Most gun safes are essentially a metal box with drywall walls and a dismal array of barrel supports and some shelves. I lived with my safe as it shipped for a very short time before I moved to Gun Storage Solutions’ rifle rods that helped reclaim space and get rifles easier to get to. This setup worked for a few years but it always left me wanting more.
I weighed the options of all the different modular retrofit kits and finally settled on the SecureIt Gun Storage system as the best balance of options, modularity, and price.
Unfortunately I did not take photos of the process of converting my safe to the system, but I did take a good video of the process. See the video below for how it all gets installed and then continue on for updates since the video was taken.
The products I used were the following:
- Steel 12 Gun Retrofit Kit
- Pistol Peg Rack
- Small Steel Panel (needed two of these)
- Bin Kit (added after the video was shot)
- 4 Gun Shelf (added after the video was shot)
The heart of the retrofit comes with the steel 12 gun kit. This includes enough stock bases to fit 12 rifle stocks, 12 barrel rests, and two large metal louvered panels. I wanted more vertical real estate so I added two more small steel panels to run above the included large ones.
I knew I would need a place to put my pistols so I also purchased the pistol peg rack, which will hold 11 pistols, but no .22LR sized ones. The pegs are too large of a diameter to fit on a 22 pistol, so I had to come up with another plan for my two 22 pistols.
My solution came with the bin kit, which included a couple different size bins and some metal storage bins. Between the two different sized bins both my pistols fit just fine.
The metal storage bins allowed me to fit my 10 magazine pouches from Glock (I will use four of these, one for my G43 mags, one for G17 mags, one for G19 mags, and lastly one for my P10C mags.
I wanted to get some of my shorter guns up off the floor to give me some space for ammo cans under them, without getting in the way of things on the top of the panels. The solution here was their 4 gun metal shelf. I did notice after putting the shelf on the wall and adding any weight to it the wall panel started bowing away from the wall. I ended up having to add a few more anchors near the shelf to keep it nice and tight to the wall.
After everything was installed it was reconfigured probably 10 times, playing with different options along the way. The photo below shows the current setup that I am happy with for now, with the guns I own today.
I only have room for 3 more rifles, and I already have one more on order! But the way the safe is setup I can add more panels to the side walls and get some more rifles in the safe in the future.
You’ll notice the safe is well lit, and I think that’s critical for safe enjoyment. If you can’t see in it, you’ll be frustrated using it.
I ended up purchasing this light kit from Amazon, and it was super simple to install. As you can see in the photo below the wiring is pretty simple. I drilled a small hole in the front right corner of the safe to get the power cord into the safe, then I used velcro strips to affix the motion sensor to the ceiling. From there the wiring goes to 6 linked 12″ light bars. Each light bar has 3M double stick tape on it so that it easily sticks to the carpet corners. Two bars per side and two above the door produce nice even and bright lighting in the safe. It turns off after four minutes of non-motion. Since it’s powered by a wall outlet I don’t ever have to change batteries, which was a problem with my previous battery powered safe lights.
I also use a Stack-On Dehumidifier in my safe, it’s nice because it is rechargeable and keeps my guns from rusting.
The SecureIt retrofit kit isn’t cheap, but if you catch it on sale it’s not as painful. After spending my hard earned money I still think it’s the best safe investment I’ve made in awhile.