Flutterby™! : Shooting locks 2008-02-19 15:40:08.853496+00

Shooting locks

2008-02-19 15:40:08.853496+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

The Locks O' Truth - or how realistic is shooting a lock to take it off anyway? (Via).

While visiting the in-laws in Anchorage, I picked Nancy's brothers safe with nothing more than a couple of sewing needles. While I was helpful (they had not seen/found the keys in years), it did not make a positive impression on the father-in-law.

Yeah, we have a tool shed, and predictably we misplaced the keys that we were given when we moved in, so yesterday I went out to cut it, Charlene came out to watch, and was rather disappointed when I went through the clasp loop in about 8 strokes of the saw rather than trying to cut the hardened lock.

Rule #2: The lock is rarely the weak point. Those cheap-ass "luggage locks" are more than sufficient for most applications.

I was impressed, however, with the amount of damage the locks shown in the article above would take before they yielded, although I would have been more impressed had they been up against something rather than hanging free.

Having seen a DI take out several Master locks in a few minutes by just hitting them with a crowbar, I've never really had much faith in them.

As far as the demo goes, I wouldn't really think it valid when the lock isn't positioned against a solid backing, because much of the bullet's momentum would go into making it swing.

Ah, the Box O' Truth! Been a while since I've been to those pages. I like some of his other tests - especially the ones he started out with, which are about shooting through wall materials - but I agree that the lock tests would be different if they were unable to swing.

Anyway, I can only see a point to the test if you're going after a lock *with a gun*. I mean, if you have a gun and only a gun, shooting the lock body is your best bet, not the lock hasp or any other hardware. But ideally you won't go after a lock with a gun, you'll go after it with a hacksaw or some high-leverage loppers. And as Dan says, the lock is seldom the weakest link.