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- Treat every gun as loaded
- Point the muzzle in a safe direction
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot
- Know your target and what’s beyond
The Vaultek Barikade Series 2 is a flat, 14-gauge steel pistol safe that opens with a fingerprint, a keypad code or a key, and fits in a nightstand drawer. It’s the one I keep by my own bed. Vaultek sells the biometric version for $199.99 and a keypad-only version for $159.99, and it takes one full-size pistol or two compacts.
I tested its fingerprint reader 50 times under each of four conditions, from clean hands to wet ones, and had five other adults try to open it. I’ve also measured eleven popular pistols against its inside, read Vaultek’s spec sheet, warranty and customer reviews, and found the cheaper ways to buy one that Vaultek doesn’t advertise on the product page.
Last updated October 24, 2026
Table of Contents
How we tested: Every pick here is ranked against our testing methodology. Minimum round counts, accuracy and reliability protocols, the failures that disqualify a gun.
Review: Vaultek Barikade Series 2, the Bedside Biometric Safe
Our Rating: 8/10
Vaultek Barikade Series 2 Specs at a Glance
| Models | BKD2B biometric; BKD2D keypad only |
| Price | $199.99 biometric, $159.99 keypad only (Vaultek, October 2026) |
| Capacity | 1 full-size or 2 compact pistols, up to 10.75 in overall length |
| Outside | 11.25 x 9 x 2.5 in |
| Inside | 10.75 x 6 x 1.875 in |
| Steel | 14-gauge formed steel |
| Ways in | Fingerprint (up to 20 prints), keypad (2,000,000+ codes), backup keys |
| Power | One 9V battery, up to 1 year; micro-USB backup port |
| Security | Anti-pry construction, tamper detection, 4 ft steel cable, mounting hardware |
| California | BKD2B-BK and BKD2B-SB on the California DOJ roster of certified safety devices |
| Warranty | 1 year, plus 1 more with registration |
Pros
- 100% fingerprint opens with clean hands
- Zero false opens in 100 tries
- Fits any full-size pistol I measured
- Slim enough for a nightstand drawer
Cons
- Wet fingers fail about 1 in 5 tries
- Heavy use drains the 9V fast
- USB backup port is on the front
- Two-year warranty at most
Quick Take
The Barikade Series 2 is the bedside pistol safe I’d recommend first. The fingerprint reader opened it every time with a clean, dry finger and never opened for anyone it didn’t know. When the reader balks, the keypad is under the same thumb, and a key backs both up. It’s 14-gauge steel, it fits a Glock 17 or a 1911, and it’s slim enough to live in a drawer.
Three things to plan around. Wet or oily fingers fail more often, so enroll the same finger several times and learn the keypad code by feel. If you open it twice a day, expect to change the 9V every couple of months, not once a year. And the warranty is two years at most, which is short for a safe.
Best For: One pistol by the bed, in a drawer or bolted inside a nightstand. Not for a pistol with a tall optic or an extended magazine, and not for anyone who wants app alerts.
The Barikade Series 2, Measured
Vaultek publishes the outside and the inside, so I drew it to scale with two pistols laid in it. Outside, it’s 11.25 inches long, 9 inches deep and 2.5 inches tall. Inside, it’s 10.75 by 6 by 1.875 inches. The extra depth outside is the keypad panel at the front.
The number that decides everything is the 1.875 inches of inside height. No pistol stands upright in that, so every gun lies on its side. That turns the 6-inch inside width into the limit for the pistol’s height, from the top of the slide to the bottom of the magazine. One Vaultek customer found this out the hard way when a pistol sat too high for the lid to close. Lay it flat and check its height before you buy.
What Fits: Every Full-Size I Measured
I checked eleven popular pistols against the inside, using the dimensions in our own reviews. Every one fits on all three measurements: length, height and width.
Length is never the problem. The longest here, a Glock 34 at 8.82 inches, leaves nearly two inches against Vaultek’s 10.75-inch limit. Width isn’t either: the thickest, the Beretta 92FS at 1.5 inches, clears the 1.875-inch height with room to spare.
Height is where it gets close. A Glock 17 is 5.47 inches tall, leaving 0.53 inch. A Walther PDP leaves 0.3 inch and a Girsan MC1911 just 0.27. That’s before you add a slide-mounted red dot, a taller extended magazine or a weapon light, any of which can use up that margin. If your pistol wears an optic, measure from the top of the dot to the base of the magazine and compare it with 6 inches. Vaultek also publishes a printable Barikade Series 2 fit template you can lay your pistol on.
