Gun safes are an integral part of being a good gun owner. They work to keep your guns out of the wrong hands whether that means kids or a burglar. One of the most important security features of a gun safe is the bolt works. In this blog, we’ll explain what gun safe bolt works are and why they’re important. Let’s get started.

What are Gun Safe Bolt Works?

The simplest definition of a bolt works is that it is a locking mechanism that bolts the safe’s door closed so that it cannot be pried open. From here, the definition changes based on the model. Most state laws require only three bolt pins to secure the door. Why mess around with standard features when bolt works like those manufactured by Champion Safe offer you four-way security for your gun safe?

What Determines Strength of the Bolt Works?

The job of the bolt works is to secure the gun safe’s door so that it cannot be opened unless the locking mechanism is released. The following list of parts helps to make bolt works more secure.

• 3-Way Boltworks are standard. On high-quality gun safes, the bolt works include large bore bolts and more of them. That is one reason why Champion Safe is a superior bolt works manufacturer. They offer 4-way bolt works that pin all four sides of the safe’s door closed.
• Active Bolts: High-quality bolt works include active bolts to ensure that the door is not only closed, but also that it fits snuggly into the frame. Thus, active bolts help prevent space between the door and the frame where prying could occur.
• Bolt-Dent Systems— This is a stabilizing system that helps prevent the bolt works or the outer shell of the gun safe from becoming damaged while the door is open or during the process of opening the door. Imagine what would happen if you bent one of the active bolts. The door would no longer close and/ or lock.

Good Boltwork Design Takes Into Account Bolt Works Attacks

There are four main ways that a person can try to break the door on a gun safe. Two of those — drill attacks and pry attacks — go after the bolt works.

Drill Attacks: Drill attacks typically try to disable the lock so that the safe opens simply by turning the handle. However, that is not always the case. People also try to drill through the bolts of the bolt works so that they fail to secure the door. At that point, the door loses integrity and becomes easy to pry open. Champion Safe uses a Diamond-Embedded Armor Plate™ that is harder than any drill bit to prevent drill attacks.

Pry Attacks: Pry attacks are just what they sound like. Someone uses a crowbar or lever to try to pry open the door. This type of attack highlights many issues with an inferior gun safe design. The quality of the manufacturing of a gun safe is what prevents thieves from gaining entrance. If the door can be warped it will eventually come off. Champion Safe designs the strongest safe body from a single, pressure formed piece of steel, feature 100 percent continuous MIG welds in conjunction with American steel that reinforces the safe’s door casements on each Champion model.

So drill attacks and pry attacks work to disrupt the strength of the bolt works system. If that occurs, entry into the safe is almost guaranteed. There are tricks to preventing this that Champion Safe uses in the design of every one of their gun safes. Including:

• Continuous MIG welds for stronger safe bodies including strong door construction with reinforced casements.
• Steel plates on the inner door, greater total steel weight, high-strength steel from American manufacturers and U.S. construction for greater security in the safe’s design.
• Champion employs a greater number complete and effective door defenses including relockers.
• All gun safe’s come with a lifetime warranty.

All of these features mean real security. Not the implied security that you find with inferior products and Chinese imports. 

Lock Defenses — Mechanisms and Safe Design

In addition to high-quality design using proven parts and materials, Champion Safe employs lock defense Mechanisms. Let’s have a look at what these are and how they improve gun safe security.

Champion Safe designed and installs two defense mechanisms that add protection to the Champion bolt works system installed on your gun safe. The intricacy of these mechanisms helps to ensure that the outer and inner parts of the bolt works system remain damage free even during a drilling or prying attack. These systems include:

• Cam and Cam-Lock — On our safes there is a 4-way cam unit with a cam-lock that defeats the pressure gained by a prying attack. Without pressure, the prying cannot damage the interior parts of the lock or bolt works. So the safe will not open.
• Pinion-Driven Radial Gear — This is a mechanism installed on the Crown Series of Champion Safe. It is the actual drive system that manages the operation of the bolt works. This is a system that brings precision and strength to the Crown Series safes and ensures that they open and close with smoothness. That precision is a benchmark in gun safe strength.

The best gun safes use the best equipment and one of the ways that high-quality gun safes keep your guns safer is by employing relockers. There are a variety of systems that do just what their name implies — They relock the safe during break-in attempts, even those that use heat, drills, or prying.

Relockers — The Last Line of Defense

Champion Safe, which goes above and beyond state and federal regulations to keep your guns secure, employs four types of relockers. Those are:

• Glass relockers — A glass relocker is made of a piece of tempered glass, much like you’d find on the door of a modern automobile. When the glass shatters, it activates a secondary locking mechanism that causes the bolt works to lock or relock. Glass relockers are found on the inner door of a gun safe, and Champion Safe uses them to prevent drilling or punching type attacks.
• Heat relockers — A heat relocker fights against blow torch or cutting torch attacks. These are Sargent and Greenleaf® products that Champion uses on their safes. The heat relocker is a thin piece of metal alloy that has a low melt temperature. If the outer metal is heated, the heat relocker melts and triggers the boltworks and the safe goes into lockdown mode.
• Mechanical relockers — Gun thieves have thought of every possible way to break into a safe. So has Champion. A mechanical relocker is a rear mounted mechanism that triggers the bolt works if the back plate of the safe is removed. Champion understand (s) the nature of gun thieves and builds their safes to be the best protection any gun owner could expect.
• Remote relockers — A remote relocker is a secondary system that works in conjunction with a glass or mechanical relocker mechanism. It will trigger the bolt works to activate if someone tries to disable either the glass relocker or a mechanical relocker. Remote relockers are housed inside of the safe, away from the front and rear panels.

Champion Safe strives and succeeds in being the best manufacturer of gun safes. They do so because they understand the role that a gun safe plays. They succeed in making the most secure safes because of their attention to detail. If you still have questions about what a bolt works is and how it works, just give a Champion Safe rep a call today.