I'll be the dissenting opinion with caveats.
First thing to choose is what level of protection are you looking for? Are you looking to protect priceless guns, just keep people out, documents, what? Because different levels of protection have different requirements and different price points.
Almost all safes on the market that you and I would find in stores are labeled as RSC or Residential Security Container. Even the el'cheapos at Walmart and Menards have that rating. There are 3 levels to them but its hand tools, no power tools and up to 3 people and 10 minutes to get in. So not incredibly robust. Guess what brands all have RSC ratings....Liberty, Sturdy, Cannon, AMSEC, Stack on, Browning, etc.
So you need to look at what the ratings actually are. Are they done in house by the manufacturer (who might be inclined to self inflate their value) or are they independent labs testing them? Same thing with fire ratings.
Most safes have drywall as their fire "proofing". The drywall releases moisture in the form of steam to keep the temperature inside the safe lower for an amount of time. This steam isn't good for firearms or documents. Other companies such as AMSEC have other ways to deal with fire and have actual 3rd party testing labs rate their fire rating.
I have an AMSEC BF series and they aren't cheap but they make my Brother-in-law and father-in-laws Liberty safes feel cheap and they make my Dads "Sawmill" brand (he found at some gun show years ago) feel incredibly cheap. I've looked at all the Liberty ones at FFF and the difference is noticeable on all the models they had on the floor at the Ashland location.
Sturdy safes are an interesting concept and one I've thought about for as my collection expands.
Most gun safes are not safes they are merely RSCs or Residential Security Containers which only require they not fail with a hammer and chisel for like 15 minutes. Fire ratings are even less impressive. VERY FEW safes are actually UL rated for theft of fire rating.
I did a lot of research and have an AMSEC BF series safe. When we build our forever home I'll be getting another larger one to house what i get as family members pass away.
There are some great threads on other forums about safes but one of the best is on AR15 and is a bunch of questions and answers by a VP at AMSEC but he gives information and explanations and he admits his biases.
I assume on a composite fill TL rated safe that the composite fill cures similar to concrete and achieves a certain strength after X number of days.I have seen the old U.L. TL-30 test video were the U
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A few VERY relevant posts i screenshotted and attached
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The quality difference between my AMSEC BF and my father in laws and brother-in-law's liberty safes is noticeable, the comparison to my Dad's no name brand he found at a gun show is night and day.
I also have a box store bought document safe that's document fire rated that i keep important documents in inside my safe figuring the double fire rating will help.
My 44 gun Cannon safe is getting crammed so I am looking to upgrade to a larger and higher quality safe. I'm ready to order today if I could just decide which to get! I have narrowed my safe search to
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Some light reading.
