Brag thread! How long does it take you to pick?

[theTastyCat]

Hey all - I know that picking the same lock can take 30 seconds one day and 30 minutes the next, and also that two locks which appear identical can take very different amounts of time to pick. This thread is simply about my curiosity. I'd like to know how long it takes you all (especially more advanced pickers) to open locks on average. As I continue to struggle with low- to medium-quality locks, I think it would give me hope to hear that folks are opening similar locks in x amount of time on average. If you'd like, include which tools you use on that lock. Feel free to list multiple locks; I'm sure some would like to read about you opening high-security locks, but I'd personally love to hear about low-end locks, SFICs (not that they're low-end), padlocks, etc., since that's what I'd dealing with right now. In the interest of kicking it off, I'll throw out an incredibly unexciting one.

Schlage residential deadbolt, 5-pin (4 spool, one normal): usually in 30 seconds or less with Southord small hook and top tension from the end of a wrench which I've bent the last 1/8" of 90 degrees. Occasionally I've gotten it in 10 seconds or so, but if I'm not paying attention, it can take 10 minutes or more. LIGHT TENSION...why is it so hard for me to remember?

[FarmerFreak]

I'm going to base all of my picking times off blind picking. Meaning I haven't seen the key or previously picked the lock. And I'll give an average range of time that I can usually get them in. Plus there is a big difference between worn out/heavily used locks and brand new ones, so I will list it both ways.

Master padlocks #1,#2,#3,#4,#5 (basic 4 pin stuff)
New: 5-30 seconds. Old: 5 seconds to 1 minute.

Master Pro-series
New: 20 seconds to 1.5 minutes. Old: 20 seconds to 5 minutes.

American padlock
New: 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Old: 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

Schlage/Sargent/(most Yale, but sometimes Yale locks hate me) 6 pin, no spools
New: 10 seconds to 1 minute. Old: 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

Schlage 5 pin with T pins (F series knobs/levers)
New/old: 10 seconds to 1 minute.

Schlage 5 pins (4 spools)
New/Old: I don't know my average time, rarely do I need to pick them. Best guess, 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

Schlage Classic Primus
New: 5-15 minutes. Old: 10-45 minutes.

Schlage Everest Primus
New: 10-30 minutes. Old: 15-60 minutes.

Medeco Classic
New: don't know. Old: 10-120 minutes.

Medeco Biaxial/m3
New: 5-30 minutes. Old: 5-90 minutes.

Assa Twin 6000, the only lock that comes to mind that opens more reliably when worn out.
New: 30-120 minutes. Old: 20-90 minutes.

Bilock new generation QCC, 12 pins. As of writing this I've only ever played with one, once. I do not know if it was masterkeyed.
New like condition: Took 24 minutes, time includes figuring out which picks/tension wrench to use.

Evva 3ks. Fully keyed up (12 sliders), only ever played with 3 of them. The first one never did get picked, my excuse is too much distraction. The other two I picked at home without distractions. Going off memory, they both took roughly 20-25 minutes. (one of them was on camera, so I could check to be exact... but I'm lazy)

Best IC cores vary a lot for me. Let's put it this way, if I do succeed in picking them to the control sleeve. I probably average 10 minutes.

Mul-T-Lock Classic.
5 pin with regular telescopic pins. Average time is probably 15-30 minutes.
5 pin where the inner driver pin can interlock in counter-boring in the outer key pin. ...I haven't been successful yet.

[theTastyCat]

Wow - fantastic reply, Farmer. This really helps put things in good perspective and gives me a reasonable expectation of what I can be aiming for. Your times on high-end locks helped me realize that I've never spent a solid 2 hours trying any lock - obviously patience is an important virtue in picking!

I was looking for old locks a few weeks ago, and actually managed to find a B&M locksmith shop. The smiths inside weren't comfortable giving/selling me any old locks despite my best efforts to demonstrate my benign intent, but we had a good chat and they showed me a lot of their newest and coolest stuff, including a couple of really high-speed, low-drag Medecos. They all agreed that Medecos were absolutely unpickable, and that nobody had ever done it. This is astonishing to me - either half the membership of this board is lying when they say they've done it (which I doubt is the case) or these guys just seriously have their heads in the sand. Oh well.

Thanks for the reply - keep 'em coming!

[chriswingate]

"High-speed, low-drag" I like that, haven't heard it in a couple years since my time in the USMC.

A lot of old time locksmiths are still under the impression that Medeco locks are "unpickable". These are also the guys that think YouTube is witchcraft and such. I like hearing people say stuff like that though, it's entertaining, Medeco's are far from "unpickable".

Along with what you said though, dedication is the key to picking any lock, you have to have patience and time if you want to crack a lock that is proving difficult for you to get open.

[Rickthepick]

My personal best, i went out to a lockout job.

I sprayed a little release spray in the keyway and inserted a rake just to get the pins moving and get some crap out the lock.

It opened. decent quality 6 pin euro! Customer was impressed