Posted: 7/7/2008 5:07:13 PM EDT
| Is there a decent places to buy a gun safe in the L.I./NYC region or would it be best to just buy online? |
I was looking at Sportsman Steel, Ft. Knox and AMSEC safes.. Those are what I came up with as the best safes based on my research. Was hoping for a decent dealer in NY, but have no problems driving directly to the Sportman Steel factory and buying direct next time I'm in L.A. |
Good idea!
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I bought mine at sams club a few years ago and its been perfect. It was one of the 700lb 26 gun deals. It cost me $500 and actually holds about 20 of my rifles and all of my pistols. Craigslist and her in the EE and two other places you could stalk. Ive seen some great deals over the years within a few hours driving distance. |
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I purchased a safe for a fairly reasonable price at Dick's. They are always on sale, so if you go and don't see them on sale just wait a week and they will be. I found the best deal there to be the Stack On 28 gun fire and water proof safe. The only issue is with shipping. They ship it free to first floor residence, but if you want them to put it in your basement they charge you by the weight, which was alot. You could just get 4-5 guys to do it yourself (the safe was over 500 lbs i think), just have to be careful about it though. If you lose it and the safe lands on the guy on the bottom, he is going to be very dead. 39Mountie Edit with regards to the 28 gun safe, I asked the guy at the time I purchased it if I was missing something since it cost only marginally more than the next smaller safe which also wasn't water proof. He said that I wasn't missing anything, it was a better safe for the money, and that it was pretty much constantly out of stock. He said that they sold lots of them. |
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Run from Sportsman Steel. I've got one of theirs. I bought from them because they were the only one that I could find that offered a 1/4" steel safe all around. I upgraded a lot of features on mine. Had it about 2 years and then a weld let go in the front door. It was on a bracket that holds part of the operating arms within the door. Their Lifetime Warranty must expire when the safe gets in your front door. I got such a run around with them it was ridiculus. I called them and explained what the problem was. I sent them pictures via email. They told me to find a welder to re-weld it and they would pay for it. Well I did. The guy wanted 240.00 to make a house call and do a simple weld which seemed reasonable to me. After numerous phone calls and emails over a one year time period they finally offered me 60.00 and told me that I could find someone to do it for that amount of money. After arguing back and forth I quite frankly gave up which was probably what they wanted all along. I was willing to foot the bill to have the electronic lock removed so it wasn't damaged during the welding, repainting as the welding would burn the paint off the front of the door, and any other expenses, etc. All I wanted was for them to pay for the welder. I would never buy from them again. The bracket that broke was an L shaped piece of steel about 3 inches long. It held the upper control arm that worked the top door bolts. So I've simply removed the top bolts. Instead of a continuous bead of weld along the entire bracket there was only one small "spot weld". It appears that it wasn't lined up quite right and the pressure of opening and closing the locking mechanism (movement of the control arms) eventually caused this small weld to brake as the bracket flexed everytime I manipulated the locking mechanism. So run and hide from them. Here is what else I found. Their proprietary fire proofing appears to be ordinary sheetrock to me. Their interior appears to be a very low grade of carpet and was not installed correctly. I asked them to put some holes in the bottom so I could bolt it to the floor. They cut it with a torch instead of using a drill so there are ugly looking ragged holes which are visible when you open it. All of their cutting and welding debris was left within the door where it fell to the bottom of the frame. Basically, just appears to be poor workmanship and very poor customer service. I would have forgiven all of these issues had they just stepped up and gotten the door fixed. And why did I have to search for a welder who made house calls. They could have done it online themselves very easily. Hope this helps, Brett |
I posted a while back in GD, I believe, about Sportsman Steel Safes. I purchases one about six years ago. I have zero complaints and only compliments for them. While placing my order, the customer service rep. gave me a decent discount on the safe and accessories, without me even asking. At some point, I was unable to get into the safe(dial lock). I called them up, they had me try a few things and still was unable to gain entry. They sent a locksmith to my home the next day. He opened the safe and replaced the dial lock with an electronic lock, which Sportsman upgraded for free. For my trouble, they sent me a pistol rack, another dehumidifier and an interior light. No problems with welds whatsoever on mine. And, I've moved four times with the safe  . So, I've been very happy with them.
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Now that ticks me off even more. They could have done right by me very easily. Just the fact that they sent you a locksmith and I had to find my own welder (who makes house calls) when it was something they could have done easily. I just called all of them in our yellow pages until I found one. Don't know what to tell you. Before I had problems with the safe I was on the Sportsmen Steel bandwagon. So for some reason, I got a bum deal. In all fairness, they were about the only manufacturer who makes safes that are 1/4 inch thick all the way around, not just the door. That is what I was looking for. Most of your top end safes are still only 3/16ths thick except the door which is 1/4 inch. So I still have the safe. I ended up disconnecting and removing the top bolts in the door. One of these days, I'll get around to fixing it myself. I always wanted to learn how to arc weld. You mentioned that you have the opportunity to go down to their shop next time your in LA so I would certainly do that if you should decide you might still want one of their safes. Maybe you'll have better luck that way. The other thing I noticed about their safes or at least mine is that when you close the door and turn the wheel it squeeks and squeels as the bolts slide home. Doesn't operate smoothly like some other safes I've seen. One mistake I did make was in the finish. I scrimped and got their less expensive pebble grain finish. Have always wished I'd spent the money on the top end paint job. Oh well, someday I'll get around to rebuilding the thing and will repaint it at that time. Good luck in whatever you choose. Brett 
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