Tag: gun safes

The biggest “dirty little secret” in the gun safe business is that most of the Fire Ratings are bogus.  Flat out lies in many cases.  It seems that people in this industry — manufacturers and knowledgeable dealers — are happy to intentionally deceive buyers just to boost sales.  I suspect that the Big Box Stores accept whatever the manufacturers and importers tell them as being legitimate.  They don’t really know any better, but they don’t investigate to find the truth, either.

Several years ago I sat in a meeting of about 20 gun safe dealers and several manufacturers.  One of them, a gentleman who imports thousands of units annually from China, started his talk with “We all know that our fire ratings are not accurate and that the gun safes we sell would not survive a serious house fire.”  What?  That offends me!  He knowingly cheats his customers and is willing to admit it among his peers?

I will not run my business like that!  And I will not buy that man’s safes, either.  I try hard to be honest with our customers.  We sell American Made gun safes from several manufacturers who I trust.  I work hard to learn about our competitors’ products as well as our own, so that we can educate our buyers.  Our products often cost a little more, but the buyer has been told enough to make an honest quality/value judgment.

This subject is a big deal to me.  It is certainly more than can be covered in one post, so I will be writing about it three or four times over the next few weeks.

The annual Shooting Hunting and Outdoors Trades Show was in Las Vegas last week.  This is the biggest show of its kind where manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and retailers gather to make deals on sporting goods.  It is amazing to see thousands of beautiful guns and knives on display from all over the world in one place, along with ammunition, accessories, clothing, tactical gear, etc.

Naturally, I was most interested in seeing and learning about all the various manufacturers’ gun safes.  I came away feeling confident that we at Hoogerhyde are on the right track selling only American Made gun safes by American Security, Fort Knox, Graffunder and Heritage.  These product lines offer quality construction, Real Security, reasonable prices and Outstanding Value.

On the other side of things, there were manufacturers who were making outrageous claims about gun safes that are absolutely inferior.  Most of these products were cheap China-made imports.  One importer tried to tell me that their China-made safe with 10 gauge steel on the door had 30% more steel than Amsec’s BF safe.  The reality is that with a ½” solid steel door the BF has 271% more steel than a 10 gauge door.  And besides that, I would bet that if their door was cut open you would find less than 10 gauge steel to boot.  Some of the safes that were represented to be “American made” are actually coming from China almost complete.  I guess that to some people, painting a safe and installing the shelves in The States, qualifies it as “made in the U.S.”  Be careful not to be fooled by false claims.

Anyway, if you ever get the chance to attend SHOT, definitely go.

If you plan to purchase a gun safe in the near future, you can probably save money by buying it in December.  Safe manufacturers typically raise prices at the beginning of January in preparation for the Shooting, Hunting & Outdoors Trades (SHOT) Show.  SHOT is where manufacturers introduce their new catalogs, products and price schedules for dealers and retailers.  Some stores roll out new prices gradually as old stock runs out.  But in many cases, especially when you order a non-stock gun safe, the higher prices take effect immediately.  So save some money — buy your safe in December before prices go up.