Small Gun Safe Buying Guide: 5, 8 and 10 Gun Safes

A small gun safe holds 10 long guns or fewer, by the maker's count

This page covers the compact end of our gun safes list: safes their manufacturers advertise for 10 long guns or fewer. Think 5 gun safe, 8 gun safe, 10 gun safe. The table sorts them from the smallest advertised capacity up.

Most look like a slim version of a full-size safe. A tall steel body, a door with locking bolts, a dial or keypad, a rack for long guns and usually a shelf or two. Some are short, shelf-only safes meant for handguns and ammunition.

Where the cutoff sits matters for a few common searches:

• Gun safe 12 and gun safe 18. These are just above our cutoff. They're in the full list on gun safes.
• Medium gun safe. No standard defines "medium." Anything advertised above 10 guns and below 24 is on the full gun safes list.
• Large. Safes advertised for 24 guns or more are on large gun safes.
• Small gun safe for pistol. If the guns in question are handguns only, our handgun safes page is the closer fit.

Who a small gun safe suits, and who should skip it

A small gun safe fits a household with a few long guns and limited floor space. It's the safe for a closet, a spare room or an upstairs bedroom where a full-size safe won't go.

Good reasons to buy small:

• A short list of long guns that isn't likely to grow much
• Space limits: closet depth, door width, a staircase you'd rather not test
• Floor and delivery limits: smaller safes weigh less, which makes stairs and upper floors realistic
• A second safe for a different room or a different person

Skip it if:

• Your collection is growing. A safe that's full on day one has no room for the next purchase. Buying the next size up now is simpler than buying a second safe later.
• You own handguns only. A handgun safe opens faster and fits a nightstand or drawer.
• You only need locked storage, not tested resistance. A gun cabinet is lighter and simpler. Our guide to gun safe vs gun cabinet explains what you give up.

Children and storage laws

If children live in or visit the home, the safe should stay locked whenever it isn't in your hands. Keep the code and any backup key where a child can't reach or find them.

Storage laws differ by state. A U.S. Department of Justice commentary on model safe storage legislation notes that some states require secure storage only when a minor could gain access, some when a prohibited person is present, and some whenever a firearm is unattended. Check the Department of Justice commentary and your state's official site. This page is not legal advice.

What to look for in a small gun safe: interior, steel, rating, anchor

On a small gun safe, every inch and every pound is a trade-off. Five specs decide whether it's the right small safe.

Interior dimensions beat the gun count

The advertised capacity is the manufacturer's number, with the manufacturer's assumptions. It rarely says whether those guns have scopes, slings or wide stocks, or whether the shelves are in. Ten guns, if none of them wears a scope and nobody needs the shelf.

Measure instead:

• Your longest gun against the interior height, with room for the barrel rest
• Your widest gun, usually a scoped rifle, against the interior depth
• The door panel and shelving, which take space the gun count may assume is empty

Our guide to gun safe dimensions walks through the measuring in detail.

Steel gauge: lower number, thicker steel

Gauge runs backwards. Under the federal standard gauge for sheet steel, 12-gauge is 0.1094 in, 14-gauge is 0.0781 in and 16-gauge is 0.0625 in. Check the stated number, not an adjective like "heavy-duty."

California's Department of Justice standard is a useful yardstick even outside California. It asks for walls of at least 12-gauge steel, a door of 7-gauge plate or two layers of 12-gauge, at least three ½-inch locking bolts, a combination lock with at least 10,000 combinations behind a hardened drill-resistant plate, and protected hinges.

Burglary rating: UL RSC, or nothing in writing

A UL Residential Security Container (RSC) rating comes from UL 1037. At Level I, the safe must resist a 5-minute attack by one person using common hand tools and a small electric drill, without the door opening or a 4-inch hole appearing in any surface.

It's a modest test, and an independent one. California also accepts a gun safe listed to the UL RSC standard by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, as an alternative to its construction checklist. Our UL safe ratings guide covers the higher levels.

Fire rating: separate test, separate label

UL says an RSC label is a burglary rating only. Fire protection is rated separately. A fire rating should give you time, temperature and who tested it. If the listing gives a temperature and a time but no lab, it's a manufacturer claim, and the table says so.

Weight and anchoring

A small gun safe is easier to get into a closet, and for the same reason easier to carry out of one. Most have anchor holes in the floor of the safe, and the manual names the hardware. Liberty Safe warns against drilling a post-tension concrete foundation, so find out what your slab is first. Our guide to how much a gun safe weighs puts the numbers in context.

Placement and humidity

A small gun safe usually ends up in a bedroom closet, because that's where it fits. That's also a spot police burglary advice warns about. The City of Lewisburg, Tennessee police department's prevention page lists closets among the "obvious places" not to leave valuables. If you have a choice, a spare room or a utility closet works as well and is less predictable.

Wherever it goes, two practical checks:

• Door swing. Measure the space the open door needs, not just the footprint. A closet that fits the safe may not fit the open door.
• Moisture. A closed steel box traps whatever humidity is in the room. Our guide to gun safe humidity covers rods, desiccants and what to aim for.

The lock

Small gun safes come with mechanical dials, electronic keypads and fingerprint readers. Each has trade-offs covered on its own page: gun safe combination locks, keypad gun safes and biometric gun safes. On electronic locks, check where the battery is and whether there's a backup key.

How to read the small gun safe table and choose

The table is sorted by advertised gun capacity, smallest first. That puts 5-gun safes near the top and 10-gun safes at the bottom. It does not rank them.

To choose between rows:

1. Filter out anything too short. Interior height against your longest gun is a pass or fail.
2. Compare interior volume and depth. Two "8 gun" safes can differ a lot inside.
3. Check the steel gauge column. Lower is thicker. A dash means the manufacturer didn't state it.
4. Look for an RSC rating and a fire rating with a named lab. A claimed rating and a rated one are not the same row, even when the minutes match.
5. Check the weight against your stairs and floor. Then plan the anchor.

If you're between two sizes, pick the larger one when it fits the space and the floor.

Measure your longest and widest guns before you look at another gun count. Find the rows whose interior fits them with room to spare, check the gauge and the ratings, and confirm the weight works for your stairs. Then check the price, and bolt it down where it's going to live.