A Man And His Gear

Reviews and news about a man's favorite gear

Here’s how much You should Spend on a Good Gun Safe

Reading Time: 4 minutes //  by 

We may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Thanks for the support!

There are so many gun safes on the market today, ranging from low end safes, to high end safes in excess to many cars on the market today. However, finding the right safe for you in this ever-changing market can be difficult, and even more difficult is knowing what the right budget is going to be.

So how much is a good gun safe? A good gun safe with a high security level is going to cost you somewhere in the range of $3000 to $4000 or more. However if you aren’t looking to spend quite that much, safes that will do the job well, and are reliable can be purchased in the $1000 to $2000 range.

[Image courtesy of Rhino Safes]

With all of that said, it really comes down to your wants and needs for a gun safe. If you are just looking for basic storage, you can have great gun safes down at the $600 price point even, however it will be missing a lot.

You just really need to be aware of exactly what you are buying, and don’t assume it will do more than another more expensive safe.

A great rule of thumb is to make sure your safe’s value is about 10-20% of the cost of all of the items you have within the safe. So if you have $10,000 in the safe, you likely should spend in the range of $2000 to $3000.

What makes a safe cost more?

There are a few different things that can drive the price of a gun safe up, and it mainly comes down to build quality, security, thickness of the steel and the fire rating.

What you can do, is take the pricing we talked about before, and treat it like a sliding scale. If you don’t need one feature, you can spend money on another safe that may not have that feature, and is less expensive.

Thickness of steel

Gun safes are primarily made up of steel that can range heavily in thicknesses, ranging from thin steel like 16 or even 14 gauge steel, to safes with 1/2″ steel or more!

The thicker the steel is, the more it is going to cost! This is not only because of the material cost, but also the cost of the machinery that is required to bend, and form the thicker steel that the heavy duty safes require.

Fire rating

As we learned about in this article here, fire ratings can range heavily in gun safes, both in ratings, and material used to be able to achieve those ratings.

Cement fire rated safes tend to be incredibly expensive, while safes with drywall tend to be less expensive due to their cost of development.

The nicer the fire rating, the more expensive the safe is going to be!

Another Note: Higher end fire ratings are also going to be more expensive due to the testing required to uphold them, and give the consumer trust.

Quality of build

Just like everything else on the market today, there are companies that have a high quality of build and low quality of build.

Not only does this come down to the quality of components like locking mechanisms, carpeting, lighting and even mirrors, it also comes down to other important things like continuously welded bodies and fitment.

Security options

This is another big component of the safes price! The cheaper a safe is, the more basic it is going to be. With some lower end safes only having a key lock, with basic one to two locking bars.

However once you get into higher end gun safes like Fort Knox or Browning you will see re-lockers (regular and glass), gear ratios, clutches, inner steel liners, ballistic liners, stainless steel liners, and the list can go on.

What specifications would I consider a “Good Gun Safe”

[Image courtesy of Browning]

There are a couple things I would want on a good gun safe. These would be 11-12 gauge steel, a name-brand locking mechanism, fire rating of 60 minutes at 1200 degrees, 4 sided locking bolts (or bars), USA made, and have a capacity of at least 25-30 guns.

This would make for a well rounded gun safe, that you know is quality made, and you can trust to take care of your belongings.

If this sounds like the specifications that you like, the main ones that come to mind are the Browning Silver SR33 you will find here, or the Rhino CD6030X that you can find here. Both of these safes have all of these things!

Good gun safes at different price points

On this site, we have talked about a huge range of safes under different price points to help you get an idea of what to expect!

Here are quite a few of our articles that you might find interesting at different price points.

Frequently Asked Questions

What companies make good gun safes?

There are quite a few quality gun safe manufacturers out there today. Some of the best names in the industry are Liberty, Fort Knox, Browning, Vault Pro, Champion Safe and more. On the budget end, we like companies like Snapsafe, Tracker Safe, and SecureIt.

Can you buy a good gun safe for under $200?

A full size gun safe under $200 will generally not be a safe that will give you much security at all. At this price range, you should think about some alternatives like under bed safes, handgun safes, or nightstand gun safes.

Are there any companies that don’t have good gun safes?

I don’t personally like to call out any companies in particular, however if a full-size gun safe does not have a brand-name lock like SecuRAM, or Kaba on it, I would steer clear. Basically, if you don’t see a name on the lock, its a no-go.

Conclusion

While the best, good gun safes are in the $3000 to $4000 range, you definitely can get respectable gun safes for quite a bit less than this!

I hope this article helped you find out what price you should be looking at on your safe, and what features you may be willing to do without if you need to go to a lower budget.