let’s talk about the most common ways thieves get into your gun safe, and how a quality safe will keep them out.

No Safe Is Completely Safe

Gun safes come in many different shapes, sizes, and prices from desk gun safes to bank security vaults. The prices of gun safes vary depending on the size of the safe and the quality of materials used in its construction.

These safes range from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars for some models that provide high security features like fingerprinting technology or biometric locks.

However, no safe is going to be completely burglar-proof or indestructible, but they are still a good way to keep your guns safe from people who shouldn’t have access to them.

A safe can be opened by anyone if they have the right tools and sufficient time. Some tactics are even impossible to counter, such as using a plasma cutter to cut open the safe, blowing the safe open with an explosive, or using a machine to pry the door off.

Despite their effectiveness, these methods require either special equipment, special training, or a tremendous amount of time. It is more likely that this tactic will be used to open bank vaults than to steal from your home or gun safe.

fireproof gun safe

Smaller Safes Are Easier To Break Into

Gun safes are designed to be heavy and strong so they can protect the contents inside. However, there are some smaller, easier-to-move, drop down pistol safe that might not be as safe as you think.

Another efficient technique used by thieves on smaller, glovebox gun safes is bouncing (placing the safe on the ground or dropping it to force the lock to open). When the lock bounces, you can turn the handle of a safe if you catch it at just the right moment.

An effective safe will have a counterweight mechanism that prevents the lock from moving. Relockers are an integral part of most safes. They secure the safe’s locking bolts firmly into place so that not even a key or combination can release them.

If your safe’s relocker is triggered, you will have to hire a locksmith, but that’s much better than having your valuables stolen.

Grinding Through A Safe

Determined thieves might use high-tech methods like cutting through your safe’s metal body with a grinder or saw. This is an effective method. Due to the fact that this type of attempt will require an incredible amount of effort, the chances of it actually happening are extremely rare.

Burglaries are largely smash-and-grab operations, and they usually take no more than 10 minutes from start to finish. A thief’s chances of getting caught significantly increase with the implementation of this kind of tool.

Thieves with grinders, for instance, are not exactly inconspicuous, since such tools are cumbersome. Finding and cutting into a safe takes time, plus it takes time to locate a power source. These factors make it unlikely that it will happen.

If you’re concerned about theft, choose a safe whose manufacture uses both a lower gauge of steel that is harder to cut into and embedded glass or ceramic fragments into the concrete, which throws a considerable amount of shrapnel when struck.

fireproof gun safes

Peel Attempts

A thief might be able to bust the seams of your safe with a sledgehammer and a little extra effort if the body of your safe is welded together from multiple pieces of steel.

So, your safe could get ripped apart like a banana – thieves just bust the seams and grab the metal. Less is more when it comes to preventing this.

You’re going to get the best home security by using safe bodies made of just two or three pieces of metal. Also a safe to store gun under bed makes them more difficult to crack open.

Torque Assaults

Your safe may be broken into by forcing the handle rather than going through the door. There is a possibility that this could cause the locking gears to slip, releasing the bolts and unlocking the safe.

Countermeasures for this problem are almost universal, known under many names, but we prefer to call them “slip clutch mechanisms.” 

This device works similarly to a ratchet, holding the gears from rotating in the opposite direction until they are properly unlocked. Don’t try this feature on your own safe.

A combination lock is designed to prevent thieves from getting into your safe by permanently locking it out, which means that even with the combination, you won’t be able to open it. To open the safe, you will have to get in touch with a locksmith.

The Pry Attack

A thief can pry a safe’s door off in just a few minutes with just a few crowbars, elbow grease, and an inferior safe design.

In pry attacks, the weakness of smaller locking bolts and rivets that attach them to the steel bar that moves them in and out of the safe is exploited, exploiting their simplicity.

Proactive manufacturers will add Z-bars, anti-pry tabs, thicker locking bolts, and narrower door gaps to stave off this threat. Even so, the best safes provide a high level of protection from pry attacks by using one-piece steel locking bars.

The safe becomes instantly more pry-resistant without rivet points in the bars and taking too much force to open and also becomes much harder.

fingerprint gun safe

Which Safe Is The Most Difficult To Break Into?

