One question I get asked all the time by new gun owners is, “How do I store that gun at home securely?” Now I want to be really clear about something, I think a good full size gun safe is an important tool, and let me talk about that at some point; but primarily what we are talking about here is  your primary personal defense hand gun that you are carrying with you on a daily basis.

How do I secure that? Well there are a couple of things that I want to stress to you, first of all this is not something that you would put the gun in at home. I’m going to recommend you carry the gun on your person at home. That way you have it for immediate access if something happens at the door or get surprised at the backyard on your own property. This is not an excuse not to carry your gun but let me start off with, this is what I consider to be kind of a minimum level of security.  Now, the way this works they come in two different styles, the first style which I have demonstrated here in front of you is this tumbler style and all you have to do is remember what you set your code at, really straight forward, just like a luggage or small lock box.

Read our GunVault SV500 SpeedVault Handgun Safe Review

The second style has a key with it. I recommend having have both of them – the reason is, once you secure your gun in here, you may be separated from that key, such as being in in your pants pocket, the floor of your bedroom, or somewhere in your hotel room. You may have left it in a car, you may have put it in your brief case, it could be in a number of places. No way that you can misplace this combination, so simply put – all you do is you set your combination. This is the default 000, once you got this set, you simply open it up. As you can see, this will secure a relatively full size handgun, and most of your glocks, your 1911’s will all fit in here. When I was travelling a lot, well I would just put my gun,  a couple empty magazines might be a pocket knife, a cigar cutter, whatever I had that TSA really didn’t care for. Put it in here lock it up, put it inside my check bag, didn’t take up a lot of room and I could have my kit ready to go, often time I would put the gun in the whole string here, so when I got the airport, got my check bag, I got load up and I was ready to go get my rental car. This is the minimum level security.

Let me just talk about some things I don’t like about this. First let me talk about this feature. this had little slid here that you could put a cable through, loop the cable back around, as little crimp on here, this prevents from just being simply grabbed. You could put it around the bed, in a hotel room, a piece of furniture, put it around the car seat, anything that will be close….it’s not going to be permanent. It’s might not prevent someone with tools, but it will prevent a casual grab of this box. Couple of the tracking things I don’t like, This mechanism on the top here, as you can see can be kinda moved around and it wears down as you access the box. This is just for the price that you get, you’ve just got to expect that. You need to be careful with this, There are better solutions out there, but I like it just as a first line of defence and also for travelling. It works really well, its tamper resistant that meets the requirements of storing a gun.

Okay, second sight, this is one that I bought, this one happens to be a Winchester e-volt, and as you can see, from  this one, this  has what I consider to be an electronic barometric, meaning I entered the combination with my fingers, Some of them have finger print scanners that  you could program for different things. It also has a key override here on it that you can see.  Now, this safe, is really great because at night in the dark, you can feel the buttons?  This safe may not be the best choice, and the reason I say this is going to alert anyone who could hear the beeps. Now, when the safe opens, it kinda opens vigorously here, and in this safe, you can see that you got a little problem when you try to get a full-size gun out of the safe because you really can’t access the gun firmly and get the gun out. When these things lock up, it could be difficult to get into.

