You probably know GunVault best for their handgun safes. They make those small units with the finger indents on top designed for quick access. And I have one of their NanoVaults in my car for those times when I’m forced to venture into a pesky gun-free zone. But they’ve apparently surveyed the firearms storage landscape and seen what I did at the SHOT Show — tactical storage seems to be the new wave. Given that, they’re now out with their own addition to the tacticalia landscape, two new TacVaults to hold that AR or shotty. The version with the No-Eyes combination keypad unit goes for $449. Their model featuring a “biometric interface” (it scans your fingerprint) will run you an extra Benjamin. Press release after the jump . . .
San Bernardino, CA – More and more people are now relying on AR rifles and tactical shotguns for home defense. Because long guns are less concealable than handguns, there has been a growing need for a tactical storage solution large enough to house them. GunVault has answered the need with the TacVault – a secure storage safe that fits discreetly inside most standard sized closets.
The TacVault is capable of holding any tactical shotgun or AR platform rifle.  It has a convenient shelf for storing spare magazines, ammunition, knives or a flashlight. It is predrilled to secure to the floor and features a high-strength lock mechanism that performs reliably, time after time.
Built of tamper-proof 14-gauge steel body (12 gauge steel door) with precise fittings, the TacVault is virtually impossible to pry open with hand tools. It is available with GunVault’s patented No-Eyes® keypad or biometric fingerprint scanner for easy access. Foolproof security is ensured with a backup override key and optional high-strength security cable. An audio and LED low battery indicator protect against direct tampering and unexpected power loss.
The TacVault Bio uses biometrics, specifically fingerprint recognition, to access the safe contents faster and more securely than ever before. A high-performance algorithm is used to achieve speedy identification of enrolled fingerprints and at the same time has a very low False Reject Rate (FRR). The self-learning algorithm adds new minutiae to the fingerprint templates each time a user touches the fingerprint sensor, which decreases the likelihood of FRR, updates slight changes that might occur over time to an enrolled fingerprint and helps diminish variations between the enrolled fingerprints. The system can hold up to 10 fingerprint templates.
GunVault TacVault Specifications:
Model: TV 4810, TVB 4810
Height: 48 inches
Width: 10 inches
Depth: 17 inches
Weight: 80 pounds
Power: One 9-volt alkaline battery (not included)
Access: Biometric fingerprint scanner or digital key pad with key lock override
MSRP: TV4810 – $499.99, TVB 4810 – $549.99
For further information on the TacVault or the complete line of GunVault safes, visit www.gunvault.com.
Love my Gun Vaults for my pistols. Can open in less than one second in the dark and the kids can’t open. I run a cable lock through the back and secure to an existing structure, the type of cable lock used for game cameras. I will get one of these for the shotgun.
Are these fire rated? I wasn’t able to find it on the website if they are.
Not at that price.
Was Gun Vault one of the manufacturers that had vulnerabilities exposed by Mark Weber Tobias a while back? If so, does this suffer from the same vulnerabilities?
I don’t know who that is, but I can crack any of the current non biometric gunvaults that have the ability to be plugged in with a PVC pipe and micro fiber cloth. The company initially was going to fix it, and I think they thought they had a solution, but I cracked the demos they sent me the same way. I haven’t heard anything for a long time.
Most of these companies make locking closets or locking boxes. They are NOT safes and shouldn’t be confused for safes. They will keep people with good intentions from accidently getting your gun (a kid, a visitor to your home who snoops around, etc), but will only slightly slow down a criminal.
Barska has a similar rifle safe, but they made the mistake of not tagging theirs “Tactical”.
http://www.amazon.com/BARSKA-Quick-Access-Biometric-Rifle/dp/B005FDIUPE
Which doesn’t have external hinges and is priced at what the gunvault should be.
Yet the amazon reviews reflect my experience. That the gunvault competitors sell trash for just a little less. I would love to one day have the metal tools to make a safe the way one should be made for this, but until then, EVERYTHING on the market for this niche sucks. Gunvault just doesn’t suck so much to be unusable like the others.
My 3 work great for me. Holds one self-defense gun. I can quickly gain access in the dark, the kids can’t. $80. WTF more can you ask for? Seriously.
