There are lots of ways to securely store your guns and other valuables. Most of them, however, are expensive. And heavy. And hard to move. There’s plenty to be said for a 1400-pound fire-rated safe that can hold 40 guns. I have one and it’s great. But 1) not everyone has that many guns, 2) not everyone has the cash to buy that kind of safe, and 3) some people want to keep guns, ammo and gear in a second location that’s still secure, but quicker to access.
To wit: the SecureIt Agile Model 52 gun safe. It’s not fire rated. It doesn’t hold dozens of guns. It’s not heavy. What it is, however, is easy to put together, light enough to move to another location by yourself, flexible in its configuration possibilities and, yes, it keeps your guns and other stuff securely stowed away.
Some will quibble with calling the Agile Model 52 a safe. They’ll tell you that, ackshully this is a gun cabinet and I suppose they’d be correct. But SecureIt calls it a safe so for our purposes here, we’ll call it a safe, too.
Obviously, a storage device like the Agile Model 52 isn’t going to protect what you keep inside like a heavy, fire-rated unit. It isn’t meant to. The Model 52 will, however, keep your guns ‘n stuff out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have access to them. It’s made of steel, has a quick access digital keypad with analog key backup and is easy to assemble.
In fact, if you buy one, you’ll have to put it together yourself. The Agile Model 52 comes in a disassembled in a large flat pack that weighs about 100 pounds. SecureIt recommends having another person help you during the assembly process, but it’s not a must. I put mine together myself in about 45 minutes. It’s really no big deal.
I could have taken a lot of photos showing you all of the parts and the assembly process, but that would have been stupid because SecureIt has already made this video showing how it’s done and how easy it is.
I got the door organizer to maximize all of the available storage space. That gives you even more room to keep pistols, magazines, ammo, miscellaneous valuables, whatever.
Finally, I finished tricking mine out with a rechargeable, magnetic light bar. It charges via a USB cable and has a motion sensor so it turns on any time you reach inside. You can even set it to put out red light rather than white…if that’s something you’re into.
You can access the safe quickly using the programmable backlit electronic keypad. It’s powered by a standard nine volt battery. It also has a biometric function to open the safe with your fingerprint. You can choose to use the biometric function or not.
There’s also a standard key backup in case your battery dies. If you remove one of the screws that holds the wolf head logo plate on the door below the keypad (see above), that exposes a keyhole you can use to open the safe the good old fashioned way.
The completed Agile Model 52 safe weighs about 100 pounds when it’s all put together. That’s light enough to move around by yourself if you want to relocate it. At 15½ inches deep and 20 inches wide, it fits easily inside a closet — that’s where I keep mine — where it will stay out of sight, but still be easy to access quickly. There are holes in the bottom so you can screw it down to the floor which isn’t a bad idea.
You may think that because you assemble it yourself, it will feels loose or rickety. You’d be wrong. The steel Model 52 is a solid unit that does a great job of securing your stuff. It gives you plenty of room a store a number of firearms — as many as six long guns — along with gear and other things and lets you configure it to fit your specific needs. It’s also affordable. You can get a Model 52 starting at $599. That’s low enough to earn a spot on your Christmas list if you’ve been a particularly good boy or girl this year.