Best Gun Safes in 2024 (Handguns, Long Guns, Hidden Safes, and More)

Why You Need a Gun Safe

One of the most important reasons for investing in a gun safe is that it will protect your firearms from theft and environmental damage. Guns are a sizable financial investment, and a good safe is the only real solution to protecting that investment. Robberies happen every day, and so do home fires and floods.

Purchasing a safe for the purposes of protecting your valuables from a flood or fire might not seem obvious at first, but scour the Internet and you can find plenty of stories of safes surviving through home disasters in which everything else was lost. Gun safes can also provide immediate financial savings, as insurance companies will typically agree to reduce your rates if you show them that you're keeping your firearms locked in a safe.

Gun safes also ensure that your firearms won’t accidentally fall into the hands of children or loved ones who might endanger themselves or others. We’ve all heard unfortunate stories in which guns were stored improperly, got into the hands of a child or a family member who was ill, and it cost someone their life. These events are tragic, especially because they can be so easily avoided.

This ties into the importance of purchasing a safe to ensure personal accountability over your firearms. As a gun owner, your gun is your responsibility. If your gun somehow gets into the hands of someone who uses it to commit a crime, you could be held accountable. With a gun safe, you can sleep easy at night knowing where your firearms are and that they are secure.

At the end of the day, there is absolutely no reason not to invest in a proper safe.

We know choosing the right gun safe is no simple task. Gun safes are expensive, and the selection available is extraordinary these days. So accompanying this list of the best gun safes, we have included a buyers guide to help give you a clearer sense of what you should be looking for when finding one that best suits you. There is a lot of information to cover, but we encourage you to take your time going through this guide and use what we’ve laid out here to help in your future purchases. With that said, let’s get started.

Basic Considerations

Types of Safes

We have divided our product recommendations into 3 categories: handgun safes, long gun safes, and hidden safes.

Handgun safes are typically small and are designed to hold somewhere between 1 to 3 pistol-sized firearms and a couple of extra magazines. Long gun safes are larger and can house several rifles in addition to a lot of extra gear and ammunition. Finally, hidden safes feature clever designs, which hide your firearms in places where no one would ever think to look.

Size Matters

Among these different types of safes, there is a variety of advanced features, building designs, lock styles, and security upgrades available. But choosing the right-sized safe is typically your first priority.

It’s recommended that you don’t just account for the guns you currently own when buying a safe, but rather the guns you plan to own as well. For example, if you only own a couple of pistols at the moment but plan on getting several rifles in the future, it would be best to get a full-sized long gun safe where you can store both your pistols and your future rifles. Similarly, if you only own a few rifles at the moment but one day might own dozens, then you should consider planning ahead and getting a really big safe.

Also, bear in mind that gun safes can store more than just guns. You might want to consider if there are valuables you would want to store in your safe along with your firearms and factor the additional space that those valuables might require into your decision. Generally speaking, it’s wise to get a safe with twice as much space as you think you might need. Finally, before making your selection, be sure you have measured the area where you plan to put the safe to ensure that it will fit.

What to Look For in a Great Safe

Fire Rating

Now let’s turn our attention to what exactly makes a great gun safe. As mentioned in the introduction, protection against theft and break-ins is generally the primary security consideration when choosing a safe. However, environmental protection should also be considered.

Most safes will come with a fire rating, which will detail maximum temperatures the safe can withstand while still protecting its contents. Top-tier safes are often fire rated up to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit for at least half an hour. This should be more than enough, as typical residential fires don’t exceed 1,200 degrees. You also want to be sure that your safe protects against humidity and flooding, although this is common with most safes.

Security Specifications

Let’s talk about safes' security specifications. This is the information that you will need to know to ensure that it’s impossible for your safe to be cracked.

First, you will want to know the steel gauging of the safe. Steel gauge thickness is measured somewhat counterintuitively: the lower the gauge, the thicker the steel. For example, 14-gauge steel is thinner than 8-gauge steel. The thicker the gauge, the better, and for large, heavy-duty safes you will want a minimum of 8-gauge steel. This provides a level of thickness that will make it very difficult for a would-be safe-cracker to penetrate. When reading about safes, you often come across a term called "RSC" (Residential Security Container). RSC is an indication that the safe has been laboratory tested and was able to withstand a break-in attempt using screwdrivers, hammers, chisels, pry bars, etc. for at least 5 minutes.

Door thickness is also important. To ensure that the door can’t be pried open, it’s recommended that a safe door be more than 5/16” thick and have a pry-resistant design. A steel door is also preferred, as it will do a better job withstanding heat from a potential fire.

Other factors to consider include the thickness and durability of the bolts, the access speed of the locking mechanism, and the mounting system and anchors. A safe’s bolt system is used to lock the door to the body of the safe. It’s best to have a multi-bolt system, and if you find a safe with say, a 10-bolt system, that is preferred to a simple 2-bolt system.

You also want to consider the time it takes to disable the locking mechanism. This is important because if you need to access your gun from your safe in a self-defense scenario, you will need to be able to do so quickly. Depending on your needs, you might want to avoid purchasing a safe with a traditional combination lock in favor of a quick-access biometric fingerprint scanning system. Alternatively, there are safes with RFID (radio frequency identification) signals or Bluetooth smartphone systems that can work equally well. All of these design details will be covered later in this article along with product recommendations for each.

That brings us to mounting systems and anchors. A safe needs to be protected against being broken into, but you also want to ensure that it can’t simply be picked up and carried away. This won’t be an issue with larger safes, but if your safe is light enough to be carried away, then you will either want to have it properly mounted or anchored. With this in mind, you want to purchase a safe that comes with pre-drilled mounting holes and bolts.

Finally, you likely will want a safe that comes with an alarm system and is equipped with a fail-safe locking mechanism. Alarm systems will be triggered after a certain number of incorrect combination inputs or if someone attempts to move the safe. Fail-safe locking mechanisms, meanwhile, will render the safe inaccessible for a period of time if the wrong input code is entered multiple times.

Electronic vs Mechanical Locks and Combination Safes

Many safes nowadays come equipped with sophisticated electronic locking mechanisms, like biometric fingerprint scanners, RFID signal activators, and Bluetooth communication. Electronic keypad mechanisms are also extremely common. These systems are typically very easy to understand and operate, even for less tech-savvy users. But if you are more mechanically minded, you can opt for a safe with a traditional mechanical lock.

While electronic locks have obvious upsides, you need to be aware that they also come with their drawbacks. Namely, electronic safes require batteries which will die and need to be replaced. Most safes use traditional easy-to-replace batteries like AA or 9V, but just be aware that you will need to manage your safe’s battery life should you choose to go with an electronic lock.

If you choose to use a mechanical safe with a manual key, you won’t need to worry about dealing with batteries. However, you will lose out on convenience, and you will not be able to access your safe as quickly in the event of an emergency. You might also consider getting a combination mechanical safe, but this will be even slower, and you will be responsible for remembering your combination. It’s wise not to have your combination written down anywhere and to instead commit it to memory. If you do insist on having your safe combination written down, don’t label it “Safe Combination” on the document you write it on.

Ultimately, the choice between a mechanical and an electronic lock comes down to personal preference, but you should at least clearly understand the tradeoffs. Nowadays, you can get safes with both an electronic key and a backup mechanical lock; so bear that in mind also.

Got It?

The information given above should be more than enough to get your going, and as we go through our list you will get a clearer sense on what type of safe might be best for you. With that said, let’s take a look at the best gun safes on the market.