You still pay quite a penny for a gun safe which you may open with tip of your pinky.If you dont believe see the demonstration videos on handgunsafereseach.com>demonstration videos.
Also to make a better choice we would want you to look into this page-Small gun safe brands to avoid.
There you will learn that most of the brands have no regards to the safety aspect of the safe and should be definitely be avoided.
In this post, I am mainly talking about bedside style safes, designed for pistols.More over, you may look into internet forum and web store reviews to figure out the experience of others using the product you are seeking.
Bedside gun safe was created to fit in your nightstand drawer easily. This kind of safe may be ideal for keeping handguns, and revolvers. A great bedside gun safe must be able to squeeze into any place, get installed quickly, provide quick access and keep gun out of reach of children.
But the most desirable feature is the quick access.So we will try to list that type of safe but without compromising the safety aspect of a handgun safe.
These are the selected few that you can buy.
First Choice-Mechanical handgun safe
We always recommend mechanical handgun safe with mechanical simplex locks as your first choice for any type of need,whether Home nightstand, office or even vehicles.
There is no other type of safe that can match the strength,safety and durability of these safes.To Learn about the all mechanical handgun safe listed above visit this page.(See the section under best safe for child protection.)
Second choice-Any safe that is pry resistant
We know that any handgun safe no matter what type are not especially resistant to burglary or forced entry with slightly bigger tools like hammer or cutter.This is because of its portable design and inferior quality steel.Even mechanical handgun safe fail at this point.
So our next criteria to selection of a safe is that it should be pry resistant.This means that it will not have any holes or gap to reach the locking mechanism.In addition the bypass lock should also be of acceptable quality and resistant to lockpicking.
Then look at any other feature like aesthetics or the type of lock.ex biometric,RFID,electronic, or blutooth smart phone app.
With that in mind here are some of the safe that we have shortlisted.
Stack-On PS-1514 Personal Safe
The above safe by stack on is the entry level safe but one of the highest selling products of stackon.The most common reason is its price.It comes for around $ 70.
Its earlier model PS-514-12 was like any other generic Chinese made gun safe on the market.But after it was reviewed by handgunsaferesearch.com, they recalled it and introduced this one with some altered features that makes it somewhat pry resistant.
Stack on has added special mechanism in the solenoid inside the door locks which as we know is otherwise is vulnerable to bump opening.They have also rectified the other vulnerability which is opening the safe by reaching to the solenoid with paperclips etc.To know more you can visit handgunsaferearch.com>demostation viodeos>stackon.
Overall this safe is now a decent electronic keypad lock.But there one concern which is the bypass lock which is a wafer lock is not resistant to lock picking and the tools to do that is available to purchase online.We only recommend if you have small children who don’t have access to any such lock picking device.
Click here for latest price and more reviews on Amazon.
Liberty HDX 250 Biometric gun safe (Updated version)
This is another safe originally manufactured by 9G imprint but later aquired by liberty. It initially had design flaws but after being reviewed by handgunsaferesearch.com was rectified by liberty.Initially this safe holes were under plastic covering on the corners.One could open the safe with a coat hanger wire by inserting it into through the hole and pressing the administration button and entering new fingerprint.
It also had gap near the bypass lock to do the same.But liberty now has sealed all these gaps and holes and rectified that fault.They have also changed the administration button which is now quite small making it difficult to press if anyone reaches it somehow.
The original 9G imprint had complaints of door popping open by dropping sideways but now this safe have one of the strongest latching mechanism available on present day handgun safes and it is made in USA.
But the safe still have tubular lock common in these type of handgun safe which can be picked with tubular picks available online.But overall if you have small children or lives alone or adults that are not a threat you can buy this safe.
If you want to be extra sure you can replace the bypass lock through your local locksmith.
The biometrics on this safe is not any better than other safe on the market but in terms of prying with common household items it can prevent those unauthorized access.
Click here for latest price and more reviews on amazon.
Hornady Rapid Gun Safe
Stealth Handgun hanger safe
Steel Patriot Smart Gun Safe
Another non mechanical safe that we are somewhat comfortable recommending is Steel patriot smart gun safe.It is a good design safe with no access to locking mechanism through hole or gaps.It is made in USA with 16 gauge steel.It has a bypass key which is difficult to replicate.
If someone want to pick the lock he has to use standard lock picking tools but still you cannot be assure that no one will be able to pick it.
Another feature is that it employs blue-tooth app to remotely open or close the safe which is debatable.The idea is that phone will always with the person using the safe.But this may also cause accident.
