Death Of A Gun Safe?

By: Jim Kushner.

A couple of weeks ago I was educated about the old saying “you get what

you pay for”. In this case that applied to my Cannon gun safe. I don’t mind

mentioning the brand name because this is all absolutely true.

I bought my safe from a chain store and as safes go it was neither cheap or

expensive. The electronic keypad was easily programmed and it runs on a

single 12 volt battery. After a few years I noticed that the battery would wear

out quicker than the one before it. I’d put in a new battery & within a month

or two it would be dead so I’d replace it with a fresh one. New Duracell

batteries.

One day this summer I found myself locked out of the safe. The keypad was

simply dead. I contacted Cannon. After a few phone calls and some wrong

information they sent me a replacement keypad. It was a different brand than

the one originally on the safe. The real problem here is that you cannot

replace the keypad with the door closed & you can’t open it without a

working keypad. Cannons answer to this is that I would have to contact a

locksmith to drill out the old lock and open the safe. My questions as to why

the cost of this isn’t included in Cannons Lifetime Guarantee went

unanswered. It is likely because the cost is easily 3-500.00 dollars. That all

depends on the kind of safe and the locksmith doing the work.

I finally paid a locksmith to drill the safe & open it. A couple of interesting

lessons here. Don’t try this yourself. #1 Cannon won’t tell just anyone where

exactly to drill through the door to open the lock. #2 You will need the serial

number to get that information from Cannon and that was on a sticker on the

side of my safe. Luckily I had access to that side of the safe & didn’t bolt it to

the floor in something like a small closet. No way to move it if the bolts are

in the floor & the door won’t open. #3 You get what you pay for. Apparently

the keypad locks on many models are cheaply made and it’s not unusual for

this to happen although I did ask at the store where I purchased it and was

told they had never had that problem before.

Something interesting I discovered & this was not anywhere in the online

info about gun safes. When looking at the new lock set I noticed a sticker on

the back of it with some random numbers. I assumed it was just a part

number or something but I was wrong. That number is a permanently preset

combination for the lock. Even though you can program your own number

into the lock this number will still open it! Not that it would have helped me

but I find this interesting, what purpose dose this preset combination serve?

The new keypad combination when new was just 123456 or something like

that. Anyway, if you want a backup combination to your safe pop out the

door backer and look for a sticker on the back of the lock mechanism.

You may not want to look to close at the mechanism though, you may be

surprised at how fragile it looks compared to the many massive locking bolts

around the door. Yes, you get what you pay for.

Before you buy a safe you may also want to do some on-line research. There

are some interesting videos there showing how easy it really is to break into

many of the brand name safes. I had even considered cutting my losses by

just using an angle grinder to cut my safe open myself. The reality is that

most gun safes are made of sheet metal and as the other saying goes about

“the weakest link” you can have the best lock and bolts available but the

sheet metal is still subject to bending and cutting. In the end I am glad I

didn’t destroy my safe.

Most safes are “rated” to withstand a certain amount of heat from a fire. Like

1200 deg for 30 minutes. Being a firefighter I had thought about what

happens to most houses during a bad fire. Even if the contents survive the

heat the floor its sitting on may not. That may send your gun collection into

the basement and after the firefighters are done there is likely to be a foot or

more of water in the basement. The key here is to get the safe open and your

guns out asap to prevent any further damage. Some people I have heard from

are very skeptical of how well the safe contents will survive a major fire. I

would suggest that you talk to a reliable locksmith if you want a real quality

safe.

You might also consider weather your guns would be better protected by

insuring them instead of just using a safe. If they are irreplaceable heirlooms

or collector antiques you may want to do both. Whatever you do, if the

batteries start to drain quickly open the door & replace the lock. You may

want to replace the keypad with a mechanical combination lock instead.

I got what I paid for.

A quick note on keeping moisture out of your safe. There are several products that can help you with this problem. I use a simple & fairly cheap product that goes inside the safe and it collects moisture. Every so often depending on where the safe is located etc. the indicator changes color to tell you its time to plug it into a wall outlet for about 12 hours to dry. Once the color changes back to blue in my case it’s ready to go back to work. Mine is several years old and still working fine.

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Jim Kushner

Jim is 64 years old and just celebrated his 50th anniversary (as a deer hunter).
He is a life long resident of Michigan with an equally long love of fishing, hunting and the outdoors.
He and his wife have lived happily on a small piece of land in northern Michigan for the past 30 years.
They retired a few years ago and Jim spends most of his free time trying to get caught up on all the home improvement projects that he should have done on his days off instead of hunting and fishing.
He will likely tell you that he never tires of sitting in the deer woods where all of the worlds problems are easily solved.