Reviews When Your Gun Safe Goes Bad: What To Do When You Can’t Get Your Secure Gun Safe Open Todd Woodard June 1, 2026 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. I got my Liberty Lincoln L-15 Deluxe model gun safe back in 1995 because I was a new father who had guns and ammunition in the house and a couple of just-ambulatory children. Anyone who has faced this problem probably worked through the process much like I did. The worst outcome wasn’t some bad guy getting in, though that would be plenty bad, of course. No, the worst outcome I could imagine was one of my kids getting a gun and ammo I left out and hurting themselves. So, secure storage was a requirement. I quickly realized that I needed a perfect system. Not pretty good, but foolproof. One way to do that would be to lock up the guns and ammo separately, and never allow both to be out unattended, ever. Because the guns were much bulkier and took up much more room, the easier answer was to store cartridges in the safe, so that there were never loaded rounds available for guns I might temporarily store in my office for photography or administrative use. The Liberty Lincoln safe before the drill out. The author used the magnetic strip at 10 o’clock to hold a light while he examined the wires in the electronic keypad. Then, I could lock the gun actions individually outside the safe while I was on site and store them when I was away. So, I wound up putting a lot of ammo in the Lincoln over the years. Because of these safety features, we never had any issues or scares. Well, great, right? The kids grew up with only the holes that God gave them, and as adults, they moved away. But, out of habit, I kept the same storage system until 2020. I had a chance to go deer hunting for the first time in years, so I went to the safe to get my pet 25-06 Remington loads and go to the range. The balky Sargent & Greenleaf electronic lock that died during COVID. For the 25 years previously, entering a six-digit code on the keypad retracted a bolt, allowing the handle to turn and unlock the door bolts. When I bought the safe, I chose a Sargent & Greenleaf electronic lock because it was much faster to open than a dial lock, and I was in and out of the safe a lot, so I appreciated the convenience. This time, however, I hit the combination, and the numbers beeped when I keyed them, but I didn’t hear the “wearnt-wearnt” of the locking bolt moving. Just a “wearnt” sound, and no movement. The face of the S&G keypad off the door. The back of the keypad with the batteries removed. No worries. Probably just needed to change the batteries. Swapped them out with brand-new Duracells, and the keypad beeps sounded fine, but I still heard just a single “wearnt” sound after the combination. And the handle wouldn’t turn. Hmm. This had actually happened before when one of the four leads from the keypad to the lock mechanism had pulled loose, and needed to be reinserted. So, I popped off the keypad and checked the wires. All looked good. Well, this was no bueno. I messed around for a couple of weeks trying to get the danged thing open to no avail. So, I eventually called a locksmith referred by the Liberty website, and that’s when the fun began. The back of the keypad face is at left, with the exterior mounting bracket for the electronic lock on the right. The old unlocking code is on the envelope, with some digits blurred out. Two 9-volt batteries powered the lock. THE FIRST VISIT The locksmith came up to my second-floor office. He was a contractor for the local dealer who had humped the safe up the stairs many years ago. We looked at the safe documentation I had, and I got more bad news. I had the Deluxe L-15, which had a recessed 3/8-inch-thick hardened-steel door with triple relockers, 10 1-inch shielded bolts, and internal hinges. The sides and top were 10-gauge steel. The 24.5×60.5×20-inch box had 16 cubic feet of storage and weighed about 450 pounds unloaded. But with the ammo on its floor, it was much heavier than that. A Diamalloy hardplate, heat-treated to achieve a much harder surface, sat between the interior door surface and the front of the lock body to, of course, resist drilling of the lock. The only good news was that the safe wasn’t bolted to the floor. Here are the basic implements needed to drill out a safe lock. Might as well buy your carbide-tipped drill bits by the dozen. Fun fact: The locksmith was insistent that he never be photographed or recorded on video. Reason: He does frequent law-enforcement work (with search warrants), entering into criminals’ gun, drugs, and money safes, where firearms they shouldn’t own and cash they’ve acquired through bake sales and other methods are stored. It is an important life lesson to realize that people with tattoos on their faces don’t take kindly to having their stuff seized, and the guy who gets their safes open isn’t immune from retaliation. The locksmith used the master code. It didn’t work. He said, “The lock mechanism is dead. Happens with the electronics. Sometimes they just quit. And we can’t get replacements these days because the boards are sourced out of China.” There weren’t any in the U.S., and there was no prospect of any becoming available for years. He explained that when the correct code is entered into the lock keypad, the electronic circuit activates a solenoid or motor that retracts the bolt (“wearnt-wearnt”), allowing the locking bar inside the door to move the locking bolts when the handle is turned. Because the circuitry had died, that bolt was stuck in place. Part of the Sargent & Greenleaf lock body that sat inside the door. Pray you never get to see this on your safe. Well, crap. More common issues than a circuit-board failure are people forgetting their combinations, losing their keys, or