The Armageddon Blog

Author: Adrian

  • Bad Plants: What Not to Eat in the Wild

    Growing up, we had a yew bush in our front yard and my parents had to almost constantly tell me not to eat the berries from this bush.  They looked so vibrant and delicious-looking that I couldn’t help but be tempted.  It turns out that had I given in to this temptation I would have been perfectly fine as the berries themselves aren’t poisonous, but the entire rest of the plant is (It’s reputed that some bowyers have died from handling too much yew wood while making bows).  There are many plants in nature that rely on their toxicity to survive.  Unfortunately, we humans are incapable of detecting this poison where the natural world has ways of telling.  So we have to rely on our wits to help us avoid these plants.

    An easy (but tedious) way of determining a plants toxicity is to look for signs of other animals eating parts of it or observing the plant to see if any animals eat it.  Some animals aren’t affected by poisons that affect humans so this doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t poisonous, it just makes it less likely to be poisonous.

    Universal Edibility Test

    If you encounter a plant that you think may be safe to eat, you should conduct the Universal Edibility Test on it to ensure that it is, in fact, safe to eat.  The UET minimizes your chances of being injured or dying from contacting a poisonous plant.  It is a long and tedious process, but it could very well save your life.  You must have an empty stomach at the start of the test so you need to fast for at least 8 hours before you start.

    1. Separate the plant into five basic parts: leaves, roots, stems, buds, and flowers.  Some plants have parts that are edible while the rest is poisonous (as with yew bushes).  Separating each part lets you test the individual pieces to determine its edibility.
    2. Rub a part of the plant on a bit of sensitive skin (wrist, inside of the knee or elbow, etc.) and wait eight hours.  During the waiting period, you shouldn’t eat anything, but it is acceptable to drink water (and only water).  Throughout the waiting period, watch out for a burning sensation, redness, welts, or bumps on the skin.  These indicate that you are having a reaction to the plant, and if it affects your skin, it will affect your stomach.  If you encounter any of these reactions, rinse your skin, wait 8 hours, and start the test over with a new piece of plant.
    3. It has been shown that some toxins that were present in a plant raw were not present after boiling the plant.  If you have the means to boil the plant, then do so.
    4. Whether or not you boiled the plant, place the plant against your lips for three minutes.  If you feel any burning or tingling, remove the plant, rinse your lips and start over with a new piece of plant.
    5. Taste the plant for 15 minutes without chewing.  If you experience burning, tingling or any other unpleasant sensations.  Discard the plant, rinse your mouth, and start over with a new piece of plant.  Remember that just because it tastes bad doesn’t mean it’s poisonous.
    6. Chew the plant thoroughly and leave on your tongue for 15 minutes.  DON’T SWALLOW!  Again, if you experience any burning, numbness, or tingling spit out the plant, rinse your mouth, and start over with a new piece of plant.
    7. Swallow the soggy, masticated bit of plant.  Now you get to wait another eight hours while watching for signs of nausea.  You can only drink water during this time.  If your feel nauseous at any point during the 8 hours, induce vomiting and drink lots of water.
    8. Eat about a quarter cup of the plant (specifically the part you have been testing) in the same manner as you’ve tested to this point (just without all the waiting).  Once you get it all down, wait for adverse effects again for eight hours, only drinking water.  If you feel sick, induce vomiting, drink lots of water and start over.

    At this point the plant part can be considered safe to eat, just don’t gorge on it.

    Signs To Avoid

    Memorizing all the plants in an area can be tedious, and will do you no good if you are surviving in a different area, but that doesn’t mean that you’re totally screwed.  There are some surefire ways to determine if a plant is poisonous or not:

    • Plants with shiny leaves.
    • Don’t eat mushrooms. Some are perfectly safe, but others are highly toxic and it’s very difficult to differentiate between species of mushrooms.  Also, mushrooms don’t offer much in the way of nutrition so they really aren’t worth the risk.
    • Umbrella-shaped flowers.
    • plants with milky or discolored sap.
    • Bitter or soapy taste.
    • Smells like almonds.
    • Leaves in groups of three.
    • Beans, bulbs, or seeds inside pods.
    • Spines, fine hairs, or thorns.
    • Dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsleylike foliage.
    • Grain heads with pink, purplish, or black spurs.

