How I Picked My First Lock as a Beginner (Lock Sport Journey Day 1)
A few days ago, I got my first ever lock picking learning set from Covert Instruments. Then, yesterday, I had published my introduction to lockpicking, or my introduction to lock sport, Learning to Pick Locks Like In Video Games, here.
Today I made progress with opening my transparent padlock in 1 minute.
It could have took me less time, but I recorded myself opening my lock to ensure that my first attempt wasn’t a fluke. That I had done it myself and my second attempt was the result that my eyes weren’t deceiving me.
In the video, I used a rake pick — I called it the ‘wavy pick’ because I didn’t know what these new tools were called. I had to shift my mind away from what I had assumed lock picking was about — finding the sweet spot, yes — but that isn’t all there is though.
Video Games Lock Picking Mechanics Aren’t What It’s Like in Reality
In my first post, I shared that I wanted to try lock picking because of games, such as Fallout 4, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and Dying Light: The Following.
In Dying Light, when you find doors or chests that are locked, you use a paper clip and what looks like a knife from a multi tool. You adjust the paper clip and you open it from where there’s no resistance. Any resistance breaks the paper clip until you find the right spot to open the lock. You do need patience to find the right spot because it grows smaller the higher the difficulty is present.
In Assassin’s Creed: Unity, when you find locked treasure chests, you have a live trigger event. A live trigger event means that you have to stop the slide at the right time and this grows becomes difficult the more pins a chest has. The only skills you need is timing and patience too.
Assassin’s Creed 3 had an extremely difficult lock picking mechanic; you had to use the tools to find the tension once your controller vibrated. Once it did, then you’d have to find the pins when the controller vibrates again. Then you’d have to hit the trigger buttons repeatedly and, since there was a timer, if you didn’t unlock it in time, the system would reset. Once it reset, then you’d have to do everything all over again.
As a gamer, starting from the beginning of something as though lost progress is annoying in my opinion.
Fallout 4 has the very same mechanics as Dying Light does, so not much to share there, except you use a flathead screwdriver instead of a multi tool knife.
What I Learned in a Minute Raking the Lock
I can say that video games obviously oversimplified, or made it extremely difficult (I’m looking at you, AC: 3), lock picking because it is far more complicated than it seems.
When using the rake pick, even the single pin pick before I switched tactics, locks push back. Locks need proper pressure, patience, and practice to open without breaking your tools. They speak a language that video games didn’t bother learning because they had to choose what parts of the game they could be expedient with.
It makes sense when lock picking isn’t even the main body of the game, but I know that I was taught to fail before I even got my first set.
I’m glad that I got real experience, first hand exposure to what lock picking is really like. It’s simple in principle, but difficult as a beginner using game mechanics as a template. I need to feel for the pins, learn to apply the correct amount of pressure and tension. Since I used a transparent padlock, I’ll need to practice using feeling than seeing since real locks keep their inner workings hidden.
What’s Next in My Lock Picking Journey
The next step is learning to do single pin picking. The rake pick is easier because you have more curves that can raise multiple pins than the single pin pick. However, if you can’t see how many pins there are, then feeling them one at a time would raise my intuition for sure if I pursue non-transparent locks.
For now, one step at a time as I raise my real lock picking EXP with more practice and application. The first click was the sign that this skill, this hobby, is learnable. It’s doable, and I’m able to do it.
If you made it to the end of this post, then I’d like to thank you. It means a lot that you read everything to the end. Below are more posts you could check out, I talk about other topics beside practicing to pick locks, and I’ll see you all later in the Archives.
About The Stratagem’s Archive and The Person Behind The Screen:
Learning to Pick Locks Like In Video Games
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