If you are a gun owner the one thing you must have is the best gun safe for your collection. Doesn’t matter if you have guns and rifles for your protection, hobby or collection purposes, laws in most countries require from you to have a safe place for them and the best place for that is a good gun safe. A gun safe is not just an ordinary safe for your jewelry or important documents. A gun safe is above that safe because you need more to keep your guns away from unwanted visitors. So, don’t let your gun lay in the bottom drawer of your nightstand, buy it a safe and secure place because that is the only proper way to store a gun.

THE BEST GUN SAFE – A PLACE TO STORE YOUR GUNS

 A gun safe is a mandatory part of your home, but sometimes it is hard to choose a perfect gun safe among all best guns safes on the market. You have to see what makes some safe a good safe and how can you benefit from buying a gun safe.

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY A GUN SAFE?

Guns aren’t something we can leave on the table in our home. If we look at it from a political point of view, there are laws which require from you as a gun owner to lock your guns. Now, those laws are there for a reason and the main reason is your safety and the safety of the people around you.

Guns in your home are there for your family’s protection, not the other way around. That means if you have small children in your home you have to be extra careful. Children don’t know what guns can do and they could use it unintentionally which can lead to tragedy. It is not enough to separate guns and munitions to keep your family safe, you have to put in under a lock.

One more important reason to own a gun safe is not so irrelevant. If you have a gun and someone enters your home, finds a gun and steals it. You will lose a valuable object and you can be charged with a crime you didn’t commit if that person uses your gun in it.

Guns, especially stolen guns are wanted merchandise on the black market and you would be surprised how many thieves are looking for that. If they find more guns in someone’s home, they will take them all without any doubt.

The best gun safe will provide you safety for your collection without fear of ending up in wrong hands or worse destroyed in a house fire. That is why there are gun safes on the market that are fire and water resistant so your gun collection can be perfectly safe under lock.

The market is filled with gun safes which can be both good and bad. The good thing is that the variety is big and you can find a gun safe which suits you perfectly by dimension, price, and performance. The bad thing is that it is hard to see which gun safe is the one that suits you best. To find that one safe you have to know what you must look, which are criteria for buying a gun safe.

HOW TO BUY THE BEST GUN SAFE FOR YOU?

I am sure you are thinking, how can that be hard? Well, it can. If you want to buy a good gun safe you have to think about the dimension, where you will put it, do you want a key or biometrical safe? What about weight, capacity, mounting? Do you want to be able to carry it around or put it in your vehicle? How about water and fire resistant? In these 3 lines, I have put only a fraction of the things you can choose from and if I have successfully confused you, then you have to read my guide.

Locking System

Gun safes come with different locking systems so you have to decide between a mechanical lock, digital combination or biometric code. A mechanical lock is a basic lock where you need a key or scroll a combination of numbers. That is for people who don’t want to deal with electronics and batteries and it is also the cheapest.

More sophisticated locks are a digital combination and biometric ones. They can react faster than mechanical ones, but they require the power source and they cost more, especially the biometrical one.

Size And Capacity

To find the one gun safe for you among all gun safes you have to determine how many guns do you have. Gun safes can be for 1 to 50 guns. Think about the number of guns you have and according to that number, decide on the size of the gun safe.

One tip: buy a gun safe that has 10% bigger storage than the number of guns. If you have 10 guns, buy a safe for more than 10 guns.

You Want A Quick Access To Guns

If you want to get the gun in a few seconds, consider having a small gun safe which has a quick reaction time. There are gun safes with simple gun extraction that can suit you in emergencies. Those gun safes allow you to react quickly.

If you have a gun collection and you know that you won’t need them that often then you can get a good quality gun safe and the locking system you can pick by your preferences, rather than need.

Portable Or Mounted Gun Safe

Portable gun safes are good options, but they can be easy targets because all a person needs to do is to pick it up and leave. A good option would be to have a biometric lock on it so he can’t crack it so easily.

If you don’t need to take the gun with you, then the stationary gun safe is a better option. There are gun safes which you can mount to the ground with special equipment making them impossible to move. So, if you want your guns to stay in one place, then this is the best gun safe for you.

The Gun Safe Budget 

The best gun safes aren’t the cheapest ones, but you have to look at it as some sort of investments. There are actually some insurance companies which will give you a better price on the insurance if you have a gun safe.