    There is a saying about berries that holds true:

    White and yellow, kill a fellow.
    Purple and blue, good for you.
    Red… could be good, could be dead.

    Additionally, a good way to determine if a red berry is poisonous is to look at how they’re grouped on the branch.  If berries are grouped in bunches, then avoid them.  If the berries grow individual off the branch, then they are probably good.

  • Found on the Internet: Use an Orange Peel to Cook an Egg over a Fire

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoIebNv-bug&w=320&h=240]

    This video addresses a very interesting point that I hadn’t thought of before.  How do you cook an egg over a fire?  Because the orange peel is moist, the egg won’t burn as easily and it will keep the egg moist.  Bonus: The orange peel will imbue a little bit of orange flavor into the egg, giving it an interesting flavor.  The underlying reason that this works is because the wrapper is thick and moist and as it cooks the moisture is released keeping the egg from drying up.  Ostensibly, you could use anything that is naturally moist to reproduce this effect: onions, other citrus, banana peel, melon, etc.

     

  • How to Make a Rope Bridge

    There are certain skills that won’t benefit you right away in the P.A.W.  Knowing how to build a rope bridge is definitely one of them.  If you’re on your own and still wandering around looking for a safe location, this skill will be of almost no use to you.  However, if you’re traveling in a group with more gear than everyone can carry on their backs or you’ve made a permanent settlement and you cross that particular stream/chasm frequently, knowing how to build a rope bridge and cross it is an invaluable skill.

    There are more types of rope bridges than you can shake a stick at, so I’m going to go over some of the most basic varieties: the one-rope, two-rope, three-rope, and simple suspension bridges.  All of them rely on several fundamental basics.

    1. Anchor all ropes on both sides of the bridge to a solid, permanent anchor point, like a large rock embedded in the ground or an old tree (big trunk).  In the military, they call these “bombproof” anchor points, as in if you were being shelled, your anchor points wouldn’t give way and leave you high and dry.
    2. You need a suitable loading platform on both sides of the bridge.  The loading platform is where you get on or off of the bridge.  With the more permanent bridge types, this is less of a concern because you can always build a suitable platform.  The platform needs to be relatively flat and close enough to the anchor rope that it isn’t difficult for anyone to attach themselves or any equipment to it.
    3. When constructing the bridge, make sure there is some space between your rope and the anchor point.  Once your bridge is complete, the ropes will all be incredibly taut but they’ll still move around a little bit once the bridge is in use.  If you don’t leave a gap, this can cause the rope to rub against the anchor abrasing the rope, weakening it, and risk the rope snapping.
    4. When tightening the ropes, be careful to not overtighten them.  This will put undue stress on the rope at the knots which could cause the rope, knots, or both to fail while using the bridge.
    5. Never let more than two people cross any of the bridges at a time, especially if they are carrying equipment with them.  The more weight placed on the system, the more likely it will fail.

    Transport Tightening System

    The anchor mechanism on the near side is referred to as the “transport tightening system” because it is tied in such a way that all the slack can be taken out of the rope, thus tightening the whole system.  It is a rope and series of knots tied around the anchor point in such a way as to secure the bridge and tighten the ropes to the desired tautness.

    The first knot you will tie is a static knot (like a wireman’s knot or a figure-eight slip knot) around three to six feet from the anchor point.  Clip a carabiner through the knot with the gate facing upward.  Continue wrapping the rope around the anchor.  At this point you need to decide whether you’re going to do a “dry crossing” or a “wet crossing”.  A dry crossing is when everyone but the first person cross over the bridge.  A wet crossing is when the last person is required to dismantle the bridge prior to crossing. 

    If you decide to perform a dry crossing, you will need to add a transport knot into the system.  I personally prefer this method because you only have to have one strong swimmer/climber to initially take the far side rope end to the far side.

    Transport Knot

    Now that you’ve brought the rope around the tree, go back to the part of the rope on the other side of the tree and make a loop with the piece of rope coming from the far side crossing over the piece that goes around the tree.  Now go back to the part that you just looped around the tree.  Make a bight in the rope and pass it through the back of the loop you just made and clasp it into the caribiner on your static knot further down the rope.

