It sounds like heavier steel and no fire insulation is important to you. If this is the case, why do you keep hovering around gun safes using gauge steel? Get yourself a nice new or used steel plate safe.
I can see how it might sound like that, but I do see value in having some fire insulation. For the additional cost, the time to get some would be when I'm buying a safe. If I were to go with a Sturdy safe, I would very most likely be adding their fire insulation option. I'm also open to arguments dissuading me from doing that. I will say that it's nice with Sturdy that the fire insulation is optional. I'm more concerned with theft than I am with fire, but that doesn't mean I'm not concerned about fire too (or that once my mind is put more at ease about theft that I won't start thinking more about fire, kind of like Maslow's hierarchy of needs). I'm trying to think ahead, similar to buying more safe than I currently need.
I'm not hovering around gauge steel safes so much as I'm trying to look at everything that appears to be avaialble to me, either surfing on the internet and talking to people on the phone who will ship, or walking into local safe shops. I'm limited by finances, and trying to balance the emotional reward of having something I "dig" (a beefy, genuine, safe that few others have) against more pragmatic and practical requirements. None of this is necessary. After all, I can avoid the loss of my firearms by not having any. Choosing both to have them and to protect them in some manner is a decision could be made in a number of different ways.
All I can say is that having a "mainstream" sheet metal gun safe like you find in department stores and such isn't going to give me the peace of mind that I'm going after by getting a gun safe at all. I would feel "secure enough" with a 7 gauge Sturdy safe, or with what I thought was the construction of a BF before I realized they were thinner than 10 gauge on the outer wall metal. I understand it gives protection to a good majority of likely attacks, but for 80% of the cost of even beefier options, I'm inclined to pay the extra 20% to cover an even wider range or higher magnitude of attacks, even if they are quite a bit less likely.
Putting it another way, understanding any safe can only slow a thief down, and can't necessarily stop them, I want a safe that will cause a thief to give up and leave, not because it is taking them too long and they are afraid to getting caught, but because they are physically too tired of pounding and hacking and prying on it that they give up because they are exhausted or because they hurt themselves and they just plain lose interest. While I'm at it (spending money on a safe), I want to add whatever reasonable fire protection is available for incrementally higher cost.
As far as a TL rated safe goes I certainly would be much happier with one than a UL rated RSC.
But the problem with a TL rated safe the size of whats needed to store long guns among other things is their massive weight that they come in at and for most residential purposes is absolutely over kill unless you really have a lot of worth stored inside them.
I would be much happier with a TL rated safe as well. If I can find a used one for comparable cost I will do so. I have found a couple, but they aren't as cheap as the old, sold, expired, ads that I've seen, so I'm inclined to either keep looking for one or get an RSC rated gun safe. It's not worth the TL rating for me to overpay for a used safe, if that can be understood. I always like at good deal, which means different things for different items. I'll sacrifice the "new safe smell" or the automotive paint job, for higher security/dollar ratio, but I don't want to be some used safe seller's foolish buyer because let my emotions get the better of me.
The used "TL rate-able" safe I found locally is the PERFECT SIZE for a gun safe, outside HxWxD = 68"x41"x29.5", inside HxWxD = 60"x34"x23". That's sweet, right? I mean damn near perfect. However, my hang up about that is that it's priced as a TL30 safe, but since it's a custom build the specific safe hasn't been tested so as I understand it it doesn't come with any certification. If it doesn't have the TL pedigree, then I would want to get a discount and the seller seems to be pretty firm on his $3300 price, to which I might have to add up to $400+ for delivery and install. Having never bought such a safe before, perhaps this is not unusual. After all the jeweler that originally contracted to produce the safe must have had an interest in meeting insurance requirements. If I'm overthinking this TL30 "style" safe and it's a great deal (since it costs nearly as much as an RSC gun safe) then let me know and I'll make it happen. I tend to let things that are "meant to happen" happen, and finding this local safe that is the form factor of the type of gun safe I'm in the market for makes me inclined to buy it and fill it up. Even without a TL30 U.L. certificate, I would feel very secure with my stuff in it, more so than in any gun safe that I would consider (aka "can afford").
And if that's the case you probably have the money to have weak flooring shored or what ever is necessary to get it in place in your home.
I don't have enough valuables to justify a TL rated safe according to most rules of thumb, but I would go so far as to say I have enough to justify (to myself anyway) a used TL rated safe that is only 15-22% more expensive than a new decent RSC rated gun safe of similar size. In my case, I have some interior floor that should support such a safe. In buying the safe I will have spent almost all the discretionary funds I have available at the moment. To me it's important to get a good safe now, as I can easily spend this money on yet more guns which would bring the issue even further to a head.
Edit to add....Why would they offer 5 gauge when at that point your so close to 1/4 inch???
That seems kind of weird.
Well, their website read, "while supplies last," so my take on it was that they just got a deal on some 5 gauge. If it were a ongoing thing, reflecting a decision on their part to offer an option based on a perceived market need, then being so close to 1/4" might not make as much sense (I guess that would put into another category of "plate safes," which would be good for marketing). My assumption of their 5 gauge version is that it is constructed the same way as their 7 gauge standard version, meaning the safe body is bent to form the three walls and door frame out of one piece.