I spent 15+ years in the jewelry business.  One of the lessons that I learned was to keep as much information about your security as secret as possible.  We moved one of our stores across town and it was time to purchase new safes, we had 3 safes in each store.  We shopped several safe mfgs. when we made our decision we requested that all three be repainted, to the color of the other mfg. We also requested that no name appear on the safe as to who mfg. it.  In the event that we were burglarized the thief would not know just what he was dealing with.  He would see a safe with the color of one mfg. no names to back up this information and never know where to start.  

I know that painting your safe is a big project but painting over the name brand may help in the event that someone does get into your home.

If you own a safe you probably have several thousand dollars of guns and other "stuff" in it and any good thief will do his homework and know how to defeat your safe.  If he's not sure just what he's up against he may go else where.

Just a thought.

The SHADOW knows but the crooks don't.
Thanks for the tip.[smoke]

I agree w/ not referring to your safe as just another piece of furniture.

I see too many guys that put them right in the middle of their dens for every guest/friend/passerby/worker to see and be tempted by.

Mine can only be found if you know where to go in my house plus the room has no windows and is not obvious at all.

The equation must be secrecy+location=security

Anything less is jsut asking for it!

Obscurity is not security.

Thank you so much man!

[b]see new post topic addressed to "Beekeeper1 and others that may want to know"[/b]

X-Kill,
Good to hear it turned out okay.  Also the probabilty of a secret being blown is the square of the people who know about it.

Put it somewhere hard to get to, and keep a small one in a bedroom closet.  

Working on one in the floor, but am not sure. Not worried about who knows about it, cause I got lots of floor to search.
Ice

While we are on the topic of safes, can someone recommend me a reasonably priced gun safe.

There's good info here.  Mine's really too big to put anywhere but the garage.  With regard to Recon's question, I definitely recommend you DO NOT buy from Sportsman Steel Safes in So Cal.  I'll pay DOUBLE before I give those idiots another penny of my money.  There are plenty of good safe companies with good cust. svc., they're just not one of them.

Shadowjack1 - good point.

A few years ago I bought several dozen gunsafes for use by my employer.  I had the manufacturer omit any identifying info on the safe.  I also arranged so that it would not be clear which way the safe door opened.

Some safes have stick on letters and logos, which can be easily removed.  This would save having to repaint it (assuming it’s not in some color that would ID the manufacturer.).  A safe with internal hinges and a centered dial and handle makes it unclear which way the door opens – however, the only centered dial and handle safes that I’ve seen tend to be small.

I really wish somebody would make a safe that looks like a refrigerator or tool cabinet or such.  Sometimes hiding them is easier said than done and there are times when it seems the whole world is wandering through your house.

Ha!

Mine is up 25 stairs (inside the house) with a hard short turn at the top (the safe has to stand upright to make the turn) and is behind a double locked (security deadbolt into a reinforced frame with a large security strike)solid core door hung with security hinges in a closet.

Plain white painted steel with no brands showing and probably not one anyone would recognize anyway.

The house is also alarmed. I am thinking about alarming the closet door and/or safe door as well.

This closet was kicked into when I only had a steel cabinet, fortunately they did not have a crowbar or other tools but tried to kick into the cabinet with no success. very clever handle design, I must say. It just spun with too much pressure when it was kicked.

Culprits got away, but were definitely friends of my youngest son, who has been in some trouble in the last year or two. He had blabbed and they knew right where to go.

Ray

I heard a while ago of someone coming home to a safe that was cut open like a tin can. The crooks used a Sawzall with a metal cutting blade against the side wall.

Like shadow, I spent years in the jewelry business.  He's right, the less people know, the better.
This doesn't really apply to gun safes, but the safest place to put a business safe, is right square in the front window, with spotlights on it.  Who's going to try to crack a safe while every passerby can see them?  Hide it, and they can work on it at leasure.

The best way to secure guns and safe, is to put it in a basement corner.  Run BIG bolts through the inside of the safe into the walls, and floor.  Nobody can wheel it away.  Almost as good is in any wall, with bolts into studs and floor joists.

Had a distant relative in Texas with a MONSTER gun and jewelery safe.  Big mouth liked to brag to everybody in ear shot about his gun collection.
One weekend, somebody came in with a truck, a Ruger floor lift, rugs, and 1 inch dowel rods for rollers.  No more gun collection.
Keep your mouth SHUT.  Your friends may not be a problem, but who might they tell?

Have a buddy who put his in a room with no windows, and the only door at the end of a long hall.
Half way down the carpeted hall, was a pressure plate under the carpet, and an old 6 volt truck horn inside the ear-level air duct on the wall.
Step on the plate, and the horn would go off RIGHT in your ear.
He got broken into one day, while he was at work.  Nothing stolen, but the police commented about the foul smell of feces in the hall!!!!!

At a recent show in Birmingham, a company named Champion Safe Co. from Haleyville, Ala. had many safes on display. One very interesting model that they had was basically a large hope chest with a vinyl padded cushion seat on top. Inside was a smaller model fireproof safe laid on it's back, with racks. It was really neat as to the average Joe it just looks like another piece of furniture. This thing would be great at the foot of a queen or king size bed. It was not real huge, but it would probably hold 8-10 long guns easily, with a few pistols thrown in the bottom. This was a REAL safe, not one of those $119.00 pieces of sheetmetal from Wal-Mart. I brought home a brochure, but that model is not in it, they probably want to keep it "low key".
If interested, their # is 1-800-791-7233.