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How to install a gun safe

Updated: October 2026

You are about to drill, and you want the fixing done once. How to install a gun safe in the United Kingdom starts with a stop, not a masonry bit. If you are applying for a firearm or shotgun certificate, Devon and Cornwall Police and Lancashire Police both tell you to do nothing on security until the firearms enquiry officer has visited. That is those forces’ pages, not a single national regulation. The eight listings on the [Grade 1 gun safe comparison](/hub/safes-and-secure-storage/grade-1-gun-safe) do not all include bolts. Definitions sit on [what is a grade 1 gun safe](/hub/safes-and-secure-storage/grade-1-gun-safe/sub/grade-1-gun-safe-buying-guide). Products Compared used the handbook, BASC, and those force pages on 16 October 2026. We did not visit your house. A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

You are about to drill, and you want the fixing done once. How to install a gun safe in the United Kingdom starts with a stop, not a masonry bit.

Our top picks

BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11

Best overall

BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11
6.7/10about £134.43
View offer
TOPMEDA TOPMEDA GS202

Rank 2

TOPMEDA TOPMEDA GS202
5.4/10about £133.98
View offer
KAER KAER W396

Rank 3

KAER KAER W396
5.7/10about £799.96
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.Wait for the visit if you are applying
  2. 2.Fix into masonry or into joists
  3. 3.Keys stay with the certificate holder
  4. 4.Match the fixing to the listing

Wait for the visit if you are applying

Devon and Cornwall’s firearms security page says do nothing until the officer visits, then wants a bona fide cabinet in the main building, rawl-bolted to solid brick, and not in a garage. Lancashire uses the same “do nothing yet” line and says a new cabinet should be at least BS 7558:1992. Copying either checklist onto every English and Welsh force, or onto Scotland and Northern Ireland, overstates what those pages are. Look up your own constabulary before you buy bolts. If the application is still open, leave the drill in the box. If you already hold a certificate, the condition on it still outranks a general article. A rented wall you are not allowed to drill is a stop as well.

Fix into masonry or into joists

The handbook’s paragraphs on fixing treat brick, concrete, or other masonry as the usual materials. It says to avoid timber studs unless there is extra anchorage, because a stud wall can be opened beside the bolts. If you fix to a suspended timber floor, the coach-screw guidance is at least 8 mm in diameter and 63 mm long, into the joists, not merely into the floorboards. Those sizes are not a drill recipe for the HOLEWOR or the BILLCONCH, which do not state hole diameter or depth. A sheet that specifies 10 mm holes and 70 mm depth belongs to that maker’s cabinet. Do not copy it onto a cable-only box. A very heavy safe may stand unfixed if it cannot be carried away. The KAER at 31 kg is not in the class of a certified Grade I gun safe at roughly 190–325 kg. If you cannot tell brick from plasterboard on studs, stop.
BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11

Testsieger

BILLCONCH BILLCONCH BG-J11
6.7/10about £134.43
View offer

Keys stay with the certificate holder

BASC’s firearm and shotgun security advice is that you bolt to a wall, a floor, or joists, that a corner is better than an open stretch of wall, and that you do not tell non-certificate holders, including family, where the keys are. A spare key in a kitchen drawer, a PIN on the manual, or a shared app password undoes the lock. BASC is advice from a shooting organisation, not your force’s checklist, so you still follow the officer if they set a stricter key rule. If you are the only certificate holder, you keep the keys and the codes. Section 1 ammunition and shotgun cartridges are a separate duty, set out on the gun safe for shotguns page. That is not a reason to delay bolting the cabinet.

Match the fixing to the listing

A steel cable is not a rawl bolt. The BILLCONCH BG-J11, the ZLJUAN LT-307, and the FTOP CTCO1 are sold with a security cable. The TOPMEDA GS202 adds four screws to a cable and is described as tabletop or freestanding. The HOLEWOR and the movgul drop-down are bracket boxes, and US reviews mention thin screws, wobble, a door that would not close, and a flimsy top bracket. The flat movgul says freestanding, with no bolt kit listed. The KAER bullets include four anchor bolts, while another field says table top. Check the carton against the visit before you drill. Stop if the wall is unknown, the tenancy forbids holes, the application is still open, or the box has a cable and you had planned masonry anchors.

Common questions

Should I buy the bolts before the officer visits?
If you are applying, both forces say do nothing on security until the visit. Buying bolts early does not breach a statute by itself, and it can leave you with the wrong fixing. Holders who already have a written condition should follow that condition.
Can I fix into plasterboard?
Plasterboard on its own will not hold a cabinet the way a rawl bolt in brick will. If you cannot see what is behind the board, do not drill on a guess. A corner on a solid wall is the arrangement BASC prefers when the structure allows it.
What if the cabinet is heavy enough to leave unfixed?
Use the handbook’s unfixed exception only when the officer agrees the mass meets the point. The KAER at 31 kg is still a two-person lift, not a 235 kg Grade I example. Do not leave a pistol box unfixed and call it that exception.
Is a steel cable the same as rawl bolts?
No. A cable lashes the box to a larger object. Rawl bolts, in the Devon and Cornwall wording, go into solid brick. Using a cable where the officer asked for bolts into brick will not match that visit.
Can I put it in the garage?
Devon and Cornwall’s page says the main building, not a garage. That is one force. The handbook does not publish a UK-wide garage ban in the paragraphs used here. Ask your own officer before you drill a thin garage wall.
When do I stop and call the force?
Stop when the application is open and the officer has not visited, when you cannot identify brick, block, or joists, when the tenancy forbids drilling, or when the condition asks for a bolted cabinet and the box has none. Also stop before you copy another maker’s 70 mm hole depth onto a product that never stated it.

Related pages

Grade 1 gun safe vs gun cabinet

Grade 1 gun safe

Best grade 1 gun safe: top pick is an uncertified box

What is a grade 1 gun safe? Certificate, not a title

Gun safe for shotguns UK: which of these eight fit

Sources

Public UK sources on firearms storage, BS 7558 and EN 1143-1. Listing prices and star counts are from the amazon.co.uk extracts kept for this comparison. Prices move. Last checked 16 October 2026.

  1. Home Office Firearms security handbook 2020 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  2. Firearms Rules 1998 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  3. Firearms Act 1968, section 5 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  4. Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  5. Firearms (Air Weapons) (England and Wales) Rules 2023 (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  6. PSNI Firearms and Explosives Branch (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  7. De Raat UK insurance rating table (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  8. EN 1143-1:2019 table preview (retrieved 16 October 2026)
  9. SafeFort Phoenix Rigel GS8021E (retrieved 16 October 2026)