    Tightening and Anchoring the Rope

    If you didn’t tie the transport knot into the system, clasp the rope into the carabiner attached to the static knot.  Now you need to tighten the bridge.  Pull the loose end of the rope coming out of the carabiner until the bridge is the appropriate taughtness.  Tie the rope off on the anchor point.  You can tie the rope off with any number of knots, but the easiest on to use is a round-turn with two half-hitches.

    Collapsing the Bridge

    For a dry crossing,after everybody but the last two people have crossed, untie your rope anchor knot and tie it to the second-to-last crosser and have him cross.  As long as the slack end is directed toward the far end from the loop in the rope, the tension will be maintained.  If you want to be doubly safe, you can twist the rope at the carabiner to bind all the rope.  Once that person has crossed, pull the loop from the transport knot out of the carabiner and let the transport knot collapse.  At this point, you basically have a rope tied on the far end anchor point, that crosses to the near end, loops around the near anchor point and back across to the far end.  Have several people on the far end pull the rope tight and anchor the rope to the far end anchor point as described above.  After you cross, untie the rope at both end and pull on the end until all of the rope is on your side.

    One-Rope (Commando) Bridge

    The one-rope, or commando, bridge is the simplest to build and tear down, but the most difficult and physically demanding to cross.  As the name hints, you only use one rope to traverse your obstacle, meaning you’ll be in an awkward position, using pure muscle strength to drag yourself along the length of the bridge.  This is ideal if you’re only crossing with minimal gear and able-bodied individuals, and in a hurry.  Also, this is probably what your going to need initially when building a permanent bridge in order to move things back and forth during construction.

    Crossing the Bridge

    Crossing a bridge made with one rope can be tricky.

    Two-Rope (Postmans) Bridge

    The ever fancy Postman’s Bridge adds a whole additional rope to the Commando Bridge… Fancy!  In this configuration, you walk on one rope and hold onto the second rope at chest level or slightly above.

    If you have a lot of equipment or people incapable of crossing a Commando Bridge, but you still need your bridge to be temporary and/or hastily constructed and dismantled, then the Postman’s Bridge is your best bet.  It is a reasonable balance of stability and expediency.  When constructing this bridge, you are basically just building 2 Commando Bridges at different heights.

    Three-Rope (Monkey) Bridge

     The Monkey Bridge requires a bit more preparation, and because of the required resources and investment of time in this bridge, it is likely that you will use this in a semi-permanent capacity.  One benefit that this bridge has over the previously discussed is that it can be used to span further distances. 

    Fortunately, the construction process is not overly complicated.  Lay your hand and foot ropes out and tie stringers onto them so that the strings wrap each rope at approximately three foot intervals. 

    Build the shears by laying out two equal-length pieces of wood and tying them 2/3 of the way up.  Spread them apart at the feet and lash them to a cross brace.

    Lay the foot rope in the crux of the lasher, tie it to the anchor on one end and then tighten and tie at the other end.  Do the same with the hand ropes, looping them over the tops of the shears first.

  • How to Tie a Figure Eight Slip Knot

    The Figure Eight Slip Knot is an adjustable loop-on-the-bight knot.

    1. Make a bight in the rope.
    2. Hold the center of the bight in the right hand. With the center of the bight in the right hand and the legs of the rope secured, twist two complete turns clockwise.
    3. Reach through the bight and grasp the long, standing end of the rope. Pull another bight back through the original bight.
    4. Pull down on the short working end of the rope and dress the knot down.
    5. If the knot is to be used in a transport tightening system, take the working end of the rope and form a half hitch around the loop of the figure eight knot.

     

     

     

  • How to Tie a Wireman’s Knot

    There are many knots that fall into the loop-on-the-bight category, but this one is particularly helpful when building a rope bridge (as described in an upcoming post).  This knot is basically tied by reverse french braiding the loops.

