Last Updated: by Jeffrey Huber
Table of contents
A gun safe is the metal container, which can store firearms, ammunition and other valuables such as jewelry or personal documents. gun safes are intended to block burglars and other unauthorised persons such as children, but may also resist physical damage and fire for a longer period of time. In today's world, gun safes have largely eclipsed wooden cabinets, as the best way to store guns. The reason for this is that the best guns safe should offer protection and security, not look pretty. No two gun safes are created. There are many different gun safes, which use different locking systems, are made of different materials or are manufactured for different purposes. If you are on the market for your first gun are safe, but do not know what to get, we are here to help. In this extended article, we will take the different types of gun safes on the market, the pros and cons of each, the qualities you need to be safe in a rifle, and then the best pistols safes by category.
Gun Safe Types
In its most basic form, a gun safe is simply a safe storage unit for the storage of firearms, ammunition and other valuable and lockable. In some areas of the country, guns safes are required for gun owners because of certain legal requirements - all firearms have to be held secured. The best safes protect your guns and valuables also against burglars, children, fire, natural disasters and water! If we look at the history, the concept of the gun safe has been around much longer than you might think. In the early 1700s, when the United States was a colony of Great Britain, there were many gun laws. In Boston, for example, it was illegal in 1713 to fire a gun in city limits. Throughout the entire 1700s, the storage of guns, black powder and ammunition in the apartment was regulated. It was in these times that the first gun cabinets became popular with Americans. People needed a way to keep their guns safely in their home. Granted, many of these cabinets were incredibly beautiful to see and were located at home primarily for decoration, but others had locking mechanisms designed to withstand unauthorized persons from accessing the guns. Eventually, someone got the idea to use metal lockers instead of wooden ones to store guns, and the gun safely as we know it today was born. Today, gun cabinets are almost exclusively reserved for decorative or displaystation, rather than for a serious use of security, because they have simply become obsolete in the wake from the times they were created. gun safes continue to develop, and there's a huge selection of safes, ranging from their barrage to the number of guns or types of guns they can hold and so on. Some safes are more traditional and use a default key lock for a locking mechanism, while others open only when the correct code is entered into a keyboard. Recently, the cannon safes have advanced locking mechanisms like biometric safes, which use fingerprint recognition from an authorized person to open it. gun safes are also available with a large selection of different prices, which we will discuss in this article even more precisely when we will discuss the best gun safes according to price. Regardless of what you need a gun for, or what your budget is, it's important that these are now the types of locks for gun safes. Lets go over what are the most popular types of gun safes by lock.
We also have special pistols safe buyers-guides that provide more options. This article covers the overall best gun safes in each category, but if you are looking for a certain type of safe check-out the individual buyer guides.
Key Lock Gun Safe
A key lock gun for sure is the most basic type of gun safe. It uses a simple key lock to close and open. Key lock gun safes are reinforced with a strong and durable steel plating and live bolts, so that they cannot be opened or drilled.
Electronic Lock Gun Safe
Electronic gun safes use a keypad closing system that is either electric or battery operated. The keypads vary in number, in which they are programmable. Your safe can also be easily reprogrammed for additional security, if you suspect someone has found your current codes. You can still not trust an electronic defense system if it is locked only with the keypad. What is to prevent an intruder from evading the keypad and trying to open the safe in order to get access to the contents inside? The answer lies in the physical design of the vault. Electronic guns safes use live locking bolts that do not allow the door to be opened on itself. Most electronic sweat safes are also made of a very tough steel, so they cannot be pierced either. And since there are literally millions of different possible combinations for a six-digit code, it seems hard to believe that an ordinary thief would be able to get access to your electronic gun safely. It is important that you have to take care of your safe’s keyboard, because it is not able to prevent damage caused by water or damage caused by fire. You also have to keep the code a secret at any price, because if anyone learns about it, there will be nothing to prevent them from getting into your safe.
Biometric gun Safe
Biometric gun safes use more advanced technology. You will be installed with a fingerprint recognition sensor that can program up to thirty authorized fingerprints to open up. The advantage here is twofold:
- This is one of the safest ways to lock your safe.
- It is very fast and easy to unlock, which means you can open the safe and open the access to your gun in a hurry in case of a home invasion.
As with electronic gun safes, biometric gun safes are also equipped with a permanent locking mechanism and strong steel plating, so that they cannot be opened or drilled.
The biggest drawback in biometric gun safes is the price. As they use a more advanced technology, they are, of course, more expensive. You can buy a cheaper biometric safe if you want, but this is not particularly recommendable because they won't be able to store as many authorized fingerprints. The cheaper versions also have a higher ejection rate than the more expensive models, which means that they may not always recognize a fingerprint that has been authorized.
