If you have firearms at home then you need to have some type of gun safe to keep them in. A desk drawer or a cabinet some place is not very secure. So then what type of gun safe should you have? There are so many varieties of gun safes on the market today and some times it can be almost overwhelming trying to decide which one to buy. This article will explore some of the gun safes that are available and see if this can help you with your decision.
What Type Of Gun Safes Are There?
Some people really like the big, huge gun safes that take up a lot of room and have many compartments for about anything you desire to put in them. They are great except they are also extremely heavy and may take a forklift to set it in place. Then there are lighter gun safes that are more modular and can be put together on a wall to hold whatever you desire. There are small handgun safes that can fit in a drawer or in your care to keep your handguns safe. And then there are Hide away wall safes that can be hidden and mounted in your wall. Let’s look at each of these and give you a better idea.
Large Heavy Traditional Gun Safes
When many people think of a gun safe, they
think of the large traditional Gun safes that are multi compartmentalized and hold 20 plus long guns and many handguns as well. These safes utilize a keypad and/or combination in order to lock and open their doors. Inside they have a carpeted interior with adjustable shelving that will fit anyone’s needs. The one negative thing about these safes is that they are very heavy. Some of the common brand names are AMSEC (American Security, Browning, Liberty Safes, Fort Knox, Hollan, Gunvault, Gardall, Mesa, Ironman, and Mountain House.
Small Lighter Modular Gun Safes
I named these gun safes “
smaller, lighter, modular” gun safes , because they are meant to be bolted to the floor & wall and they can be placed in a clothes closet, utility closet or even a food pantry. Now why would you desire to place a gun safe in any of these locations? The object of this type of gun safe is to put them in more than one location in your home. Then if a situation occurs, you do not have to go to one central location in order to get a rifle or handgun. This type of gun safe can be placed any where in your home. These gun safes can hold many long guns and handguns, or only a couple long guns and hand guns, to suit your needs. But you can also put them together in one place
to have a modular, multiple gun cabinets setup. It can 
work however you need it too. Now they usually have a biometric lock mechanism for quicker gun access. There are quite a few companies that offer this type of gun safe: Hornady, Snapsafe, Steelhead Outdoors, but my favorite is Secure-it. They have many to choose from and if they do not have what you want then it may not be available. It breaks the traditional idea about gun safes but it is definitely worth thinking about.
Small Portable Handgun Safes
There are many companies that make small portable
handgun safes for your home, when trying to decide what you need, these are things to consider:
- Locking mechanism: Electronic, biometric, or key lock.
- Security features: Heavy-duty construction,
theft resistance, and fire protection. - Accessibility: Quick access for emergencies.
- Size and placement: Suitable for the
space you have available and the location you choose for the safe.
- Locking mechanism: Electronic, biometric, or key lock.
Once you have made up your mind about what you are looking for then you might look at AMSEC, Stealth, Liberty, V-Line, Browning, Hornady, BILLCONCH, RPNB, Fort Knox, just to name a few. At the same time you are looking at manufacture’s, you also need to look at styles of handgun safes. and the location where they would fit best. All these possibilities will help you decide what would work best for you.
Vehicle Gun Safes
Once you get your home safe for your firearms
all setup then you need to consider your vehicles. The days of throwing your handgun in your glovebox or under the seat is not the best thing to do these days. Even tossing it in your trunk is not the safest thing to do. You don’t want your handgun rattling around in the trunk.
There are many different companies that make vehicle handgun safes, here are just a few: Fort Knox, SnapSafe, Vaultek, 
V-line, Hornady, and Stealth Safes. Many of these are sold at Amazon so that is something to consider if you are in the market for a vehicle gun safe. I purchased one from Amazon, MADOATS Car Gun Safe, and it was pretty darn cool and works really well for my pickup. I don’t use it a lot but it is always there incase I need to lock my handgun in my truck. You never know when you are going to the post office, other federal building or need to go inside a school and those are some places that do not allow firearms. If you carry your handgun you should definitely have a secure way to lock up your handgun.
Final Comments
There are many types of gun safes, as you have seen from this article. Is this article fully inclusive of all types of gun safes – No! But it gives you a good idea of what is out there. It does not really matter which type of gun safe that you have, the main thing is that you need one that works for you. It is not like the old days when guns were hung over the mantle/fireplace or stuffed in a cabinet somewhere.