Ditto. I’m on my second GV. My 1st one lasted over 8 years. I hope my Barska rifle safe lasts as long in it’s role. No one forced me to buy these. I have good kids and I trust them and their friends, however, I feel better with my own kids and their friends running around with these. Everything should be viewed as a security “layer”. No one product/item will solve all your problems nor fix any fault in your mindset. Expect failure, but plan to buy yourself time. That’s what these product provide.
I forgot to add that I even view my large firesafe as just a layer as well. If we’re out of the house, a thief would be able to crudely open it with the tools in my own garage.
They make a nice product, but they’ve always been overpriced for what you get, pretty much at every product level.
In this case, you have a well constructed middle level vault. It’s at the same price point as a vault of similar quality with the same type of steel, but 1/4 of the capacity for weapons and ammo, of similarly priced products by reputable safe manufacturers.
I’d love to own one of these as it’s perfect for me, but I wouldn’t pay more than $250 for the one without biometrics.
The point of a safe like this isn’t to store your whole collection nor to act as a fire safe. They are made to make a long gun more secure AND at the same time accessible vs. one just sitting in your closet or one in a full size firesafe. This kind of safe will also not prevent a determined thief (or team of thieves) from getting to it’s contents, but neither will most commercial gun safes out there. They merely discourage and/or delay theft.
I’m well aware of what the point of the safe is. My point is you can get an 8 gun safe with the same type of steel for the same price.
I’m sorry, but a 2 gun safe with room for maybe 4 boxes of ammo should not cost the same as an 8 gun safe of comparable quality. GunVault has always been more expensive at just about every level than their competition. In this case, in my opinion, these products are priced at close to twice what they should be.
The quality of Gunvault is so low, I’m surprised to see TTAG promote their poorly designed and made products. They’ve been proven insecure over and over again, have terrible QA and customer service. Just read their reviews on Amazon.
A GunVault is no place for your guns. They should be called ‘GunBox’. I doubt this new product even meets the lowly CA DOJ standard, and they are certainly not TL RSC level safes.
What’s next? Saturday Night Specials?
Ace: Middle of night, window breaks, need a gun quick in the dark, have kids in the house. This is what these are for. No one else is advising to use the Gun Vaults for anything else. You are finding problems for issues that don’t exist.
Middle of the night, my safe is unlocked so I can open it without doing anything but swinging open the door, and my bedroom door is closed so my kids don’t walk in and learn something about the birds and the bees that will put them in therapy 😉
During the day, I have a firearm on my person. So that “feature” isn’t much of a feature, in my opinion.
“They’ve been proven insecure over and over again, have terrible QA and customer service. ”
BS. They have an electronics bug that is correctable that I’m not too keen on, and they aren’t bank vaults, but their customer service and warranty service has been awesome. Anybody that is whining about that didn’t bother to pick up a phone.
My view on these are that they are a good “keep the kids out” vault. For a pro intent on stealing your guns it’s about as secure as a prom dress.
They are definitely NOT kid safe.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcwebertobias/2012/07/27/unsafe-gun-safes-can-be-opened-by-a-three-year-old/
ALWAYS read source studies before believing a bloody word of them. You’ll find 90% of articles don’t report the actual findings, and 90% of the actual findings are BS anyway. The closest mention of gunvault was this:
“As a result of testing this particular safe, we expanded our inquiry and tested virtually every Stack-On model of small safe. What we found was disturbing. Each could be opened in a variety of ways, as we demonstrate. We also tested similar containers from Bulldog and GunVault. We reached out to these companies as well, but they refused to return phone calls.”
First off, I gave Gunvault some grief about the static vulnerability and guess what. The president of the company called me, so I don’t believe for one second they really tried to communicate with Gunvault. They also never mentioned that safes other than Stack-On safes weren’t 3 year old safe which means that they probably did just fine.
Second, Stack-On safes are the lowest of low garbage that are made pretty much to fulfill the letter of the law for CA, but not really do anything. They are absolute trash. The only reason to have one is the cheapest “safe storage” container you can get and only because to live in a commie state. Stack-On pretends to be in the same ball park at a lower cost. They are nowhere close.
