Please post your opinions on which you like better.

  I prefer combo's... I can open it even if I'm standin there in the dark in my bvd's.
Any snach and grab thief can defeat a simple key lock. Smash a big ass screw driver into the keyhole w/ big cresant wrench then twist the scredriver with the wrench. Presto, you are in in less than 15 sec. Funny what you'll learn doing maintenance work :)I don't know if the less expensive combo's are as easy to break into as the keyed models. I don't have any gun safes at work to break into.

Any 5 year old kid can grab my combo and yank it off the safe.  It is only held on by the ribbom cable with a pin connector.   Hell, steal that and the owner cannot get their safe open.

Sargeant and Greenleaf combination locks are the only locks authorized for storage of classified materials by government contractors. I escorted a locksmith into the building once to drill a safe for which the combination had been forgotten, and it took him almost an hour to get into it with the manual and all the right tools. He had to drill a certain distance out in a certain direction from the center post of the dial, then slap on a drift punch. Very educational.

Jarhead out.

ANY Key lock can be picked, or forced with the right tools and training in a very short period of time.  

Combination locks must be defeated by drilling, listening for tumblers, etc.

Why do you think banks use combination locks on their vault doors?  If you lose your key to the lock on your safety deposit box, they just drill it out and put in a new one for you.

Some combination locks and handles are designed to break off preventing the safe from being forced open.  

I would worry more about the guy with a 3 1/2" mini grinder and a thin metal cutting blade who will zip a hole in the side of almost any safe in just a few short minutes and haul all of your stuff out.

Just try one on some of the metal gauges advertised on safes and you will see why most gun safe losses are from holes, not locks.

B.

Mosler are also approved, but S&G are better.

Combo locks seem the most secure, and I have a S&G digital but still wonder about it.  Key locks are a deterrent for inexpensive cabinets, both having a similar break into time.

I'd like to know everyones solution to what I said.  On combination locks, you have to pull them a little to replace the batteries.  They are attached by a ribbon cable.  This keypad can easily be removed from the safe.  After someone steels your keypad, what do you do?  You cannot open up the safe unless you have another keypad squirled away somewhere.

I'm wondering if I should buy another one and stash it someplace.

Any lock can be fubared into permalock mode by an appropriate application of force and/or krazy glue.  Most can be lifted then fubared open with simple agricultural machinery and a few minutes, so the security they provide is somewhat marginal.  I prefer combos as there are no keys to get lost, copied or misplaced.  Also there was an incident in Britain where some dude lent his mother his car and she got pulled over for some minor traffic violation - his gun keys were on the keyring.  His mother was arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for 'possessing' his firearms - not because she had his guns, but just because she had his keys. If you live in an area with strange storage laws coughcanadacoughcough you might be legally safer with something that doesn't use keys.