The price of the gun safe depends on the size, capacity, locking system and additional features which means that you have to know the type of gun safe you need before you talk about the budget. But, when safety comes to question I always say that this isn’t the thing you should be stingy about.

Warranty

Warranty is a sign of quality and durability. If a gun safe comes with a warranty it means that the brand has used good quality materials in the production of the gun safe and that is a big factor.

I would suggest you take a gun safe with a warranty over the one without it because it could show you the quality and professionalism of a brand. Gun safes aren’t something you buy because you are bored and you have to pick one accordingly.

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF A GUN SAFE?

A gun safe is made to keep your guns away from other people and to stop them from taking your guns. Due to that, every gun safe should be durable, thick and not so easy to break into. The best gun safes are designed to resist forced entry, heat, water and fire.

A gun safe is designed out of 2 parts: the box and the lock. Both parts should be similar in the design and quality because you can have the best lock in the world on the safe, but the box is made from the low-quality material. All a thief has to do is to cut through the side of the safe and the lock becomes useless.

The same story is with the thickest box. You can have the box which can resist water, fire, falling from a 3 story floor, but the lock is so easy to pick your kid can do it. The best material in the world is meaningless then.

Due to that, let’s talk about both parts separately.

The Box

To make a good gun safe, it has to be durable. The best way to achieve that is to make a product of many different metals. Most safes have at least 3 layers of protective metal. Cheap gun safes are made of 1 layer and you can puncture them with a basic hammer or screwdriver. If you have at least 3 layers than the story is different.

3 layer safe is made from two mild steel layers and one hard plate barrier. From the inside, a safe can have shelves and racks to hang guns. The first layer of mild steel is usually covered with some fabric, leather, wood, depending on the interior design. The middle layer is a hard plate barrier with the lock. On the outside is mild steel skin.

Now, you may think that this doesn’t sound right, but when you have a mild skin outside you can hit the safe and that mild steel skin will bend, but it will not crack that easily. So, that mild skin is actually protecting the hard part of the best gun safe.

There is one criterion which is the same in the gun safe business. A good safe should use a minimum of 11 gauge steel in the safe. Better options are 10 to 7 gauge steel, but 11 is minimum.

The Lock

The lock is the most interesting part of the gun safe. The best gun safes can all have different locks, but all be excellent products because every lock is a different one.

The lock can be a simple lock and a key. That is the most traditional one and it is not so safe anymore. It is usually on cheaper safes.

A lock combination doesn’t have a key. You have to enter a 4-8 digit code to open the lock. Those locks are safer and the longer the code is harder to crack. If you want to make them even harder to crack you can pick an option to lock the safe after 3 wrong tries.

The biometric lock is the safest lock because it scans your fingerprint to open the lock. Great thing is that you don’t have to memorize anything all you have to do is to place your thumb on the scanner. The problem with those locks is that you have to put your thumb in the same position every time if you want the lock to open. But, some gun safes can memorize multiple fingerprints and you can scan your thumb from different angles so that the lock can scan it every time.

RFID lock is used if you have to quickly grab a gun from your safe. To open an RFID lock (Radio Frequency Identification) you have to have a bracelet or a card with it. Just slide the bracelet near the lock and the safe will open, which isn’t the safest option, but it is the quickest.

BEST GUN SAFES ON THE MARKET

Sentry Safe Quick Access Safe

The Sentry Safe Quick Access Safe can be opened in a second which makes it very convenient gun safe. It has a very quick reaction time and it doesn’t require batteries to a function which is a big plus. The safe is small enough to fit a handgun with the additional magazine so you can be ready to intervene in under a second. A gun safe like this one doesn’t produce sound and you can’t access the lock from the outside which means it is very hard to break into. It is an impressive quick access gun safe,  but it has some downsides like the small buttons on the keyboard. Read the Sentry Safe Quick Access Safe full review to find out everything about the gun safe before purchase.

Fort Knox Personal Pistol Box Handgun Safe

Fort Knox personal pistol box handgun safe is interesting because it has two options, it can be a portable safe and you can mount it to any surface. It is a handgun safe which you can use for two guns and two magazines which means it has double the room than the Sentry Safe Quick Access Safe.  What makes this safe so great is its durability because the Fort Knox brand gives a lifetime warranty on this safe. This silent handgun safe is a great choice for people who don’t want to use batteries but you have to know where every button is because there is no light in the safe. I recommend you read the full review before you purchase this safe so that you know all the information about it.

