The wife and I are buying a home soon and need a place to put the guns (previously stored with family while we were living overseas) such that they’ll be safe from kids, fire, criminals, and irresponsible adults. That means a safe (or at the very least, a locking cabinet).
I’m not hugely worried about theft, since the door locks and most reasonably-secure gun safes/cabinets will slow them down long enough for the cops summoned by the alarm system to respond. Similarly, fire is a concern, but there’s a fire station nearby and the alarm would summon them if there was a fire. Even in the worst case of fire loss, I have insurance.
The main security issue is that of kids: my oldest of two is now 4, and I don’t want them getting into things they shouldn’t. They’re curious kids and will do the usual kid stuff to explore their environment, but I doubt they’ll resort to power tools and torches. Screwdrivers, maybe. Still, something that can keep out thieves for a bit will probably be good enough to keep out kids. Reasonably secure, yes. Fort Knox, no.
As this would be for storing guns not in daily use (as opposed to a bedside table biometric safe for a handgun), certain aspects such as rapidity and ease of opening are not particularly important. If the lock fails in such a way that I need to contact a locksmith to open it, that’s not the end of the world.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
- Made by reputable company, preferably in the US.
- Reasonable manufacturer support for servicing and parts. Ideally something available at a local safe shop, for ease of delivery, installation, and support.
- Preferably not some generic OEM product that the company slaps their label onto, but otherwise has no after-sale support.
- Reasonably movable by 2-3 people and a heavy-duty hand cart (say, up to 500 pounds or so).
- Electronic keypad lock. Key backup is helpful, but not required.
- Room to hold at least 8-10 traditional rifles/shotguns (some with typical scopes), 8-10 AR-pattern rifles with iron sights, and misc. smaller items (e.g. a handgun or two on a shelf, some ammo cans on the bottom, optics, important papers, etc.). The more the merrier, up to a point (I don’t need to store 60+ guns). So far most of what I’ve seen has very densely-packed racks such that they can hold 8-10 rifles, but only 2 ARs or so. As an AR shooter, that doesn’t really work for me.
- Ideally under $1,000-$1,500.
Any suggestions? I’m all ears.
Wished I had asked questions before I bought my safe. I would advise against an electronic lock. AFTER I bought mine with an electronic keypad, a friend said what if the power goes out? How are you gonna get your guns? The power did go out for about 10 hours the next winter. I now have a rv battery/inverter set up I can use if we loose power but it’s a hassle.
All the electronic keypad locks I’ve seen run on an 9V battery that’s under the external keypad. They don’t run off of wall power. I’ve heard people say that they’re concerned about EMP attacks that might disable such locks, but that’s not really within my threat model at the moment.