Another safe question - bolt punching - not brand specific

[JCinPA]

I appreciate the information you give us, a1abdj ,on safes in general, and your help with my lock questions in particular.

I'm curious about a safe feature I wonder if you would comment on. This is not a brand-specific question, I hate stirring those up, and as you've rightly pointed out, between 12-11-10 gauge safes, most discussion about feature variances is a tempest in a teapot to begin with.

But I am curious about the risks of bolt punching. I was not aware of it until looking on Liberty Safes website recently and saw them touting their new over-center cam versus direct drive cam mechanisms. It was funny, I got directed to Sturdy Safe's site shortly after that and saw the bolt hammering video there.

I have a 2003 model Liberty Lincoln which has the old mechanism and when unlocked, I can push the bolts in with my little finger. I called hoping I might get their new over-center cam mechanism and retrofit it to my safe while I change the lock, but they say it cannot be done.

How easy is it to drive a bolt into the safe when locked with a standard S&G 6730 dial lock? I honestly never would have worried about it before, in fact was unaware of the issue, but now with all the videos on the Internet about it, and even Liberty's site almost saying my current locking system is worthless, I'm worried about less than genius house burglars picking up on this now.

When I called to ask Liberty if I could retrofit their new systme, they assured me the relocker would take care of any issues if the lock failed. I kind of doubt that-just keep hammering. How easy is it to hammer a bolt system back with a sledge and punch?

 

[a1abdj]

Most of these features are marketing attempts to assure you that your gun safe is just as secure as the safes found in jewelry stores. They take some of the same features found in those high end safes, and attempt to replicate them in gun safes.

The result is a more expensive safe that doesn't really offer you any advantages.

I have never seen residential burglar involving a bolt punching attack on a gun safe. In order to punch the bolts, you would need exact measurements to place you over the bolt. You would also need to be familiar with the design of the boltwork so you could place as much force as possible against the locking mechanism.

It's a lot of work, for minimal results. Why go through all that effort when you could just cut the safe in half with a circular saw?

 

[JCinPA]

Thanks. I have to keep telling myself this is a fancy locking box, not a real security vault. Makes perfect sense.

 

[nighthitcher]

sounds good to me

 

[SafeGuy]

Most of these features are marketing attempts to assure you that your gun safe is just as secure as the safes found in jewelry stores. They take some of the same features found in those high end safes, and attempt to replicate them in gun safes.

The result is a more expensive safe that doesn't really offer you any advantages.

I have never seen residential burglar involving a bolt punching attack on a gun safe. In order to punch the bolts, you would need exact measurements to place you over the bolt. You would also need to be familiar with the design of the boltwork so you could place as much force as possible against the locking mechanism.

It's a lot of work, for minimal results. Why go through all that effort when you could just cut the safe in half with a circular saw?

Absolutely correct on all points. This is just more smoke and mirrors by gun safe manufacturers to try and persuade you to their product.

This idea of bolt punching in gun safes started back in the mid-80's as the result of Browning/Pro-Steel running national ads showing their locking system as compared to brand A and brand B. Their slogan was, "Our Competition Hates Our Guts". Turns out brand A was a Treadlok, a brand I also carried in addition to the Browning at that time.

Unfortunately, Treadlok got their feathers ruffled and came up with a new locking system. It used rectangular locking bolts which traveled up at an angle and then dropped down behind a notch the frame. With this, they claimed their safe was superior to the Browning and actually printed a brochure showing a supposed method (never would have worked) to defeat the cam system used on the Browning. To say it was in poor taste is an understatement, and we refused to mail out those brochures as part of our sales package.

That same claim lead to Fort Knox building deflector shields into their safes as a pro-active response to Treadok's claims of being able to unlock these safes by drilling a hole in the side and simply pushing in the bolts. Sometimes it's better to spend $10 to modify a product than to try and convince consumers there is no merit to such a claim as Treadlok made. Treadlok bit the dust back in the 90's though they were one of the original manufacturers of gun safes. Browning also changed their locking system shortly after Treadlok came out with their smear campaign. Not because it wasn't a good system, but for the same reason Fort Knox modified their safes.