Wheel-and pin-combination-lock gun safe
With a wheel and pin combination lock gun safe, the pine wheel will be a combination of at least three numbers that must be turned in the exact order when the safe is to be unlocked and opened. Many gun owners certainly prefer this type of safes because they are arguably the most resistant to fire or flooding. Instead a fire or water can damage the biometric system or the keyboard of a biometric or electronic vault. For example, the wheel and pin combination lock safe is generally not vulnerable to these dangers. On the flip side of things, you also have to make sure that each of your chosen numbers is not close to each other. If the numbers are too close to each other, the dial can skip your chosen number.
Multiple Lock Gun Safe
The multiple locking gun safe, as the name suggests, uses at least two locking systems to open up. Most models will allow you to set only a single lock or both if you wish. A few models might require that both locks be secured and then unlocked to reopen the safe. These models are much better for security, but they also bring you to a disadvantage, if you need to get your gun quickly, you will not be able to do that. The most common types of multiple lock safes that are sold on the market today are key locks with digital keypads or biometric systems with digital keypads.
Important gun Safe Qualities
It can be an understandably difficult task to look for the best gun that meets your needs. This article has hopefully told you that there are more types of gun safes than you initially expected, but that doesn't mean that the process has to be confusing to find a safe for your needs. To help you think about what you need, let's go about the different qualities you should looking for when buying a safe.
Remember, it's not something like a universally best gun safe, but there's something like the best gun safe for your needs. Since not everyone will need a gun safe for the same reason, we will discuss the meaning of size, quality, locking style, safety assessment, fire rating, weight, cost and warranty if you determine the best gun for your needs.
Size of the Gun Safe
To determine the correct size of a gun safe you should answer the next questions:
- Do you want to hold in your bedroom or office to store your long guns?
- Would you like it to be screwed on the wall through your bed?
- Would you like to travel with him in your car?
If you know for what you need the safe, then you have a better idea of the size you need. If you only want to store a gun and a replacement magazine in a portable car safely, then your safe will not need to be quite big, for example. On the other hand, if you want to store your entire collection of hunting rifles, shotguns and all of your ammunition, you'll need a pretty big and wide safe.
Quality of the Gun Safe
Take our word for this: Not all gun safes are created equal. Some safes are higher quality than others, which means they can be made from durable metals and can better resist fire and water resistance. Regardless of what kind of security you want or what you're going to use it for, quality is sagnificantly important. A simple thin metal housing will not resist burglars or fires, so why should you waste your money?
Your safe must be high enough for you to be able to keep your whole life long and be passed onto future generations. A thin metal cabinet won't protect your guns from burglars or a fire, it won't hold you for the rest of your life either. A gun sure is not just something you buy and forget - it is an investment. Whether you have invested a lot of money in the guns you own, or you have inherited from family members, it is important that you have a quality gun safe to keep them safe.
Beyond the body of the gun, another important component that needs to be done very well is the door. Because the door is what gives you access to the items inside, right? The door of your gun must be a minimum of a quarter inch of solid steel. The more expensive safes will use a steel door, which measures up to half an inch.
Blocking of the Gun Safe
We've already talked about the locks in our discussion about the different types of safes, but we're going to talk about it again here. The kind of lock that your gun safe uses is one of the biggest features you need to think about. Your lock is what determines how easily or with how much difficulty an intruder will be able to break into your safe. It also determines how quickly you can open the vault in the case of a home invasion. While we can't tell you what the best gun is for you, we can give you a number of tips to help you choose the right safe lock. If you are looking for an electronic safe, look for one that is EMP-resistant, so your safe will not be disabled in the event of an EMP attack. S&G safes use electronic locks, which are EMP-resistant. If the resistance to intruders is your first priority - you should go with a multiple lock safes. If you want to access your guns quickly in a home invasion scenario, your first priority, then a multiple lock gun, should be the last sure that you choose for the same reasons.
Safety rating of the safe
The safety assessment of your safe is another important quality to see, regardless of what you want to protect in your safe. Most people who buy a gun safe do this to protect guns, ammunition, money, personal documents, old family photos, baseball cards, jewelry, or a combination of these items. As a general rule of thumb, go for sure with a gun that has a BF rating at least.
Fire rating of the safe
Fire ratings are another top consideration that you need to take into account. The general rule of thumb is a safe which has a fire class of at least one hour. Every safe with less protection than that will not be very effective to protect your guns and other valuables from a house fire. However, a majority of gun safes are designed with a fire class of only thirty minutes or less. Why should you spend your money on a safe that can't protect your guns and other valuables for at least an hour from a fire? Many house fires can take even more than an hour! As we have already mentioned, guns safes are an investment. A fire classification of at least one hour is also mandatory if you also use your gun safe to store important and personal documents. In fact, many people buy gun safes only for the sole purpose of storing their personal documents. Independently of this, paper burns at a temperature of 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, most house fires will burn anywhere from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius. A safe with less than an hour of fire protection will not protect your personal documents long enough so they can keep the house fire through.
