Owning a gun involves heavy responsibility. You need to constantly make sure that your guns remain out of reach of children and those who are not qualified or experienced enough to handle a firearm, as well as burglars. Keeping your gun in a drawer by your bedside is not the best of ideas; it is nothing but an accident that is waiting to happen. This is where a gun safe comes in handy. We have compiled a list on the best gun safe reviews that cater to different categories of firearms.
Product Name | Type | Size | Weight | View on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sentry Safe QAP1BE | Biometric | 6.6 x 9.7 x 2.2" | 12 | |
Gunvault Speedvault SVB500 | Biometric | 6.5 x 3.5 x 13 | 7 | |
GunBox Biometric Hand Gun Safe | Biometric | 15.9 x 13.6 x 3.6 | 7.2 | |
Fort Knox Original Handgun Safe | Combo Lock | 12.5 x 10.8 x 4.2 | 21.4 | |
GunVault NV200 NanoVault 200 |
Key Lock |
9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 |
3 pounds | |
Gunvault Mini vault Handgun Safe |
Key Lock |
13 x 8.5 x 5.5 |
9 | |
Browning PV500 Biometric Pistol Vault |
Biometric |
4.5 x 14.5 x 11 |
6 | |
Stack-On PDS-1500 Drawer Safe with Electronic Lock |
Electronic Lock |
12 x 8.75 x 4.5 |
12.8 | |
Paragon Lock & Safe – 8 Rifle Safe Cabinet |
Key Lock |
19.8 x 12.5 x 55 |
106.3 | |
Barska Large Biometric Rifle Safe |
Biometric |
8.6 x 9.8 x 52.17 |
67 | |
Steelwater Standard Duty 16 Safe |
Electronic Lock |
59 x 28 x 18 |
425 lbs | |
Winchester Ranger Deluxe 19-11-E Gun Safe |
Mechanical Lock |
60 X 28 X 23 |
520 lbs | |
Steelwater Extreme Duty 45 Long Gun |
Mechanical Lock |
72” x 42” x 27 5/8 |
888 lbs | |
Stack-On GCDB-924 10-Gun Double-Door Steel Security Cabinet |
Double-Bitted Lock |
13.5 x 32 x 55.1 |
116.07 | |
First Alert 2092DF Digital Lock |
Digital Lock |
19.6 x 17.5 x 18 |
93 | |
SentrySafe SFW123GDC Electronic Fire Safe |
Electronic Lock |
17.8 x 16.3 x 19.3 |
1 |
Here are some buyers’ tips.
How to Choose the Best Gun Safe
It can be tricky to pick one gun safe from a market that is as huge and competitive. However, it is easy to weed out incompatible options, which can be an easy start. There are a few parameters that will be universally applicable and effective when it comes to sorting from a bunch of options that appear equally good. Let’s go through some of the basic ones, and you can deduce some as we go through the list below.
Locking Mechanism and Security
A Gun Safe is meant to restrict access to your guns, making them available only to you. This makes the locking mechanism the most important thing to consider when choosing a gun safe. A traditional lock and key mechanism isn’t favored by many, since it is easy to pick through. A combination lock (the kind you have in lockers in high schools) open slowly and you need some concentration, at least the first few times. But they don’t demand much maintenance, don’t consume electricity and really last.
A little rarer to find are the keypad lockers, which require you to enter your PIN to give you access to the contents inside. However, they might have a silly drawback; if the coloring comes off of the buttons with use, your PIN number will be really easy to guess through for a burglar.
The other common kind these days is the biometric gun safe, which scans your fingerprints to open the lock for you. They are a bit more expensive, but they are harder to pick through. However, the locking mechanism isn’t all there is to security. The hinges and sealing should be proper as well, to prevent someone getting them to pry open using a crowbar.
Size
If you’re looking to install a big, bulky gun safe, it is best to call a professional from the company or the store to install it for you. Also, big sizes are more conspicuous and understandably harder to hide, unless you have lots of space between your walls and a really colossal painting to place over the door. Bigger might not always be better.
When selecting the ideal size for your gun safe, make sure to consider the size of your guns and the space you plan to place the gun safe in. If you want a gun safe for a cabinet in your work table, a smaller gun safe is obviously to be preferred. But if you want to hide your rifle, a small safe won’t do, and buying a longer or larger safe becomes a necessity.
Construction Details
How well a safe is built can be gauged by the thickness of the metal and the reviews a safe receives online. Bigger safes with thicker steel, however, get heavier, and might not be great to place on the first or second floors, especially if you have wooden flooring. If you live on the first or second floors, make sure that you place your heavy safe on concrete and not wood flooring, preferring to keep it in a corner, closer to the skeleton of the building for added protection. Also, the welds employed can make or mar a safe. Stitch welds are obviously unwelcome; they are by far the easiest to open with just a crowbar.
Hazard Safety
Use of plastic in the inner lining or as filler is the first thing to watch out. Plastic is extremely susceptible to fire, as everyone knows. Next, floods make basements very unsafe to keep guns. Stairs are very unsafe in case of a fire, so placing your gun safe under the stairs or on the wall that lies along the stairs is not a good idea. Also, make sure the safe you buy is well galvanised and painted, to prevent damage due to moisture that may be seeping through the walls.
