Dunxy wrote: Agreed, but lets say he was inspecting me, which is highly probable as hes the closest,would it be worth the grief to argue it with him? Its something i honestly wanted to do because i posses the skills and equipment to do it properly, ive built friggen boilers and those great big ass signs above crown casino, i welded the mounts for them and they've been up nearly 20 years so im more than qualified to make a strong box! I had read the storage requirements long before doing class and had seen nothing about not being able to do it so i was a bit miffed when he shot it down but it hardly felt appropriate to argue the point with him at that moment in time.
At the end of the day im still happy with what i got without having to modify it, happier than i would have been. I probably spent around $1-150 more to buy my 14gun safe that exceeds weight requirement by a long shot. that i would have buying a smaller lighter new safe.I don't work in the metal industry these days so id have to buy the steel, that alone would have cost me the difference id hazard a guess, especially if you need it cut! Sometimes stuff that seems like an easy option actually works out more expensive and difficult in the long run.
I agree with you on that unfortunately, rarely is it ever beneficial to argue with a Police officer, no matter how wrong they are. I would probably simply ask for a copy of the requirements. It wouldn't surprise me if they don't sometimes just try to push our buttons to rile us up so they can then report that we were "uncooperative" during the inspection or something. My DFO made a surprise inspection two weeks ago and I think he was actually pretty impressed with my security efforts. After we finished going through all the rifles I asked if he wanted to inspect my ammunition safes as well but he just said "I think you're well on top of it" and left it at that.
I'm the same, I really, really want to build my own safes, but the cost of materials and time is far too high so I just keep buying more safes. I will need yet another very soon so I am once again looking at building my own, but I'm pretty sure I'll just buy another 20-gun and add it to the collection.
I'm lucky to have discovered an old grain hopper on the farm. It's 6mm steel plate and roughly a 1.5m cube, although Bob cut one side out decades ago to make something he needed. I really hope I can turn it into a nice safe one day.