Because of the many accidental shootings that have occurred lately, we need to take the responsibility to lock up all of our forearms so that small children or visitors to your home can not have easy access to our guns, This means the owners of firearms need to find some type of gun safe to lock up all their guns to keep them safe and out of harms way. With all these types of gun safes to choose from, it make things much more versatile to find something that really meets our needs.
I hope this article has got you thinking about gun safes. If you already have a gun safe – Great! If you do not have one yet then its time to start doing some research about gun safes and find out what type of gun safe would work best for you. If you have any questions, please ask me and I would be glad to help you any way I can. Just put your question in the comment section below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
If you have any questions about this post or anything related to Everyday Carry (EDC), feel free to leave a comment below and I will be happy to get back to you.
All the best,
Larry
Founder of EDC Essentials
offer advantages in bright to moderate lighting conditions by providing a clear, bright, and easily visible aiming point, potentially aiding in faster target acquisition and shooting. However, they rely on ambient light, making them less effective in total darkness compared to night sights that glow with tritium.
from acquiring the dot. However they also offer no benefit. When it’s dark enough to need the night sights your dot will be way brighter. Then when using any white light to identify a target the night sights will wash out and not be able to be seen. 
a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, which emits beta radiation that excites phosphor material, causing it to glow
The methods are the same but the paint options are different. I use a good quality spray paint to paint my sights but there are other options, model paint or fingernail polish works too. I like the way spray paint flows on your serrations, model paint or fingernail polish is very thick to work with. A very easy option is to use 
to mask around the area that you will be painting. I would rather take some extra time up front to mask the area good so the paint will go where I want it to go rather than drip paint on the side of the sight and then
have to scrape the paint off after it is dry. I like to cut the tape in strips and place them around the area to be painted, it is easier that way. (It is very important to make sure the edges of your tape are pressed well.
debris and then spray the paint inn the cup so you have a nice amount of paint to use.
place the sight as flat as possible so the paint does not run some place that you do not want it to.
there that will work great with your handguns. 
will go with any wardrobe that you have. But you need to consider this option very carefully. If you ignore this choice and try a normal belt with your handgun, you will be very disappointed and probably not enjoy your experience.
that has been worn for so long is being challenged. IWB holsters are just not the most comfortable holsters to wear even though they are very comfortable. Many gun holster manufacturers are beginning to look at OWB holsters as potential concealed carry holsters and are making them tighter to your hip and therefore more concealable.
open carry and with a couple minor adjustments to your wardrobe it will turn it into a concealed carry option. All you need to do is wear a firm belt that is designed to hold a handgun and a good cover garment and you are all set for concealed carry. There are many gun belt makers these days, just check the Internet and you will be amazed at how many there are. But it is really important to wear a belt that can stand the weight of a firearm.
the OWB holster from view will work for concealed carry, a coat or jacket, sport coat, vest, untucked shirt, Baggy sweatshirt is all that you need to turn things into concealed carry. Keep in mind that you will need to keep that outer garment on, whether you are inside or outside so it is important to consider your options.
heavier garment off and leave the lighter garments on to cover your handgun. But you must realize that your cover garment must be long enough to cover the barrel of your handgun, even if you are reaching up to grab something high-up. As you reeach up your outer garment is pulled up higher and can expose the bottom of your holster. So you must keep that in mind when you are choosing the clothes that you wear when you are wearing a handgun. 
Aholster Company, in Telford, Tennessee, Alan does an excellent job and I really like his holsters. These holsters are made from Kydex and that is my favorite holster material.
Due to its high degree of toughness and resilience, Kydex can also be stretched at room temperature to twice its original dimension without breaking.
It was also about 20 years ago and prices of ammo were a lot cheaper then they are right now. Then came COVID and ammo prices went through the roof and they really have not come back down to reasonable prices yet! So what do we do now? Pay the high prices or do we think about reloading? Luckily, I still have all my reloading equipment and most of it is useable today. 
It is not a big fancy progressive press, like the blue Dillon press in the upper picture, that will turn out lots of bullets in a short period of time. It is just a single stage press, Rock Chucker made by RCBS, thats in the bottom picture, but it will work for either handgun or rifle ammo and that’s what I need. Lets look a bit closer at this topic and let you make a decision.
bullets it is necessary to get certain equipment:
, any centerfire bullets can be reloaded, but rimfire cartridges cannot. A centerfire cartridge is a type of ammunition that has a primer in the middle
of the base of the cartridge casing. Centerfire cartridges are used in handgun, shotgun and rifles.
