As a safe "expert" you know that how the safe is constructed, and how big a gap there is in the door, are the key defenses to preventing pry attacks. Sturdy excels in both of those area's. The thickness of steel comes more into play when a safe is attacked with a fire axe or other tools. From what I understand Sturdy's 7 gauge does pretty well against that as well.
The key defense against any type of attack is the inability of the material the safe is constructed of to bend or to be cut. There are a number of attacks that can be mounted against a safe that can bend the steel. Prybars, wedges, hammers, axes, and even explosives. Axes and hammers don't really cut the steel. They stretch and bend it until it tears.
Any safe can stop somebody with a pry bar. The question is for how long. 10 seconds? 1 minute? 1 hour? Forever?
A safe with a TL-15 rating, or an E rate unit, will last much longer than 15 minutes against a pry bar. You simply won't bend plate that heavy by hand.
A C rate safe is also formidable against pry bars. A solid 1" door against a 1/2" body is tough, but at 1/2" you are starting to get into an area where bending the steel by hand is possible (although difficult).
I see B rate safes pried open on a fairly regular basis. These safes use a 1/2" door and 1/4" body (both of which are heavier than 7 gauge). On a pry attack, the door is usually stays intact while the body of the safe is pried away far enough to get the bar behind the door. It's all down hill from there. Most of these safes are also small depository safes, which are much more stout than a gun safe sized unit made out of the same materials.
All safes buy time. A Liberty may buy more than a Sentry. A Sturdy may buy more than a Liberty. A Graffunder may buy more than a Sturdy. The premise is to buy enough time that the bad guy(s) either give up or get caught in the act. As the value of the contents grow, so does the desire and sophistication of your bad guy(s).
You may live in a low crime area, and have a $10,000 collection. The OP lives in New York City, and may have a $1,000,000 collection (he hasn't said on the forum, nor would I ask him to say on the forum). I'm assuming since he's asking about a safe that can't be pried open, he's serious about it.
Their design is extremely robust for the amount of metal and material used.
Yes it is. However, it will not stop a determined pry attack.
You can also reinforce commonly attacked areas to extend the time required to break in with a torch or cutting attack for not much more.
It is rare to hear of a gun safe being attached with a torch, but there's not much you will do to a gun safe to slow a torch down.
One of these days I'll post some videos on youtube and link them to some of these discussions. We cut through 1" plate on a regular basis with a standard torch and it cuts fast. We have a plasma cutter that will slice 1/2" plate at about a foot every 10 seconds or so.
Obviously there are more substantial safes out there that cost a lot more and weigh a lot more but you didn't ask for that.
He asked for a safe that an average person with an axe or crowbar could not get into. A person with those tools could get into a Sturdy, even though it may take them longer than it would to get into a Liberty or a Sentry.
I'm amused to see quotation marks around the word expert when referring to A1abdj.
I've been called worse.