Handgun Safes Provide Quick Access to Your Weapon When You Need it and Security When You Don’t

The best handgun safes don’t just protect your firearms, but they also keep them away from the hands of the inexperienced.

A handgun safe offers many of the same benefits and limitations as the personal weapons they hold. Most of these safes are small in size and can be easily carried, and so they are usually limited to holding one or two weapons. A full-size firearm safe can hold both handguns and multiple long guns, but they aren’t as portable or easy to hide as their smaller counterparts. A handgun safe can hide at your bedside, unlike the larger gun lockups that require much more space.

If you’re the owner of a single gun and not a collector, or if you keep a handgun from your collection nearby for self-defense or target practice, then a handgun safe is a necessity. The product you choose is as personal a decision as your weapon of choice. To help you find the right secure storage, we’ve put together a selection of handgun safes with various shapes, sizes and technology levels so that every gun owner can find the right fit for their weapons and space.

What To Look For In A Handgun Safe

The best pistol safe will have plenty of features. Here’s what you should be considering:

• Locking mechanisms – Some of the best handgun safes have a biometric scanner, but it’s also a good idea to have a lock with a keypad and a key lock for backup entry. Backlit keypads also help with seeing the numbers in the dark.
• Silent entry – When there is an intruder, you want to catch them by surprise. Silent entry allows you access into the safe without a sound.
• Tampering alerts – Some handgun safes register when someone tries to get into the safe with backup keys or incorrect fingerprints or keypad entries. This lets you know when someone other than you has tried to get into your handgun safe.
• Power options – Some are battery-powered and some can be recharged. It’s best to decide what you think is more convenient for you.

The Best Handgun Safes for Sale in 2021

Owning a handgun comes with a huge responsibility, and one of the most responsible things you can do is get a quality handgun or biometric safe to keep it secure. Storing your handgun in a safe keeps your weapon from others during a potential break-in, and also keeps it out of the reach of children.

Keeping your handgun safe and secure is incredibly important for your safety and for others. With that in mind, we’ve picked the best handgun safes with the most reliable and secure features to keep your handgun ready for when you need it, and safely stowed away when you don’t.

1. Moutec Biometric Gun Safe for Pistols

BEST OVERALL

Made from reinforced steel like most handgun safes on the market, the Moutec Biometric Gun Safe for Pistols offers multiple ways to access the weapons locked inside. You can choose biometrics via thumbprint, a key code or an actual key to open the sealed safe. In reverse, you can use all three means to lock the case, tripling down on safety precautions and keeping the pry-resistant door closed. It’s that mix of triple security and high-quality construction that puts this at the top of our list.

Buy: Moutec Biometric Gun Safe for Pistols $159.99

2. AweSafe Gun Safe

RUNNER UP

The AweSafe Gun Safe carries some of the more advanced engineerings amidst this collection. You can lock or unlock it via key code or thumbprint, and it uses familiar solid steel compression. It adds a gas strut for silent opening in case you need to access the gun inside without indicating its hiding place or your location. The interior also includes soft LED lighting to allow clear sight into the box without disturbing surrounding darkness.

ON SALE NOW

Buy: Awesafe Gun Safe

3. Vaultek VT20i Biometric Pistol Safe

CONTENDER

This pistol safe has plenty of features that you’ll appreciate. For starters, the biometric pad allows for quick entry, and the door opens automatically upon entry. The backlit keypad helps you see when you need to gain access in a dark area. When it’s open, there is a built-in light inside of the safe to help you see the contents inside. Oh, and you can also see a history of openings, manage fingerprints, check the battery life and unlock your safe with the Bluetooth app. It’s one of the only handgun safes that need to be charged, but 2.5 hours plugged in provides four months of battery life.

Buy: Vaultek VT20i Biometric Pistol Safe $269.99

4. RPNB Mounted Gun Safe

BEST MOUNTED SAFE

While most of the other handgun safes here are built for tabletop or bedside use — or designed to travel with the gun owner in safety — the RPNB Mounted Gun Safe is designed for on-wall construction. It reduces clutter while offering a clever brand of “quick draw” design as the case opens to release the gun “handle-first.” Like the other entries here, you still get the steel construction and the multiple means of entry from key code to standard key lock.

Buy: RPNB Mounted Gun Safe $109.99

5. VAULTEK LifePod

CONTENDER

While every handgun safe in this collection will do the job of protecting your personal weapon, few of them have much of an aesthetic sense. They’re essentially black boxes built purely for function. The VAULTEK LifePod takes on that same function, but the compact gun safe option has a little more visual flair. Employing steel construction, the LifePod locks on closure and unlocks via either a touch-activated keypad or a physical key. Sleek and compact buy highly secure, it’s one of the best handgun safes for safer storage.

Buy: VAULTEK LifePod

6. SentrySafe QAP1BE Gun Safe

GREAT NIGHTSTAND OPTION

A quiet and compact handgun safe for your nightstand or drawer. It can easily fit one standard handgun and two clips inside. You can program up to four different fingerprints, and when it opens, the gas strut opens the case for you without making any noise, making for silent and quick entry. Beyond the biometric entry are a keypad and a key override if the batteries die. It is constructed of steel, pry-proof and DOJ certified.

Buy: SentrySafe QAP1BE Gun Safe $168.16

7. Barska AX11556 Biometric Gun Safe

ALSO GREAT

A DOJ-certified safe with two motorized deadbolts and tamper-resistant edges keeps your firearms safely secured. The fingerprint reader only needs to read about two-thirds of your fingerprint to open, making the scanner reliable and open often on the first try. When you need to access your pistol safe quietly, the silent mode allows noiseless access. And feel free to mount it inside of a desk or closet using the pre-drilled holes.

Buy: Barska AX11556 Biometric Gun Safe $259.99

8. RPNB Portable Security Safe

 

PORTABLE PICK

While some of the entries on this list offer multiple ways to both lock and unlock the handgun safe, the RPNB Portable Security Safe offers a simple four-key access system. If someone tries the wrong code, or should a thief pick up and make off with the safe, an onboard alarm alerts the gun owner. If you should somehow forget your four-digit pin number, you get an emergency access hard copy key.

Buy: RPNB Portable Security Safe $62.99