Now let me show you what I consider to be the premier personal gun safe. This is made in the USA, it has a combination lock that you push buttons on just like this one but notice you didn’t hear any beeps. You turn this latch, it’s all the draw is, it opens up for you and then you can access to your gun. This is my daily carry gun, so I take this gun off at night, I simply lay it in here. A couple of things I like about this safe, first of all I just could simply close this safe, and if I don’t turn this tumbler right here, this safe is still open even though its close.  If I’m in a situation, where I don’t have small children, or things like people that I don’t know coming into the bedroom, I could  simply do this to secure it out of sight. But once I want to lock this, I simply turn this latch and now my gun is secure. The other thing is, this is significantly heavier than either one of the other two. I don’t want the safe moving around as I try to access it. All of these can be secure but this one I like because it has some significant weight to it. The next thing is if I was going to attack a safe, most people would tell you that you go in through the corner, you put a crowbar in here, and you crow down, you break the safe open. Rather than just going at it from straight from the metal, you just go to the opening. What I like about this safe is, if we look at this safe, you’ll see that we have overlapping corners here, we have overlapping corners on the inside, and so you can’t just get a crowbar in there and get leverage on it. What your going to do is start bending this heavy outside metal. the other thing that I like is it comes with two layers of foam in the side, for two layers of foam, I can set it up so that I can  put any gun at the top of it or I can put a gun and  a whole extra magazine. What I often times do is take my daily carry with me, a flashlight, and an extra magazine, I could place all, of them in here. When I get ready to leave in the morning, all my gear’s ready to go. I think if you’re going to have a home safe, this is the one to invest in. Let me just review for you real quick why I like it. One is the option of closing it without locking it, it gives me the second option of once I try to access this safe, I don’t have any noise going on. Its heavy but yet its hydraulically assisted on the opening so I’m not going to fumble with it and I can access the gun with a full firing grip when I get into the safe. This I think is the way to go if you can afford one of these safe it’s around about $220 but it’s the only one you’ll ever have to buy. It also makes a good alternative if you can’t afford a full size safe, It’s a great alternative even  to store a couple of handguns in, one underneath the lower foam, put your daily carry gun here, you can secure those.

If you own or have firearms in your home, then owning a gun safe is one of your responsibilities as a firearm owner. Gun safes can be bulky and heavy with most weighting up to 300 pounds when empty. Thus, if you are planning to move it, you need to take time to plan well, acquire the right gear and the right human labor to do it. Most moving companies understand the hassles to move a gun safe, thus they charge ridiculously high fees some charging up to 500 dollars to do it for you. Thus, unless you have some extra money to spend, read on to find out how you can do it yourself.

The first step is to get some people to help.

This can be three or four of your friends or pay some people in the neighborhood to help. As a gun safe can be bulky object, attempting to lift one can easily lead to back injury, leg or arm injuries if you try to move it on your own, especially if you want it moved down the stairs to the basement. Thus, ensure you have at least two people to help you move a gun safe.

Get the right tools for the job.

Remember, as pointed out earlier,  a heavy gun safe should not be lifted with your arms unless you don’t mind breaking something, straining your tendons or pulling your muscles. The best recommended equipment to help move a gun safe is a dolly, preferably with straps and a rating of 1200lbs+. The straps help you to drag the gun safe so that you eliminate the need to lift it from one room to another or down the stairs. If you find one specifically designed for the stairs, then that is better, if not use a ratchet strap or a rope. Ensure that the straps are hooked at the bottom of the dolly to enhance the stability of the gun safe when moving it down the stairs.

After putting the gun safe on the dolly, the next step is to guide it down the stairs. An important thing to consider as you move a gun safe is to ensure that there is NO ONE on the way of the gun safe. Whether it is the people helping you move it, or any member of your family, ensure that everyone stays upside of the gun safe. Hold the dolly and carefully lay it at the top of the stairs with the wheels first and each of the men holding the straps. Carefully push the dolly so the wheels can fall off the edge. As you do this, hold the dolly to a 45 degree angle to the downward slope to ensure that the weight of the gun safe is moving with the momentum. Be sure to ease the wheels of the dolly as you push the dolly down each step on the stairs to avoid damaging your stairs as well as avoid the risk of the gun safe detaching from the dolly and falling off the stairs. Always remember to hold on to the straps of the dolly tightly, until you get to the final stair case, as losing grip of the straps can be catastrophic.

There are several ways to move a gun safe; this is just one of the most common methods. If you don’t want to use the dolly, you can use a hand-truck with an electric stripper. However, be prepared to part with some extra money, as the hand-truck can be more expensive than the dolly. Hiring a professional to move a gun safe can be the best option since you don’t know if your stairs can support the weight of the gun safe. Some people try to do it on their own, only to end up spending more to repair the staircase and hire a professional to move the gun safe which they should have done in the beginning. So think carefully before you choose the best way to move a gun safe in your home.