When buying a gun safe most people look at price vs. size, fire rating and theft deterrence. A lot of times people end up overspending by going with all the higher ratings. There are other more realistic things to consider.....
1) The construction of your house, condo or apartment
2) Fire Dept and police response times IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
3) Monitored alarm system.
Take your house first. Is it an older house? Good, they burn slower than newer homes. Then again not by much. An older wood home will be completely engulfed in flames in 4-5 minutes and come crashing down in about 16-minutes. Newer homes are built cheaper with more combustible materials. They burn even quicker. Video:
It is critical to DETECT a fire before it develops into a flamer. Once flames get going, it's over in minutes. Anything over 30-minute safe protection is overkill, maybe you could use more if you live in an apartment or condo.
If you are home and the fire alarm goes off, and if the sensors are properly placed, the alert will come on in the very early stages of the fire (smoking not flaming) and will allow you to get out, or you might be able to extinguish the fire. Of course accessible fire extinguishers of the RIGHT kind for the fire are a must have.
Police response is also critical. The crooks know exactly how long it takes for them to get there, best case. If it is very quick, say under 5 minutes, then you don't need a 4,000 pound safe. All of this assuming you have a good, monitored alarm system. If you live in the boonies you are on your own so best thing to do is to hide the safe as much as possible, disguise it, or have a decoy.
The best of the best strategy against theft is to get TWO smaller safes for the price of a big one. Make one the "decoy". Make it readily visible like say in the garage, with important papers, less valuable guns, etc. Hide the other one in a closet. Even if they find both it takes twice the time or twice the crooks to open them both
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I live in an older concrete home on an island on the west coast of Florida with about 2500 homes and condos. We have a fire station on site 3-minutes away and sheriff presence 24/7. That said, without and alarm system that's all moot as well.
I use the Ring system and love it. No wires, you install it yourself, and monitoring is a lot cheaper than the competition. I have multiple fire detectors, multiple cameras (outside), multiple motion detectors (inside), including one on top of the safe, and entry sensors everywhere. I get alerts on my cell phone from everything that happens, 24/7. All this said, I'm in hurricane country and if the big one hits here the house will flood, so the safe is moot at that point too. Oh, and I make it a point that everyone that comes to do work or repairs knows that I have cameras and an alarm. And it helps to have an alarm company sign out front - huge deterrent.
I ended up buying and AMSEC with a 60-minute rating, just because it was on sale. And it's hidden in a closet bolted down, with no access to the top or back. The safe door is a much harder entry point for crooks.
