Help needed regarding a Gun Safe....

A friend of mine purchased a medium sized gunsafe from Hunting & Fishing a few years back. The safe had a single key to unlock the main door and a second key to open the small door inside for ammunition/bolt storage. The safe was marked with the words Hunting & Fishing and had a stylized pic of a Stags head on the door. It is not one of the current ones sold by H&F and went out of production about 8-9 yrs ago.

What I need is a pic of the inside of the main door showing the following.......Does the safe door have a second 'skin' of sheetmetal over the whole door on the inside, a small sheetmetal covering over the lock or is there no covering at all.

Reason I ask is that he fell into the trap of hiding his keys in a 'safe' place in a hurry about 2 years back when his wife went into hospital urgently and now cant find them. He is 76 and partially disabled and hasnt used his firearms since the 'Great buyback' following the Christchurch incident.
He lives rural and the 2 quotes I have from locksmiths to gain access into the safe are between $600-$800 and while they were confident they could open it, they both said the safe would be destroyed in the process. He doesnt mind buying a new safe but is damned if he will pay someone that kind of money to open it.

If I knew what the inside of the door looked like, our plan is to use a hole saw/drill bit to either drill around the lock/drill the lock out and hopefully gain access to his firearms.

There is a very small sticker on the safe at the side showing the number of the key and when I approached H&F to get a replacement key 18mths/2 years ago, they told me they no longer had that 'brand' of safe and couldnt get a new key.

Either a pic showing what the inside of the door looks like or any suggestions on how to access the safe without damaging the contents would be appreciated.
I dont mind destroying the safe as I have a spare new compliant safe that I will gift him.

Once he has access I hope to get him out hunting again.

Just had a thought......would a set of 'Jaws of Life' be suitable for a non intrusive entry to the safe.......I could talk to the local 'vollies' and offer them a donation....

If not worried about the safe itself - a disc grinder through the side or back would be just fine . The front will be an arse to cut into , and the sides are probably only 3 mm steel anyway.

Thats what your neighbourhood burglar would use anyway

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Originally Posted by Fee Knicks

If not worried about the safe itself - a disc grinder through the side or back would be just fine . The front will be an arse to cut into , and the sides are probably only 3 mm steel anyway.

Thats what your neighbourhood burglar would use anyway

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Thanks for the suggestion. Problem I have is that I know the rifles inside dont have scope covers and using a cutting/grinding device may throw hot bits inside and stuff them up. Safe is also bolted through the base and through both the back and side in a corner which limits access. Could probably pull the safe out but would wreck the walls and floor doing it as we used flat pieces of steel on the inside of the safe around the bolts/Large coach screws...

A mate of mine was asked to perform a similar task and being a bit of a clever fella on the tools, he figured how far away the guns were, the best position etc, and cut a square in the door with an angle grinder, and lifted the lock out. Opened door, retrieved firearms, took lock to locksmith and had new keys made. Then welded it back in. Apparently the secret is to use the cutting disc very shallow so there is very little of the sparks etc going inside the safe.

If youre worried about sparks on the scope lenses etc, cut 2 holes, the first down low so it wont hurt the scopes. Then reach in and stuff the safe with a wool blanket before cutting the lock out. Or stuff wool blankets in the bottom hole right up to the top, and cut the top off the safe.

pmed

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Originally Posted by m101a1

pmed

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Replied...and thanks.

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Originally Posted by Husky1600#2

A mate of mine was asked to perform a similar task and being a bit of a clever fella on the tools, he figured how far away the guns were, the best position etc, and cut a square in the door with an angle grinder, and lifted the lock out. Opened door, retrieved firearms, took lock to locksmith and had new keys made. Then welded it back in. Apparently the secret is to use the cutting disc very shallow so there is very little of the sparks etc going inside the safe.

If youre worried about sparks on the scope lenses etc, cut 2 holes, the first down low so it wont hurt the scopes. Then reach in and stuff the safe with a wool blanket before cutting the lock out. Or stuff wool blankets in the bottom hole right up to the top, and cut the top off the safe.

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Interesting...Will look at doing something like that possibly......Thanks for the suggestion.

electric nibbler will cut it

Are you sorted now?

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Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

Are you sorted now?

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Not yet. Wont be seeing him till thursday with all the suggestions...

Do you know if it was called a sika gun safe?

Attachment 257838

Does it look like this?

Sorry spika

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Originally Posted by gonetropo

electric nibbler will cut it

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One of these
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketpl...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

And a drill bit large enough to get it started will work, no hot bits of steel being sprayed in all directions either, works like a hole punch

A good locksmith could open it non-destructively and then with the lock mechanism out either replace it or cut a key to suit. 6-800 to open it destructively is something a half decent engineer could do for $50...

I would suggest that a grinder is the fast, cheap feral as F way to do it. Consider using a demo saw with a good metal cutting blade and a spray can of lube. No sparks or nasties, and much nicer to the house. Take a bit longer, but as suggested clean enough to weld back in once it's locks are sorted. I would also suggest it's a little feral using a grinder if there's ammo in the separate box in the top of the safe!

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Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

Attachment 257838

Does it look like this?

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No unfortunately. But thanks for posting up that pic.

If you don't have a nibbler and want to do it on the cheap I would do it this way
1) Go buy half dozen steel cutting jigsaw blades and two small(100mm or so) grinder cutting discs of the very thin type
2) Grinder cut into the front corners both sides about 100mm up from the floor and about halfway up, cuts only need to be big enough to start the jigsaw blade
3) Cut from bottom cut to halfway up, prise front away enough to see where to cut across horizontally
4) Jigsaw cut horizontally

This is assuming you have a jigsaw and a small grinder

You fellas do realise your on open internet telling anyone who wants to look how to break into your gunsafe don't you????

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

You fellas do realise your on open internet telling anyone who wants to look how to break into your gunsafe don't you????

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thats why im pm him

Fair call, but it's not like what is mentioned on here is really that secret/difficult. Any number of youtube videos give a step by step that is way more detailed than anything here, also the ideas proposed are the neat, tidy, low damage but very much the time consuming options which I doubt is going to be much use to anyone looking to do this for criminal reasons.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

You fellas do realise your on open internet telling anyone who wants to look how to break into your gunsafe don't you????

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How to open a metal box with tools is not secret knowledge

Show a picture of the safe and the key number, someone on here may have the same key #

The animals already knew how to break in, doing so while respecting the contents is just beyond their comprension.

Tried claiming insurance?

What kind of key is it normal flat key, barrel key or one like a legge etc

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Originally Posted by blip

What kind of key is it normal flat key, barrel key or one like a legge etc

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2 flats on opposite sides of a round shaft. I have tried other similar keys but no success.

Ok not the easiest. Id say your hole saw idea might be the best. Got a metal cutting hole saw?

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Originally Posted by blip

Ok not the easiest. Id say your hole saw idea might be the best. Got a metal cutting hole saw?

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Have access to one through a plumber friend...

ok was going to say Ive got one If you need it

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Originally Posted by Allgood

2 flats on opposite sides of a round shaft. I have tried other similar keys but no success.

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Post a pic, I have a key like that for mine, I’m sure they didn’t make millions of diff ones

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Originally Posted by Allgood

There is a very small sticker on the safe at the side showing the number of the key and when I approached H&F to get a replacement key 18mths/2 years ago, they told me they no longer had that 'brand' of safe and couldnt get a new key.

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@Allgood I've PM'd you a key number, long shot, but maybe mine fits.