Should you bolt down a gun safe?

Bolting a safe to the ground after purchase is actually a very debatable topic in the gun safe industry. Should you bolt your safe to the ground? Should you not bolt your safe to the ground?

The resounding answer to this, is yes, yes you should bolt your safe to the ground.

However surprisingly it isn’t for everyone! 

Below are both reasons why you should, and shouldn’t bolt your safe to the floor.

Why you should bolt it to the floor

Safe can’t be removed from home

This by far is the most important reason to bolt a safe to the ground. One of the easiest ways to break into a gun safe is to just carry it out of your home and break into it where you don’t have to worry about getting caught.

Safes that are lower down on the weight scale are the most susceptible to just being carried away. This includes deposit boxes in businesses, as well as just standard gun cabinets in a home.

If your safe has bolt holes, it’s just best practice to bolt it down, and make sure it can’t be carried away in minutes. Buy yourself that time.

Can’t put the safe on it’s back to pry open

This is obviously the next most important reason to bolt your safe to the ground. One of the easiest ways to access a gun safe is to lay it on its back and attack the seam of the door.

On cheaper safes, you can get into a safe rather quickly with two people and two crow bars. 

When a safe is standing up, instead of on its back it is so much harder to get leverage to perform this common attack on the safe.

Bolting your safe down will help so much with this.

Want to learn more ways someone could break into your safe, and how to stop them? This article that I wrote goes into detail on how to do that.

Won’t fall forward due to heavy door

This reason actually has nothing to do with the security of the safe, rather safety for you and your family.

Safe doors are incredibly heavy, and tend to be the heaviest part of a gun safe. This is actually the reason most safes have to be as deep as they are, so that they can counterbalance the door opening.

Because of this weight at the front of the safe, when open it has a tendency to tip forward. If this happens, you or someone you love may have a 700 pound safe on top of them, and can be extremely deadly.

Bolting the safe to the ground means this is no longer an issue. When it is bolted down, it will stay fixed to the floor and not tip, even if it wants to.

Insurance reasons

I really don’t want to give any specifics on this one, however it is best bet to give your insurance company a phone call and see what they do and don’t require for purchasing your gun safe, and making sure it is covered.

Why you shouldn’t bolt your safe to the floor

You are in an apartment

Many apartment buildings, and especially dorms will not allow for a gun safe to be bolted to the floor (of course there would always be this option). The obvious reason is due to damage.

The best bet is to give a call to your apartment manager and see their thoughts before buying your gun safe!

If they say no, you may want to rethink how you are going to secure your guns to make sure they aren’t stolen, or that the safe doesn’t hurt anyone.

If you are an apartment dweller, make sure to read through this article here, where I talk about the best gun safes for you!

You need to be able to move it regularly

This won’t be a super common issue for people, however if you plan on moving the gun safe regularly then you probably won’t want to bolt it to the floor, as that is a pretty permanent thing to do.

This more applies to pistol safes, rather than full size gun safes.

It doesn’t have bolt holes in the bottom

Are you looking at, or currently have a safe that doesn’t have bolt holes in the bottom? Most people would want to go ahead and drill holes in the bottom to bolt the safe to the floor.

Not so fast! Make sure to call the manufacturer to make sure that you can do that without voiding your warranty.

Conclusion

As we have learned above, it is very important to bolt your gun safe down to the floor. It will keep you, your family, and the public so much safer.

No matter where you live, and what safe you own or are shopping for, you should always keep this aspect in mind.