By Mike Schoby
If you have firearms, you should have a secure way of storing them. Most opt for large, heavy safes commonly found at big box retailers. While they may look impressive with massive bolts and heavy overall weight and “supposed” fire protection, a lot is for show and not so much for go. A common battery-powered circular saw with a carbide blade will cut through the sidewalls of most traditional safes in minutes; a single guy with a refrigerator dolly can wheel even the largest model out of your garage pretty quickly if it is not bolted down. The fire protection is generally not as protective as claimed and if you move, enjoy lugging the safe from home to home (ask our own Charlie Benton how he recently broke his foot and, subsequently, the internet, with pictures of the hideously swollen, burrito-like aftermath). In short, traditional safes are not perfect and can be a pain in the ass.
I live in a rural place with an extremely low crime rate, so for me, safes are not about absolute theft security – that is a secondary requirement. Safes for me are about restricting unauthorized use, keeping honest people honest and being able to keep guns organized in a manner that I can find them, access them and show them without fishing through guns piled upon each other like in a traditional safe. Traditional safes are a lot like chest freezers and duffel bags – whatever you are looking for is always buried.
SecureIt cut its teeth designing and manufacturing US military and law enforcement armorer rooms and they offer a lot of different products from steel “louvered” panels to outfit an entire vault room, to ammo and gun lockers, to handgun storage solutions to safes. For my needs, their Agile model safe looked like a perfect solution.
First and foremost, the Agile line is assembled at your site—which is great for shipping directly to your home/business, or moving from location to location. The safes are delivered to your door by standard carrier and each box weighs around 120 pounds. Inside the box, the safe components are perfectly padded and packed—6 pieces in all—top, bottom, back, sides and door – individual pieces weigh between 10 and 35 pounds which makes transport, say up a flight of stairs, a piece of cake. Follow instructions and the first one will take about 30 minutes to assemble. After learning on the first one, additional units can be assembled in about 10 minutes each.
The Agile system is completely modular. So you can buy one, or multiple to fit a large space or multiple ones for dispersed storage throughout your home, which I really like. It is nice having the ability to have one small safe in the back of the master bedroom closet, another in the den and more in the basement or garage. By dispersing firearms, you avoid keeping all your eggs in one basket, increases your ability to quickly access a firearm and increases the time a burglar has to be in your house to find them—which they want to minimize.
Inside, the Agile features louver cuts, and what the company refers to as Cradlegrid technology, which consists of repositionable barrel cradles and stock bases so the units can be set up to hold a variety of different lengths or styles of long guns perfectly. The Cradlegrid system allows for the ultimate in customizable configurations with pistol pegs, baskets for small items, ammo or magazines as your needs dictate.
Available in either a 52-inch tall or 40-inch tall versions, I chose the Quad Kit Pro which has two of each model and comes with additional accessories. Each unit holds 6 long guns and numerous handguns on pegs depending upon configuration. They stack like building blocks—secured to each other as well as to the floor and wall studs behind them. Once assembled, I stored 24 long guns and about 24 handguns total—in other words, about half of what every good red-blooded American needs. Simple solution: I ordered two more 52-inch models to increase capacity and I can keep adding more as my collection grows.
To access the safes, simply key your code into the touchpad and quarter turn the handle and voila, you are in. When closed and the handle is turned it auto relocks—so no accidently forgetting to lock the safe. In six months of testing, the digital keypad has worked flawlessly, but in case the 9v battery dies, a physical key override comes with each safe.
I received a couple of other nice additions to the safes, namely magnetic rechargeable LED lights which illuminate the interior in either a bright white or a soft red glow and a door panel organization system which screws on into existing threaded holes on the door providing pockets for magazines, tools, suppressors and even a couple more pistols.
While no one gun security system is perfect for everyone, the Agile system comes pretty close for many.
Pros: Lightweight, portable, organized storage
Cons: Not the ultimate in security, but if you need more you should consider building a concrete underground vault room…or moving to a better neighborhood.
