If you are a gun owner then you really need to consider the benefits of having a gun safe. You also need to make sure that the safe is easily accessible for you but impossible for other unwanted people to access.
Typically safes are made from hardened, heavy gauge steel that is around 1/2 thick. Sometimes they are manufactured with 2 pieces of hardened steel with ball bearings between them. With the ball bearings in the middle it becomes extremely difficult to drill through.
For any safe, the lock and the door are by far the weakest points. The safe should be equipped with either hardened steel or titanium locking bolts on all four sides. The door hinges do not pose a weakness as they are all internal.
You can find safes with either combination, key, or fingerprint activated locks. Some of the better, high end safes have security features like time delays and what have you.
The downside of locks with keys is the fact that anyone can pick them who knows what they are doing. Someone who is good can navigate the numbers on a rotary combination lock fairly easily as well. If you are going to have a combination lock, then a keypad is best as long as the batteries don’t go dead in the digital part. These locks don’t have any type of moving part that a potential thief can work with by listening to.
You must always keep the keypad very clean. Keys that are not kept spotless can leave clues as to the numbers that were pushed to open it. When you select your combination, you need to make sure that it does not resemble or have any relation to you phone numbers, birth dates or any other commonly known info that can be guessed upon successfully.
For security a fingerprint gun safe is probably the safest. With this option, you know without a doubt that no one can open your safe without your knowledge as long as your fingers are still attached.
The best security option for your guns or valuables as far as the locking mechanism on your safe goes is to have both a keypad and a fingerprint lock combination, or have a fingerprint lock that has the ability for a second person to access the safe.
Most of these safes have a bit of fire protection built into them with the use of many different layers of insulating material, as well as door seals that will expand with the heat and not allow in any oxygen so the contents remain protected.