Barska Tall Fire Resistant Safe - 12.30 cu ft Exterior, 8.48 cu ft Interior, 14-Position Rifle Rack, Keypad with Backup Keys, Black

Most safes are built for small things. This one is built for tall ones: a fifty-seven-inch interior behind a forty-minute fire lining, in a cabinet narrow enough to stand in a closet or against an office wall.

It comes fitted as a gun cabinet — a fourteen-position rack, and a listing on California's approved firearm safety device chart that you can check yourself. The removable shelf and the door pouches take everything else.

What it holds

Room for a rack of long guns, the tripod and the hard cases that have no cupboard, and the folder of receipts and provenance that proves any of it is yours.

A note on the number

Barska quote fourteen positions and print the qualification themselves: fourteen, without scopes or accessories. Fourteen across 18.39 inches gives each gun about 1.3 inches of width. A slim bolt-action fits that. A 50 mm objective bell does not — as a working rule a scoped rifle takes the width of two bare ones, and a thumbhole stock or a thick recoil pad costs about the same.

Rack capacities are quoted unscoped across this trade, since a scope is something the buyer adds afterwards. The practical number is whatever your own optics leave you. 

Specifications

Interior
57.44"H × 18.39"W × 13.87"D
Interior volume, calculated: 8.48 cu ft
14-position rifle rack, quoted without scopes or accessories
One removable shelf. Height adjustment, and whether the rack itself lifts out, are not stated by the manufacturer.
Inner locking box: none
Interior finish: upholstered lining
Door organizer: door-mounted pouches

Exterior & siting
59.06"H × 20"W × 18"D
273 lbs
Anchoring: pre-drilled for mounting, hardware included. Whether the holes sit in the base, the back or both is not stated by the manufacturer.
Clearance: front access. Allow for the door to swing clear of the frame. Hinge side not stated by the manufacturer.
Wheels: none.

Security
Lock: electronic keypad. One PIN code stored.
Override: two backup keys.
Locking bolts: three steel deadbolts. Diameter and placement not stated by the manufacturer.
Door assembly thickness: not stated by the manufacturer. Barska publish a single figure for the steel — 2 mm, which is 0.08" — without saying whether the door differs from the body.
Wall thickness: 0.08" steel over a gypsum board fire lining.
Hinges: not stated by the manufacturer.
Alarm and lockout: low-battery warning, and a lockout after repeated incorrect entries. A silent access mode mutes the keypad tones.
Firearm safety device: listed by the California Department of Justice as an approved firearm safety device — Barska AX12216 FV-1000, in the Safe category. We read the DOJ's retail chart on 20 September 2026.

Fire, water & media
Fire rating: 40 minutes at 1,200°F, as stated by the manufacturer. Certifying body: not stated by the manufacturer.
Media / data rating: Not a media safe. This rating is built to protect paper. A drive, a battery or a rangefinder needs an interior held below 125°F, and this is not built to that promise.
Water rating: None claimed.

The rest
Power: four AA batteries, not included.
Warranty: one year limited.
Manufacturer part number: AX12216
UPC: 790272000029
Finish: black
In the box: two backup keys, removable shelf, mounting hardware

What forty minutes covers

Forty minutes at 1,200°F means a cabinet of this pattern was closed, heated to that temperature in a furnace, and opened again with its interior still below the threshold the standard sets. It is a repeatable test, which is why it is worth printing — and it describes an oven rather than a house.

The standard is written for paper: an interior held below the point at which paper chars, conventionally 350°F. Wood, adhesives and lens seals have thresholds of their own that the paper test does not measure. Barska do not publish an interior temperature curve for this cabinet, and we will not invent one.

The protection comes from water. The gypsum board in these walls holds moisture within its structure; heat drives it out as steam, and the steam carries the energy away. The interior stays cool while there is moisture left to spend, and forty minutes is what this wall has to spend. Heat also gathers at the ceiling, so a fifty-nine-inch cabinet does better on a ground floor than in an upstairs room under the roof.

