help with rifle storage (safes) in NSW

RexStone85 · Post by **RexStone85** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:25 pm

Hi there...
first of all, thanks to the webmaster for approving my application....
and thanks for the rest of the members on here who have been so good to share so much insight into something i am interested in.

so.. at the moment, i have all my application paperwork sent off to the firearms registry for processing... and have been shooting with the club's rifle. (first meet was 800 m with a .308, then 900 m with a .223 - FUN!) anyway, the bit that is the killer at the moment is a safe.

i'm living in a rented property and drilling through walls/floors to bolt a safe down is out of the question. What im wondering, is it possible to put say ~100 kg of ballast in the bottom of it, so i meet/exceed the 150kgs "empty" weight. The price range goes WAAAY out of my budget if im to buy a safe over that weight.... nor do i need room for 14 guns plus. Does anyone know if it's acceptable to do this.... or would the police confiscate my stuff when they see a safe with lead in bottom... and no securing?

any light on the subject would be fantastic.

bennf · Post by **bennf** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:43 am

I would give firearms registry call they will give you the info staight up.

Good luck and happy shooting

Benn

RexStone85 · Post by **RexStone85** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:46 am

i asked them about it during the initial phonecall to answer the questions / get paperwork sent out. the operator couldn't give me a concrete answer.

Post by **AlanF** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:19 pm

Rex,

This is only an opinion, but if the safe is as hard to break into as the fixed ones, then the only purpose of the weight is to make it difficult to move, so if the weight is locked inside, then it would at least satisfy the purpose of the regulations. Any firearms inspector I've had dealings with in Vic would realise that and give it a pass. The cops know as we do that the problem guns are the unlicensed ones, and they tend to be very reasonable if you're polite and at least try to do the right thing.

Alan

RDavies · Post by **RDavies** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:56 pm

I have the same problem, rented house, cant drill etc. What I ended up doing was building a cupbourd within the cupbourd. I screwed large plywood sheets to the safe at the side, back, top and bottom and screwed these together so that the safe ended up securely fixed to the plywood sheets. I got checked and they had no problem with it at all. I,m in the process of moving house right now and have just finished unscewing the plywood sheets and have dragged the safe out with no damage or sign that there was a safe in there.
Not as easy as bolting it down to concrete, but it did the job.