cool-arrow wrote:Just curious are you in a non-disclosed locations or kicking back in a pool at a built up permanent base eating DQ? I have noticed that they use a lot of euro style locks in the middle east and southeast Asia. I am not sure lock picks are going to help you in any scenario you described, but the bogota rakes and diamond would be my choice as mentioned earlier. I kind of feel bad for you since it seems that you haven't had any SERE training. Are you fresh out of basic or something? If you are having trouble with a Kwikset I don't know how successful you would be regardless of the picks. You are probably better off carrying some paper clips around and a Peterson shim.
Where I am doesn't matter; it is when operating that one risks everything, obviously, not when we are all safe at home in our beds. Yes I'm in an outfit that does leave the safety of the base(whichever that base happens to be at a given moment). I've not seen it yet (last time I was in country it was the wild west) but I hear the main air base there is almost like an air force base now, complete with speeding tickets. Oh well, fun can't last forever)
Yes I've been through SERE; it was some years ago and no, they did not teach lockpicking at that time. I think perhaps they do now. Times change and SERE curriculum is secret. We don't even discuss it in depth (other than maybe a little tease to get them nervous) with people who are about to go there. The kwikset did give me trouble, but honestly I didn't give it much time, nor had I visited this or other forums for any information about them. I am a beginner. It was a lock, I had a pick tool. I also was not alone; it was on an interior door of a store whose owner I am friends with. Unfortunately I stopped, after customers kept looking at me.
I would not be here asking questions if I were already an "expert" at these topics. It would be like me expecting you to have intricate knowledge of various machine guns, and how to repair them in the dark by feel when they malfunction. Lock picking is not my trade, but I would like to have better knowledge on the subject, and wondered if anyone who *does* have that knowledge could give me advice wrt what sort of picks would be most useful in certain locations. Your mention of European style locks might be helpful, for instance.
MBI I just responded to your PM. I didn't have a computer over the weekend, just a mobile phone which is limited in its capability. I agree with folks saying stuff about needing picks being unlikely, but to be honest, this is all very unlikely. There have been a few captured, but we don't plan for the best case scenario all the time. We all have jobs to do, and only if that job goes very very wrong will we ever NEED to use lock picks (in my line of things, anyway-). I just believe having more tools in one's repertoire is always a good idea. There is precious little in the way of foliage to hide in over there.
John P.
