I own a Redhead gun safe that I purchased from my neighbor a few years ago when he moved away. Now I can't open the safe no matter what. It's not an electronic type safe but has a combination number with a handle. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to open it? I have tried everything with no luck. Spin the wheel fast, spin slow, everything.

Maybe try the combination numbers and add or subtract a couple each number.

Couple thoughts:

Are you using the correct dialing pattern? Good vidio at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SawdvEccTTQ

Do you know the serial number - if yes call the manufacturer and the might be able to help you

quote:

Maybe try the combination numbers and add or subtract a couple each number.

If you're sure you're following the correct sequence, the above will generally work the vast majority of the time.

Gun safes are usually not used nearly enough to start breaking in the locks until many years after they are made. This often causes the numbers to "shift" a bit. Start with 1 number up or down, on one number in the combination at a time.

If you find that the safe opens, lock the door open and repeat that variance to see if it works every time. If so, that's your problem.

Spin the cutoff wheel fast. 4 1/2" angler grinder will open it right up.

If you don't wants sparks, drill 3/8" hole, then use a jigsaw with a metal sawing blade. Five minutes, tops.

Old safe guy tells me this is what happens (over time) when you spin the dial quickly/aggressively.

He watch a customer do this and he told him to quit spinning the dial aggressively or he would one day regret it.
Low and behold, that day come and he could no longer open his safe.

If I recall correctly, the safe guy said every number was off when he got it to open.

Email me. I’m local to you

https://youtu.be/cEtmAtdnXz8

This is how the combo works on my Red Head safe.

Hope this helps

Thanks for all the help. I somehow managed to get it open this evening. I'm going to play around with it as a1abdj said and see what happens

Maybe it's a good idea to empty it out now just in case.

It’s actually not that difficult to set of you can get the hex key that goes on the back of the lock. The post that said to try a number above or below is good…I’d would have suggest half notch past the number first. And the half after…

Glad to hear you got it open. Sounds like the lock's due for replacement.

I started having that problem with my safe. a1abdj suggested that, when I opened the back of the lock, I'd probably find fine, gray dust in the bottom of it. Sure enough: I did.

The safe really wasn't all that old and it wasn't like it was opened and closed multiple times per day--or even once a day, regularly. Nor do I feel I abused the lock. (I'd spin it quick-ish when clearing it, but never while dialing-in the combination or when re-locking it.) Just wasn't a very good lock.

Never fear, though. The lock mounting patterns are usually pretty standard. They're usually not all that difficult to replace.

You can read about my experience, from start to end, here: Current Thinking On Gun Safe Locks? (lockwork photo added)

There are some before and after photos.

Sorry there are no in-progress photos. I've got a bit of a superstition about doing those. It seems that oft times when I do in-progress photos the job goes south, and I certainly didn't want that with this job!

Good luck!

I think it is bad practice to ever spin the dial quickly. I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to do so and still have it work, but spinning it quickly can cause problems that would not occur if you methodically turned it in a controlled manner, even when relocking it.

quote:

Originally posted by Nismo:
Maybe it's a good idea to empty it out now just in case.

Of course. I'm not going anywhere for awhile so I will play with it while the door is open and see what happens

I'm glad it was a mechanical lock . If it had been an electronic lock there would have been post after post telling you that this why you should never own an electronic lock , blah , blah .
ANYTHING can break .

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
I'm glad it was a mechanical lock . If it had been an electronic lock there would have been post after post telling you that this why you should never own an electronic lock , blah , blah .
ANYTHING can break .

When I went to my local Gun Safe Company to get my current safe, he took me in his warehouse to show me one identical to what I wanted except it had a digital lock on it.

He took the packing and wrapping off the safe as he'd just gotten it in stock and tried to open the lock. No dice. Tried a few more times. No dice. Put in a new battery. Still no. Finally swapped out the lock mechanism itself. Still didn't open.

I asked him if this was a common problem with digital locks and he said yes. I asked how common a problem it was with mechanical locks. He said that in his 17 years in the business he'd never seen a defective mechanical safe lock.

And yet , here we are .

This is interesting. I was going to ask if I could replace the mechanical lock and replace it with a digital one. Based on what I'm hearing here, that's not happening.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
This is interesting. I was going to ask if I could replace the mechanical lock and replace it with a digital one.

Probably can. I did. See the thread to which I pointed you, earlier.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Based on what I'm hearing here, that's not happening.

Do electronic locks have a higher failure rate than mechanical? Yes. Do good electronic locks have a high failure rate in absolute terms? Not from what I read.

I would not have replaced a properly-working mech lock with a digital one, but, when the mech lock I had started misbehaving and needed replacement, anyway, I decided I was tired of the dial-spinning, get-it-right-on-the-number routine and went digital.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Maybe try the combination numbers and add or subtract a couple each number.

If you're sure you're following the correct sequence, the above will generally work the vast majority of the time.

Gun safes are usually not used nearly enough to start breaking in the locks until many years after they are made. This often causes the numbers to "shift" a bit. Start with 1 number up or down, on one number in the combination at a time.

If you find that the safe opens, lock the door open and repeat that variance to see if it works every time. If so, that's your problem.

I just emailed a1abdj about this because I didn’t see this thread. His advice was perfect. My middle number was off by -1. That’s when the fun started. I reset the combo but it was off a little bit, so I reset it again and screwed up somewhere and couldn’t get the combo to work.

Haha, awesome :-|

I ended up taking the lock out to futz around with the innards so I could get the change key in again. Ugh. A five minute job took about an hour but I got the combination back to normal.

Thanks Frank!! You a man.