Siting and delivery

At 273 pounds this is not a floor question. Residential floors are framed for spread load, and a cabinet of this weight over a 20 by 18 inch footprint sits well inside what one carries. Set it across the joists rather than along a single one, near a bearing wall if the choice is free.

The height is the consideration. Fifty-nine inches on a footprint that size will tip, so anchor it. The pre-drilled holes and the hardware are in the box, and on a cabinet this tall the anchoring is as much about the room as about burglary.

It arrives by LTL freight, on a pallet, down on a liftgate, at the curb. From there it is two people and a stair-climbing dolly, or an hour of a local crew. Twenty inches of width clears a standard thirty-inch interior door. The staircase is the tighter question — a rigid fifty-nine-inch object needs diagonal room on a turn, so measure the turn as well as the doorway.

What this is not

It is fire resistant, but not fireproof, the word is a category convention and you will find it on listings everywhere. What exists is a rating: forty minutes, 1,200°F, measured in a furnace. Past that there is no claim, and we make none.

It is not a media safe. That standard asks for an interior below 125°F, because a drive, a battery or a lens coating is spent long before paper is. If what you are storing includes optics or electronics you would hate to lose, the rating here was not written with them in mind.

It is not water rated. No claim is made and no seal is described. Worth knowing, since a house fire is generally followed by a great deal of water.

It is not a burglary-rated safe. No UL burglary listing is claimed for the body or the door, and none is implied here. The steel measures 0.08 inches — 2 mm — and the mass in these walls is insulation rather than armor. That is what a fire vault is: the weight buys the fire protection, and the locked steel buys you the opportunist. Three deadbolts, a keypad and 273 pounds bolted through a floor is a serious deterrent, and it is not a strongroom. Both are true.

It stores one code. One PIN, and two backup keys. In a household where more than one person needs to open it, that means a shared code or a key each — better settled in advance.

It does not arrive with batteries. Four AA, and they are not in the box.

On the maker

Barska began in 1994 in sports optics — binoculars, riflescopes, spotting scopes — and came to safes afterwards, bringing a manufacturer's habits rather than a marketer's. It shows in the specification for this one, which prints without scopes or accessories in the same breath as the capacity figure. That qualification costs a sale now and then, and they print it anyway.

They sell broadly — sporting retail, hardware, the general market — and a specification written for that channel answers the questions that channel asks. A collector's questions are different ones: which way the hinges face, whether the rack lifts out, what the door plate measures apart from the body. Where a figure we would have liked is not printed, we have said so above rather than guessed at it. If you need one of those answers before you commit, ask us and we will write to Barska for it. We are in touch with them regardless.

Questions

How many rifles will actually fit?
Fourteen bare ones, which is what the rack is built for and what Barska quote. With optics on, fewer — a scoped rifle takes roughly the width of two unscoped positions. Length is not the constraint: the interior stands 57.44 inches and most long guns run forty to fifty inches overall, so they stand upright with room above. Tell us what you own and we will work the width through with you.

Can two people have their own code?
No. The lock stores one PIN. There are two backup keys, so a second person can be given a key rather than a code.

Does the rack come out?
The shelf does; Barska describe it as removable. Whether the fourteen-position rack itself lifts out to leave a clear fifty-seven-inch column is not stated in their specification. If that decides it for you, ask us before you order and we will put the question to them.

Will it protect optics or electronics in a fire?
Not to a standard anyone should rely on. The rating here is the paper rating. Batteries, coatings and lens seals need an interior held below 125°F, which is a different and more expensive class of cabinet.

How does it arrive, and can I get it inside?
On a pallet, by freight, down on a liftgate, at the curb — which is where LTL freight ends. At 273 pounds it is two people and a stair-climbing dolly from there, or an hour of a local crew. Twenty inches of width clears a standard interior door; the height is what to think about on a staircase turn.

Is the California listing current?
It was on 20 September 2026, when we last read the Department of Justice's retail chart: Barska AX12216 FV-1000, in the Safe category. The chart is revised from time to time, so check it against the day you buy. We are glad to point you at it.