It was a Taurus TCP, .380 ACP, two-tone beauti and I thought I found a great deal (see the photo at the right). I made an impulse buy! Not a good idea when you are talking about a handgun! I was an experienced shooter, I had already purchased quite a few firearms and I never thought I would buy on emotion. I did not look into the facts, the reviews, etc. I just bought a cute little gun. So to make a long story short it was not the best gun for me. In the rest of this article we will talk about many things about pocket pistols and then wrap things up with my final choice on the pocket pistol that I finally went with.
Using a handgun with these smaller calibers is better then having no handgun at all, but you need to look at each caliber from a self defense perspective before you place your life on the lines with one of these smaller calibers. 
. If you look at the picture to the right you will see what I mean. With a shorter case, you have less powder in the bullet and therefore less power in that cartridge. While the 9mm has much more power behind it, these pistols are also larger and may be less concealable. 
that covers most of the gun, including your trigger guard. When you carry a pistol in your pocket you need to make sure nothing else is in your pocket so to get in your way of the gun. This holster covers the shape of the gun so it will not “print”. This means other people cannot see that you have a gun in your pocket because they cannot see the shape of your gun. When you carry this way you need to make sure your pants are not too tight and that your pocket has enough room for your gun and holster. If you look at the holster it has a point on the top end and a hook on the bottom end of the holster. This aids in stripping the holster from your pocket as the weapon is drawn from your pocket.
. It needs to fit your handgun and securely clip on to your belt. The holster must cover your trigger guard and keep the handgun in the holster until you are ready to draw it. There is a retention screw on the back end of the holster where you can tighten the holster so the weapon will not fall out. This is a holster that I found on Amazon but it is a pretty good holster for the money.
. This little handgun has great reviews and many people feel this is the best pocket pistol on the market. This is a .380 ACP caliber and it holds 10 rounds in the magazine. They also have a 12 round magazine but I do not like the base plate on that magazine. I added a Pearce grip extension and it gives me a better grip on the pistol. it fits my fingers better and gives me better control of the pistol. The Taurus TCP only held 6 bullets in the magazine so the Ruger almost doubles the capacity and that’s a good thing. More capacity in a similar size package. This
, what a nice little holster that can be slipped in your front pocket. As I said before, it almost disappears in your pocket. It is an excellent combination for this pocket pistol to be concealed. Once this is in your pocket you can have your hand on the grip and it cannot be observed until you pull the pistol out of your pocket and put it into action. Very slick and concealed. These pocket holster by Aholster work great and they will hook on the front of the holster when pulling it out of your pocket or catch on the bottom hook as pressure is applied on the bottom of the holster.
. It is such a small package that it melts into your waistband and you hardly know that it is there. But keep in mind that even though it is small you still need to use a cover garment when carrying this pistol in a IWB holster. That’s why I like the pocket holster better for such a small gun. As a rule If I am going to carry a gun in my waste band I would rather have a larger caliber, with a longer barrel that I shoot better. That being said there are times in the hot summer time where this small Ruger works best in my waist band.
? Or is it just a few Concealed Carry Handgun Permit holders that choose to not carry their weapon? Why would you jump through all the hoops necessary to get your Concealed Carry Handgun Permit and then not use it? I have done some research about this topic, is it true? Let’s explore this topic!
Ruger Redhawk .44 Mag 4″ barrel (picture at the upper right) ever since about 2019 and then you could find them for about $900, if you looked around. Now they are $1200 to $1300, and that is more then I can justify. This revolver is a real beauty and has some nice style about it. A .44 Mag is one heck of a cartridge, its a great trail gun but can also work for self defense. One nice thing about .44 Mag is you can also shoot .44 Special and that is much easier to shoot. There is something about a revolver that always looks pretty cool, but that being said it is not worth $1300.00 in my book. As much as I like this handgun, it will not have a place in my gun cabinet.
