Are you considering purchasing a gun safe? A gun safe has multiple uses besides keeping your firearms and ammo safe, and there are several advantages of owning one.
The question is, can you possibly get a solid gun safe for under $500? Absolutely. We’ve curated for you a list of the best gun safes under $500.
At A Glance: Our Top Picks For Best gun safe under 500
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A gun safe serves the following main purposes:
Keeping your gun safe is the primary use of a gun safe and a vital consideration when choosing to be a gun owner. Whether you live alone or with your family, a gun safe helps protect your guns, you, and your family by preventing access to unauthorized or unqualified persons, especially children.
While it’s easy to replace most guns, some hold sentimental value. Also, gun owners often customize their guns, an exercise that can be both time-consuming and expensive. No doubt you’d hate to have to replace such firearms. They’re worth a lot — priceless even — and to keep burglars off them requires a gun safe.
Gun safe construction comprises strong materials such as steel, and in addition to that, some safes can protect valuables from fire, water, and impact. Hence, when fire, flooding, or a natural disaster occurs, you can keep your valuables safe in a gun safe.
Gun safes are a costly investment, and you may wonder if a gun safe under $500 is even worth buying or whether a highly-priced gun safe necessarily means it’s a premium product.
A common misconception is that highly-priced gun safes are of superior quality, but that’s not always the case. On the contrary, as with many products, you’ll be surprised to learn that high pricing is a strategy often used to increase buyers’ perception of a product’s quality. Most people inadvertently assume a product is better than the others on the market simply because it’s priced high.
You can find a quality gun safe for under $500. (Just don’t expect it to be that fireproof).
The following are the main features that make for a great gun safe:
What you need is a safe that can hold your collection. The rule of thumb is that the safe is not cluttered, but there’s even some room left for guns you buy in the future.
The heavier the gun safe, the more secure. That’s because burglars will have a hard time carrying it away to break into it elsewhere. A heavy safe also means more steel went into its construction, and breaking it would be harder.
Fire is another factor from which to protect your weapons. A good safe should come with a UL certification, meaning it can hold out against a typical house fire of 1200oF for an hour or longer.
The lock is an essential consideration for protection against intrusion, with the two main lock types being dial combination locks and digital electronic locks. The main difference between the two is durability and reliability, where dual locks last longer and are more reliable.
The hallmarks of security in the construction of safes are thick steel plates, secure bolting systems, and strong hinges. Steel thickness is measured in gauge, and the smaller the gauge, the greater the thickness.
Here’s a review of five of the best gun safes under $500:
Buyers have reported that the safe is durable and fireproof. It’s survived a fire a year down the line, leaving documents in it intact. Its double-locking system takes a bit of time to familiarize. The handle is weak, and if the safe remains unopened long, it jams, requiring you to contact a locksmith to open.
The Sentry is a solid safe with a double locking system comprising a preset dial combination featuring bolts, steel construction, pry-resistant hinge bar, and bolt-down hardware, making it a very sturdy safe. It also has a secondary locking key for more improved safety. It’s UL certified and can withstand extremely high temperatures of up to 1700oF, ensuring even documents inside the safe survive a fire.
The Sentry’s double locking system featuring bolts coupled with its steel construction and pry-resistant hinge bar make it a very strong safe. It’s also fireproof, waterproof, and can survive a 15-foot fall while remaining closed.
It works great. It’s easy to install and set up so that you have your gun in hand in just five seconds. However, the ease you can set it in place also makes it more vulnerable to theft. While great, the biometric identification takes some getting used to, and the safe often fails to recognize multiple fingerprints.
The advanced fingerprint recognition technology, which allows for 120 fingerprints, allows for fast, secure access to firearms through a simple fingerprint scan. It opens quickly and easily by pushing a power button and holding your finger on the laser optics sensor, making it easy to set in place.
In less than five seconds, you have a gun in hand. It’s a solid steel safe with a 3-point steel deadbolt locking system for enhanced security. Also, it features a removable accessory shelf and mounting hardware, backup keys, and an external battery pack. You can program it to silent access mode.
The Barska Biometric safe’s advanced fingerprint recognition technology allows for fast and secure access to firearms. It opens easily and fast, and its steel body and 3-point deadbolt locking system enhance security.
It’s sturdy and suitable for installing or slipping under your car seat. The cable connector loops easily around the seat frame, but perhaps a chain would work better than a cable. It comes with a cool Hornady foam key holder you can clip to your bag.
It’s a sturdy safe, and both the box and cable receiver are well-built to hold guns and other valuable items. It has a solid 16-gauge steel housing that’s next to impossible to break or pry. Its reliable steel barrel lock comes with two keys and a Hornady foam key holder. The premium foam cushioning protects valuable items.
It has a 4-foot steel security cable that can withstand up to 1,500 pounds of force. The patented space-saving cable connector loop can easily be strapped around something, providing maximum storage space.
The Snap Safe Lock Box has a 16-gauge steel housing and reliable barrel lock, making it pry-free. It has foam cushioning for extra protection of weapons and other valuables and a 4-foot steel security cable that can withstand much force.
It’s a great product to keep a rifle away from kids and is small enough to place under the bed or in the closet. It’s easy to set up, and so are the programming devices to unlock and open the safe. It’s rather small and won’t fit any pistol larger than a small 9mm.
It provides the same convenience and tamper-proof security as other rifle safes in a fully enclosed design. The foam inserts can accommodate two tactical length rifles or shotguns. Its 1500-lb cable enhances security. It uses touch-free entry RFID-enabled tags that enable easy and instant access – faster than biometric — and features a programmable keypad and traditional key entry. The front-end spring loaded door makes this safe usable in several places. The thick 14-gauge steel with two internal hardened locking lugs makes the exterior housing ensure maximum security.
The Hornady RAPiD safe ensures maximum security with its solid 14-gauge steel and internal locking lugs. It provides tamper-proof security in a fully enclosed design with touch-free entry RFID technology for easy and instant access.
It’s heavy and very strong. It’s easy to program and locks automatically after five seconds of inputting the code. It comes with backup keys should you forget your password and bolts so you can bolt it to the ground.
Its sturdy 14-gauge heavy-duty steel housing and five large 0.75-inch bolts provide superior security. It’s fire-resistant and complies with the UL 72 fire test for resistance, meaning it can withstand 20 minutes at 1200oF. The electronic keypad is user-friendly, allowing quick and easy access, and there’s a backup key for use during emergencies. Its adjustable shelf helps you divide compartments as required to accommodate larger or smaller items, optimizing storage space.
The AmazonBasics box safe is a solid, fire-resistant gun safe with quick and easy access. It also has an adjustable shelf for optimized storage space.
Investing in one of the quality gun safes mentioned in the list above affords you the following benefits:
A gun safe is important for the safety of your family. It also has several other functions, such as deterring burglars and protecting valuable items from fires and natural disasters. Whether it’s to keep burglars off, protect your valuables from fires and natural disasters, or for insurance purposes, you can’t go wrong with the above-mentioned high-quality gun safes.
No doubt owning a gun comes with great responsibility. Your family’s safety depends on storing your weapons safely away, which is why a lot of thought should go into selecting a gun safe. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding gun safes:
The best gun safe is solid and durable enough and protects against fire and natural disasters.
You can store ammo in a gun safe but in an air-tight, water-tight ammo container.
Joseph Fox writes on a variety of topics ranging from reloading ammunition to gun cleaning. He has been featured on various publications like thetruthaboutguns, Sofrep & many more. Joseph is also the founder of Gunloading, where he reviews different types of reloading & firearm products available on the market.
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