What Not to Put in a Gun Safe (Not Click Bait - Actual Question)

[Chance]

So I finally have a proper gun safe - Centurion with a 30-minute fire rating, all four points bolted down (https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?19017-Bolt-Down-your-Gun-safe-!), et cetera. This replaces my previous anti-theft device: hoping no one broke into the house.

All of my non-HD guns are going in, as well as sensitive personal documents, and any valuable small items I don't want wandering off. My question is: what should you not put in a gun safe?

Do certain materials not like environments where cleaners, carbon, lube, and so forth might be concentrated in the air? I'm hoping to store a family photo album for instance, which is mostly plastic and whatever photographs were printed on back when people printed photographs. If you wanted to put a loaded magazine or two in the safe as well, is that okay, or a hazard in the event of a fire?

[MichaelD]

Ammo shouldn't go in because its 'cook off' temperatures can be surprisingly low, and this article goes into other reasons:

http://gunsafereviewsguy.com/articles/myths-about-gun-safe-fire-ratings/3/#myth-ammo-is-safe

[PPGMD]

I just put guns, silencers, lower receivers, and expensive optics in my safe.

Ammo, magazines, and everything else is on shelves outside the safe.

I do also have a small selection of papers in the safe. Like NFA forms and such.

[shane45]

The piece of paper with the combo on it!

[voodoo_man]

I usually put one loaded gun in the safe...just in case...you know

[SD]

Well i made a mistake letting my wife store some of her jewelry when we went on vacation. That was 15, years ago she's up to owning 2, shelves. On another note, before we moved there had been a rash of gun safe thefts (even if they had been bolted down). They finally caught them. M/O was to kick in the door late in the morning rush into the house four of them would pick it up, they would throw it in a van that was backed up to the house and be gone within 5, minutes. The one owner actually had a camera on his safe, even with a bandana over their faces he recognized one of them thieves that had worked on his home several years before.

[BehindBlueI's]

You should not put anything apart from Gun itself in a Gun Safe. However there are many best gun safes which made to keep ammo and other related things as well with gun, But you should not keep just anything apart from gun and related things.

Are you real or just here to spam? 3 posts, all in safe related threads, in about 10 minutes.

[SeriousStudent]

Are you real or just here to spam? 3 posts, all in safe related threads, in about 10 minutes.

Apparently so.

[David S.]

I'm sure you've considered this but... I suggest having electronic backup copies of all the records and photos saved electronically somewhere other than the safe. Preferably off property, such as at a friend/relatives house, safety deposit box or the Cloud. Having watched a several youtube videos I've come to the conclusion that the fire/flood protection is on reasonably affordable gun cabinets are unimpressive.

[Chance]

I'm sure you've considered this but... I suggest having electronic backup copies of all the records and photos saved electronically somewhere other than the safe. Preferably off property, such as at a friend/relatives house, safety deposit box or the Cloud. Having watched a several youtube videos I've come to the conclusion that the fire/flood protection is on reasonably affordable gun cabinets are unimpressive.

I back up critical digital files in four different places, including two different cloud systems. My house, as well as large portions of the Internet, would have to burn simultaneously to lose them. If that's the case, PowerPoint slides will likely be the least of my concerns.

I do wish I had a better way of archiving paper photos though. It seems the only tenable option is taking a photo of the photo, as scanning everything is a major PITA and doesn't seem to work that well besides.

[Arbninftry]

Lessons learned from an actual fire.

My little brothers house burned to ashes. There was nothing left. The fire department that was local, was 45 minutes to get boots on the ground. Let me find some pictures I will try to post. Let's put this into real facts. In his closet were some silver coins, maybe 4-5 ounces in real terms. A couple silver dollars and gift silver coins. They became a mass of silver under two feet of ash.

A neighbor actually called the fire department, it happened during the day while they were at work. Luckily!

Source was an Obama bulb. It caused to much heat and melted wires. This was in 2010.

It melted the wires, causing an electric fire that really took off in their attic, and actually smoldered for a couple hours (from the fire Marshall inspection).

He had a cannon safe in his garage. Next to the gas lines and propane tanks within 10 ft. - this is a lesson- know where your gas lines and plumbing are if at all possible.

When he arrived, the house was gone, he got the fire department to focus on where his safe was with water.

After burning for close to 2 hours, a close family friend brought in a crane, this used to separate the safe from the floor, then picked it up with what we would call a "cherry picker". This was while the fire was still raging.

He had picked a rotary dial safe in case of fire. It did not matter, we used a blow torch to cut into it.

The after math.

His important papers were in a small fireproof sentry type safe, 25 bucks from lowes, inside the safe.. I think had like 500 in cash in the safe, that's how they paid for clothes the next day.

When they cut open the safe and pulled guns out-
Blueing had actually dripped down a browning bolt gun.
It was hot. Really hot.

Bottom line a safe will only delay damage.

Keep important stuff in another layer. The wedding license, birth certificates, and other stuff inside the small safe in the big safe, was unscathed. Let me find pictures I will post, but it won't be till Friday. This was a huge learning point.

The BULLSHIT that ammo will explode, is not true. Look at YouTube SAAMI actually did a fire video.

There was 300 win mag and 30.06, 9mm, and other ammo we fired from the safe.

This fire left nothing, but ash. Had we not known someone with a crane, nothing would have recovered from this fire.

If at was plastic, it was melted. If it was metal, it needed cleaned and reblued.
Precision guns could never keep a group. It had screwed the barrels up, even though they looked ok. They could still kill a deer, but not punch quarters at a hundred yards, like they could before.

I lost everything I own in this fire too, seriously, I was moving posts from the Army, post retirement, my stuff was in a bedroom closet. I was looking at boats, but I guess there is a silver lining.

