I have a large Liberty Safes gun safe.  However, I would like a small handgun safe for near the bed.  My wife and I now have children (triplets) and I would like to have a way to keep my atleast one gun more accessible then having to get into the big safe.  Of course, I need to know if the small safes actually work, and are safe from little hands.  If not, then I will simply have to figure something else out.

I keep a 14x8 inch digi safe in my bedroom,I also have to worry about little fingers.
They work and they will keep out kids ,but if you go away or are not going to be home for a while I would lock the gun up in the big safe.
My buddy has a holster screwed to the back of his headboard but he doesn't have any kids.
His wife makes him put the gun in the safe during the day,she has her own house gun [:D]  

I have a large 'gun vault' - don't remember if that is the name of the product or the company - that has 4 buttons in a 4 fingertip pattern  that you can program to any code you want.  works just fine and mine (the large version) has two levels so I can store 2 gns, ammo, flashlight etc.  They make a smaller version (about 2/3 as tall) for one gun plus stuff and they make a deluxe version of both sizes with interior lights when the door is open.

Try [url]www.gunvault.com/[/url]

How do you like your liberty safe?  I am looking for a safe and have looked at liberty, pentagon and stack-on to get a sense of price differences

Phased Plasma:  I really like my Liberty safe.  I looked around alot and this was the one I purchased, but I do not remember why.  The locking mechanism has always performed smoothly and I have had it for several years.  I do recall that fire protection was important.

Thanks for the advise on the "gun vault."  I just read about those on the web and think that may be the way to go.  One question, is the finger layout easy to use, or is it just a gimick?

Yes, it is easy, but it depends on where you mount the box.  I have mine on a high closet shelf where I can't even see the keys, but I can reach up and put my hand in the grooves and tap-tap-tap and the door opens.  This is kind of cool because just looking at the box where I have it, you can't even see the keys, so a child or intruder will have no idea how to even start to work on it.

You can program the keypad so you have to use more then one finger at a time too.  For example: Ring & Pinky fingers at the same time then index & pinky fingers.

If you mount it close to the floor, I would suggest mounting it upside down (keys on bottom) or door up (keys on side).  If you are right handed, you could also mount it so the keys are on the right-most side of the box.  It really does work, but I would just not mount the box where you wrist is bent backwards to do the keys.

Browning makes a mini-safe.  About 250lbs.

[img]http://browning.com/products/catalog/safes/images/160751l.jpg[/img]

I have the small version of the 'gunvault(?) bolted to my bedrail. Works like a charm. 4 diget fingertip code, door springs open,...

I’ve got a Gunvault that I like except that it seems to eat batteries pretty quickly.  Also, unfortunately, the batteries are fairly difficult to get at.

Note that the spring-loaded door opens with considerable vigor!!!

Let me caution you against anything with a traditional Simplex lock.  This has five push buttons and is strictly mechanical – you push the buttons to enter your code and then turn a butterfly lever to open the lock.

I bought gunsafes with Simplex locks for the agency where I used to work.  One employee’s teenage kid was able to open his gunsafe by experimentation but, luckily, just did it as a challenge.

I also was able to open a couple up myself by experimentation when the combinations got lost.

Simplex locks can be made hard to open by experimentation but you’ve got to know what you’re doing when setting the combination.  Ultimately, the number of possible combinations is limited.

Most electronic locks have some sort of lock-out after so many failed combinations are entered to prevent experimentation.  I’d definitely suggest you get something with this feature.