Okay, I shamelessly admit that I know how to pick a lock. A lot of them. But even if I know how to do it, it's hard to "explain" the whole process and writing it down on a piece of paper. Plus, in this timeline in the story, Lois hasn't even learned yet on how to do it. So I thought I could use an old trick I know instead, as to how you can break open a door. But when I did this once or twice myself , I didn't have a gun, but had bought gunpowder in packages. Now I need to get the powder from the bullet. So this is why I'm asking:

What kind of door (and how thick would it have to be?) would it be impossible to just "shoot open the lock" (internal) with an "ordinary gun"? Solid steel? And just what is an ordinary gun - what caliber, what type - can you name a few examples?

Now let's say you take out one bullet from this "ordinary gun" - can you screw it open, something like that, and pour out the powder?

Thanks in advance.

Pelican

Hi Pelican: As far as handguns go, the Smith and Wesson .38 calibre revolver is a very coomon weapon for men and women. The Glock 9 MM automatic is the current macho weapon of choice but an aggressive woman would use it too. The cartridge has four parts to it: a casing which encloses a firing cap at the rear that provides the spark that ignites the powder that explodes and fires the bullet. The bullet and the casing pull apart, and for that you would need pliers. People who do a lot of shooting save the expended casings and load their own cartridges because it's less expensive. Sorry, but I can't help you with shooting the lock. If it's a metal door, I'd think you'd have to worry about ricochet.

Hope that helps.

Jude

I agree about worrying about a ricochet. Also, it's noisy, but if you're using gun powder you're probably not worried about noise anyway.

Probably the best explanation for not shooting the lock would be either the ricochet because it's a metal door or possibly because shooting the door might only break the lock, but not so you could open it. Then you'd end up with a door that was still locked, but now with no hope of being picked.

I agree with Jude about the type of gun though. Those are small enough to fit in a purse and are both fairly common.

Wow... amazing what information you can squeeze out of these FoLCs!

*Thank you* both so much!! I think I know what to do now. I *am* going to blast open the lock from the inside of it, but I just needed a reason "why" that is an option when you don't know how to pick a lock, and "drilling" the door open with bullets won't work either.

Thanks again!

Pelican