Breaking Bad Habbits

[JosephRidell]

I'm new to lock picking and first started by picking padlocks with paper clips. I've never planned on being serious, but after picking my first lock I was hooked. Now that I'm interested in actually picking locks, I need to get rid of some bad habits. To start off, I feel like I don't really feel the pins, I just seem to jiggle the pins until are set. This works for my cheap padlocks, but now that I've move to better locks I have no luck. What are some tips and or practices I can do in order to actually learn to pick locks?

[Protec2]

Imo,
Buy a pick set, rake, jiggle, bogy locks in your collection while mastering tension. Move to spp'ing easy locks and experiment with tension and see and feels the pins, envision what they are doing when you are manipulating them. Keep honing your skills.

[JosephRidell]

I've have a basic kit with several rakes. I've been trying not to use the rakes as they seem to open the lock in seconds and I still don't know what I am doing. With the regular pick, I can set the first two but after that I tend to use the pick like a rake and eventually I open it. Another problem I have is my tension wrench keeps slipping and resetting my pins.

[Squelchtone]

I've have a basic kit with several rakes. I've been trying not to use the rakes as they seem to open the lock in seconds and I still don't know what I am doing. With the regular pick, I can set the first two but after that I tend to use the pick like a rake and eventually I open it. Another problem I have is my tension wrench keeps slipping and resetting my pins.

Don't feel bad, my first year picking I raked everything open using a half diamond. It took me a long time to discover the hook pick. I'd say to this day I'm more of a raker / jiggler but yes, I do SPP locks when they wont rake open.

which pick set do you have?

welcome to the forum,
Squelchtone

[JosephRidell]

I have the Southord mpxs-20. I wasn't planning in getting this big of a kit but it was a gift. It has a lot of different picks that I have no clue what they are. One pick I have looks like the Bat-a-rang from batman. When I enter this into any of my padlocks they open immediately.

[pyroxyz]

I have the Southord mpxs-20. I wasn't planning in getting this big of a kit but it was a gift. It has a lot of different picks that I have no clue what they are. One pick I have looks like the Bat-a-rang from batman. When I enter this into any of my padlocks they open immediately.

After looking that kit up, I believe that particular one is called a "w" rake and is used in kinetic attacks. I actually really need one of those cuz the kit I got only had some weird gigantic single prong rake thing and another rake that is way too big and looks a lot like a saw...