Shooting A Lock Off?

I've seen tests like that before, but that was probably the best photographed test I'd seen. Question though... would the results have been different if the locks hadn't been free hanging? Maybe with a wood backstop of some sort?

The shotgun with the slug sure worked; the results really surprised me.

But in the real world, you don't shoot the lock itself. In most cases, a few shots into the wood around the lock will do the job nicely, weakening the door enough so it can be kicked in. On TV of course, one shot always works. This is due to the cardinal rule of TV ballistics - the director wants it that way.

Jim

The .223 round, almost predictably penetrated thru and thru - despite it's quite high ME - very small cross sectional area.

The slug by comparison, with approx 1566 ft lbs ME - had a large frontal area - and so delivered energy nicely!

I have shot quite a few padlocks over the years. At one time I decided to do a test similar to what he set up here and everytime someone mentioned that they had a lock that they had lost the key to, I would ask them for the lock and then shoot it.
IMO, shooting the lock in the center like he did is not the way to open the lock. But then, he says that in the article.
I shot a Master lock that was enormous: probably about 4 " across: with a Ruger SBH .44 mag. I shot the lock from about a foot away, down from the top at a slight angle to avoid hitting the hasp. It opened right up.
That shotgun slug is a show stopper though.

I can't remember if he described it on his page about shooting the locks, or in a thread on a board, but OP said he intentionally didn't shoot the locks in the most effective manner (which would be to shoot across the lock, rather than through the middle). To shoot them that way would have yeilded much better results.

Shoot the hasp. I've removed padlocks illegally placed on public land with a .22 Mag this way.

That's a waste of ammunition. Don't you people have spare SemTex just lying about?





What, why are you looking at me like that?

[dad]
Son, always use the right tool for the job.
[/dad]

Companion 14 in bolt cutters, $14.99:


http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00965675000

Anybody remember the old MasterLock commercial where they shot their lock with a .30-06?

Hit them on the opening side with a ball peen hammer from the top down. Didn't look at the pictures or read the comments but they have to be shot from the top down with a pistol. You would be surprised at how easy they open

A friend of mine gave me a Master lock that he had lost the keys to. "Make me a desk top paperweight out of this", he said, adding that he didn't think that ANY firearm, handgun, rifle or shotgun, would be able to defeat it. HAHA!

I don't know why I chose the AR-15, but it took only ONE round of 55-grain ball ammo at 50 yards!
The PLACEMENT of the round was everything! The round hit approximately 3/4" above the bottom, on the side that gets lugged into the locking keys.

My friend said that he gets a lot of comments and questions about that "paperweight". He has another "paperweight" that is even more interesting, though. It's a piece of "Lexan" (I think) that looks like a 2" thick piece of clear glass or plastic. It stopped another 55-grain bullet, and actually SEALED the entry hole! The bullet is sort of in "suspension", not quite exiting the piece.
What is interesting is that the bullet doesn't show much expansion or deformation, and there aren't any cracks or fissure marks on the clear material! I think that I fired that round at 100 yards.

My own "trophy" is something that I've carried around for YEARS in my pocket. It's the steel "penetrator" from a .30'06 AP round. The copper and lead "gelding" (?) that surrounded the penetrator was totally stripped off when fired at a 1" thick piece of hardened steel plating. The tip of the penetrator was exposed on the back side of that steel pate, and it took a LOT of hammering to remove it! The penetrator was "pristine", and about the size of a .223 bullet.

I had a buddy back when I was 15 - 16 yr old that tried shooting a lock off a gate with a 22 rifle, an idea he picked up from the old TV commercial. The bullet bounced back and cost him a trip to the doc to clean out a puncture in his thigh. Best reinforcement I had as a boy that my dad was right when he told me not to shoot things other then cans/targets and legal game....

Improvise, adapt and overcome

Well StrikeEagle that sure was impressive. Simtex, bolt cutters, shotguns....how about a key? My favorite part of the pictures was the cover you were wearing, Semper Fi.

Master Locks, 2 paperclips and 15 seconds, open lock.

Why make all that noise when most locks that people buy can be ripped open with a large screw driver or bar..

Nicely done!

CraigJS said:

Why make all that noise when most locks that people buy can be ripped open with a large screw driver or bar..

Click to expand...

Because noise is more fun? I'm assuming that these locks are being removed in perfectly legal fashion, rather than for any nefarious deeds. (Yaknow, people don't use the word "nefarious" enough anymore )

You guys remember that David Horowitz TV show in the 1980s called "Fight Back"?

Back then, Master had a TV commercial showing one of their locks taking a through-and-through shot by a rifle, and holding.

In Fight Back, they did the same test, with the same result as Master's commercial.

They also challenged the TV commercial that shows two brands of canned chili. One can gets shot and the chili oozes out. The other can gets shot, and the chili inside is "so thick and rich" that it doesn't ooze. Thing is, when they actually shot a can of chili on Fight Back, the can and its contents pretty much vaporized.

Majic said:

Anybody remember the old MasterLock commercial where they shot their lock with a .30-06?

Click to expand...

Yes, as a young child I was impressed.

scott.cr said:

You guys remember that David Horowitz TV show in the 1980s called "Fight Back"?

Back then, Master had a TV commercial showing one of their locks taking a through-and-through shot by a rifle, and holding.

In Fight Back, they did the same test, with the same result as Master's commercial.

They also challenged the TV commercial that shows two brands of canned chili. One can gets shot and the chili oozes out. The other can gets shot, and the chili inside is "so thick and rich" that it doesn't ooze. Thing is, when they actually shot a can of chili on Fight Back, the can and its contents pretty much vaporized.

Click to expand...

I remember this show too though I was young. I liked it. I wonder if Horowitz took the pains to insure the same caliber and load were used to shoot the chili in his demonstration. I doubt it.

444 said:

I shot a Master lock that was enormous: probably about 4 " across: with a Ruger SBH .44 mag. I shot the lock from about a foot away, down from the top at a slight angle to avoid hitting the hasp. It opened right up.
That shotgun slug is a show stopper though.

Click to expand...

Not to sound like a safety nazi, but isn't that sort of dangerous?

Yeah, it's kind of like how swords are not being meant for use in blade-to-blade contact with other swords, but that's always how they do it in the movies. A true swordsman generally tries to avoid it. Same here. I would be concerned about shooting padlocks because it just isn't really what a bullet is for, and really bad things can happen because of things like this.

Obviously, I didn't think so.


And, I was right.

I'll just stick with a Hooligan bar. It's quieter.