“This safe exceeded the fire rating—by a lot.”

A different kind of shooter

Jason Porter’s competitive discipline isn't one most people have heard of: Black Powder Cartridge Rifle shooting. BPCR, as it’s known, is a form of precision shooting that uses original, pre-1900 single-shot rifles with period-correct scopes or Iron sights and a range out to 1000 yards. 

It’s the same single-shot design Old West buffalo hunters used in the late 1800s.

The rifles themselves can be hard to find. Most shooters like Jason build them piece by piece—an original pre-1900 action paired with a new barrel from one of a handful of specialty makers, fitted by one of the few gunsmiths left who still do that kind of work.

If his rifles were lost, there’d be no getting them back.

“These guns are extremely hard to come by, extremely difficult to load for, and difficult to maintain,” Jason says. 

This challenge is part of why he enjoys it so much. For years, he’s competed at NRA's marquee long-range matches, racking up a stack of medals and awards along the way.

To protect his collection of rifles, Jason stored them in his Yukon Gold Browning Safe in his workshop where he lives, on the Western Slope of Colorado.

Then came the 3 a.m. phone call.

Jason and his wife were sound asleep at their family cabin one night when they were awakened by the phone. It was the sheriff calling from Grand Junction, back home. Their workshop was on fire, he told them, with flames shooting out the top.

The fire was so dangerous—with all of Jason’s live ammunition igniting like fireworks—that firefighters couldn’t even enter the building for an hour or two. 

Jason and his wife raced home, arriving two hours later to see nothing left of their shop but charred rubble—and his Browning gun safe standing tall in the middle of it. The cause of the fire, an inspector later determined, was the hot plate Jason used to warm bullet molds before pouring molten lead into them. 

“That hot plate didn't have an off switch,” says Jason. “I'm pretty good about unplugging things when I’m not using them, but in this particular instance, I just didn't, and it caught everything on fire.”

Jason saw the wreckage and his heart sank. Years of hard work on his rifles looked to be gone, but with the dial burned off his safe, he couldn’t get it open to see what, if anything, had survived. He hired help to cut off the front door of his safe.

What he found surprised him. 

“They're all going to live to shoot again.”

There were his rifles—some more than 125 years old—standing upright inside his Browning Safe, still intact. 

He reached in to pull them out. They were coated in a black film that would need to be cleaned off, which would strip the bluing down to bare metal. 

But the parts that mattered most were there.

“The integral part of the rifles are in great shape,” Jason says. “I could not believe what the safe went through and what I was able to save and salvage. It just amazes me. All my single-shot rifles are intact. They all made it. They're all going to live to shoot again, and that's just a huge testament to the Browning safe.”

His modern rifles, several with synthetic stocks, didn't fare as well— there were some bubbled stocks and ruined scopes. But his collection of custom-built rifles that can't simply be replaced were what mattered most. 

“Man, I just want to be an advocate of your safes,” Jason told Browning after the fire. “This was absolutely amazing to me that I was even able to salvage anything out of that safe.”

Why he trusted Browning

Twelve years ago when Jason bought his Browning gun safe, fire protection was part of the appeal, but it wasn't the only reason he bought it.

“The main thing I wanted was security,” he says. He wanted to keep his priceless gun collection safe, and he could tell Browning gun safes were better than most. 

“You could swing the door open on this safe and really realize it was built well,” he says. “I've seen some safes where you open the door and the whole thing jiggles. This one is solid.” 

Jason bolted his new Yukon Gold Browning gun safe to the floor and never worried about a break-in.

As it turned out, the fire protection is what he needed most. Jason’s Browning gun safe was rated to withstand 1,200-degree heat for up to 30 minutes. Given how long emergency crews had to wait before they could even approach the fire, Jason believes it held up well beyond that rating.

Getting back to competition soon

Jason is hoping to be back in competition within a few months, once he rebuilds the things he lost in the shop, including his custom bullet molds. Meanwhile he’s getting his rifles cleaned up with help from a few gunsmith friends.

He still can’t believe they survived the fire. 

“That's just a huge testament to the Browning safe,” he says. “I don't know what else to say.”