Five years ago I bought a gun safe with an electric combination lock. Last June the lock started eating 9v batteries (One every 6-7 days with no usage). But that is not the subject of this thread.
I replaced it with a top of the line S&G commercial heavy duty lock that I'm verry happy with.
Hidden within the written material, was the confident statement that the lock is EMP resistant. For those not acquainted EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse, generated by a nuclear explosion. This pulse will render most electronic devices dead in the water.
Please refrain from political posts on world events in this thread.
My curiosity concerns this:

If there is a nuclear event in this country How many gun safes will be locked closed with fused lock electronics.

Has any one else considered whether their house defense and personal defense weapons would be unobtainable for an extended length of time when they may be needed most. Apparently I'm now covered.
Curious as to your thoughts?

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I'm with her

I'm more worried about the zombies.

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The best I can with what I got

I don’t trust any of the E-lectronic locks etc mainly because they give me enough grief without help from an EMP.
Keeping certain things simple in a complex world has its advantages.

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Remain Viable

I agree.
But if that and the fact that electronic locks have a few disadvantages maybe just get a high quality S&G combination lock. One of my gun safes is over 20 years old and no batteries or problems. Works every time.

All of my small safes have Simplex (Mechanical) locks as does my big garage safe. I agree with keeping it simple. But so many (All?) of the new safes are electronic.

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I'm with her

I have a Treadlok safe that is 1987 vintage. The S&G is the best but after many moves and bumps the dial is loose. I will replace the current set with a "group 2" S&G because I can't afford tp replace it with a quality American made safe currently available. Even paying a professional to do the work it'll be worth the trouble. I have never been a fan of the electronic locks but I have never owned one. Joe

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Behavior Creates Destiny

Guy in a local safe store told me that for most/all of his safes, one could specify electronic or mechanical for the lock.

How many of us will still be alive after a nuclear explosion to worry about getting in our safes?

Besides, who's going to invade after dropping the bomb? This will be 'dirty ground' for years to come.

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ask questions- then shoot!

Unless it is a steel reinforced concrete vault I can get in in less than 30 minutes anyway. Even a EMP won't disable my chains, bars, clamps and port a powers. Safe might get totally trashed, but it WILL open.

Don't you need a car/truck to pull on the chains, bars and clamps?????

Hope you have an EMP proof vehicle..... Just wondering...

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.............SmithNut

Yes, but I suspect that few, if any, zombies or regular burglars have your array of equipment or the ability to use the equipment.

Depends on the number of bombs and where. If you are over 5 miles from the drop of a 10 kiloton nuke you will probably survive the explosion and the wind is a big factor on radiation as well as type of bomb. Maximum dangerous fallout would occur within about 100 miles down wind within about a 2 day period from that size bomb.

They do not have to target populations, but infrastructures. A much larger concern would be the infrastructure damage, power grids, water distribution, refining and fuel distribution, food distribution. Targeting manufacturing would curtail military responses and of course the workers living near them. I believe most of the people in a large metropolitan areas will perish from lack of food and water more than bombs and radiation. Most of the exits would rapidly become choked and then impassable. Major radiation deaths would occur within those zones previously mentioned and even in those the amount would drop off to the point after about 12 weeks to being long term effects rather than short term.

My problem is there are numerous missile silos within close proximity to me. Nearest is less than 2 miles it the target them. But, why target missile silos that will most likely launch before they can be hit and destroyed. Approx 20-30 minutes from lunch to arrival, Less is launched from a sub.

I hope Dante’s pizza shop is functional.

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I’m your Boogie Man, uh huh.

My point was I am hardly worried about one of my safes being disabled by an EMP. But, also in the case a steel reinforced vault, well placed explosives will open those.

I have 3 safes, all old fashion combination locks.

If a nuclear explosion hits. I hope to be in the vaporize zone, and not worry about anything.

It's not the lock being fused that concerns me.

My gun safe has a mechanical lock and Ruthie has the combination. The first things to go in an EMP will be my pacemaker and forum connection.

Like Kev, I'll be beyond caring.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Not mine, I have 2 keyed locks. No combination to remember or to seize up.

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V/r,
Markham

I think You'd last longer without the pacemaker than lack of forum access.

Or want to be…..

It's not just nuclear blasts that cause a disruptive geomagnetic field.
In 1859, there was a solar mass ejection, named the Carrington effect, that took out telegraph lines. In one case a line was kept operating utilizing the current induced on the line, with the batteries switched off. If this happened now, just about everything would be shut down. It could take a long time to restore power and get vehicles moving again.

Carrington Event - Wikipedia

73,
Rick

To quote Charley Waite " there are things that gnaw on a man worse than dying."

