Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF
Pros
- Compact and Unique Size
- Fire Rated
- Comprehensive Lifetime Warranty Covers All Components of the Safe
- Fully Carpeted Interior
Cons
- Low Quality Solenoid Lock
- No Hardplate or Relocker
- Very Easy to Break Into with Tools
- Made in China
Sports Afield has been around for quite a few years now and is owned by the parent company SA Consumer products. They operate out of Tacoma Washington and are commonly found on Tractor Supply, Walmart, Home Depot and occasionally Costco. While they don’t have a great reputation for quality, they offer a full comprehensive lifetime warranty covering all components of the safe so if anything were to go wrong, you can rest assured you are covered. The Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF is a very unique product and truly the only one of its size. Overall, I think it is a decent product for 1 or 2 long guns at a very attractive price and in this review I’ll help you understand the both the good and the bad.
Lock
First and always most important for any gun safe is the lock used and the Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF features the standard Chinese Solenoid Lock with key override. This is not a particularly good lock with known issues and quite easy to break into. Because it has the dreaded key override, it does not come with a hardplate or relocker. I consider these essential features for a gun safe in addition to a UL Rated lock made by NL, SecuRam or S&G. These Chinese locks are unbranded, which is typically a big red flag. In my experience, this lock will inevitably fail and you will end up using the key to get in and out but since it is covered by their lifetime warranty, you can get replacement parts sent out to you. This lock does retain the batteries on the inside so be sure to keep your keys handy when the batteries die.
Security
The Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF is CA DOJ approved as a firearm safety device which is not a difficult test to pass but does ensure it has the absolute most basic security features. Unfortunately, Sports Afield intentionally does not list the steel thickness but considering it weights 128 lbs, we can safely assume this is 14 gauge at most and more likely 16 gauge steel construction. The door features five 1″ locking bolts with three active and two deadbolts on the hinge side. This little gun safe also comes with an audible alarm which helps alert you if your kids are tampering with the safe in another room.
Fire Rating
Very uncommon for a safe of this size the Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF has a 20 minute fire rating at 1200 degrees. This fire rating has not been tested by an independent agency like UL or ETL and is only a factory test. We don’t have any verifiable evidence that this safe can survive even a standard house fire which burns for an average of 20 minutes. Personally, I would not trust my valuables inside this safe in a fire.
Style and Function
The Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF has a fully carpeted interior with four soft touch, overmolded gun racks and a steel top shelf. It’s finished in a textured black powder coat with drop down handle and I’m not particularly enthralled with the styling. It’s a very basic, cheap as you can get, tiny gun safe.
The Bottom Line
Would I buy the Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF to store my firearms or valuables? No, I would not. Personally, I would opt for a UL RSC burglary rated gun safe with a UL approved high security lock and 1 hour fire rating as the bare minimum for storing firearms and valuables. A safe like the Stealth UL14 Gun Safe is a great example of something that has all of these features yet still keeps a compact size that can fit in an apartment or closet. If you are only storing one firearm away from a kid and are not concerned with fire protection or actual theft, I think the Sports Afield 4 Gun Safe SA-HDF would be a decent fit but I would even consider a cheaper cabinet with no fire rating as I really don’t think this safe will hold up in a standard house fire or determined break-in.
