First Pick A Success?

[paces]

i might have fibbed a little. my first attempt was when i was about 8 fiddled with a small lock took me days to unlock on lock never could open again. fast forward later in lifeby 20 years decided to try again after listening to a talk from deviant decided i would try again and boom. a small gun lock was picked in minutes. tried again and got it again.

[Locks+Picks_Happy]

44%! I'm almost average!

[apophistoledo]

First attempt took about 4 minutes. Would have been a minute or two faster but didn't have enough tension on it and it took me a bit to realize that.

[jimu57]

Raked open a 4 pin Master in probably 10 seconds before I knew what raking was. The longest is over 30 minutes on ASSA 600 with old style spool drivers.

[Carlawpickslocks]

My first time lockpicking,

I locked myself out of the house one night, my girlfriend was 5 hours away from getting off work.
Luckily, if you have a girlfriend with hair pins in her do, you know that thay are everywhere, in your bed, the bathroom floor, cereal And lunch box from time to time. They get everywhere as if she secretes hair pins from her pores.

I was feeling pretty confident about it, after watching a few seasons of "White Collar," So i bent myself a tension wrench and my first pick out the plethora of pins at my dosposal.

The door lock is an incredibly old Schlage, in the door knob, super sloppy, loose and in need of a change. (It was the original lock from when my house was built in the 70's. Just gross.

About 20 minutes in, not having a clue if i was about to make the knob orgasm, or pick a single pin in any particular order, the door knob twisted and clicked under my clueless interferance of jabbing and prying, clicking, and the occasional wipe of the sweat from my hands, feeling as if i was a criminal for attampting to enter my owm home.

Since then, the itch to pick hasnt went away, only grew stronger.
That was it, my picking cherry was burst.

[jeep_thing]

Cutaway Schlage- 3 minutes the first time, however following picks range from seconds to fails due to number 4 pin having a very deep cut.

My own Schlage front door- 2 minutes and that was a good feeling.
#3 Master- I still cannot SPP it, however easily raked.
Old heavy Yale- 30 minutes and it surprised me when it popped.

[Squelchtone]

Hey jeep_thing, nice times picking those locks. Good to see another Jeep owner on the forum, I roll around in an 01 XJ, how about you?

Squelchtone

[TheDave5150]

I actually bought one of those $24 pick sets off amazon, and came with a transparent padlock... with the key ring with the keys locked into it... (granted could have taken keys off the ring, but considered it an initiation test.... took me a few tries to determine best tool, settled on a rake and poof... kinda funny how excited that made me.... and yeah, took all of maybe 20 or 30 seconds.

[coherent]

Bought the 14 piece Southord set and one of those clear acrylic practice padlocks to give the hobby a try. Had the acrylic lock open using the small hook from the set in about 30 seconds. My advice don't waste your money on one of those unless you have no idea how a lock works and have 10 thumbs. Way too easy to open. Next I tried a Brinks disc padlock. Had it open in about 15 minutes, and have been able to repeat, but not consistently. More practice needed to get the feel of the process better. I ordered and am waiting for the arrival of a 7 pin ultimate adversary practice lock. I thinks that will be the best way to initially practice for a beginner like me... today I'm gonna go hunt down some old wiper blades and cheap stainless bread knives and try making my own picks and tension wrenches... I'm hooked!

[mseifert]

Bought the 14 piece Southord set and one of those clear acrylic practice padlocks to give the hobby a try. Had the acrylic lock open using the small hook from the set in about 30 seconds. My advice don't waste your money on one of those unless you have no idea how a lock works and have 10 thumbs. Way too easy to open. Next I tried a Brinks disc padlock. Had it open in about 15 minutes, and have been able to repeat, but not consistently. More practice needed to get the feel of the process better. I ordered and am waiting for the arrival of a 7 pin ultimate adversary practice lock. I thinks that will be the best way to initially practice for a beginner like me... today I'm gonna go hunt down some old wiper blades and cheap stainless bread knives and try making my own picks and tension wrenches... I'm hooked!

Consider Quality and not just Quantity .. You are trying to develop a feel for the process.. Not just blow through as many locks as you can.. I think a lot of beginners have some success with easy locks and feel they can jump right into something harder, but get discouraged because they can open it ..

My advice would be to get several different of the cheaper locks.. Get some experience with different bittings and keyways.. Just because you were able to open (1) Master No3 doesn't mean you will be able to open them all..

[Gantry]

My first was a cheap Defiant brand keyed entry knob.

[Silverado]

I was in grade seven or eight and I'd forgotten my key that morning. Previously I had stacked some random junk beside the trailer and managed to jump up to the tiny little bathroom window, one of those ones that you crank open and it fans out away from the trailer, push the screen out and crawl in (I was a small, lithe guy).

This time the window was closed solid, so I had to find another way:
In all my experience playing video games I knew locks could be picked with a couple pieces of scrap metal (I'm looking at you Resident Evil), and I'd also recently printed off a copy of 'The MIT Guide to Lockpicking' which I studied in my free time, granting me some basic knowledge of how locks work.
Being the Oh so cool kid that I was (/sarcasm) I pulled a safety pin off of my backpack and cannibalized one of the Pilot Precise V7 pens I had gotten from my mother, to make a tension wrench.
I managed to mangle the safety pin enough to put a curve at the tip and get to work by "scrubbing" the lock; as the MIT Guide to Lockpicking referred to it (I think).
It took no more than 5 minutes, as well as I can remember, but the lock fell open to my improvised engineering and I was in.

Shortly thereafter I picked up a Majestic 7 pick set at a flea market and started learning more about locks! I didn't learn much because there aren't many higher security or higher quality locks around here and I never knew any better at that time. In the early days of my hobby I'd bet it was all Master locks and Kwiksets, but my memory is pretty awful.

[TORCH [of KCK]]

First off,
I have to disqualify myself from this vote.

At the age of about 9,
I picked my 1st lock in about 1 to 3 min.s...

My uncle had pinned up the lock with all key pins pointing together, to get me addicted to picking ASAP ! !

Then he also had a KiK rigged to pop off the retaining cap while I picked it, so as to learn locks can break when picking & not to pick locks in use...
Unless it is TRULY NEEDED (lock outs)

[Hickory67]

My first took me about 10 minutes, although it was luck vs truly understanding what was happening inside the lock. Nowadays, I can "see" what's going on, but some days I can pop them within seconds, and others the same lock will give me fits. I enjoy it either way.

Had to pick my way out of a parking lot that had closed on me once - simple Master lock on the gate. I was in an unfamiliar town and had no idea who to call to let us out - we didn't realize they would lock the gates after dark. That one took me less than 10 seconds. I, of course, was courteous enough to relock it when I left.

[greengrowlocks]

Took me about 3-5 minutes. Opened all the rooms and outside doors in my house that same day. Since then I've upgraded the all outside doors.

GGL