Most of Bass Pro Shops "Redhead" private label safes are now Chinese imports. As memory serves, Granite Security Products built safes for them at one time, but not any more. Add to that their pricing is not very competitive, and I would look elsewhere for a safe. Is your's UL listed? Most Chinese imports aren't. In fact, I've never seen one that was.
Bass Pro sells Redhead safes manufacturered or imported by Pro Steel (Browning) and Granite. You are correct that Granite used to manufacturer their safes here in the US, but most if not all of the safes they sell to Bass Pro are now imported. Some of the Pro Steels are also imported. The current trend is to move away from being a manufacturer and move into the importing business.
As long as a gun safe uses a UL listed lock, then any other UL rating means virtually nothing. Really, the only other UL rating found on a gun safe is an RSC rating. Manufacturers and salespersons make a big deal about this rating, but none of them seem to even know what it entails. As a professional, I will tell you that it means almost nothing. A 12 gauge safe with a UL listed lock is a 12 gauge safe with a UL listed lock. One is not stronger than the other because of a UL rating that tests the safe against a hammer and a long screw driver.
I never heard of Graffunder until recently when somebody was circulating a YouTube video of a couple of guys breaking into an un-named safe.
Graffunder is a well known manufacturer of heavy plate gun safes. They have been in business for a number of years, and also build some commercial and special order products.
The "un-named" safe is actually a Liberty Centurion. They have removed the logos for legal reasons.
Looks like they play the same games I spoke of on my website as to referring to UL ratings without their safes being UL Listed. If they are in fact UL Listed, then I missed it on their website.
There is no reason for Graffunder to submit their safes for a UL RSC rating. Everything Graffunder builds is steel plate. The build B, C, E, and F rate safes. Their B rated safe uses over twice the steel as most heavily built gun safes, and would easily pass the RSC test. Why waste the money?
The E and F rate safes are built to the same specs as steel plate TL-15 and TL-30 safes. These safes would also easily get the UL TL-15 and TL-30 ratings if Graffunder wanted to spend the money to submit them for testing. Since these safes are being used in non commercial environments, the UL sticker isn't a deal breaker.
The RSC rating is a pass or fail test which includes a prying, punching, and peeling attack.
Using a small handheld hammer and a large screwdriver or small prying device not exceeding 18". When you say it your way it sounds really impressive. When you put it in context like I just did, you can see where it's not really that impressive.
If a steel box using steel 1/10" thick can obtain the rating, it should be obvious that the rating means very little.
It is my opinion that the RSC label was invented by UL in the event California's system of gun safe approval became national law.
As for fire ratings, I've seen insulated gun safes go through fires with no loss whatsoever, and I've seen them burn up. For that matter, I know of instances where the old Pro-Steel safes (which were non-insulated) survived house fires.
I have seen the same thing. This mostly depends on the specific circumstances of the fire. No two are the same. However, this is where UL ratings (that no gun safes have) become important. UL ratings test safes to the worst case scenario to ensure the best chance of survival regardless of the individual circumstances of the fire at hand.
Back to Graffunder, I didn't see any test information to see how they came up with their fire ratings. No doubt that a concrete mixture is a very effective insulator, I don't see and inch and a half doing that great a job. BTW, you guys do know what proprietary means, don't you?
You would be surprised at what 1.5" of a material engineered to insulate a safe would do, especially when compared to a safe using 1.5" of a material that was never designed or engineered to be an insulator (gypsum board).
Proprietary means that the company has invested time and money into the engineering of their product. As such, they will not list the materials they use, thus preventing the competition from stealing it without paying for their own research.
You were obviously dealing with an idiot as Fort Knox is one of very few manufacturers who actually show in their sales brochures and website how their doors are constructed as to steel thickness.
Unfortunately this is very common in the gun safe business. A lot of people who are in "the safe business", know nothing about safes. In fact, their experience is often limited by what they read in the manufacturer's sales brochures and websites.
Since some of these manufacturers also know very little about safes, sometimes this information is misleading. Now you have consumers being fed false information, which they assume to be true.
Anyone who actually wants to purchase a safe, not an RSC, not a lock box etc, should go to a professional, full time, bonded locksmith to ask their opinion and check out their inventory.
I'll go a step further, and suggest a locksmith (safe tech) who specializes in safes. There are not many of us, but if you can find somebody in your area, you should talk with them.
Even if you are looking for a light weight RSC, you can get a good bit of information that is based in reality. Guys like me don't just sell safes. I move them, drill them open when they are locked, repair them when they break, and maintain them. Every day, guys like myself work with everything from inexpensive imported fire rated boxes, all the way up to $200,000 bank vault doors. I don't need to get my information out of a catalog. I know how long it takes to break into a safe because I have actually done it. I don't need to look at the manufacturer's hand selected photos of safes after a fire, because I've actually opened safes after a fire and know what type of damage occurs.
If you want factual information, you have to speak with somebody that knows the facts. You won't get this information from a manufacturer, and you typically will not get it from a gun safe salesman. But you still have to do your homework. There are a lot of different opinions even from us professionals.