Snap gun

A snap gun, also known as lock pick gun, pick gun, or electric lock pick, is a tool that can be used to open a mechanical

tension wrench. The snap gun is an alternative to a conventional lockpick, which requires other techniques such as raking to free the pins.^[1]

History

Louis S. Hanflig patented the first snap gun in the United States in 1934.[2] Subsequent designs were patented by Segal Samuel in 1943^[3] and William J. Miskill in 1951.^[4]

The earliest snap guns were developed to assist

locksmith

by trade, or to have some other legal sanction, to be in possession of a snap gun.

Usage

A pin tumbler lock normally contains a set of bottom pins and a set of driver pins. The bottom pins move within pin channels inside the cylinder assembly and are cut at different lengths corresponding to the lock keying. The driver pins are installed in the lock housing and spring pressure forces them to penetrate the lock cylinder and prevent it from turning. If the wrong key is inserted, it will variously push the bottom pins either too high or not high enough, and the lock cylinder cannot turn. When the bottom pins are correctly aligned by the key, the top pins are exactly aligned with the barrel of the cylinder, and it may freely turn.

TOOOL

animation of pick gun usage

A traditional lock pick uses trial-and-error methods to find the correct alignment of the locking pins. The snap gun uses a primary law of

billiards, where the cue stick first strikes the cue ball, transferring kinetic energy into the cue ball. The cue ball then strikes a target ball. Since the two balls are very elastic

, and since the target ball is free to move, the cue ball (representing a bottom pin) comes to a complete stop at the point of impact and the target ball (representing a driver pin) continues moving with most of the kinetic energy that was formerly in the cue ball.

The same physical principles are involved in lock bumping, but the snap gun automates the transfer-of-energy process. A correctly applied snap gun can open a lock very quickly compared to traditional lock picking, but the sharp impact is more likely to damage the lock mechanism than raking, which mimics normal key movements.