Barska Biometric Safe

The Barska biometric safe is a safe that can hold up to 30 fingerprints which means you can share it with the person you trust. It is not a big safe so you can carry it around or you can mount it if that option suits you better. The safe has a 1-year warranty which is OK but not the best and it comes with 2 keys if the biometric lock fails. The good thing about the safe is its long shape because it can fit two guns, magazines, and documents, much more than other safes. It is not the fastest biometric safe on the market but it has other pros that can work for it. Read the full review here so you know what the safe is all about before you purchase it.

GunVault GV2000S Multi Vault Standard Gun Safe

This GunVault safe is a safe with a digital combination lock with a PIN only you know. If someone puts the wrong PIN too many times, the gun safe will get locked. The 16-gauge steel construction makes sure that the gun safe is durable and not so easy to break into. The good thing about this safe is that you can mount it both horizontally and vertically which gives you the freedom to set the guns the way you like it. It is very user-friendly and you can learn all about it when you read the GunVault standard full review.

Vaultek VT20i Biometric Handgun Safe

Another biometric safe that is on my list is made so it is practically impossible to break into. It has anti-pry bars, two-point anti-impact latches, interior mounted hinges, and interior security brackets. The great thing about it is that you don’t need batteries, you can charge it through micro-USB port. You can choose the biometric or combination lock which makes this gun safe very user-friendly. If you want to see what more this gun safe has to offer before you buy it check the full VT20i review here.

Steelwater Duty 16 Long Gun Safe

Steelwater may not be the most famous brand but they produce a reliable gun safe. The cabinet is completely organized so you can fit rifles, hang guns, munition and even jewelry and documents in the safe. Due to that organization, you can only use this safe for multiple types of guns and rifles. The doors have 10 locking bolts so they aren’t so easy to break into. The entire safe has an impressive fire resistance which means it can withstand a temperature of more than 1800°F.  The safe has a combination lock and if you really can’t remember if you can use the key to override the combination and access the safe. The built-in LED system allows you to see what you have inside in the dark. Read the full review so you can be sure that this gun safe is the one before you purchase it.

Winchester Ranger Deluxe

The Winchester Ranger Deluxe is gun safe that can fit 24 long guns in its 12-gauge steel construction cabinet. A big safe like this is fire resistant for about an hour on the temperature over 1400°F. It has an interesting seal that expands when in contact with high temperatures (fire) so it keeps your guns safe. The best thing about this safe is the fact that you can choose the electronic or mechanical lock, but make sure that the electronic lock uses batteries that don’t last for a long time. It means you always have to have spare ones near you. Before you purchase this good quality gun safe, read the Winchester Ranger Deluxe full review right here.

Stack-On SS-16-MB-C

This Stack-On 16-Gun safe has an organizer in the cabinet so you can easily find a place for every type of firearm you have. The type of firearms you have affects the number of firearms you can put in the gun safe, but an average number is 10.  Just like the Winchester Ranger you can pick the combination or digital lock for the safe. This safe is not fire resistant, but it is durable and thick enough to withstand the attack of a drill. One of the perks of this gun safe is its price to the quality ratio which means it is a best-buy option and if you want to find other perks before you purchase this gun safe then I suggest you read the whole review here.

V-Line Quick Access long gun safe

If you are a long gun fan then you don’t have to have a gun safe for other types of firearms, this is the best pick for you. V-Line safe is durable and easy to access to which can sometimes be very important. You can mount this gun safe to the wall so you don’t have to worry about tripping it over or someone taking it away. The safe has a combination lock and a key if you forget the code or you are too stressed to enter it correctly. It is a single long gun safe so you can only put one long gun with documents and munition but that is all someone need. If you are one of them then I suggest you read the whole review to see what makes this long gun safe so great for your rifle.

Barska Quick Access Biometric Rifle Safe

This rifle safe comes from Barska and it has the biometric lock which can store 120 fingerprints with the quick biometric scan. It is bigger than the one from V-Line as it can store 4 rifles, which is great if you have more rifles in your possession. The safe uses batteries for biometric lock, but if the batteries run out you will be able to unlock the safe with the key and the hidden lock. Inside of the cabinet, you can find one storage shelf for munition and you can mount it to the wall. Everything else you want to learn about the safe before you purchase it you can read in my full Barska biometric rifle safe review.