Some of the benefits of a dedicated handgun safe are that it offers quick access to the firearm and usually has room for extra magazines and a flashlight.
Some of the benefits of a dedicated handgun safe are that it offers quick access to the firearm and usually has room for extra magazines and a flashlight (a must for home defense). Companies such as Sentry, Hornady and GunVault offer safes with a variety of locking mechanisms ranging from conventional key and tumbler to RFID chips to biometric fingerprint scanners, and they accommodate a range of budgets.
Testing
Over the past two years, I’ve gathered handgun safes from Sentry, Hornady and GunVault to evaluate their long-term durability and reliability. All the safes are sufficiently robust for their purpose. I was curious how features would stack up against each other, especially considering the price points, and how well the components worked with repeated usage. The last thing you want is your Spidey-sense awakening you from a deep sleep and your safe failing to open.
The NanoVault is the simplest, smallest and most versatile handgun safe of the group. It holds enough firepower at home or while traveling. The foam interior hasn’t developed memory imprints and remains wholly intact.
I also timed how long it took to open each type of lock and noted any hiccups. For this, I approached each safe cold and averaged the first five tries. Any more attempts than this would allow me to establish a rhythm that wouldn’t be representative of real-world scenarios.
GunVault NanoVault 200
With 25 years’ experience, GunVault is the veteran safe manufacturer of the group, and it shows with their depth of firearm-specific products. The NanoVault 200 is the simplest and most portable handgun safe of their
