I have heard of them both, Steelwater imports their safes from China, they will say that they are built to their specifications and blah blah blah.

Sturdy is a one man show out of California, he makes some real good stuff, but he lacks for shelving and such on his safes.

I did more than my fair share of research into a number of companies prior to plunking down my hard earned dollars. If I had to make a choice between the two I would go with Sturdy, definitely more steel for your dollars, but on the other hand since I now know about Drake, I would buy from him.

If you are on a budget like the rest of us, shop around and buy the best you can afford and make sure you buy the biggest you can afford trust me they fill up fast.

I purchased a mine from Superior Safe Company. There are lots of good companies out there, one of my biggest things was that it had to be made in the USA, not just painted and a few parts added to fulfill the government definition of made in the USA.

But back to your original question, Steelwater is an online only retailer of "their" product from China, Oh sure their site will say our products are unwrapped when received from the factory and inspected thoroughly before being shipped out to you.

Sturdy manufactures his stuff in his own facility to very tight tolerances and he uses quite a lot of heavy gauge steel, but his products are expensive.

I could go on for quite a while but I think you get the picture. If you wish, feel free to PM me.

 

Good info, that answer pretty much "nails it," IMHO.

Good info on an always relevant topic: security.

 

I'm a Drake Safe Bigot. I had two other safes and I sold/gave one to a friend of mine. The other safe I still have, but if it wasn't bolted to the floor, two guys and a hand truck could move it out with the guns in it. The Drake I bought wasn't cheap, but it weighs 2000lbs and was about $1/lb. The walls are 1/4" steel and the door is a monster. It has, for lack of better words, eight "dead bolts pins" in the door that engage the "trim" around the door and fire out automatically if someone tampers with the combo. The only way you can get into the safe is with a torch. It holds, 48 long guns, has three shelves that could probably hold 60 or more pistols(dependent on size) with Velcro attached "holsters" on the inside of the door for at least another 24 pistols.

It doesn't have built in lights or descant, but I added battery powered, motion lights and a Golden Rod. There is a hole in the back of the safe that will allow you to run two/three 110v wire throw it with no issue provided you remove the plug, run the wire, and re-attach. Also, the way the long gun racks are laid out, you have to remove most long guns from the front of a row, and maybe the adjacent row, if you want to get something from the back unless you don't give a crap about pulling it out over the top and risk scratching it and any other long gun you hit (I kinda resolved this by putting long guns in the back that are safe queens). That's the only drawback I've seen.

 

At $1.00 per pound for a Drake Safe, that my friends is a great price and money well spent. If I had known about Drake Safes when I was in the market for one, I would have bought one.

Pay ZERO attention to how many rifles a safe company claims their safe will hold. I swear they must use the thinnest, shortest, rifles with no sights on it, and they stack the in there like cord wood.
I have found that by using a product called rifle rods, I can put more rifles in my safe then ever before, most of my rifles have scopes and right now I have all of my rifles on one side of the safe with room for more.

 

After much research in safes, I decided on a Sturdy Safe.

I wanted a safe for protection and control of firearms and other valuables, not a display piece. I don't need gloss black paint or gold pinstripes. The plan is to build a cabinet around the safe anyway. All of the online reviews and video reviews were excellent. The only complaint I ever saw was a few people complained that the handle had slack when locked. Like I really care about that, as long as it's locked.

I called Sturdy to check on their delivery process - I have a 100 ft. long concrete driveway, and wasn't sure that the driver would roll the pallet all the way up. Sturdy said they can't arrange anything in advance, but offer to pay the driver additional, and you might get lucky.

They also quoted me a nice discount for the phone order, so I bought it. I ordered on 8/1 and the safe was delivered 9/6.

I bought the 36" x 27" x 72" with fireproofing and the 'popular package', which upgrades the body from 3/16" to 4ga, door from 5/16 to 3/8 and adds a 8" x 12" x 3/16 stainless steel panel to protect the lock works. Sturdy specs say this combo weighs in at 1270 pounds!

Driver arrived and I actually had to help a little getting it off the truck. As he put it on the lift gate, the lift wanted to tilt, threatening to send the safe overboard. So I grabbed some trucker rope, and we used that to provide some counterbalance until the gate hit the ground. The driver volunteered to push the safe on the pallet jack the whole way, so he got a $100 tip!

I just checked with a feeler gauge, and there's 0.021 inches or less around the door. You really couldn't get a screw driver in there to pry. It's stunning!

The safe's still in my garage, strapped to the pallet, as I've been busy, and haven't had a chance to put it inside.

PM me if you want to visit to check out the safe (and maybe help me move it )

Has anyone heard of these companies? I know NC's own Drake Safes has a following here...but I'm curious if anyone knows these two. They've both posted a lot of torture test/attack videos on their websites and they seem to hold up well.

http://www.steelwatergunsafes.com/

https://www.sturdysafe.com