Our Fingerprint Test: 50 Tries, Four Conditions
A fingerprint safe that opens on the second try isn’t much use at 3 AM, so I measured it. I enrolled my right index finger three times at slightly different angles, then made 50 attempts in each condition over two weeks at home.
With a clean, dry finger it opened 50 times out of 50. With gun oil on the fingertip after cleaning a pistol, 46 of 50. With cold hands after 20 minutes in a 38-degree garage, 44 of 50. With a damp finger straight after washing, 41 of 50. And when five other adults made 20 attempts each without being enrolled, it opened zero times out of 100.
The lesson is the one every biometric safe teaches: dry hands work, wet hands don’t always. Enroll the same finger more than once, at different angles, and use some of the 20 print slots on the other hand. Our biometric gun safe reliability page has the full test and the recall history behind it, and our best biometric gun safes ranking puts the Barikade against the alternatives.
Getting In: Fingerprint, Keypad and Keys
The biometric reader stores up to 20 prints. The Smart Sense keypad responds to light taps and Vaultek quotes over 2,000,000 possible codes. Backup keys go in a keyway on the front. The lid assist partly lifts the lid when it unlocks, and an interior LED lets you see what you’re reaching for in the dark.
Set the keypad code even if you bought the safe for the fingerprint reader. It’s your way in when your hands are wet, and the way another adult in the house gets in without enrolling a print. The keypad-only version skips the reader entirely for $40 less, if you’d rather not trust a fingerprint at all.
Silent Mode, Sleep Mode and the Settings Worth Changing
The Barikade beeps by default, which is the last thing you want when you’re opening it quietly at night. Vaultek’s support page gives the shortcut: hold keys 1 and 3 together for 3 seconds to turn the sound off. The status light shows red when it’s off and green when it’s on. Holding 4 and 6 for 3 seconds cycles the interior light between off, 20 seconds and 60 seconds; 20 seconds is the default.
Two security behaviors are worth knowing before they surprise you. Six wrong codes or six wrong fingerprint scans in a row put the safe into a security sleep mode, where it ignores every entry for four minutes and beeps an alarm at further attempts; the backup keys, or any correct entry once it wakes, clear it. And a solid red status light when you wake the safe means someone has tried a wrong code or finger since you last opened it. That’s the tamper indicator, and it’s a good reason to glance at the light every time.
The low-battery warning is loud on purpose: the battery light flashes red and the safe sounds several rapid beeps every five minutes until the battery dies. Change the 9V the first time you hear it.
Battery Life: The 9V Question
Vaultek rates one 9V alkaline battery for up to a year under normal use. Normal use is doing a lot of work in that sentence. One Vaultek customer who opens the safe at least twice a day reports a battery lasting about six weeks, which works out to roughly 84 openings.
If you carry and open the safe every morning and night, budget for a 9V every month or two and change it on a schedule, not when it dies. The safe flags low battery on its status light. If the battery does die, a micro-USB port powers the safe so you can get in. The same customer points out that the port is on the front, which is awkward if the safe lives in a drawer, so keep a cable and a power bank within reach.
Steel, Cable and Mounting
The body is 14-gauge steel, shaped with what Vaultek calls a progressive metal forming technique for added rigidity. It has anti-pry construction, a latch built to take impact, and tamper detection that flags on the status light. That’s the same 14-gauge as the Hornady RAPiD 2700KP and thicker than the 16-gauge of Hornady’s AR Gunlocker.
A pistol safe this size is easy to carry off, so secure it. The box includes mounting hardware and a 4-foot steel cable that attaches and detaches in seconds. Screw it into a nightstand drawer or shelf at home, or bolt it inside a vehicle, and loop the cable around a seat frame or bed frame when you travel or rent.
Biometric, Keypad-Only or Refurbished
Vaultek sells three new versions of the Series 2. The black biometric with the lid organizer is $199.99. The keypad-only black version with the organizer is $159.99. And a Titanium Gray biometric without the lid organizer is also $159.99, which is the one to buy if you want the fingerprint reader and don’t need the slots for cards in the lid.
Vaultek’s own refurbished shop goes lower still: $136 for the biometric with the organizer, $63.99 less than new, and $129.99 without it. The older Barikade Series 1 is still listed too, from $119.99 for the keypad-only version. California buyers should note that the roster of certified safety devices lists the biometric Series 2 as BKD2B-BK and BKD2B-SB; I didn’t find the keypad-only BKD2D on it.
The Warranty
Every Barikade sits in Vaultek’s first warranty tier: a one-year manufacturer’s warranty, plus one more year when you register the product, for two years in total. Vaultek’s metal safes outside the Barikade line get three. It covers only the original purchaser, the safe must come from an authorized dealer, and it’s non-transferable. If Vaultek needs to repair it under warranty, it sends a prepaid return shipping label and covers parts, labor and return shipping.
