Quoted:
Steel content is what keeps people out. The thicker the door and walls the better. Most are 12 guage and that won't cut it. Someone can be in one of those sages in 10 minutes or less. I have learned a lot from this section of the forum. You won't around 1/4-3/8" thick steel and fire proofing isn't really needed at first. For a safe company to put it in or the safe to come with it costs about $500-600 of the price or a less depending on the quality. All the fire proofing is most of the time is a double layer of 5/8" drywell with that thin grey carpet glued to it. You could literally do it yourself and save a lot of money and achieve the same effectivness. This will allow you to buy a much thicker safe with the money you will save.


After looking around I've only found a few safes in my price range of $1200-1500 that I would buy. If you don't get thicker steel safes your basically buying an expensive child proofing system because anyone that comes to steal your guns and are prepared for a safe will get into it. The rhino series of safes uses 1/4" steel and are pretty nice and affordable. IMO STurdy is the best for the money. You get safes with bare bones features but have the safe amount of steel as much higher priced safes. For instance, to get the same amount of steel that you get in a $1500 sturdy safe you would pay $3000 or more for a liberty of the same size. Granted you get fire proofing but again you can add it later for very cheap.

Also as fire proofing goes with even the best quality fire proofing the guns are basically ruined anyway. The stocks are ruined for sure and the metal is always discolored. Needless to say they won't look like they did. So IMO they are still a loss. If you have a home fire you might as well count on losing everything no matter what unless they put it out before it gets fully involved or very early on. Most things will not survive.