Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013 - 62

ing them ideal targets for a thief. In
addition to hunting gear, many people
also own expensive photographic
equipment. Add to that the possibility of coin or stamp collections, plus
valuable papers and priceless heirlooms
or family photographs, and the list of
items you might want to store safely
adds up quickly.
Jamey Skousen is the marketing
director for Liberty Safe, a leading
manufacturer of USA-built safes. Skousen said, “The biggest complaint I hear
from safe owners is, ‘I wish I had bought
a bigger safe.’ Buying a safe that is too
small is the most common mistake
among ﬁrst-time safe buyers.”
Skousen’s comment made me think
of my neighbor who recently built a
lawn shed for his tractor and garden
tools. Stopping over to view the progress when the foundation was laid
I commented, “Are you sure this is
going to be big enough?” He laughed
and replied that it would be more than
enough, as he had made it even bigger
than originally planned. A few months
after his project was completed we were
chit-chatting over the fence when he
sheepishly said, “I hate to admit it, but
that shed I built is too small.” Most
ﬁrst-time safe buyers base their decision
on the safe’s advertised gun capacity,
but that can be misleading and there
are many other factors to consider as
well. Let’s take an in-depth look at how
to determine which safe might best ﬁt
your needs.
Most gun safes carry a capacity rating based on the number of guns the
safe will hold, but this rating can be
misleading and unreliable for several
reasons. For example, let’s assume a
safe is rated to hold 15 guns. That
means the inside space will allow for
62

the storage of 15 guns, with little free
space. The guns will have to be very
closely positioned to each other with
multiple rows, making it difﬁcult to
easily retrieve the desired gun without
removing others as well. A commonly
overlooked fact is that guns with scopes
require more room than models without, which is often not taken into
consideration in the capacity rating of
the manufacturer when estimating the
number of guns a safe will hold. Basically, that means you may not be able to
put 15 guns in a safe rated for 15 guns.
If you buy a safe that is immediately
ﬁlled to capacity, it leaves no room for
additional guns in the future or for the
storage of additional items.
“To help our customers make the
right decision when purchasing any
safe, Liberty Safe has developed a
quiz that is posted on our website,”
explained Skousen. “The 10-question
quiz helps people determine what they
want their safe to do, as well as what
they want it to protect and from what.
It may sound silly, but many people
make the decision on which safe to buy
without really understanding what they
want or need. Once they complete the
quiz, they can begin the ﬁnal decision
process based on fact.”
Safes are rated for ﬁre protection,
security and gun capacity. The fire
rating of a safe is normally given in
the time the safe will protect the valuables inside against a ﬁre of a speciﬁc
temperature or BTU rating. It’s best to
buy a safe with a ﬁre rating as high as
possible (up to 2.5 hours). However a
ﬁre rating of 45 to 60 minutes can be
adequate in the event of a house ﬁre
where the home is relatively close to
the ﬁre department providing protection. If that is the case, it is unlikely the
WWW.PENNGAMENEWS.COM
http://WWW.PENNGAMENEWS.COM
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - October 2013