We recommend that you lock the phone as well the phone app with memorable code all the time if you are living with children but otherwise this is ideal if you are living alone.
If you want to be 100 sure you can replace the bypass lock with your local locksmith.
Click here latest price and more reviews on Amazon.
Vaultek VT20i Biometric Handgun Bluetooth Smart Safe
Again a good safe but was not paid much attention to the hidden vulnerabilities.This safe was also redesigned after the review by handgunsaferesearch.com.Nothing was said about the bypass lock but i guess it probably needs improvement like previous version.It was defeated by GOSO HU100 keyway pick.
After the review Vaultek improvement and now it don not have any gaps or holes anywhere except the mounting holes.So it cannot be opened by common household items but maybe can be opened with standard lock-picks.
Other than that the safe have good features like proximity sensor that lights up the keypad.A phone app to remotely open the safe and it keeps a log of time when the safe was open.It also has hot key functionality which tells you if the safe has been tampered though it was defeated as it did not register any tampering when opened with paperclip etc(Original design).
The safe is biometric and portable and quick access-all the feature that may make you think it is ideal safe for bedroom which now it probably is except probably the bypass lock.
Overall we can recommend you this safe if you live alone or have young kids.Also as a precaution if you decide to use this safe get the bypass lock checked by local locksmith and keep your phone and the safe app locked all the time with a memorable code.
Click here for latest price and more reviews on Amazon.
A word about the biometric locks.
Biometric gun safes are the hottest items in the gun safe industry these days. In recent years, biometrics have been getting very popular in the tech industry with applications being found on laptops, PDA’s, and smartphones; and are becoming even more popular every year.
There are a few reasons why people are turning to biometric gun safes to hold their firearms, with security being on the top. People are mainly buying biometrics because they don’t want to fumble with keys or are afraid others can find them.Other reasons people are turning to biometrics are speed, convenience and affordability.However one thing they overlook is that there in one common flaw in them which is that the real biometric security technology is not yet available at economic price.So although biometric safe look fancy they aren’t very reliable.
There are basically two kinds of biometric locks that are available on these safes-Capacitive and Optical.An optical take full image of your finger and matches the pattern with one in its memory.These may be quick but also has false rejection rate which on this price can come as compromised.
Other has capacitve sensor and records capacitance changes through ridges and valleys of your finger when you swipe it on the sensor and matches with the programmed pattern.But with the quality that you get you may need to swipe multiple times for it to work.So they can not really be called quick access.
An optical reader like on locksaf and barska are economy fingerprint lock and can be (if not easily) opened if someone gets your fingerprint.Specially kids might want to experiment with it by making a prostate fingerprint like explained for the locksaf safe in the Defcon 19 video by Deviant Ollam, the blackhat group presenter.The video also tells how to change the generic bypass lock to somewhat better lock in these kind of safes (Gun vault to be exact).
Others like Barska have been reported to false opened with false fingerprint if old print is not wiped off.
Also remember that they still are quite vulnerable to lock pick attack and pry attack,e
If you are really looking for biometrics because you think it is better than you finding keys every time and it gives you relatively quick access following safe has been extensively tested for reliability of fingerprint reader and found to be most reliable.
It was ultimately defeated but still it will be difficult to do by an average teenager.But as you know now that any biometric lock can be if one wants to.
Locksafe Biometric Pistol safe review
Locksaf Biometric Gun Safe is one of the best compared to its competitors.It has an optical type fingerprint reader so it may be fooled with an image of your print fingerprint although it has shown no to do so in the test by blackhat hacking group .It was only defeated with a prostate skin like substance with fingerprint made using some molding compound.The backup lock is a cross type lock which is quite resistant to cross picks. So this can be kept in bedroom for self defense purpose.
It weighs 22 lbs and manufactured with 9 gauge/3mm steel sheet.So it is heavy and sturdy compared to others.The lock is operated by a 9V battery and has two mechanical keys. Foam padding is perfectly designed to fit the guns or valuables inside the safe. The memory option of this safe can remember the fingerprints of 10 individuals. It has a backup in case the fingerprints do not work. Other than being biometric, Locksafe Biometric Gun safes claims to be somewhat fire proof, water proof although one should not expect much in this regard for a handgun safe .This safe also has foam padding inside to help keep your items in place. However the locking mechanism is not as instantaneous as one would hope. It is a bit lagging and also, there is a click when you open the safe so if you are also looking for something quiet to open this is not your safe.
You can buy this safe from authorized dealers near you.
Also see-