damaging a mechanical lock, so being locked out wasn’t that uncommon. He said there were a couple of ways to get in. The lock mechanism. When you enter the device code, the wheels underneath the arm align, allowing the arm to retract the gold-colored bolt at the bottom. With the bolt out of the way, the handle can turn the spindle, retracting the door bolts. Part of the trick of drilling out the safe lock is bypassing the safe relocker (arrow). It provides an additional layer of protection, ensuring that even if the primary lock is compromised, the safe remains secure. These devices are designed to lock a safe automatically if an unauthorized attempt is made to tamper with or break into it. The locksmith kept the mechanical relocker from engaging during the drill out. Grinding or torch-cutting a hole in the sides or back were two ways to get in, but both posed fire hazards, and the safe was in an upstairs carpeted office. Besides not wanting to burn the house down, I also ruled out grinding and cutting the safe open because of the sizable amount of handgun and rifle ammunition that was in there, along with several backup drives that couldn’t tolerate sparks or slag, and some guns and documents. Fortunately, there was no gunpowder, primed cases, unboxed primers, or other hazardous chemicals that could go boom in an enclosed steel box (see sidebar). The initial drill holes to locate the lock body. Each hole ate up a couple of drill bits. Factory-suggested locations for the lock body didn’t pan out, so the locksmith began a grid search. The locksmith also mentioned that the lock could be drilled out, basically a process of drilling to locate the lock inside the door and then driving the lock housing off the door with a punch. With the locking bolt moved, that would allow the door handle to retract the bolts in the door, et voilà. After nearly a dozen holes, the locksmith was able to drill into the lock body on the S&G mechanism. This shows the full length of the inside of the safe door with the lining off. Several holes drilled through the door are apparent, with one designated by the arrow. The locksmith asked the author not to show how the lock body fits into the door locking mechanism because other safes have similar geometry, and revealing their design could make breaking into them easier for unauthorized users. CONCLUSION When your gun safe goes kaput, it can be a real pain in the keester. If my experience with a failed electronic keypad has you second-guessing a gun safe purchase, you might consider a good, old-fashioned combination lock type. Either way you decide to go, learn from my experience and avoid the pitfalls. The final tally for my little misadventure? All in for drilling and new lock: $1,100. The experience of watching the process? Priceless. WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T STORE IN A GUN SAFE Although gun safes are ideal for storing firearms, knives, jewelry, cash and more, there are certain things they aren’t suitable for. Ammunition, Powders, and Primers Items you should not store in a gun safe include gunpowder or primers, especially in large quantities. These two items are combustible and can be an explosion hazard when stored in a tightly sealed metal box. If you think about it, flammable substance + sealed metal container = bomb. Also, if you keep powder or primers in your gun safe, you may not be able to get assistance from insurance in the case of a fire. Bleach and Certain Chemicals Some people may be inclined to keep gun cleaning products, lubricants and other chemicals in their gun safes along with their firearms. However, it’s not a great idea because certain chemicals can release vapors that can react with compounds in your firearms, potentially leading to dangerous reactions. If you must keep chemicals in your gun safe to keep them out of children’s reach or for another reason, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for storing them correctly. Even innocuous chemicals like gun oils and solvents, blackpowder lubes, and so on can give off fumes that react with metals or other items and can cause damage. So be sure to check the labels and regularly inspect the contents of your safe or vault if you store chemicals or solvents inside. Humidity One thing you certainly don't want in your gun safe is humidity. Buy and use a dehumidifier, especially if you live in a humid climate. Check your stored firearms periodically and make sure they're not rusting away in your safe. This article is an excerpt from the Cartridges of the World, 18th Edition book, available at GunDigestStore.com. The lock mechanism. When you enter the device code, the wheels underneath the arm align, allowing the arm to retract the gold-colored bolt at the bottom. With the bolt out of the way, the handle can turn the spindle, retracting the door bolts. Part of the trick of drilling out the safe lock is bypassing the safe relocker (arrow). It provides an additional layer of protection, ensuring that even if the primary lock is compromised, the safe remains secure. These devices are designed to lock a safe automatically if an unauthorized attempt is made to tamper with or break into it. The locksmith kept the mechanical relocker from engaging during the drill out. Why you can trust RECOIL Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyer’s guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. Our reviewers are the backbone of our operation and come from diverse shooting backgrounds: Former law enforcement, military veterans, competitive shooters, seasoned hunters and plain old firearms enthusiasts. Furthermore, we’re not just gun experts, but dedicated journalists who adhere to the strictest standards of our profession. 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