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

It is not a given that a nuclear explosion would kill everyone (or anyone, for that matter), depending on the yield of the device.
A nuclear weapon detonated in the upper atmosphere to create an EMP would likely not cause any immediate casualties on the ground. Those would come immediately as infrastructure failed.
Flying aircraft in the EMP zone would be a different matter. They would be dropping out of the sky immediately.

People should learn about the actual effects off modern nuclear bombs. Everyone will not die. Fall out will not kill everyone who survives the blasts.

The main problem that even in a limited exchange where infrastructure, logistical and communications centers are destroyed, it will cause a total collapse of the supply chain most urban centers depend on. Any one near a major military base or hardware supplier is probably toast of course Look what happened to the supply chain a couple years ago just from the covid shutdowns. What happens when the power, water and food supply is totally cut off to urban areas. Even if their urban assault SUV is full off gas the chances of them actually making it out off a city that approaches grid lock just during morning rush hour is near zero when they decide to all flee the hives. Those that do make it out and head to rural areas will NOT be meet with arms, but not the open type. An enemy does not need to target and kill civilians when the majority of them will perish by simple thirst and starvation and internal conflict.

My water comes from a very deep aquifer. There are millions of bushels of wheat nearby enclosed in metal and cement silos and a acres of cattail bogs as well as thousands of cows, pigs and horses. My natural gas comes form near by and has a huge standby natural gas power plant to run it during power failure. There are lots of old tractors that are as basic as they get around here. Your area?

My only concern is being 71, but I have had a great life and if it flashes in front of me when I go it will be really entertaining.

An EMP locking up your gun safe is the least of your problems.

I have several guns that are not kept in my safe , and NONE of my ammo is locked up .

I don't like electronic locks, but my safe has one because it was priced $200 less than the same model with mechanical combo lock. BUT... it also has a keyed bypass. So when the Russkis or Chinese drop the big one, the zombies had better find the key first...

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Pisgah

Lets see a show of hands, and be honest now:
How many of you can still drop to your hands and knees and crawl under a school desk?

[QUOTE=SS336;141609833]I agree.
But if that and the fact that electronic locks have a few disadvantages maybe just get a high quality S&G combination lock. One of my gun safes is over 20 years old and no batteries or problems. Works every time.[/QUOTES

Same here .......I WILL NOT....Own a safe with an electronic lock.........S&G spin dial for me forever.

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S&W Accumulator

For every 10 missile silos, there is an LCF (Launch Control Facility) nearby. Its the site with the missile guys (affectionately called Coneheads) down in the hole with the keys to the kingdom. In a first strike, that place will be targeted with a massive nuke. Kill it and ten missiles don’t fly to the Motherland. Anything remotely nearby might see a flash before the harp music starts.

I’m the earnest looking butterbar with the binder, briefing a convoy crew (including a uniformed US Marshal) before hauling a you-know-what from its hole to the base for some mandatory tinkering.

Attached Images

6B1F545B-BEEE-41C8-9927-FC1AF9E08C9A.jpg (84.1 KB, 52 views)

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Rule of law, not a man.

I have an old combo lock, no worries here. More worried that they will target the many military bases near me first.

Well without considering an EMP event (either nuke or a natural Carrington type) it's a simple fact that electronics do fail. Many safes do come with a key backup system and it will still work even of the electronic control dies. A more serious failure can occur if the gearing fails. A lot of cheaper safes use plastic or nylon gears to turn and release the locking bars. These occasionally fail and it requires a locksmith to open (or an experienced safe cracker LOL).

Our store had a safe that we used for vital records and Class 3 items and the gears stripped in it. Was rather expensive to get it opened and a new lock fitted. Funny thing, we also sold safes and had a new one that was defective out of the box............ The manufacturer replaced it but didn't want the old one back. Had it setting in the back for a while, couldn't decide what to do with it. Mentioned it to one of our regulars and he asked if he could have it if he got it open. We said sure. Took him about 20 minutes, flipped it over, took two prybars and had the door popped! Made us wonder where he learned this....... He was once a British Royal Marine before moving to the US, maybe they taught him? Or he learned some "useful" skills from people he knew growing up in England LOL

Like my comb I keep this for nostalgic purposes.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I installed one of those for a customer several years ago. When I opened the box there was a made in China sticker on the lock.

Maybe that’s changed I hope.

I work on a military installation. Many of the high security areas use an electronic lock made for the government and available only to the government. Highly expensive of course.

They fail. We replace them with another.

I have a rotary dial lock on my safe. And I will never have an electronic lock.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

That’s not a safe . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

If there is an EMP and you don’t have a years supply of food stashed and a way to produce more, nothing else matters.