The overall fire rating on your safe is also partly influenced by the fire protection seal at the door. Some cheap safes don't even have a fireseal. A good fire seal offers you two advantages:
- It helps to boost the fire rating of the vault by resistance to heat and flames.
- It also helps to resist water and moisture, which are natural enemies of the guns.
When a fire occurs, the seal will actually expand in order to hide the smoke and fire from entering the vault. It will also expand when in contact with water, which can be sprayed on the safe to interpret the fire. The best fire-seals are able to expand up to five or six times their original size, which will seal the entire space between the door and frame of the vault.
Weight of the safe
If a gun safe is built from steel, it will be heavier than any kind of RSC vault. The point is that you can compare how quality your safe will be in order to compare the weights. A steel is not only heavier than an RSC-safe, it is also more durable and also offers more protection. However, even if the RSC and the steel safe have roughly the same height, width and diameter, the steel safe will become much heavier. Only by looking at the weight of the two safes should be enough to tell you which one is more durable, even if you do not know that one is steel and the other is an RSC. Another reason to safely check the weight of the gun safe is to determine how durable it will be because gun safe manufacturers do all kinds of tricks in an attempt to believe their customers that their safes are better than the safes of their competitors. But something that no manufacturer can mislead their customers about safety is the weight of the vault. A RSC pistol, which is about 60 inches tall, will weigh anywhere between 400 and 800 pounds. Although this may sound like a lot, you will realize that a steel gun safely from the same height doubles as much at about 1,000 to 1600 pounds. In fact, a 60-inch steel vault without any kind of fire protection should weigh 600 to 700 pounds alone. The only real downside to a heavier safe is the fact that it is not so easy to move it around. Remember that a gun is safe is an investment, and it's also one of the most important investments you can make if you are a gun owner. A heavier gun sure is always the stronger and more durable one, so it will be the wiser investment as well.
Cost of safe
In the end, everything comes at the price, right? No one denies that gun safes are expensive. Yes, you can buy models for just a few hundred bucks, and we'll discuss some of these models later when we talk about the best individual gun safes by category. Many of the highest-rated guns safes can cost up to 1,000 or more dollars. That might sound like a lot of money until you take into account the fact that your safe could protect $10,000 to $15,000 for guns and other valuables. Suddenly, a $1,000 gun safe seems not to be so expensive, right? At the same time, you can't buy a gun safe that you can't afford. Spending money that you don't have is easily the worst financial habit that you get into and you don't want to start here. Therefore, you will want to find a safe that reaches the right balance between your budget and your high quality, so that it is actually worth an investment. A good rule of thumb to follow is that the retail price of your store will be between ten percent to thirty percent of the total value of the content that is stored in it. What if you have a few guns in your collection that alone are worth thousands of dollars? What if you have passed on guns to you, which have a high sentimental value and are unenforceable? In this kind of instance, it's not implausible that your guns collection is worth tens of thousands of dollars, or is even priceless for some of your guns. This kind of situation, under the ten to thirty percent straightening, would require you to buy a safe that cost several thousand dollars. If you don't have that kind of money, does that mean you just don't buy a safe at all? The answer is no, but it means that you might break the ten to thirty percent guideline while still making the purchase of the best quality sure that within your budget. Buying a safe, which is worth ten to thirty percent of the content in it, is just a guideline - it is not a rule. It gives you at least a general idea of the amount of money you should be willing to spend on a safe if you really value the items you are going to store inside of it.
Guarantee for safe
Last but not least, you should not ignore the guarantee that comes with your safe. Some safes don't even come with a guarantee, while others come with life-long coverage for either the whole safe or the individual pieces of it. Only you can decide if a good guarantee is something you're willing to spend more money on. Replacing a broken lock on a vault can cost you anywhere from $500 to $1,000, so a good guarantee that covers that cost would be nice and save money. In contrast, if you don't think your safe will ever be damaged or if several hundred dollars is not an issue for you, then there is probably no problem to have no guarantee. So far in this article we have talked about the different types of safes and factors you need to take into account when on the market for one. Further we will give you a comparative table of the best safes on the market based on our expertise.
Jeffrey is a 35-year-old self-confessed gun nut who enjoys guns after the very first trip to the shooting range when he was 17 years old. Currently, he works in the firearms industry while in his free time shares his knowledge with everyone who desire to find his perfect gun.