Gun Safes model review MS6040.

Gun Safes are made in varying sizes.  One model from Mutual Gun Safes is the MS6040. 60 inches tall 40 inches wide.  Several items I need to touch on are Fireproof, Steel, bolts, and lock.

Gun Safes like the MS6040 come in available fireproof rating of 1 hour.  Competitors in this same price range are often at 30 minutes.  That makes this one of the best deals going for a gun safe of this size.  The fireproof material is basically all the same from all the manufactures, which is a UL listed fire board.  Fire board, for lack of a better description, is like a very hard and dense sheet rock.  But much better than sheet rock…as a matter of fact the manufactures would get really made at me calling it sheet rock.

Gun Safes vary in steel thickness. The Mutual Gun Safe MS6040 uses a 10 gauge steel. Which is about as thick as you can get before you jump to plating.  Which is not very common with manufactures. Many other well know manufactures use thinner gauge like 11,12, 14,16 and thinner and they don’t  tell us.  If they won’t tell us, we won’t buy it!  Needless to say 10 gauge is best but 12 gauge is a close second.  I don’t much care for safes with thinner steel than that.  That too thin steel allows the wall of the safe to buckle out and let the bolt slip through the opening.  So, we don’t like that.

Gun safes have bolts. Some have too many, some have not enough.  I personally like at least eight on models that are 22 wide, 30 wide, but NEVER on a 40 wide. I think a 40 wide needs at least 10 based on what I have seen.  One inch bolts are great.  There are some with 1 1/2 inch bolts but it seems more like they are borderline overkill.  Then you get models with 30 bolts that are 1 1/2 thick….which is really stupid in my opinion.  It doesn’t really make a model more safe, it just looks good and makes you feel better.

Gun Safes locks are very important. If its not UL Rated Group II, DON’T BUY IT!!!!  That being said there are several extremely popular brands. Sargent & Greenleaf (S&G) and LaGard.  The American made versions are very good. However, the Chinese versions have what is called slipage.  Slipage is when a dial is set to say 20-50-75.  But the dial drifts from spinning the dial. So the dial combination slips to 21-50-75. Now the owner can’t get the safe open because you don’t realize it has slipped. This sucks because you will stand and dial and redial many times before you figure there is a problem. By then its Sunday and everybody’s closed and they can’t help you.  Being that gun safes are made in China. Guess which dial is used? So its important to never spin the dial. Just turn it slow.

Gun Safes that have UL listed import locks are very good and I have actually have no problems with them over the years. As long as they are the UL listed Group II dials.  That being said there are some dials that are not Group II. Stay away from those things.  They work fine however they are easy to break into for people that know what they are doing.

Thats all on this update on gun safes.  I have given you information to help you bypass the B.S. and help you compare features and quality side by side for the best informed choice.  If you would like more details on the Mutual MS6040 see below.