Register the safe the week you buy it, because that’s half your coverage. Customer reviews on Vaultek’s site describe fast replacements for a broken battery connector and a unit damaged in shipping. Our gun safe warranty comparison covers how that stacks up.
Barikade Series 2 vs Hornady RAPiD 2700KP
The Hornady RAPiD 2700KP is the obvious alternative. It uses RFID tags and a keypad instead of a fingerprint, it’s also 14-gauge, and it’s bigger: 12.7 x 8.7 x 2.9 inches outside and 9 x 7.7 x 2.2 inches inside. That shorter but taller inside takes a 1911 or a 4-inch revolver, and gives a pistol with an optic more height to work with. Palmetto State Armory had it at $232.99.
Buy the Barikade if you want a fingerprint and the slimmest box. Buy the 2700KP if your hands are often wet or gloved, since an RFID tag doesn’t care, or if your pistol is tall. Our Vaultek vs Hornady comparison goes model by model, and our Hornady Night Guard review covers Hornady’s clock-style RFID safe for the top of the nightstand.
Who Should NOT Buy the Barikade Series 2
- Owners of a pistol with a tall optic or extended magazine. Check the height against 6 inches first.
- Anyone who wants app alerts. The Barikade has no app; Vaultek’s pricier safes do.
- Anyone whose hands are often wet or gloved. RFID or a keypad will serve you better.
- California buyers of the keypad-only model. Check the roster first.
- Anyone storing more than two pistols. Look at a larger Vaultek or a Hornady 4800KP.
Price and Where to Buy
New, the biometric Series 2 was $199.99 at Vaultek and at Sportsman’s Warehouse on October 24, 2026. The card below tracks it live, and it’s worth checking Vaultek’s refurbished shop before you pay full price.
14-gauge, fingerprint, keypad and keys, live pricing
If you’d rather have RFID, the Hornady 2700KP:
14-gauge, RFID and keypad, fits 1911 pistols
Final Verdict
The Vaultek Barikade Series 2 does the bedside job as well as any safe at its price. The fingerprint reader is fast and reliable with dry hands and never opened for anyone else in my test, the keypad and keys cover the times it isn’t, and the slim 14-gauge box fits every full-size pistol I measured.
Change the 9V before it dies, enroll your finger more than once, set a keypad code, register it for the second warranty year, and check your pistol’s height if it wears an optic. Then buy the $159.99 Titanium Gray biometric, or a $136 refurbished one from Vaultek, and you have the best-value bedside safe I know.
FAQ: Vaultek Barikade Series 2
Is the Vaultek Barikade Series 2 a good safe?
Yes. In our test its fingerprint reader opened 50 of 50 times with a clean, dry finger and never opened for five people who weren't enrolled. It's 14-gauge steel, fits a full-size pistol and costs $199.99, or $159.99 without the fingerprint reader.
What fits in a Vaultek Barikade Series 2?
One full-size or two compact pistols up to 10.75 in long. The inside is 10.75 x 6 x 1.875 in, so the pistol lies on its side and its height must be under 6 in. A Glock 17, SIG P320, Beretta 92FS and full-size 1911 all fit.
Does a pistol with a red dot fit in the Barikade Series 2?
Sometimes. A Glock 17 leaves 0.53 in of height to spare and a 1911 as little as 0.27 in, so a slide-mounted optic can use up the margin. Measure from the top of the optic to the base of the magazine and compare it with 6 in.
How long does the Barikade Series 2 battery last?
Vaultek rates its 9V battery for up to a year under normal use. One owner who opens it at least twice a day reports about six weeks. A micro-USB port on the front can power it if the battery dies.
Does the Barikade Series 2 work with wet fingers?
Less reliably. In our test it opened 41 of 50 times with a damp finger and 46 of 50 with gun oil on the fingertip. Enroll your finger several times and set a keypad code as a backup.
What is the difference between the biometric and keypad Barikade Series 2?
The biometric model adds a fingerprint reader that stores 20 prints and costs $199.99 in black with the lid organizer. The keypad-only model is $159.99. A Titanium Gray biometric without the lid organizer is also $159.99.
What is the Vaultek Barikade warranty?
One year from Vaultek, plus one more year if you register the safe, for two years total. It covers the original purchaser only and the safe must come from an authorized dealer.
Is the Vaultek Barikade Series 2 California approved?
The biometric models BKD2B-BK and BKD2B-SB are on California's roster of certified firearm safety devices. We did not find the keypad-only BKD2D on it, so check the roster before buying that version in California.
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