Bottom line: a safe is great for theft, but it is only as good as the response time from a hose. The important documents and thumb drives inside another layer survived.

My stuff in the closet was a melted mass of shi*

[Arbninftry]

So here is the SAAMI link, I know there is getting ready to be an assload of people getting ready to pile on. Welcome to the Internet post Glock 17M.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-8cshlhdliE

[HCM]

Lessons learned from an actual fire.

My little brothers house burned to ashes. There was nothing left. The fire department that was local, was 45 minutes to get boots on the ground. Let me find some pictures I will try to post. Let's put this into real facts. In his closet were some silver coins, maybe 4-5 ounces in real terms. A couple silver dollars and gift silver coins. They became a mass of silver under two feet of ash.

A neighbor actually called the fire department, it happened during the day while they were at work. Luckily!

Source was an Obama bulb. It caused to much heat and melted wires. This was in 2010.

It melted the wires, causing an electric fire that really took off in their attic, and actually smoldered for a couple hours (from the fire Marshall inspection).

He had a cannon safe in his garage. Next to the gas lines and propane tanks within 10 ft. - this is a lesson- know where your gas lines and plumbing are if at all possible.

When he arrived, the house was gone, he got the fire department to focus on where his safe was with water.

After burning for close to 2 hours, a close family friend brought in a crane, this used to separate the safe from the floor, then picked it up with what we would call a "cherry picker". This was while the fire was still raging.

He had picked a rotary dial safe in case of fire. It did not matter, we used a blow torch to cut into it.

The after math.

His important papers were in a small fireproof sentry type safe, 25 bucks from lowes, inside the safe.. I think had like 500 in cash in the safe, that's how they paid for clothes the next day.

When they cut open the safe and pulled guns out-
Blueing had actually dripped down a browning bolt gun.
It was hot. Really hot.

Bottom line a safe will only delay damage.

Keep important stuff in another layer. The wedding license, birth certificates, and other stuff inside the small safe in the big safe, was unscathed. Let me find pictures I will post, but it won't be till Friday. This was a huge learning point.

The BULLSHIT that ammo will explode, is not true. Look at YouTube SAAMI actually did a fire video.

There was 300 win mag and 30.06, 9mm, and other ammo we fired from the safe.

This fire left nothing, but ash. Had we not known someone with a crane, nothing would have recovered from this fire.

If at was plastic, it was melted. If it was metal, it needed cleaned and reblued.
Precision guns could never keep a group. It had screwed the barrels up, even though they looked ok. They could still kill a deer, but not punch quarters at a hundred yards, like they could before.

I lost everything I own in this fire too, seriously, I was moving posts from the Army, post retirement, my stuff was in a bedroom closet. I was looking at boats, but I guess there is a silver lining.

Bottom line: a safe is great for theft, but it is only as good as the response time from a hose. The important documents and thumb drives inside another layer survived.

My stuff in the closet was a melted mass of shi*

Sorry for yalls losses.

Keep in mind a cannon safe is a bare minimum of both theft and fire protection. Nothing is 100% but you do get what you pay for with safes. Size / mass of the safe also makes a small difference.

Keeping important papers in a secondary container is good advice. The small sentry safes are one way to do it. Some of he safe companies sell het reflective pouches specifically for documents.

[Arbninftry]

There was really nothing left after this fire.
10113

This was the safe after we were able to cut into it. It still had to cool down before we could get close to it.
10114
There was actually loose ammo inside that we found and fired it later.
10115

In the end the documents and guns got pulled out of the hole that was cut. The mini safe or document safe on the inside of the big safe was on the floor of the safe. The documents inside it were unscathed just a little dry. Ammo- there was a couple boxes and a few loose rounds, maybe 100-200 rounds, all fired fine a couple days later.
The dial had actually melted off, that is why a hole had to be cut to get into it. There was no way to open the safe.

So if you put stuff in a safe it will protect it to a certain level. Have a backup plan also.

[RevolverRob]

What not to put in a safe? Anything that isn't covered by home-owners/renters insurance. That stuff should go in a safety deposit box.

In my opinion, most safes with a 30-minute fire rating are adequate for an urban/suburban setting with an on-call 24-hour non-volunteer fire department. Rural with a volunteer department? Get a 90-minute rated firesafe.

Otherwise, put your guns inside, put your ammo inside if you want. Could it cook off? Sure. At some level, you'd rather it cook off INSIDE the safe than outside the safe where it may hinder firefighting efforts, by being dangerous to responders. The alternative would be to store ammo in a heavy duty storage locker, like a large tool locker from Home Depot. No fire-protection, but containment. Documents inside a smaller fire-rated safe is good. I also highly recommend copies of all important documents on a thumb drive in a secure off-site location (like the safety deposit box mentioned before), along with cash and anything that is completely irreplaceable.

Oh and did I mention the insurance? You bought the safe, now your insurance rates should be cheaper. Basic home-owners/renters may not cover expensive losses. USAA for instance under a basic renters insurance policy does not cover valuable personal property, you have to pay extra for that flier. It's cheap ($7.50 a month for us). And provides up to $2000 per firearm in coverage. In the event that I have firearms valued in-excess then an additional flier can be added to cover up to $5,000/firearm. Above that I need appraisals for coverage. Anyways, my point is...insurance is cheap.

[OnionsAndDragons]

Gun safe for guns. Insure them too. I don't like to keep anything but guns and range gear in a gun safe.

For PMs, cash, sensitive docs and previous keepsakes you have 2 good options; a bank deposit box as Rob mentions, or a proper drop safe in a concrete floor. Garage, basement, wherever. They have the absolute best chance to survive a disaster unscathed. They survive fires better than any other type of safe.