Are Gun Safe Locks with a Key Bypass Safe?

The short answer is “NO!” Gun safe locks with a key bypass are not safe. The locks are not UL-listed, and are extremely low security, unreliable and can cause you heartache and loss of your firearms and valuables.

As a master gun safe technician, I work on thousands of locks yearly. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. While I don’t want to spook you, I am here to share my expertise so you can make the best decision possible when considering what gun safe and lock to invest in. The lock on your safe significantly affects how your safe operates and if you can have the safe easily repaired down the road.

What is a UL-Listed Gun Safe Lock?

Underwriters' Laboratories (UL®) is an independent third-party testing agency founded in Chicago in 1894. During the test, engineers look at the lock’s resistance to a wide variety of attacks, including but not limited to:

• Punch attacks

• Electromagnetic attacks

• Picking tool attacks

• Power tool attacks

• Vibration, attacks

They also test the lock’s reliability and longevity, which are the most common issues I encounter with non-UL-listed gun safe locks with a key bypass.

Magic Module Footprint

Another unique feature of UL-listed locks is that they all sit on a magic module footprint. The beauty of the magic module footprint is the wide variety of options it gives you for lock replacements and lock swaps. Because this footprint has been around since at least the 70s, even older safes with UL-listed locks can easily and affordably be updated.

External Battery

The batteries on UL-listed locks are outside the safe in the keypad. If your electronic lock runs out of batteries, you simply change them out and you are back up and running again with the same code as before.

Common Unsafe Gun Safe Locks with Key Bypasses

It’s staggering how many one-off, non-UL-listed locks I have encountered over the years. Some of the most common locks with a key bypass are:

• Sentinella

• Intellok

• Ambition (now known as the Omega)

• Securall

• Whatever that weird thing is in the new Winchester Gun Safes

Security Threat Features & Failures of Inferior Locks

Reset Buttons

Many of these bypass-style locks have a reset button on the back of the door jamb. In a lot of cases, that button can easily be depressed from the outside by someone who knows what they are doing. Often, this requires little more than a flat piece of plastic. This lets the lock be reprogrammed to whatever code is punched in and saved in the keypad after the reset button has been pressed (Scary Stuff).

Keypad Failures

Keypad failures are widespread when some or all of the buttons become unresponsive. This can make it impossible to enter your combination and open the safe.

Mounting Issues

Equally as common as keypad failures are failures of the board mounted inside the safe.

Ribbon Cable Failures

I am seeing a trend with holes and tears in the keypad ribbon cables. It’s my best guestimate that this is happening because users are removing the keypad to get access to the key bypass slot.

Battery Failure

I get a copious number of folks who call because the battery inside their safe doesn’t have enough juice to operate the lock, and they lost their keys. As stated above, this is not an issue for a UL-listed gun safe lock because the batteries are housed outside the safe.

Solenoids Don’t “Dead Latch”

The solenoid plunger of a lock (which is sometimes referred to as the lock’s tongue) is a piece that extends from the locking mechanism into the door. On lower-end locks with key backups, the plunger often doesn’t “dead latch.” This means it can easily be manipulated and the door opened. This manipulation may be done by:

• Putting a heavy magnet on the door

• Bouncing of the safe

• Hitting the door with a dead blow in the right area

Because the throw length on the solenoid is fairly short, I have seen some cases where just forcing the handle on a Stack-On Safe or Sports Afield Safe opened the door. In comparison, the deadbolts (or swingbolts) in UL-listed locks are typically rated to take hundreds of pounds of force.

Repairing and Replacing a Lock with a Key Bypass

Repairing or replacing a lock with a key bypass is usually tough because the non-UL-listed setups rarely use a magic module footprint. (There have been rare instances when I have seen non-UL-listed locks with a magic module footprint, but these are few and far between.)

The non-UL listed lock market is constantly changing, and there's no standardization for mounting. In many cases, lock parts quickly become outdated and/or discontinued, making replacement parts difficult to find. I take a lot of bypass lock setups out of safes and remote mount UL-listed locks. This process significantly increases the reliability and longevity of the safe's operating/opening system, as well as its security. Additionally, it moves the battery for the lock to the outside of the safe and makes the battery replacement procedure a piece of cake.

Best UL Listed Electronic Lock

I always say that the best lock is the one you actually use. That being said, one of my favorite UL-listed electronic locks is the Securam ProLogic. It has a user screen that tells you if the code has been accepted and what the battery level is. The battery just drops out in a plastic tray from the Lower right-hand side of the keypad for easy replacement.

The dual-entry type EMP and Duet locks, or Dial/Electronic redundant lock setups, are also not a viable option. These locks are extremely unreliable. It's unfortunate that such a good idea still has not been well executed.

Replace Your Key Bypass Gun Safe Lock

Do you have a Sports Afield, Stack-on, Sentry, Vital Impact, Newer Cannon, or Newer Winchester gun safe? Are you now worried about your lock with a key bypass? I’ve helped hundreds of customers retrofit their gun safe to leverage the protection of a UL-listed lock.