OK, I have a little more time now.
Just so you know, I make a living opening, repairing, selling, and servicing safes. I have worked in the locksmith industry for over fifty years, and with safes for twenty five of those years. I hope this info helps some of you.
If you are going to buy a gun safe, you will get what you pay for. A good safe costs money. Look for a "Underwriters Labratories Label" for your fire protection. Make sure the words Underwriters labs are on that label. If it is not there, it was rated in the country it was imported from, and the rating will not mean a thing to your insurance company. It is almost useless. Most good safes hafe a 2 hour rating. That is what you want. No less than a 1 hour rating. Look around the door edege, where it meets with the opening. You want to see a fabric like fire gasket. This will help keep out water and smoke, as well as heat in a house fire.
Just because the locking bolts are large, does not mean they are heavy duty. If the mechanisim they are connected to, (the boltworks), is flimsey, you don't have the protection you think you have. Usually, there is not much protection of the bolts them selves with hardened steel, so they are suseptable to hardware store drill bits, battery drills and punches. Ask your dealer if you can have them remove the inner door panel so you can see inside the door. Tee heavier the mechanisim, the more strength you have.
Look for a door that is recessed into the box. They are much harder to pry open. Also, you don't want exposed hinges for obvieous reasons.
As I said befor, stay away from the electronic locks. Sooner or later, they will become a nightmare. I work on mechanical locks that are well over 100 years old almost weekly, and they have very little problems. With the electronic locks, almost anything can and will cause a problem with them. They are very convienient while they work, but just when you really need them, they fail. Even the Sargent & Greenleaf 6120 electronic lock you can get on the high end safes, in my opinion is garbage. If it goes bad, and the safe has to bee drilled, it can take as much as five holes to get it open. They can all be patched, and most of them will be covered by the new keypad, but at least one of them will be exposed. Repainting an expensive safe with a high gloss finish can cost as much as repainting a fender on you car! Probably, the best mechanical lock on the market for a gun safe is a Sargent & Greenleaf model 6730. It is almost identical to the locks used in many banks for their undercounter safes, and very similar the ther locks used on the main vaults. They should come as standard equipment on most good safes. The electronic locks can cost you upwards of $150.00 additional
as an upgrade!
Most safes have holes in their floors so you can anchor them to something. Mine is bolted to the floor of my garage with five 5/8" bolts, into the concrete, and washers and nuts inside the safe. It is not going anywhere. It is also alarmed, and booby trapped as well. The wrong person messing with it is going to have a really bad day.
One last thing. Many stores will throw in a Golden Rod device to help with moisture inside the safe. They are good, but if the safe is not prepped at the factory for one of these, drilling a hole in the top, back, or sides will dramatically compromise your fire proofing.
I use a small can of cat litter in all my safes. Just use a can about the size of a tuna fish can. Clean it well, and fill it with the cat litter. I use the litter with the green stuff in it. It smells better. Cover it with some saran wrap, and poke some holes in the saran wrap. Put one up high, and one on the floor. I change mine about every three years when I remember. I have never, ever, had any rust on any of my guns, and I have been doing this for about 25 years. It works, and it is very cheap.
I hope this information helps you all. I know I get a little windy at times, but I hate to see someone spend their hard earned cash, and not get what he thinks he is getting.
John
