Could be a number of things. That was just the first one I saw that wasn't like 5K so I used it as a price point. The differences that you'll see are going to be fire rating, how you get into the safe (keypad, combo lock, etc), accessories, things like that. Hard to say without having a specific model to compare against.

Steel thickness also is a big factor. Lots of your "entry-level" safes from Academy are going to be not much different that a Harbor Freight toolbox. Some resources:


http://gunsafereviewsguy.com/buyers-guide/best-gun-safe/
http://gunsafereviewsguy.com/articles/what-to-look-for-in-a-gun-safe/
http://www.6mmbr.com/gunsafes.html

Also, always go bigger than what you feel you need. Think of safes as buying a tent. Unless you are ok with sleeping on top of someone, a two man tent is not something hardly any two people are going to want to sleep in together. Unless you want to force the issue and that's another discussion. One where my wife won't stalk the thread and see.

Hi Arin. Love you.

But, back to topic at hand, a couple things to think of with sizing:

A twelve gun safe is basically like saying you want to store 12 shotguns. If you're talking a rifle with optics, that's going to be a lot bigger. If you're talking an AR15 with a scope, that's even bigger still.

Also, future use. Is this going to hold what you want it to in a year? Five years? Ten years? Spending $500 more on a much larger safe will future proof you from having to buy another $2000 safe in a lot of cases.

Cool thing when talking to me about safes.... I'm just barely in the safe business. I know enough about them to help steer you in the right direction, but I am not going to really care if you buy from me or not. And I try to keep it this way in general, but with safes, if I tell you that you need to spend $50 or $100 more on something, there's a firm reason for it.

Go talk to the.old man at Moore Security at their Houston location. You will learn everything you need to know about safes that will help you make a decision.

Question: The "fire ratings" are pretty much BS, correct? I understand that there is no industry standard, and each manufacturer rates their own safe?