Liberty Revolution 12 Gun Safe - Review

With gun safes, bigger is often assumed to be better. Buy bigger than you think you'll need they say...you'll outgrow it within a weekend.

That's all well and good, unless size, weight and logistical considerations make a giant, 700 pound gun safe impractical.

Many of us have limited space for a gun safe...and if you're married, the "allowable" spots you can put a safe dwindle dramatically. Or, maybe you've got a tight doorway or stairs to get up. Maybe, for privacy reasons, you want to move the safe into place by yourself. Or maybe you move frequently.

Yep, there are lots of circumstances that might put you out of the market for a big ol' Liberty Fatboy or similar, big 600 pound, refrigerator-sized traditional gun safe. If none of the above circumstances apply to you and you've got a big ol' gun safe sitting in the corner, hats off to you.

The Liberty Revolution 12 is compact and well made.

Personally, most of the above considerations applied to me. Limited allowable space--a corner in a small walk-in closet. Stairs, move frequently, wanted to be able to move it into place myself, too.

I'm also more of a utilitarian gun owner versus a collector, so I don't have mass quantities of guns to store. I don't need a giant gun safe at this point, so that's good.

So I went in search of a smallish, closet-friendly safe. Each major safe company has one or two of these in their line-up--usually rated for 10-14 guns and sometimes marketed as "entry-level" gun safes.

Unfortunately, these safes are also usually designed like entry-level gun safes - cheap construction, minimal fire protection, no-name locks, lousy interiors and bottom of the barrel in terms of actual security.

Of course, even "Residential Security Container"-rated safes are only rated to withstand 5 minutes of prying with hand tools, but most of the closet-friendly safes are probably closer to 30 seconds of prying.

After lots of comparison shopping and looking at the offerings from every single major safe maker, I decided on the Liberty Revolution 12.

A few things pushed me over to the Liberty. One of them was this video, which shows the strength of the Revolution's locking bar design versus more traditional safes locking mechanism:



While it's not impervious, the Revolution is tougher than competing safes in the same size class.

It also met the other requirements I'd set out for myself: made in the USA, available locally, at least 30 minute fire rating, S&G mechanical lock.

The Liberty brand name and the lifetime warranty they offer for every safe was icing on the cake.

The Liberty Revolution safes were on sale during Black Friday of '14 at Gander Mountain, so I woke up early and braved the crowds to save a little cash. Cost was just over $400 out the door. Regular pricing is closer to $500, which is still fair in my opinion.

With the help of one of the employees, I was able to load it into the family tactical minivan. With the help of my wife and a dolly, we got the safe up our garage stairs and into position without too much trouble or injury. Two average strength men with a dolly could move it up a flight of stairs without problem or breaking much of a sweat.

I've now owned the safe for 7 months and access it several times a week. Luckily, have not had to put its burglary or fire protection to the test (nor do I plan to). I've had absolutely zero problems with the safe and am thus far very happy.

It's not particularly spacious, but it does what I needed it to in the space allowed. I think around an 8-long gun capacity would be a decent assessment for what could fit into the safe without too much trouble. Lock has functioned well, finish has held up flawlessly. No problemos at all.

My one knock against the safe--which is almost universal for gun safes -- is the one-height-fills all barrel rests. They're designed for a height that would be appropriate for a hunting shotgun or rifle, not an AR or a home defense length shotgun. Not a deal breaker, but wish safe manufacturers would figure this one out.

If you're in the market for a quality closet-sized safe, the Liberty Revolution 12 is tough to contender to beat.

Black Friday 2014 - Deals / shopping list...

Well, Thanksgiving is nigh upon us, and with that comes the steepest discounts of the year.

Slickguns has ad scans for many of the major firearms-related retailers if you're looking for a one-stop-shop.

Soldier Systems has a really good listing of deals from online merchants, found right here.

Amazon of course has lots of  deals, including night vision and thermal stuff at a pretty steep discount. We're an Amazon affiliate, so if you do any shopping through one of our Amazon links, we get a small kick back from them. Costs you nothing and is one of the primary sources of fundage for the blog, so we certainly appreciate it. Click here to start shopping.

If you find some scorching deals that you want to point the tribe too, post 'em up in the comments.

This year, I'm shopping for some deals on a closet-sized gun safe, a HSP D3CR (original flavor), Mayflower or Velocity plate carrier and general AR-related goodies. Need to buy some uppers, so we'll see if there's anything that has me biting. Also in the market for a subcompact 9, but haven't made up my mind on model and don't anticipate any scorching deals.

Gun Bed???

Found this cruisin' for gun safes. Pretty tricksy.

Not sure how I feel about all that leopard print...

Question for the Tribe: Safe Recommendations?

Well, I need to get a safe.

Son #2 is fascinated by the "boom booms" and likes to go exploring for them. They're all stored in a safe/secure fashion, but having the toddler trying to get into gun cases is no good. There's nothing he can do with 'em if he does get to 'em, but its the principle of the thing.

And, of course, lots of other good things about having a safe.

So, a bit about what I'm looking for:

I've got a couple handgun safes, but need something for the long guns. 12-24 in terms of capacity. My long gun collection isn't that big and not growing that quickly, and I don't have space for a giant 100-gun, walk-in safe just yet.

Looking to spend somewhere in the ballpark of $1K.

We've historically moved around a fair bit. We own our home now, are more settled and have no imminent plans to move, but I'd put the chances of us moving within the next 3-5 years somewhere at 50-75%. And moving a 700lb safe would be a challenge.

For those who have moved with a conventional safe--how big of a deal is it? We could move across town or across the country.

Conventional safe, I'm looking at the AmSec safes - SF and FV lines. We've got a couple dealers 'round these parts.

But, the move deal has me a bit worried, which leads me to look at the modular safes - some assembly required.

Zanotti has been around a long time. They're a bit more than I want to pay, and the wait time is a bummer.

SnapSafe is another option I've come across new on the market. They're a bit less expensive, seem to be ready to order. A 7 gauge Titan would probably be the one I'd go with.

As far as I'm aware, those are the two main players in modular safes these days. If you know of another company making these things, let me know.

So--that's where I'm at. Looking for recommendations from the many who have been there, done that--fire away!

And, I'm not opposed to less conventional options - quality gun cabinet, for example, or something else.

Edited to add: I'm looking for a safe, or something that will be basically as hard to get into as a safe - so a really, really solid gun cabinet. Something that crooks would see and give up on trying to get into pretty quickly.

Fire resistance is a nice to have--generally, it seems that to get good fire protection, you have spend a fair penny extra. It's not worth it to me to drop an extra $1k out of the budget to go from 30 minutes to 60 minutes or whatever.