In September, SentrySafe, unveiled an innovative new design for a home gun safe. They are calling this new product the Home Defense Center. This new gun safe was designed with home safety in mind. It combines quick access and high security. The Home Defense Center holds one pistol and a tactical weapon or defensive shotgun for defending your home or your family against an intruder or other threat.
This new safe has several features that make it perfect for home defense. It has an electronic lock for quick access by any authorized member of the house. In a home defense situation, you do not have time to be turning a dial. One note: I am surprised that they did not have a biometric option. Since they are touting this as “quick and quiet access to firearms when it matters most”, wouldn’t a biometric reader with the sound turned off be faster? The designers at SentrySafe did turn off the typical beeps that go with an electronic lock to make the opening of this safe virtually silent. Interestingly, the buttons are not on the front of the safe like traditional gun safes, but actually on the top corner. This allows you to simply put your fingers on the keys and enter the code, much like a GunVault product or even a simple keyboard, all silently. For nighttime access, the keys are back-lit and the safe does come with a back-up/emergency barrel key.
The Home Defense Center has some other innovative design items such as something they are calling a “ready pistol presentation”, which is a built in piece that looks almost like a book end. On the top shelf of the safe, you lean your handgun against this felt covered piece to hold your handgun in an upright and “ready” position for a quick grab. Frankly, this safe doesn’t really even look like a traditional gun safe. First, as I mentioned, it only holds 1 pistol and 1 long gun only, making it very small like a square tall box (about 4 feet tall). Secondly, the door hinges don’t just open a door, but actually swing away 2 sides of the safe. They are calling these their wide berth door to give you quick access to your shotgun or pistol.
SentrySafe 
also added a very interesting item to this safe. The top of the safe has a recessed area they are calling their “personal defense tray”. They are suggesting that every night when you get home or go to bed, you would drop your keys, cell phone, and wallet in this tray. Plus maybe you have a flashlight that sits there always. You build muscle memory each night of where your important items are, so when you are in a crisis situation, you can either quickly grab those items or at least remember where they are. Very nice!
Keeping with the SentrySafe heritage, the Home Defense Center also features the company’s new jumbo 1″ bolts, a pry-resistant door and 12 gauge steel body. Because the bolts are in the corner of the door, even if the hinges are removed, the door is not opening. The company has also engineered new hinges on this unit to make them “whisper quiet” to give you discreet access to your defensive weapon when you need it. Lastly, there is a hidden compartment in the base of the safe for use as a storage area for more ammo, keeping it out of the main part of the safe so that it does not impede the quick removal of any gun.
SentrySafe was founded in 1930 in Rochester, New York. They sell more produces more fire-resistant chests, files, safes, security storage containers and gun safes than any other company in the world with their products being distributed in over 54 countries world-wide. They are proud American company that employs 450 people, most of which are in their Rochester headquarters.
I looked for this new gun safe on Amazon, but did not find it. The SentrySafe website says that it is available at Cabela’s and other sporting goods dealers in the US. They are going to retail for $499. I need to go over to Cabela’s and take a look!