It’s always good to keep your 45 GAP ammo stored with your long guns. I’m guessing that was the only box of ammo they could find for the photo shoot, a sad sign of the times.
I’ve got the need for almost exactly this kind of safe. The problem (for me) is that the grade of safe offered by GunVault is exactly as described by others, as in kid safe, quick access without guns just lying about the house. NOT for long term/thief deterrence.
That being said (if you accept the premise) then that leaves me with the following routine: grab guns out of big full size fire/thief resistant (to a much greater degree than the GunVault), move them to the GunVault for whatever time period. Move them back to the big safe when I leave the house.
For all that rigamarole the GunVault, and other like it, isn’t worth the buy in. I’d much rather spend a few more dollars and get a safe I can lock up and leave my guns in it, having the peace of mind of a higher level of security, and not toting guns all up and down my ranch house constantly.
GunVault for your vehicle? Sure. Fits the bill nicely. For long term (when I’m out of the house), no thanks.
Just my 1.1 cents. (Inflation and whatnot…)
I don’t worry about leaving a Glock 17 or Remington 870 in a Gun Vault when I’m not home. I wouldn’t leave a Perazzi in these.
Whatever happened to the good old days when you hung your rifle on a rifle rack mounted on the wall?
Theft and kids kept being a problem.
I can crack any of the current non biometric gunvaults that have the ability to be plugged in with a PVC pipe and micro fiber cloth unless it is permanently mounted against a static ground. The company initially was going to fix it, and I think they thought they had a solution, but I cracked the demos they sent me the same way. I haven’t heard anything for a long time. I wonder if this safe is any better. You can look up my user name on youtube for the videos.
While I don’t trust the non biometric models (unless they are bolted against a static ground – metal, stone, or drywall all seem to work), I do like the biometric models well enough and I disagree with the quality claims. I tried several lower and similar priced alternatives and found them to be just horrible. I would rate gunvaults as being several times better at stopping a smash and grab than similar or lower priced alternatives, and far better in terms of accessibility.
Also, for the biometric models, the trick to getting good reliability out of the opening is to record your finger print several times with different biases. Made a difference for me at least.
But some people, such as me, have very poor finger prints. I can rarely get a good scan. Biometrics are not good for me in an emergency.
These aren’t bio-metric. They have four buttons in finger indents that you set in a combination of four. You then push the buttons in that sequence and the safe opens.
Depends on how poor. I’ve seen a few people (myself and my wife included) that have very shallow fingerprints. Recording the same finger print several times probably makes it more sensitive to cracking (at least theoretically), but it also makes it reliable for opening.
For the non biometric safes, they just need to be bolted to drywall or something and they are fine.
Again, these aren’t biometric. They DO not read your fingerprints. You push the four buttons in a self-chosen sequence. The buttons sit in finger rests so that you just place your fingers in the grooves in the dark. There is no over-riding or faking out as can be the case with the true bio-metric safes.
Joke: They sell both combo and biometric. Read the press release or check the website.
Sorry, was referring to the units in my house.
Gun vault sells both versions. The non biometrics are much easier to crack.
I could go for something like this. I have a bedroom quick access pistol safe, but it bothers me to not have it bolted down. With something like this, I could position it in a corner or closet and have a couple decent pump guns in there.
For the money, I’ve found the Barska Biometrics to be a FAR better value than the GunVault stuff. The small, quick access is primarily a keep the kids away setup. Everything goes into the big, “REAL” safe when away for longer periods of time…
You can add some “fire protection” by lining the insides with drywall. Not 100% the real deal but better than nothing…
5/8″ fire resistant drywall. You also want to get the heat expanding gasket to run around the door.
Coming soon to a grade school near you.
For an extra $250 you can get a safe that can hold 4+ rifles. For $500 thats insanity IMO, for one or TWO TOPS rifles?
OK, one more time. These safes are designed for VERY fast access. Middle of the night access in the dark. THAT IS ALL. No further benefit over real gun safes.
My interest in this subject is that I use three of these around the house and they have solved all my home storage/quick access issues with having kids in the house. For $80 a pop for the pistol version. Fantastic product.
If somebody is coming through the front door, I can get my Glock out of one of these vaults. I WILL NOT be able to get into my real safe in time. And I’m not home carrying.
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