Has anyone heard anything bad or good about Winchester gun safes ?
From what i saw it only has a coded keypad to gain entrance. Yalls inp wold be helpfull thanks
__________________
I never learned anything doing it the easy way.
I looked at some of the Winchester safes before I bought my Cannon and only bought the Cannon because the dealer I found at a gunshow in Ft. Worth literally beat the pants of of everyone elses prices. Had a Winchester safe of comprable size and features been available for the same money I would have been happy with a Winchester.
The Winchester safes are available with electronic locks or with tumbler locks to answer your question.
I just bought a Liberty Safe. They offer both electronic, and manual combination locks. I prefer the manual lock, because I've been around electronics for 30 years, and I've seen some weird stuff happen with electronics. I can open my manual combo in under 30 seconds, and the guns I need to have out in an emergency are already out.
BCS, one thing that really jacks up the price on a safe is the level of fire protection it offers. A retired fire fighter friend of mine says that the average hame fire reaches about 1100-1200 degrees for a duration of 30 minutes or less. If your safe and guns were stored in warehouse full of cotton or a barn full of hay you could probably justify spending the dollars to get a safe with a 2 hour 1800 degree rating.
The safe I bought is only rated at 1200 degrees for 30 minutes, but based on my proximity to fire protection that seemed to be an acceptable risk level for me based on what I had to spend and what I was needing to protect. Also BCS, any safe can be defeated by professionals so the locking mechanism; keyed, electronic, or tumbler is only preventing access to rookies and opportunists looking for something quick and easy.
There are really only a few companies that make safes much like everything else in the world, most stuff is re-branded. Browning, Liberty, Sentry and Cannon I believe make about 90% of the safes out there. Anyhow, almost every electronic safe has a manual entry key of some sort, mine has a bizarre looking 2 sided skeleton key that goes in a long slot behind the key pad. The stories of people having to have some one come cut their safe open are embellished or out right lies. You know friend of a friend of a friend type urban legend crap. I have had an electronic locking safe as well as a combo and in my experience it is not only faster to open the electronic safe, it is far less likely you will forget the combination because it works of the standard 10-key just like an atm pin or credit pin. From here on out I will always buy electronic lock safes because ultimately they are more convenient and seemingly superior to other safes. If you are concerned about getting locked out or a dead battery just make sure you have one with a manual entry key.
One last edition the last electronic locking safe I purchased was 4 years ago and it has a low battery light to remind you to change the batteries.
__________________ We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -Aesop
I don't see Ft. Knox there either, and they are probably the only mfg. that makes all there safes in the USA. Most of the other brands inport their cheaper safes. Security Products in Waco, Tx build some of their safes as well and they aren't on that list.
There are really only a few companies that make safes much like everything else in the world, most stuff is re-branded. Browning, Liberty, Sentry and Cannon I believe make about 90% of the safes out there. Anyhow, almost every electronic safe has a manual entry key of some sort, mine has a bizarre looking 2 sided skeleton key that goes in a long slot behind the key pad. The stories of people having to have some one come cut their safe open are embellished or out right lies. You know friend of a friend of a friend type urban legend crap. I have had an electronic locking safe as well as a combo and in my experience it is not only faster to open the electronic safe, it is far less likely you will forget the combination because it works of the standard 10-key just like an atm pin or credit pin. From here on out I will always buy electronic lock safes because ultimately they are more convenient and seemingly superior to other safes. If you are concerned about getting locked out or a dead battery just make sure you have one with a manual entry key.
One last edition the last electronic locking safe I purchased was 4 years ago and it has a low battery light to remind you to change the batteries.
Here sir is what one safe company says about the electronic locks that have the override key.
While I am absolutely sure it is an objective write up, the safe is a Sentry made in the USA, and the "override" key as they called it would be extremely difficult to duplicate/break into. On one hand detractors of electronic locks say oh they are bad you can't get in because the battery goes dead. Then you point out that they have a manual mechanism, the detractors say yeah that's cause they are cheap Chinese junk. Point that its made in the USA, and has provided years of reliable service. ...next move?
Since we are just randomly making assumptions and assertions, I will assume people that prefer dial locks are afraid of the electronic voodoo bogey man magic. I would never buy a dial lock again after owning a quality electronic lock.
