Gun Safe Blues

[RTC]

Opening Stuck Safe

A friend passed away a few years ago and his wife did not know the combination to his gun safe. We found the original card with the combination after going through a lot of papers. The safe had a S&G key locked dial type which I was familiar with as I have a similar unit. Trying the combination in every manner possible would not unlock the safe. I worked on this safe many times over a period of weeks. Even called the safe manufacturer to check on the combination. That is not easy to do either. The last time I was trying the combination, I smacked the front of the door in frustration and something clicked inside the safe. Then the dial would turn and unlock the safe. Everything was fine after that and the safe combo worked every time. Took his guns out, inventoried everything, and finally sold the safe for his wife. So trying the smack method may help!

 

[Sotuh11325]

It is a safe, not a cabinet. I have all of the photos on my phone and I don't have my link cable or bluetooth connection on this computer. I can upload the pictures later.


The safe took all of about 5 minutes to get into- definitely not something worth having a smith do in my book. I didn't actually have to cut the face off because it turns out that all of the locking bolts retracted properly except for one (top left). I found this out by gently prying on the edges around all of the corners and noticed that the door would visibly flex at every point except for by the top left where the bolt was holding it.

This made matter very easy. All I had to do was bend the edge of the door back so I could get access to where the pin locks into the safe. After that I used a pry bar to give the bolt a push and it retracted. Done.

Zero damage to the contents. I have hammered the door back into it's shape and I intend on replacing the mechnism with some more substantial and reliable compontents. I'm also going to re-inforce that edge around the door because it was very easy to get access to the bolts.