HORNADY - RAPiD Safe Night Guard

I did not read the reviews prior to ordering the Night Guard. While waiting for my delivery, I started checking reviews across the internet and started to worry about things like "difficulty with programming", "instructions were confusing", "doesn't keep time", "no liner or padding to prevent marring your gun", etc. Then it showed up. I'm middle of the road tech savvy. I had the unit programmed for the RFiD tag and keypad code, time set, and ready to use in about 10 minutes. No issues, Hornady's instructions were clear and worked for me. The drawer has a nice plastic liner that shouldn't hold any moisture and won't mark up your gun or other belongings. Maybe this is a new and improved version based on previous reviews? It seems to be a solid well made safe for its intended purpose. I'm guessing the warning to never store a loaded firearm inside the safe is, among other things, due to it not being a fire rated safe. I am happy with it. And the price from Brownells could not be touched anywhere else locally or online. The casual observer would never know it was anything more than a nightstand clock/phone charger and I don't have to worry about my bedside weapon ending up in the wrong hands.

This is a solid, heavy, well-built unit. It holds my 2 Rugers, an LCP and LCR in their holsters, along with a couple of magazines. It locks securely and the spring opener works very well. The "tie-down" cable is robust, too. Having USB is a great addition, and in spite of other reviews, the ones on my unit seem solid and work well. It's worth a 5 star rating, even at full price, and even with the small problems, which are 1) slightly confusing programming, and 2) a display that dims, but not quite enough that it's still a bit too bright to sit next to my bed at night, so I turned it facing away. Everything considered, I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with it.

This Hornady gun safe provides a safe place to keep a firearm by your bed with the peace of mind that your weapon will be quickly accessible while at the same time kept from those people you dont want to have access. It is solidly built and, at least to me, heavy. At first glance it looks like a digital clock on the night table next to my bed. The clock is accurate to the second. RFID four items which came with the safe all work quickly to open the safe. It also has a keypad which can be used to open the safe. There is also two keys provided which can be used to open the safe. The safe can be secured by a strong cable as well as being locked down with screws. This is the perfect way for me to safely store my gun and/or valuables in a secure way. I would gladly recommend this safe to anyone.

First the positives - the safe is heavy, strong secure and so far the safe portion works as it should. This COULD be a 5-star item, but needs a little refinement. First, the manual needs to be written more clearly. Programing the keypad was frustrating because there are two different "H" keys on the safe, one inside and one on the face with the digital keypad. As all other programing revolves around using the internal "H" key, it seemed that this was the appropriate key for programing the keypad as well. However, you need to use the internal "H" key first and the external "H" key at the end of the process. This is NOT explained in the manual which does not even mention the external key. Clear explanation would have saved me 30-45 minutes of frustration. The second problem is the USB charging port design. Since this is a big safe and fills a bed side table, the charging ports were a real plus to me. HOWEVER, the USB-C port on my safe does not work and the USB-A port is intermittent at best. The whole pc board the ports are mounted on feels flimsy and is positioned so the cables could potentially cause the circuit board traces to crack. My guess is the entire problem is cracked traces, that may have occurred in shipping due to the weight of the safe. I'd return it for one that had functional ports, but I'd be willing to bet a similar problem might occur in shipping, or by regular use the ports will break anyway. That part of the design needs to be revisited, improved and strengthened. The disappointment in the lack of functionality of the ports cost what is otherwise a very nice item a star. I'd take another 1/2 star off for the poorly written manual, but that is not an option, so I'll give it 4 stars and wish a little more effort had gone into the finer points of the design to make it a 5 star item. However, after a couple of weeks of using the safe I am more than satisfied with the safe features and functionality. The only other suggestion would be the addition of a fingerprint reader to the RFID and keypad access. In the middle of the night, finding the fob or keying in the code would be more time consuming and difficult than simply laying a finger on a reader.