Studies have shown that we all need to have a gun safe in our home, regardless of whether you own a firearm or not. Gun safes will definitely make it much easier for you to protect your valuables and for gun collectors and hunters; this can even save you a few bucks from the insurance each month.
If you cannot really afford an expensive gun safe, then any gun safe should do, but some of the cheaper safes have their very own risks that will not be good for your safety and the safety of your valuables. To help eliminate some of the confusion surrounding gun safes, we have compiled a few tips that should make choosing the perfect safe for your home much easier and you could even save a few bucks from those sales people trying to up sale every feature that you might not need at home.
To design this list of tips, we spent a few days with multiple gun safe owners and even a few of the manufacturers to listen what they have to say and to recommend what they would like in their safes. With this inside knowledge, we were able to eliminate some of the bullshit features and give you the best tips for choosing the right safe.
#1 Check Out the Safes Crash Rating
The crash rating directly correlates back to the quality of the product and thus it could make a huge difference when it comes to choosing the safe. The crash rating also indicates the impact resistant qualities of the safe and this will in return tell you how much force or which type of weapon will be needed to do damage. Sometimes the most expensive safes are packed with fancy features, but they are still easy to break open and therefore, the crash rating should be looked at to determine the quality.
#2 Check for a Fire Rating
Metal is generally resistant to fire, but not all safes like to disclose their fire rating. This can really be helpful when a fire breaks out and it will also give a good indication of the quality of the steel used in the construction.
A higher fire rating will also mean that the safe is more secure and that intruders will not be able to burn through the safe quickly, thus giving you time to react and even making some burglars give up. Fire resistant safes will also be great for saving money on the insurance of your household valuables.
#3 Check the Mounting Features
We have established and we preach in most of our articles that mounting can be considered another element of protection, but the stronger the mounting, the better the protection and you will be able to have more peace of mind. Some safes are smaller and the mounting tools can be weaker, but this can be customized to make the safe stronger.
We recommend looking for the deadbolts made from solid steel and having a look at how strong they are beforehand. If your safe is secure, you will have much more peace of mind.
#4 Portable or Secure
If someone tells you that a portable safe is secure, they are lying and it is impossible to have a portable safe that you constantly move around and the mount it from time to time. We always recommend making sure that the safe is secure, but for portable safes, we recommend looking at the ability to conceal them. If your safe cannot be found, no one will be able to steal it.
#5 Internal Volume
This is something that any potential gun owner should know and do research about. Before looking for a safe, it is important to determine the number of items you are planning on storing inside the safe. Once this is determined, we recommend buying a bigger safe as it has been proven that most people outgrow their safes within one year of purchasing it.
You also need to have a look at the shelves on the inside and if they can be adjusted. Adjustable shelves will give you much more space and options when it comes to organizing your gun safe.
#6 Locking Type
For bigger safes it is recommended that you consider looking at a combination lock, the benefits of a combination lock for bigger safes are huge and you need not worry about keys or batteries. Biometric locks will work, but they tend to be more volatile when it is installed on a larger safe and with more emphasis on the size of the safe, the lock can sometimes be neglected and then you could be caught off-guard in a state of panic.
The combination locking mechanism has been trusted for years and there are no reasons that it will let you down. For smaller safes, the biometric should be the choice as it will improve your access speed substantially.
#7 Check Your Budget and Make Adjustments
We recommend that you over budget for a safe and then there will be fewer adjustments and compromises to be made. Smaller safes can be expensive with their biometric locks and the larger safes can also make a huge hole in your wallet for the size and the quality of the steel it has been constructed with. With a larger budget, you will also be able to buy much more add-ons to help improve the security of the safe.
The Bottom Lines
With these 7 tips in your mind, you will be able to make a better choice and then have more value. Not all of these features are required by everyone, but we do recommend that you take them into consideration in order to make sure you have everything checked out. We would like to thank you for reading this article and we would like to know some more about your gun safes and how you chose them. We would also like to encourage you to share your tips and help someone else choose the best safe.