__________________ We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -Aesop
I looked and read way to many reviews before buying a Stack-ON ELITE 24. Fire resistant with Electronic lock. Found it on sale and I had a 25% off store coupon. Cost $ 420. I was going to buy a Liberty until I saw the Elite on sale.
I guess what I should have said rather then turn this into another dail vs. electronic pissing matches is get whatever safe fits your preference for locking device. Most of us do not buy a safe for its exquisite lock, you buy it for fire protection and theft protection. Even the worst dial and electronic locks will keep your run of the mill thieves out, and if they do want to get into it they will make you open it under duress and no lock can protect against that. Anyhow don't believe the propaganda, 99.999% of the time mechanical and electronic locks will provide the same level of performance.
__________________ We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -Aesop
If you can locate one like this within driving time to pick it up, this one is being offered for about 10 cents on the dollar of what the new ones of this brand and size go for. You can gut it and build racks that will hold quite a few firearms. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Diebold-Data...item4aaeb8f55b
Just a note to let anyone who may consider one of these as a gun safe option know, these things weigh in at about 4,000 pounds.
__________________ NRA ENDOWMENT MEMBER - Support Our Troops - Land of the Free, because of the Brave.
Last edited by chesterwin; 10-02-2011 at 01:51 PM.
I've had a Liberty safe for almost 15yrs and really like it. I've owned a Sturdy safe for the last two-and there's just no comparison. Sturdy wins hands down.
You will be hard pressed to find a more secure safe than a Sturdy at it's price point. I believe the web-site is sturdysafe.com. The model with the safes is the daughter of the owner too-keep that in mind
There are some pretty compelling videos on Youtube that do testing of safes under Sturdy safe as well.
I've got no dog in this race, just new and saw a post I had an opinion on.
ETA: LOL! Just noticed this was my first post after two years here. Off to the Mosin section to comment on something so I can join the club.
Nice to find a safe thread after spending a chunk of the afternoon working on putting my auction buy where I want it.
I got a Heritage (Made in USA) that measures 36x28x60, weighs 1200 lb, and in theory can hold about 42 skinny long guns. I have never seen a safe that can hold as many scoped rifles or ARs as they advertise. I think the numbers they give are single shot shotgun or rifles. The racking systems are simply too close together to use all the slots. It's rated for 1250 degrees at 60 minutes with the interior hitting 350 or at 1375 degrees for 30 minutes and the interior hits 235.
Incidentally, you can improve the fire performance of your personal safe by simply gutting it and then adding another layer of 3/4" firecode drywall. You'll lose a little interior space - and inch and half per direction at most - but that's all the things are lined with. No magic, just firerated drywall.
Anyways, I prefer a tumbler lock just because I have had electronics let me down in other areas too often. I never owned a safe with an e-lock, but I just decided when I got my first one that I wanted to go with a manual lock.
I checked with my LGS where it was sold originally and found I paid about 30% of the retail price, so I'm happy with it. It complements my smaller original nicely and gives me more room to expand my investment portfolio.
__________________ Teach
ALL who work for a living must vote to outvote those who vote for a living.
Nice to find a safe thread after spending a chunk of the afternoon working on putting my auction buy where I want it.
I got a Heritage (Made in USA) that measures 36x28x60, weighs 1200 lb, and in theory can hold about 42 skinny long guns. I have never seen a safe that can hold as many scoped rifles or ARs as they advertise. I think the numbers they give are single shot shotgun or rifles. The racking systems are simply too close together to use all the slots. It's rated for 1250 degrees at 60 minutes with the interior hitting 350 or at 1375 degrees for 30 minutes and the interior hits 235.
Incidentally, you can improve the fire performance of your personal safe by simply gutting it and then adding another layer of 3/4" firecode drywall. You'll lose a little interior space - and inch and half per direction at most - but that's all the things are lined with. No magic, just firerated drywall.
Anyways, I prefer a tumbler lock just because I have had electronics let me down in other areas too often. I never owned a safe with an e-lock, but I just decided when I got my first one that I wanted to go with a manual lock.
I checked with my LGS where it was sold originally and found I paid about 30% of the retail price, so I'm happy with it. It complements my smaller original nicely and gives me more room to expand my investment portfolio.
I should add a warning about the old Diebolds. The fire resistant material is asbestos for those who worry about such things.
__________________ NRA ENDOWMENT MEMBER - Support Our Troops - Land of the Free, because of the Brave.
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Teach
