With the market for gun safes growing, I would like to provide some information to those who may be having problems with their safes.

    The vast majority of guns safes sold go through life with little or no problems.  With literally hundreds of thousands being used, there will always be a certain percentage that develop issues. Some are  minor problems and may require only basic service to overcome. Some will qualify as major  problems which will result in a lock out. Whether you have a mechanical (spin dial) or a electronic (push button) combination, a failure to unlock will put you in a situation where you will need a qualified safe technician in order to overcome the lock out.

    Some problems may be as simple to remedy as your replacing the batteries on your electronic lock or, on a mechanical lock, dialing slightly off number to be able to unlock your safe. But any other failures will probably require an expert to get you in.

    This is where you need to be careful. There are many out there who claim to be good at opening and repairing gun safes, but like any other service you might need, there are those who are unqualified on any basic level to do surgical openings on any kind of safe, let alone your expensive gun safe.

    I use damage free techniques for my  safe openings. This means, on a functional safe with a lost combination or a simple lock malfunction, my opening and repair leaves no visible evidence that I have drilled your safe. And these are 95% of all my openings. Other openings that may leave a small scar are, fired relocks, bolt work malfunctions and burglary attempts. With these lockouts it may be necessary to drill a small hole, most of the time as small as 1/4" to 5/16" in diameter. In these instances, after the repair there is only a small shiny spot.

    I have been in this industry for over 30 years and in that time I have gone behind many so called "qualified" individuals that left a safe in terrible condition. And many times, even though they drilled a number of holes, they were unsuccessful in opening the safe. I have even opened safes that were unable to be repaired and had to be trashed because of the damage done to them by the so called "qualified" person.  To add insult to injury, there has been several openings where I had been contacted first, but the job had been given to another company because they were cheaper than I. But once it became obvious to the owners that individual they hired could not do the job correctly, I have on a number of occasions received a second phone call from the owners apologizing for not going with me first. I think we all have experienced this before and we've learned that cheaper doesn't necessarily mean better.

Don't let that happen to you!

Below is an example of what not to do when opening a gun safe. An expensive Remington safe with 15 holes in it. This attempt at opening was the result of a lost combination. And the person who did this didn't even get the safe open.  It is very possible I might have been able to open it with no holes at all with a technique called manipulation. But even if I would have needed to drill it, you would never have seen where I put my hole because it would have been hidden.  Again, don't let this happen to you.

   When you need major service on your expensive gun safe, make sure you get someone who is qualified. I service, open and repair all makes and models.  Here are a few.