Of course you also need to be able to protect that food. The average guy holed up in his home probably won’t be able to hold out for an extended period of time depending on where you live.

The worst will happen. Your good neighbors will turn against you when their kids are starving.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

I think spin and dial locks are a pain in the backside. EMP fears are highly overrated, especially when it come to their effects on simple binary code devices.
Post 25 nails the scenarios very well

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Kind regards, Heinz

Back before I retired from the Yankee Gov’t, our agency shared space with an almost sister agency. Our gun vault held our safe, with an SG spin and dial lock, and their safe, with an electronic lock. If you don’t anticipate battery failure and change regularly, and even if you do anticipate and experience unexpected battery failure, you get locked out. Guess which agency never had to postpone a training event or actual incident response due to being locked out . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

I have an old Liberty Centurion with the S&G mechanical lock, no issues. But in all reality, EMP from a nuclear attack effecting your electronic lock would probably be the least of your worries.

Uh No You wrap a chain around the safe and place a 10 ton port a power ram between the chain and safe door and push it in until it buckles. I have never used a clamp or bar with a vehicle. You use them to force entry. I have a harden 5' bar that is over 1" in diameter. I I took an axe head and beat it into the jam of a safe door with one of my sledge hammers I would get a spot to stick the tip of the bar in. If I got 1 inch of the bar in I would have 60-1 leverage and my 300# of weight on the end of the bar would give me 18,000# of force on the door at that point. Even 1/4" plate and angle won't withstand that force and very few safes are that heavily constructed.

You could also just punch a hole in the safe by using a big punch in a pair of vise grips and start whacking it with a sledge and then once you have a start hole drive the ax head though the metal at an angle. Would be like using a super sized can opener on a safe made of normal 1/8" or thinner plate. Ever wonder where the expression pealing a safe came from. It is just metal. I cut it all the time.

But, an older car that just used points and a coil might survive a EMP. No real electronics and the coil is by design made to make an electro magnetic pulse in the first place. The alternator might fry, but it will run without one. There are lots of older tractors around here that only use a magneto to run. Pretty simple.

Sooooo if I have a battery operated lock with a big key for when battery is dead, would the key work or would the electronics seize it up??????

I felt compelled...

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Luckily for me the nearest one of those is about 12 miles away as the crow flys with several ridges of terrain between me and them and it is normally down wind. But I expect this area to get quite bright during the initial festivities.

I have seen the earnest looking butter bars and others, we have them, humvees, helicopters, pickups and transport vans playing musical chairs. I could even tell you some hilarious stories about those guarding our nuclear might. Except for the occasional Humvee with the machine gun mounted, the citizens around here are better armed. The classic was a woman full bird at a K Mart whose uniform almost qualified her for on of those people of K Mart deals. Now all the missile sites have a porta potty outside their gate. Last year one of my more interesting buddies went over to one planning to use it but it was locked. I personally never go up their approach road.

They are supposed to be up grading the silos around here over a period of years.

I can open it in about 30 seconds. That’s not a safe.

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

I have 2 safes, one is a key lock(Like it best) the other a dial. I worked at a big box for a while, we sold electronics as well as cile mechanical lock safes. When I bought the second I bought the mechanical dial lock. The key lock like the other safe was more expensive, about double the dial. Batteries, glue, tape are all temps.

Absolutely spot on.

I took a van full of "head shrinks" down to Miami on a relief trip after hurricane Andrew. 3 weeks after trash was 6 feet high on both sides of the streets, rats everywhere. After "dark dark" (when there is no power anywhere) military rolled out along with the FDLE who guarded our operation. Gunfire all night and the animals ruled. Mornings saw 4 hour lines to get in an operating McDonalds. I traded a case of tuna cans for 2 new looted strollers for 2 abandoned kids dropped on us. We turned them over to some .gov types, wasn't nobody coming back for 'em. I got pictures.
Let's get back to safe locking devices. Joe

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Behavior Creates Destiny

My safes all come withy key locks. Each gets lubed about once a month and tested to make sure they will open with the right keys. A set of the three keys are always on my person at all times.Frank

I changed all of my electronic locks out for mechanical dials quite awhile back after having intermittent problems with a couple of the electronic ones. Installing a mechanical lock is simple and S&G has a great YouTube video on installation and setting up the combination.

My most recent safe, a Fort Knox, has both electric keypad and dial, though in truth, I'd be a bit slow trying to use the dial as I rely on the keypad so much. It uses the same numbers per say, but on the keypad it's a straight 8 digit number which translates to 4, 2 digit numbers on the dial.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!