Safe Luxury

Why do those fireproof safes specifically say not to put guns in them?

like the Sentry Safes and similar things. they all say that you shouldn't store guns in them but never say why. Does the material degrade the weapon or something? or are they just covering their asses in case someone puts a loaded one in and it goes off and they get hurt?

Public Comments

1. The insulating material (which makes it fire resistant) attracts moisture, and it collects in the safe, making everything rust. They make dehumidifiers and dessicants for this problem, but a proper gun safe or regular lock box are better than the sentry stuff. Gun safety 101 is that all firearms must always be unloaded when stored.
2. The "fireproof" safes work by filling the walls of the safe with a water saturated foam. If there's ever a fire, this water content will absorb a lot of heat before it turns to steam. That will buy you a bit of time before the fire department gets there to put out the fire. When it finally does turn to steam, the safe is designed so that the steam gets dumped to the interior of the safe, saturating the contents with water vapor. This makes your documents a bit less flammable (at least for a little while). Again, to buy time for the firefighters to put out the fire -- hopefully before all this moisture dries out too, and the documents start to burn. The duration of protection varies by the thickness of the walls of such safes. Some models use a sort of water filled sponge as the wall stuffing. Others use a starch based foam that breaks down in extreme heat, releasing water as a byproduct. The concern isn't that they may get sued if a gun goes off in one of their safes (that'd probably be on you). It's the moisture that might be given off as the safe ages. Guns tend to corrode in moisture rich environments, especially if you keep them stored there for years.
3. I have a sentry safe that is designed for guns. it has shelving and rifle holders and is suppose to be fireproof. I have owned it for 5 years now and never noticed rusting on any of my guns. I have never heard about this issue before.