I'm a locksmith and safe technician: Ask me anything.

[SlimJimmy]

21. My humble, yet professional opinion is that the mechanical lock is better.

Actually, I just got home from retrofitting a mechanical lock on a gun safe that had an electronic Largard Basic lock on it. The reason is simple, they just don't fail, and they are more robust against brute force attacks. I have working locks at home from the late 30's and 40's that are still working perfectly. Although the electronic locks are good, they will fail at some point. Even the highly secure Kaba-Mas X-10 elctromechanical lock will fail, and at $1,400 a copy, that can be very expensive. The other thing I highly recommend is that you change the battery in an electronic lock once a year, and only use Duracell batteries.