If the pressure has increased and no items are blocking the bolts, we recommend contacting a gun safe technician. Likewise, your gun safe handle should be easy to turn. Your gun safe door should be very easy to close, requiring no force to get it fully shut. Gun Safe Handle FAQ Why is my safe handle is hard to turn when nothing’s blocking it? Stop what you’re doing immediately and call a safe technician.Ĭontinuing to turn your handle can cause your slip clutch to wear out and may require your safe to be drilled open. If you try and force your safe’s handle to turn, you may discover it starts to rotate in circles and nothing happens. Most, high-quality safes have what is called a “slip clutch.” This is a mechanism designed to protect against a brute force entry. You need to give your door the space it requires to do its job. It’s designed to keep intruders out and provide protection from fire. Why? Consider the thickness of your gun safe door. Items Extend Beyond Your Shelves and Gun Racksįor the most part, nothing should extend past the end of your shelving or gun racks. To ensure you can easily turn your gun safe handle spokes, always check your door jam before you close your safe. Furthermore, any strain placed on the bolts makes your safe less secure and easier to break into.Īs you add or remove items from your safe, it’s easy for things to shift and fall. Even small items, like an instruction manual, can impede how the bolt travels.īy not allowing the bolt to extend fully, you run the risk of being unable to turn your safe handle. In order for a gun safe handle to operate properly, there should be no items placed on the sides, bottom or within the top 5-inches of the door jam area. As a gun safe technician, I encounter this issue at least once a week. This causes items to push against the door’s locking bolts, disrupting its ability to open properly. The most common reason a gun safe handle is hard to turn is that the safe has been overfilled. 4 Reasons a Gun Safe Handle is Hard to Turn 1.

Sentry safe open but wont close