To begin with, and as others have pointed out, this is more of a lockable rifle cabinet than a safe. But, its a great product if you know what you want.
Before I get to that -- If youre looking for a massive, fireproof gun vault that can withstand a determined thief armed with tools, this is not the item for you. If you have a crazy teenager in your house and youre worried he is going to grab your rifle and ruin someones day, this not the item for you and also, why are you reading reviews? You should probably be in family therapy.
On the other hand, if you have small children and you need a safe place to store several rifles for all of the obvious reasons, and mostly youre concerned with curious little hands and the occasional nosy guest, then this is a great solution. If you need a lightweight, easy-to-install cabinet with some modern conveniences and you dont want to drop 900 bucks on a solid-steel, 200 lb bank vault, you should consider this cabinet.
The fact that it is lighter than a full-on safe is actually a selling point for me. With a baby on the way, I decided I should probably not have my guns out in the open in my office, or just stuck in the corner in my closet. I was keen to keep them within close range (heh) of where I sleep. My wife thinks I am nuts, I think I am prepared. Anyway, she humors me.
So I settled for my office, which is across from the bedroom on the second floor. Because this rifle cabinet is on the lighter side (80 lbs) I got it up the stairs just fine and Im not worried about it being too heavy for the floor. It was easy to position and mount.
And YOU MUST MOUNT THIS CABINET. Not to keep anyone from stealing it (if anyone can steal an 80 lb gun cabinet with five guns and ammo from the second floor of my house without me knowing about it, they win -- they can have all that shit as far as Im concerned) but to keep it from tipping over. The door is quite sturdy and heavy. When open, it doesnt take much to tip the cabinet over.
The easiest thing to do is mount it to the wall. If you have baseboard molding and cannot put this cabinet flush against the wall, you can do what I did and use an appropriately sized piece of wood as a spacer/offset to make up the difference (in my case, a 1x3). I secured it to the wall with 2 good sized lag bolts -- shes not going anywhere.
The locking mechanism is simple and it works. As others in the reviews have done, Im going to purchase some motion-activated lights, both internal and external, so that I can see what I need to see in the dark -- the control panel, inside the safe (which is actually quite dim, because it is a big black metal box!) and so on. If the user inputs three incorrect open codes, the alarm will sound and the number pad will be non-functional for 30 seconds. Its a nice little feature.
The cabinet itself is roomy enough. I have an Enfield WWII bolt action (.303), a Remington 800 tactical shotgun, and a Ruger 556 in there, with space for two more. There is also a smaller lockbox at the top of the cabinet that could easily hold a handgun, but I use it for storing passports and other items.
Theres lots of creative solutions for additional storage, including magnetic spice rack holders, building a shelf on the bottom, etc. If youre even a little bit creative, you can find a ton of ways to customize this thing.
One last thing. The unit came damaged, but it was NOT the manufacturers fault. UPS clearly had a field day with this safe while in transit because when I got it, the box was beat to shit and upon opening, I noticed one of the corners of the cabinet was banged in and the weld-seam was cracked.
As I mentioned, my main concern was keeping my guns out of the hands of small children and further, the crack was on the back corner where nobody (including me) can see it. So this was not a huge deal for me, but I felt like I should let the company know. I did, and the customer service was great -- Alan is responsive and polite. He clearly cares about customer satisfaction.
Overall, a terrific cabinet for the price. Easy to move into place and mount, simple to use, and a great solution if youve got a small number of firearms and you want to keep them secure. I highly recommend it.
A good gun cabinet at a good price
To begin with, and as others have pointed out, this is more of a lockable rifle cabinet than a safe. But, its a great product if you know what you want. Before I get to that -- If youre looking for a massive, fireproof gun vault that can withstand a determined thief armed with tools, this is not the item for you. If you have a crazy teenager in your house and youre worried he is going to grab your rifle and ruin someones day, this not the item for you and also, why are you reading reviews? You should probably be in family therapy. On the other hand, if you have small children and you need a safe place to store several rifles for all of the obvious reasons, and mostly youre concerned with curious little hands and the occasional nosy guest, then this is a great solution. If you need a lightweight, easy-to-install cabinet with some modern conveniences and you dont want to drop 900 bucks on a solid-steel, 200 lb bank vault, you should consider this cabinet. The fact that it is lighter than a full-on safe is actually a selling point for me. With a baby on the way, I decided I should probably not have my guns out in the open in my office, or just stuck in the corner in my closet. I was keen to keep them within close range (heh) of where I sleep. My wife thinks I am nuts, I think I am prepared. Anyway, she humors me. So I settled for my office, which is across from the bedroom on the second floor. Because this rifle cabinet is on the lighter side (80 lbs) I got it up the stairs just fine and Im not worried about it being too heavy for the floor. It was easy to position and mount. And YOU MUST MOUNT THIS CABINET. Not to keep anyone from stealing it (if anyone can steal an 80 lb gun cabinet with five guns and ammo from the second floor of my house without me knowing about it, they win -- they can have all that shit as far as Im concerned) but to keep it from tipping over. The door is quite sturdy and heavy. When open, it doesnt take much to tip the cabinet over. The easiest thing to do is mount it to the wall. If you have baseboard molding and cannot put this cabinet flush against the wall, you can do what I did and use an appropriately sized piece of wood as a spacer/offset to make up the difference (in my case, a 1x3). I secured it to the wall with 2 good sized lag bolts -- shes not going anywhere. The locking mechanism is simple and it works. As others in the reviews have done, Im going to purchase some motion-activated lights, both internal and external, so that I can see what I need to see in the dark -- the control panel, inside the safe (which is actually quite dim, because it is a big black metal box!) and so on. If the user inputs three incorrect open codes, the alarm will sound and the number pad will be non-functional for 30 seconds. Its a nice little feature. The cabinet itself is roomy enough. I have an Enfield WWII bolt action (.303), a Remington 800 tactical shotgun, and a Ruger 556 in there, with space for two more. There is also a smaller lockbox at the top of the cabinet that could easily hold a handgun, but I use it for storing passports and other items. Theres lots of creative solutions for additional storage, including magnetic spice rack holders, building a shelf on the bottom, etc. If youre even a little bit creative, you can find a ton of ways to customize this thing. One last thing. The unit came damaged, but it was NOT the manufacturers fault. UPS clearly had a field day with this safe while in transit because when I got it, the box was beat to shit and upon opening, I noticed one of the corners of the cabinet was banged in and the weld-seam was cracked. As I mentioned, my main concern was keeping my guns out of the hands of small children and further, the crack was on the back corner where nobody (including me) can see it. So this was not a huge deal for me, but I felt like I should let the company know. I did, and the customer service was great -- Alan is responsive and polite. He clearly cares about customer satisfaction. Overall, a terrific cabinet for the price. Easy to move into place and mount, simple to use, and a great solution if youve got a small number of firearms and you want to keep them secure. I highly recommend it.