Gun safe 2024 comparison and buying guide

    Whether you are a hunter, whether you have weapons for sporting or professional reasons or simply for your defense, your rifles and handguns must be stored in rifle cupboards or weapon safes. Especially when you are looking for a gun to take long-distance shots and have particular requirements. 

    Owning a firearm requires serious safety and prevention measures that will aim to prevent accidental use, but also the theft of your arsenal. Here, I explain how to choose a gun safe, and why it is essential. I also direct you to some models of trunk perfectly suited to your research.

    Some of the best gun safes

    Infac Sentinel SD14

    This completely modular Infac Sentinel SD14 cabinet is probably the best on the market. It is perfect for storing all your hunting and sporting equipment neatly and efficiently, and it will prevent anyone from approaching it. With dimensions of 70 cm wide, 33 cm deep and 150 cm high, you can store up to 14 rifles. It’s a nice wardrobe, with protective foam so as not to damage the hooks and storage on the door.

    We can also store only 10 rifles and set up removable shelves to store all our hunting equipment next to it. An interior safe with lock is also available for ammunition.

    On the security side, the cabinet is made of high-quality steel, 2 mm thick. It is a one-piece trunk with a double-bit security lock that activates 5 steel cylinders mounted on a rotating axis. No complaints, it’s solid, all your weapons will undoubtedly be perfectly protected.

    Regarding the price, it is up to the quality of the material. It is a relatively expensive wardrobe, but the price / quality ratio is perfectly respected. The guns will be safe from everything, burglars will have no chance of opening this safe and children will have absolutely no access to all your equipment.

    Ultimate Safe Rifle Cabinet

    If you don’t have a big budget, but still want to effectively secure your guns, then this Ultimate Safe rifle cabinet is a great choice. It is a gun safe to attach, since it weighs only 42 kg. It is a compact piece of furniture, 145 cm high by 31 cm wide and 28 cm deep, which we will easily find a place for. Its design is serious, it is all 2.5 mm thick steel, and two key locks that lock 3 steel cylinders each.

    This rifle cupboard is resistant to the crowbar and chisel, and its angles are provided to make drilling very complicated. To successfully open it, a thief will need to be particularly well equipped, and even then, it will take a long time. Security is therefore very satisfactory; your firearms will be well kept.

    Inside, we will be able to store up to 4 rifles. There is a dense foam divider for clean storage and good rifle support. A small tall chest is secured by a lock, it will allow you to store your ammunition. It is ultimately a basic Guns & Safety Reviews safe, but it is inexpensive and is pretty well finished. Its design is also rather elegant, in short, I can only advise you!

    VidaXL 5 guns

    To keep and protect your rifles perfectly, this chest is ideal. It does not take up a lot of space with total dimensions of 28 cm long by 23 cm deep and 145 cm high. The rack can accommodate up to 5 rifles and there is of course an ammunition box.

    It operates via a high-quality key lock with two bolts, plus two asymmetric double bit keys. The ammunition box also has its two keys which are here tubular. The trunk is made of steel, the thickness of the door and the walls is 2 mm. Your weapons will be very well protected when locked in this gun cabinet.

    Inside there are two rugs to avoid scratching your weapons. This safe can be installed by fixing it to the floor or the wall using the included fasteners as well as pre-drilled holes which will facilitate installation.

    It is a first-rate safe, but it will protect your weapons very well, whether against a burglar or overly curious children who would like to get too close to rifles or other handguns. If you are looking for a reliable cabinet, not too large, at an attractive price, then you will probably not be disappointed with this VidaXL 5-gun trunk.

    Why store your guns properly?

    It’s sometimes the law

    For a certain type of weapon, classified from the first to the fourth category, requiring an authorization of acquisition and conservation must be obtained, the safe will always be compulsory. You must also provide proof of the installation of such a trunk before receiving the weapon (s) in question. For weapons of the fifth category, and therefore for those used for hunting, this is not compulsory, but it is obviously very advisable.

    For the safety

    Possessing a weapon, whether at home, or in a sport shooting club, is always a risk of accident or use by a malicious third party. Of course, there is the risk of theft and use for a heinous act, but not only that.

    Each year, families are mourning, sometimes by a stupid accident, like a child wanting to imitate papa or grandpa, or quite simply curious to touch what he can see as a toy for the big ones. Children don’t see danger the same way as adults, so keep them away from a gun as much as possible.

    There is also a significant rate of suicide with firearms in hunting families. A depressed teen, having too simple access to weapons, could commit the irreparable. Sometimes it only takes a few minutes of deep depression to get into action, and a sane teen can crack quickly.

    A firearm can simply kill, so you and your loved ones and your loved one should be protected from an accident or a dangerous situation. A safe is therefore absolutely essential so that no one other than you has access to rifles or handguns present in the house.

    To keep your weapons in the best way

    Whether you are a hunter, collector or sport shooter, you must take care of your weapons. Properly maintaining and protecting them allows not to alter their effectiveness, but also their cachet over time.

    They should therefore be stored in a perfectly closed place, away from humidity, in an enclosed place. The gun safe is ideal for this. Regardless of the size, it will not suffer any degradation by remaining perfectly protected in its cabinet. This is also the case for ammunition.

    How to choose your gun safe?

    Size

    This is obviously the first criterion. The dimensions of the cabinet are important, since you will not need the same surface as you have 2 rifles or 20 rifles. So try to calculate the necessary volume, of course counting the ammunition, and add a little margin for your possible acquisitions. It is always advisable to take the size larger than what you need today.

    Manufacturing quality

    Obviously, a chest must be solid. If it opens with 3 hammer blows, it has almost no use. Some safes, like the first two in my selection, have a certification which is a guarantee of quality and resistance to break-ins.

    The trunk must be made of steel with a minimum thickness of 2 mm. All walls must be equally resistant. You must be able to fix it correctly, whether on a wall or on the floor. It is obvious that even if the trunk is a little heavy, if it is not fixed, it will take two or three people to lift it and open it without pressure in another place.

    All the trunks that I offer above have a mini trunk inside to store the ammunition. If someone manages to open the main door, then they will have to be able to open the interior safe.

    The lock

    With a key, mechanical or electronic code, there is a choice. The key is a good solution, since without it there is no risk that a third party will find a combination to open the trunk. However, you must store this key properly, or always keep it with you.

    The code lock is practical since you can access the safe and its contents very quickly. The only problem is that the code must not be found, so we avoid our date of birth or that of our children, and we can forget this combination when we do not use it often.

    A mixed chest

    The gun cabinet can also be used to store personal belongings, money or important documents. We can obviously use it in several ways if we wish and thus keep our weapons on one side and everything else on the other. There is obviously no rule, and the gun safe is not necessarily used for simply storing firearms.

    Of course, if it only has a rifle rack without a shelf, then you will find it more difficult to properly store what you want inside. If you therefore want a “mixed” chest, prefer a model with shelves to properly separate hunting or shooting equipment from the rest of your property, money or documents.