Lock Pick Guns
Manual Lock Pick Guns Lock Pick guns also known as EZ snap guns or lockaid tools are locksmith tools that are generally misunderstood by the uninformed. Pick guns are for use in opening pin tumbler locks. Period. Pick guns or lock aids or snap guns as they are commonly called operate on the laws of physics - action verses reaction. Rather than opening locks by the traditional raking techniques with standard lockpicks, a snap gun uses a primary law of physics, the transfer of energy, to compromise locks. Manual pick guns have a slim "finger" (also called a needle) that is inserted into a keyway. You squeeze the "trigger" which cocks the mechanism and lets the needle drop. When the trigger is further pulled, an internal hammer is released which causes the needle to snap upward. There is a thumbwheel on the pick gun that determines how hard it snaps. Adjusting the thumbwheel just right takes a bit of getting used to. Before the hammer falls, the needle should be lightly resting on all of the bottom pins. You should have a tension wrench in place, in the keyway as in regular lock picking. The torque (or tension) should be very, very light. When the needle snaps upward the top pins will be thrown upward at the same time, away from the bottom pins. For a brief moment, while the top pins are thrown upward, the shear line between the plug and the shell is unimpeded, and if the proper amount of light pressure (torque) is present on the tension wrench, the plug will turn and the lock will open.
The manual lock pick gun was developed decades ago to allow police officers who were not skilled in the art of lock picking to open locks with very little instruction. The lock pick gun is a great tool for law enforcement, property managers, storage unit owners and those that need to open many of the same type of pin tumbler lock in quick succession. Keep in mind that having and using a lock pick gun is a great addition to the locksmiths' toolbox but it is not a substitution to a complete lockpick tool set. Pick guns are limited in their abilities and, as stated earlier are great for simple pin tumbler locks.
