Choosing a gun safe

[LeNeMy]

Greetings, my father recently gave me his pair of his rifles, now the question of storing them at home has become. I need advice on choosing a safe.

[Bradbn4]

A gun safe buys you time - that time can be for security or fire or both.

Remember; something often is better than nothing so your budget will drive your needs.

For cheap protection I would look at stack-on, on a dedicated attack by people who know there business it will slow them down for a few mins  but that is about all.

A major step up would be Liberty Safes and the next step up would be Ft. Knox.   The sky is the limit, and the more expensive ones can buy more time before it can be broken into.   

Another method to buy time is to install the safe in a location that is hard to spot or hard to attack the safe's week spots.

I know a few people who bought a real cheap gun safe as a decoy and placed some items in it to act as a distraction.  The real safe was located in corner of a room and made to look like it was some sort of shelf or part of the house.

If your location has high humidity; you will have to consider how to protect the firearms or other valuables from rust and moisture.

Don't tell people you have firearms, don't tell people you have a safe and never post that info on social media sites no matter what.

[added]
Oh, good first post and asking questions on what to look for is a good first step.
I am not saying you should not ask these sort of questions; they are important. Just take care on who you share this information with.
A safe can be a very good storage location for important documents, etc.

[DDJ]

Bradbn4 gives some good advice.

When comparing "safes" look at the details on the UL rating.  Most are a fire container rating with a time and temperature rating.  That equates to the time it will take the "safe" to fail in a fire of temperature X.  A security rating is harder to find in the big box stores (or at a reasonable price).  These tend to be a little more cryptic to read and research to get an understanding.  They have to do with time for a crook with tool set X to gain access to the content.

As a general rule pry attacks are a crooks access method.
Thicker steel (remember that the gauge rating is small is better 11GA is thicker than 14GA)
The bolt work is also some thing to keep your eye.  Live bolts move dead bolts do not.  Often a door will have dead bolts on the hinge side that grab the back of the safe wall behind the hinges.  These will reduce the ability to cut the hinge off and have the door open backwards.  Vertical bolts top and bottom reduce pry attacks.
Look to the gaps around the door to see what a prybar can be jamed into.
It sounds weird but look at the number of bends in the door jam.  The more bends the stiffer the door jam is. 

Making the safe harder to move makes it harder to break into.  Bolting it down or tucking it into a closet will slow them down in some cases more than a more expensive safe.  It is surprising how easy a 500LB safe slides on a basement floor.  BTW there is some do as I say not as I do in this case.

Look at gun safe attacks in YouTube.  Also ATM theft.  Especially the Fails and they are fun to watch sometimes.

I find that power access is a good thing.  Back to the Rust prevention if in damp place.

Take all advise with a grain of salt apply it to your situation then evaluate the meaning to you.

You may find that for you a locking long gun case an Eyebolt and bike lock it a hidden corner of a dark closet a good place to start and fit your budget.

Remember your goal is time.  Slow them down enough and they might just leave.  Most crooks are looking for the in and out and a determined criminal is going to get into anything.  Look at cases where they bored through feet of concrete to gain access to a bank safe.