Pick Gun: Impact Tool, Patents, and How Standards Account for It

Definition and Place Among Related Methods

A pick gun belongs to the same family of impact methods as bumping. Locksmith Ledger's 2006 coverage of key bumping noted that "mechanical and electric pick guns use this same principle" as the bump key. The difference is the delivery: a bump key is a specially cut key; a pick gun is a separate tool. Both are forms of lockpicking in the broad LIST sense of manipulating tumblers through the keyway without the designed key.

The LIST dictionary also defines lock bumping as "a picking technique that utilizes a configured key forcefully impacted into the keyway." Impact, not skill at setting pins one by one, is the shared idea.

Early Patents

Several US patents document early impact tools for opening pin tumbler locks when the key is lost. Pin and Ward cites them for inventor, title, and date only.

• Louis S. Hanflig, US 1,944,006, "Impact-producing implement," filed May 22, 1931, published January 16, 1934. The patent describes a device for producing a series of light impacts and, as one use, "opening or releasing a cylinder lock, the key of which has been lost or broken."
• Samuel Segal, US 2,309,677, "Lock picking gun," filed May 5, 1939, granted February 2, 1943. The title itself names the tool.
• William J. Miskill, US 2,565,254, "Power actuated lock pick," filed April 16, 1948, granted August 21, 1951.

Later references sometimes summarize these as early snap guns developed for police and locksmith use. The patents themselves are the primary record of the idea's age.

How Locks Resist Impact Methods

Manufacturers and standards treat pick guns as one of several covert-entry methods, not as a separate product category.

• Security pins. The LIST dictionary describes spool, mushroom, and step pins as shapes typically used to increase pick resistance. ANSI/BHMA A156.30 includes, among its pick-resistance requirements, detainers "that have false notches, mushroom shapes or other constructions that impede manual picking." See security pins.
• Sidebars and other mechanisms. The LIST dictionary defines a high-security cylinder as one offering greater resistance to two or more of picking, impressioning, key duplication, drilling, or other forced entry. Features such as sidebars add a second locking element that an impact on the pins alone does not release.

Standards

Lab standards test picking by result and time. They do not name the pick gun specifically.

• UL 437 (Key Locks). A 2007 DEF CON presentation by Marc Weber Tobias and Matt Fiddler summarizes UL 437 as including timed covert-entry tests for picking and impressioning.
• ANSI/BHMA A156.30 (High Security Cylinders). The 2014 edition sets pick-resistance requirements in levels and cautions that its tests "are performed under laboratory conditions."
• EN 1303:2026 (Europe). The 2026 edition of the European cylinder standard adds "requirements and evaluation methods for manipulation," defined as an unauthorized attempt to open a cylinder by non-destructive techniques.

A rating describes a defined test. It is not a guarantee against every method in every installation.

Forensic Notes

Pick guns leave marks. TOOOL Netherlands notes that picking tools "make scratches in the lock in places a key would never come into contact with." A 2014 Journal of Forensic Sciences study reported that an examiner can identify the class-characteristic mark of a specific picking tool. California Penal Code § 466 explicitly lists a "lock pick gun" among instruments whose possession with intent to break or enter is a misdemeanor. See forensic locksmithing.

Ethics and Law

Authorized locksmith use for a lockout, with the owner's permission, is a legitimate service. Unauthorized use is a crime. TOOOL Netherlands says its most important rule is "to only open locks that you have permission for to open from the owner." Laws on possession of pick guns and similar tools vary by place. This article gives no legal advice.

Related Topics

• Key bumping
• Lockpicking
• Security pins
• Raking
• High-security locks
• Forensic locksmithing
• Pin tumbler locks

Sources