It is impossible to say which safe is the most difficult to break into because there are many factors that impact how easy it is to do so. Cannon and Liberty are two of the top companies in the industry when it comes to safes that are difficult to break into.

It doesn’t matter how expensive a safe is, it still wouldn’t guarantee total safety from break-ins. Therefore, don’t assume that the more you spend, the better the safe is.

However, Cannon and Liberty are both relatively expensive, so their price is a significant determinant. A gun safe review will give you the best insight into the quality of the safe, as it is unfiltered and offers you a better chance of finding a secure safe.

Are Crowbars Capable Of Opening A Safe?

The answer is yes, you can open most safes with a crowbar. If you’re trying to break into a safe, you should target the weak points of the safe, which can even be found in the most advanced gun safes.

The weak points in your safe may have been a result of flaws in its design, or their placement could have been accidental.

It is quite common for cheaper gun safes to have multiple weak points that can be exploited. Nevertheless, finding these spots can be difficult in more expensive gun safes. In general, safe doors tend to be weak spots in most designs.

So, if you’re planning on breaking into a safe, this would be a good place to start. Safe doors are typically made of thinner metal than the rest of the safe, so they will be easier to bend with a crowbar, which will make it easier to reach the contents.

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Is It Possible To Cut Through A Safe With A Plasma Cutter?

It’s likely that a Plasma cutter can cut through metal. But it won’t be easy, and the cutter will have to work a long time. When we say that it takes a while, we really mean a long time.

A professional working with a modern gun safe may spend up to 6 hours performing this task, and the time increases with the age of the safe and the experience of the user.

Therefore, it is highly unrealistic to see a gang of thieves completing a bank heist in just a few seconds by cutting open a safe. Plasma cutters can be used to cut through a safe, but in reality, the thieves would be caught before the Plasma cutter has even started cutting through the metal.

Is It Easy To Break Into Liberty Safes?

Gun safes from Liberty aren’t easy to break into. It is possible to break into all gun safes with the right technique and tools, but Liberty has taken every precaution to prevent this from happening.

Although they can’t sell you a gun safe that won’t be broken into, they can sell you one that’ll be really hard and time-consuming to break into, which is almost as good.

Liberty tends to make smaller handgun safes. You can keep these on your bedside table and easily put them away out of sight. I think it’s cool, but it means if someone wanted to, they could easily steal the whole safe because of its size.

The reason why it is so important to secure your Liberty gun safe to a heavy option is that, although Liberty gun safes may be hard to crack, they are very easy to steal.

Gun Safe For Home

What Are The Chances Of Breaking Into A Cannon Safe?

Safes from Cannon don’t make easy targets for burglars. There are weak spots in every gun safe, which are easy to target if you plan on breaking in.

Safes from Cannon are designed to limit these weak points to the absolute minimum, so there is very little chance of you actively breaking into one.

It is common for Cannon safes to be advertised as impenetrable, and while this may be just marketing, they are quite difficult to crack. The reasons are obvious: the security of these safes comes first.

It might seem like a key focus for all gun safes, but a lot of companies don’t seem to put much effort into this. Cannon gun safes are a good choice for anyone who wants a safe and secure gun storage solution.

Note From The Author

It’s important to understand that you should only break into a gun safe if you have lost your own key. The majority of gun safes can be opened relatively easily. If you have lost your gun safe key, and you don’t want to bother calling your safe provider, then it is likely that you can open the safe on your own.

The phrase “gun safe is impenetrable without the key” is often used when you buy one, but that is not the case at all. Gun owners have been duped into believing that gun safes are more secure than they once were by clever advertising, but in reality, they are still very easy to break into.

A weak point is necessarily present in every safe, and once you find this weak spot you will be able to open it with ease. Therefore, gun safes may seem difficult to crack, but it is actually very easy.

Final Words

It is important to know that a thief will always find a way into your safe, no matter what. So, it is up to you to decide whether you want an expensive and heavy steel safe or a lighter and cheaper gun safe. Hopefully, now you know how safe is a gun safe.

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