Ok...I need a safe, from a keep the kids/badguys out of it, I am not too concerned. I think a bigger threat for me would be the though of fire. If I am going to buy a safe, and my house burns, I want my guns to not just be recognizable but in good condition after the fire. I have read alot about how worthless the wall board is for real fire protection. Whats everyones thoughts on this and suggestions for safes around 1500-2000.00?

I'm more a believer in insurance than safes for everything except kids. Even a cheap safe will work for kids and insurance is cheap for a few thousand dollars in guns. www.brownsafe.com has some good info on quality safes and they explain the problems with cheap safes.

Get one that is atleast 600 lbs.

would be hard pressed to say as to which one today, but back when I bought mine the fire rating on the Sportsmans steel was about the best and the price was good for a large safe. Good luck looking.

I had mine custom built by Sage Brush safe in Odessa. The safe has a higher rating than Brownings best safe. Get the most you can afford. Browning, Liberty and Granite make very good safes.

I did a lot of research before buying mine, which is a Winchester, (manufactured by Granite) safe. It is lined with sheetrock, which I figure is about worthless in a real good hot house fire, and I don’t care. It’s all insured.

However, before I bought it I read about one brand that had something other than sheetrock and I want to think that the door seals actually sealed better when they got hot during a fire. I think it may have been Security Products, but I could be wrong.

I have worked a few house fires in which people claimed that they had "fire proof" gun safes. In these instances the houses where fully involved upon arrival and they burned to the ground. The safes burned up to nothing. I never asked what brand they were using though. It would take a hell of a safe to withstand a fully invoved house fire.

When I bought my last safe I was checking the fire ratings and went with Champion. http://www.championsafe.com/fire.htmlhttp://www.championsafe.com/fire.html

Insurance is good to have, but you cannot replace some guns. Lets hope none of us ever have to test our safes fire or theft protection

After purchaseing mine, I made a point to place it next to an exterior wall as to help to reduce the time in the burn and too increase the cooling ability in the event of a house fire.

Thats a good idea

Same for mine it is about as near 2 exterior walls as I can get it Figure in a long durtion fire it will be cooler there than thr interior of the house.

Plus if there is a window nearby the FD could get water on it even if they do not make an interior attack. Or the wall could be breached in order to put water on it. You would have to tell them where the safe is though.