It’s a staple of movies and televisions: there’s the locked door, here’s the macho detective who wants to get to the other side. He whips out his gun and blasts off a round and presto! the door no more is locked.
Hmmm.
I don’t want to embarass myself if I should ever wake up a macho (eek!) detective, so how does this work? Should I aim at the body of the padlock itself? The, um, loop at the top? The hasp or whatever it is attached to on the door?
(Er, maybe I should ask first if it works at all, outside of the screen…)
How about ‘regular’ locks, ones that are set into doors? I assume you’d aim at the key hole, since there isn’t much else to aim at. But does it matter what kind of lock it is? As in, there’s no good blasting at a horizontal deadbolt but vertical ones give in?
(Strange the things that you wonder about while watching baaaaad movies.)
Depends on the caliber of the gun, among other things. If I was going to shoot a padlock off something, I sure wouldn’t aim for the body of the padlock; it’d probably simply deflect the bullet. Hell, I’d aim for the hasp; it’s probably the cheapest, weakest part of the lock, depending on the quality of the door…
As to installed locks… once again, I’d want a large caliber gun, and I’d just shoot between the lock and the doorjamb, hoping to blast a big enough hole to disable the actual bolt.
I believe that hinges are normally taken out with very close shots ‘powdered shot’ or small birdshot from shotguns when doors are removed via firearms by LE.
From personal experience, a lowly .38 Special semi-wadcutter will work on a Masterlocks clasp at the 1’ range (miracle that I survived my teen years relatively unscathed ).
The paperwork and justification of shooting makes me think that this (detective shooting pistol at door locks) is fiction. Sledgehammers and battering rams seem the preferred way.
(a) Master (the lock company) used to have an ad where they put a bunch of locks onto targets and had a sharpshooter put rifle rounds through the body. They didn’t open.
(b) For locks set into doors, if you shoot the keyhole, you actually improve the security of the lock, because now it can’t be unlocked from your side… you would want to shoot the point where the door meets the jamb, in hopes of punching a hole clear through the door, taking the bolt with it.
Important safety tip: Discharging handguns into solid metal objects at point-blank range is strongly discouraged unless you have a good friend in the property department who makes sure your gun doesn’t have real bullets in it.
I was watching a BBC programme last night about credit-card fraud. There was a sequence where the police were raiding a house. To gain entry they had a sort of compressed air device to force the lock. They attached the end of the hose to to the lock , pumped away at a large lever and suddenly BANG and the door was open. I imagine that this was some sort of captive bolt device that shattered the lock . It certainly worked and would be much safer than shooting a lock off.
I saw a movie recently where to gain entry through a door the guy fired a shotgun not at the lock but at the two hinges. With them gone there’s nothing left to hold the door in place, plus hinges likely aren’t armored the way a padlock would be.
Yes, it was a movie but it made perfect sense… at least to me.
I think these ads were a bit misleading. The ones I remember put a bullet into the center of the padlock. This looks very dramatic, but it’s not the best way to open a lock. If you put your bullet a little off center, over the latching mechanism that holds the clasp, you stand a much better chance of opening it. The moral of this story is that you need to distinguish between advertising images and product reviews. The company may tell the truth (the lock really didn’t open), but they don’t the the whole truth and nothing but the truth in their ads. If you want to know if a bullet will open a padlock, don’t ask the company selling the padlock.
For opening a door lock, one effective way to assault a deadbolt is to attack the lock cylinder, trying to break the screws that hold the cylinder in the door (usually two or more screws which hold the two cylinders on either side of the door together). If you break those, you can pull the cylinder out and turn the bolt mechanism with a screwdriver. I’ve done this with a hammer, and I suppose a bullet might be effective if you fired it at the cylinder off-axis (aiming at the side of the cylinder, not down the keyhole). You run the risk of bending the bolt mechanism and jamming it so it can’t be retracted. The goal here is to snap the cylinder off the the door without messing up the tailpiece and bolt too much. This is fairly easy on locks where the cylinder stands out from the face of the door. It’s virtually impossible on cylinders embedded in the door. And there are usually easier ways than resorting to this method.
Depends on the lock. A simple spring-loaded lock can easily be pushed back by the edge of a credit card. I’ve done it. These locks aren’t for security, of course; their intent is more to keep the door from flying open all the time. But they’re everywhere, at least in the U.S.
I witnessed a demonstration of lock shooting once, comparing a large-calibre handgun, 12-gauge shotgun, and .223 and 7.62x39 rifles.
They used 6 wooden doors in wooden frames and 6 steel footlockers.
The Doors:
The .44 magnum used a whole box of 50 catridges and did not destroy the lock, nor cause the door to open.
The .223 required about 10 shots to get it to open.
The 7.62x39 required about 3 shots or so, I can’t remember.
The 12-gauge was the most impressive. I was fully expecting it to have a minor impact on the door (no pun intended). Instead, the first shot blew the lock out of the door entirely. The next trial, it removed so much wood on the first shot that the lock could be prised out. Other results were similar.
The Footlockers:
The demonstration was also done on a master lock hanging from metal footlockers. The .44 magnum was useless and did nothing but dent the locker from misses. The .223 and 7.62 had trouble - they dented the lock up, but since it was free to swing it didn’t break. After a few shots the strap which the lock was connected to fractured and fell off, with the lock still locked upon it.
Once again, the 12-gauge carried the day. Three shots, three lockers, and three times the entire lock and strap blew clean off the locker. It was once again not what I expected, and I was very humbled because I had been telling people that it would not be that effective. :o
Actually, David Horowitz asked much the same question. He got his own locks, his own marksman, and had the guy shoot the locks in various places.
So long as the guy hit anywhere in the body of the lock, the lock held and, in fact, couldn’t be unlocked because the bullet jammed all the parts of the lock body against the haft.
Hitting the haft, however, blew the lock right off the board.
Why on earth would you ever shoot a padlock, or any lock of that nature? Sheesh, man, a good screwdriver or a couple of whacks with a hammer take them right off.
Of everything available on the market, we used 12 gauge pumps with slugs in the field for bear control. Brute stopping power, delivers a tremendous shock.
Yes, it is true, you can try this at home. A screwdriver between the hasp, and what ever the hasp is attached to, a little pressure and the lock will pop open. I have opened plenty of wall lockers, trunks, and doors that way.
Try it with this one, or one of these puppies. Esp. the ABUS 37/60. Do click on the “more info” tab.
Let’s see. 18,000 lbs pull. What does that mean. Hmmm.
11ft. screwdriver, 10:1 lever x 200lbs = 2000 pull? Six of those, ok?
Careful, though. You might find some irritated owner trying to help you put your screwdriver (ahem) away.
Don’t argue with Grampa.
Well, guns are more violent, and we like our violence. Still, I suppose that when they start having shows with carpenters solving crimes instead of police, we’ll see that. Hmmm, get me Bob Vila!
Just picking on you, BonoVox, for making such a generalized pronouncement. I knew you were talking about ordinary locks.
But, if you want to protect something with a padlock, I’d sure 'nuff use one of those. I don’t know about bullets, though. Maybe a couple rounds outta one of these bad boys?
Peace,
mangeorge
You are referring to the ‘Rabbit Tool’. It’s used extensively in the fire service, and a skilled operator can go down a smoke filled hallway, and pop one door every 5 seconds.
Brief description here…http://journals.aol.com/brimasta1/BecomingaFirefighter/entries/175
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