Picking Locks - A quick basic intro
Admins: Please remove this or let me know if this breaks any forum rules or if you feel it is inappropriate. Hey guys. Someone sent me a message asking about lock picking and I figured this might be something that a lot of BASE jumpers would be interested in. I think it's a responsible thing to pick locks instead of using destructive entry and is also a lot safer than trying to circumvent barbed/razor wire fences like you find around most antennas.
::DISCLAIMER:: Picking locks for trespassing often carries MUCH worse legal ramifications and I highly suggest either not doing it OR as soon as you pick a lock, stash all lock picking equipment somewhere that no one will ever find it that you can come back to later.
Picking locks is something you can easily pick up on your own. You don't need very much experience to pick most locks that a base jumper would encounter (or most locks for that matter). It doesn't matter how thick or powerful a lock looks, the thing that matters is how high the tolerances are if there are high security pins.
The FIRST thing you need to do (either before or after buying a very basic simple pick set like the first one I link) is to google around and learn how pin and tumbler locks work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_tumbler_lock
To get started you have a few options. First off, don't get a manual pick set with a million different pieces. It's completely unnecessary and way overpriced. Something like this is plenty.
http://www.lockpicks.com/brockhage-lock-pick-set-b230.aspx
With little experience, using these can take some time and be a little frustrating, but on cheap locks, they open them with almost no problems after you have a little practice.
::NOTE:: You wont be doing it like in the movies (at least I don't). You won't be picking pins one at a time unless you want to only use manual picks for nicer locks (which you may well have to do if you can't make any noise). The rake method works quite well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_picking#Rake_picks
The next step up is a pick gun like:
http://www.lockpicks.com/brockhagepickgun-bpg-10.aspx
These make a snap noise (not too loud), but are much easier to use on locks.
My favorite that I've had is the electric vibrational pick guns like this:
http://www.lockpicks.com/compacthighoutputelectricpicknew-e500xt.aspx
These make much more noise (but you'd be surprised how much the noise drops off over distance and/or how much you can muffle it if you know how), but these are pretty incredible to use. They open cheap locks (like the lower end kwiksets or schlage locks you see on the majority of doors) almost instantly. I've opened many locks on my campus with this with relative ease (the ones on my campus are nicer locks that are made to better tolerances but still aren't high security pin locks). These will not make it any easier (if not harder) to pick locks with high security pins...those are very hard to deal with.
If you are prone to mostly encountering pad locks and want a cheap, easy, quiet solution then just get some of these and learn how to use them:
http://www.lockpicks.com/padlock-shims-sps-20.aspx
This post is very short since it's pretty easy to just read online to figure things; however, if there is some interest, I can make a much longer more detailed post with video/pictures showing you how to use each of these.