(picture lower right), Its not as pretty of a weapon as the Ruger but it is fancy enough for me. I am a “Glock Guy” and I really like these handguns, they fit my hand really well and are the most reliable guns that I own. So I am not too disappointed that this will be my trail gun instead of that fancy Redhawk .44 magnum. A 10 mm is also a great cartridge and works very well for a trail gun. Is it as powerful as the .44 Mag – Absolutely not but it also has 15 rounds available instead of only 6 in the revolver so that’s some firepower. I
and how much I liked this pack. Well I am still using it on a daily basis and it will not be replaced any time soon. For me it is the perfect size and holds the right amount of gear. I tend to carry too much gear because my pack will hold it, this pack limits what I can carry and that works best for me. There are many pockets to organize your gear and that is what I am looking for. I really like the fact that it holds a water bottle, it saves me clipping one on a strap somewhere. There are a lot of packs these days that do not hold a water bottle and that seems to frustrate me. The other thing that is a necessity for me is it has a concealed carry pocket. As much as I like to carry my handgun in a belt holster, my job will not allow me to carry concealed at work so I can keep a handgun in this pack and both of us are satisfied. If you are looking for a great little pack you might check this out.
folder, a really sweet knife. But being out on the farm, I probably cut some baling twine and left it stuck in a hay bale somewhere. Well I always need a knife but I did not want to spend a bunch of money so I went to Amazon and looked for something reasonable. That’s when I saw the Eafengrow EF911 Folding Knife
, for the money it is a really great knife. It is not as smooth as the CRKT but it does work well. The price was $24.99 and works great for an EDC folding knife. The blade shape is not traditional but it turns out to be very functional. It was very sharp right out of the box and with a touch-up on my ceramic knife stone it was extremely sharp. The belt clip works very well, it holds this knife right where I want it in my pocket. I also wrote a review on this knife too back in December 2023 and that got my attention about this folding knife in early 2024.
and it has revolutionized the way I clean my guns. I wrote a review on 
. I have used it for many years and it is the handgun I am most comfortable with. Since it is considered a sub compact handgun, it has a 10-round, doubled stacked magazine that feeds the .45 ACP bullets very reliably. Compared to other concealed handguns it is a bit thick and heavier but I still like it.
, it is a smaller package and prints less with hot-weather clothing. So let me describe my warm-weather clothing, it is a pair of jeans and a tucked-in tee shirt with an untucked short-sleeved shirt as a cover garment. While the Glock 26 is small it still needs something to cover my IWB holster. It too has a 10-round, double stacked magazine for the 9mm bullets and that helps its concealability. But ever since I picked up the Glock 15 I am beginning the reconsider if it is the best handgun to use.
and while it is smaller than the Glock 30 it has a 15-round magazines which works out great is an adequate amount of firepower for a concealed carry firearm.. As I am getting older, smaller handguns feel better in my IWB holsters so this Glock 19 is beginning to seem like a better option for me these days. I replaced the stock plastic sights with XS Sights F8 night sights and they are really nice. They installed very easy and are very accurate. The Glock 19 holds 5 more rounds then the G26 and has a slightly longer barrel, that being said this makes the G19 a bit more accurate and has more firepower. This handgun still conceals very well so that is making me reconsider my gun of choice.
and is new to me, I do not carry it very much right now. I have a few more rounds to shoot through it until it is completely broken-in, but so far it’s working great. But I love the gun and it carries very well in my IWB holster. I ordered a leather OWB holster from Hunter and I am waiting for that to get here. Now because these handguns are single action, they need to be carried “cocked and locked” and that brings up a whole bunch of other safety concerns. Will I address them in this article, probably not! Will I address them in another article, possibly! But if I cut to the chase right now and say when I have this pistol broke-in and I feel it is reliable, I will carry it “cocked and locked”!
and is a pocket pistol, this is also my warm weather concealed carry handgun. So the question comes up, if I have a Glock 26 that I just said was for warm weather then why would I want another one? Well in Colorado we have some fairly hot weather in the Summer and those days I cannot tolerate a cover garment as I sweat very badly. Therefore, thats why I have the MAX. With the right kinds of pants this little gun can be placed in a pocket holster and slipped in your pocket completely un-noticed. Some people might just not carry a pistol on those days when it is uncomfortable. But I would rather have a smaller handgun that can be carried during uncomfortable times and therefore be armed all the time. If you are interested in Pocket Pistols, look for my next article, “My Little Pocket Pistol”, It will have more details about these small guns.