    1. Wrap two turns around the left hand (palm up) from left to right.
    2. Name the wraps from the palm to the fingertips: #1 (heel), #2 (palm), and #3 (fingertip).  Grab the #2 wrap (middle) and place it over the #1 wrap (heel).
    3. Grab the #1 wrap (now in the middle) and place it over the #3 wrap (fingertip).
    4. Grab the #3 wrap (now in the middle) and place it over the #2 wrap (heel).
    5. Grab the #2 wrap (now in the middle) and pull up to form a fixed loop.
    6. Dress the knot down by pulling on the fixed loop and the two working ends.  Pull the working ends apart to finish the knot.

  • How to Tie a Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

    Knots are pretty important in survival.  Most people don’t realize it until they suddenly have to tie a rope and the knot collapses and they have no idea why.  One of the best knots for tying the end of a rope to a static object is called the Round Turn and Two Half Hitches.  Called this because of the components that go into tying it.  You turn the rope ’round the object and secure it with two half hitch knots.

    1. First, wrap the rope around your static object.
    2. Then loop the running end of the rope over the standing end.
    3. Tuck the running end of the rope through the loop created by the last step.  Pull to tighten the knot and push it back close to the anchor object.
    4. Wrap the running end of the rope over the top of the standing end again.
    5. Tuck the running end of the rope through the loop create by the last step (again).  Pull to tighten the knot and push it back close to the first half hitch.

    This will create a stable knot that can take a fair amount of weight without weakening.

  • Survival Hall of Fame: Hiroo Onoda

    Hiroo Onoda Relieved of Duty
    Hiroo Onoda being relieved of duty.

    Some individuals have shown themselves to be exemplary students of survival, surviving adverse circumstances to such an extreme that they will be remembered for a long time.  One of these individuals is Hiroo Onoda.

    Hiroo Onoda was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Army stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines at the end of World War 2.  His mission was to hamper enemy efforts to maintain a presence on the island and to not surrender under any circumstances.  Shortly after arriving on the island, the Allied forces attacked, leaving Onoda and 3 others as the only survivors on the island.  These four holdouts hid in the jungle stealing food when they could, scavenging when they couldn’t, and being a general nuisance (as instructed) to those they perceived to be Allied forces or sympathizers.

    When the war ended, they still had no way of communicating with their chain of command and continued raiding and sabotaging the local infrastructure to aid the war effort.  Leaflets were left for them by locals and dropped from airplanes to try to get them to surrender, but they decided that it was propaganda and not to be trusted.  One by one, Onoda’s comrades were picked off and by 1972, Hiroo was the only one left.  Think about that for a second.  29 years after being sent to the island (28 years after the Japanese surrendered), this guy is still hiding out in the jungle, not only surviving, but conducting raids and sabotage on the locals in the name of Japan.  Police and the Philippine Army had been looking for them the whole time and never found them.

    It took a college dropout in 1974 to finally find Onoda.  Norio Suzuki had decided to travel the world looking for “Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order.”  It was less Suzuki finding Onoda and more Onoda finding Suzuki, but they talked a great deal.  Suzuki told Onoda that the war had been over for many years, but Onoda didn’t believe him.  Suzuki offered him a cigarette, a Japanese novel, and some pornography, of which Onoda only took the cigarette.  Onoda confided that he had been given his orders by his superior, Major Taniguchi, and that he would only believe the war was really over if Major Taniguchi were the one to tell him.  Suzuki returned to Japan telling Onoda he would return in two weeks.  Suzuki and Taniguchi returned as promised to find Lieutenant Onoda in his full uniform, carrying a fully functional standard issue rifle with 500 rounds of ammunition, a several hand grenades, and his officers sword.

    Taniguchi presented orders to Onoda stating:

    1. In accordance with the Imperial command, the Fourteenth Area Army has ceased all combat activity.
    2. In accordance with military Headquarters Command No. A-2003, the Special Squadron of Staff’s Headquarters is relieved of all military duties.
    3. Units and individuals under the command of Special Squadron are to cease military activities and operations immediately and place themselves under the command of the nearest superior officer. When no officer can be found, they are to communicate with the American or Philippine forces and follow their directives.
    This left Onoda relieved of duty (meaning he never actually surrendered).  The Filipino government pardoned Onoda of all his crimes during his time on Lubang Island.  Onoda went back to Japan, wrote an autobiography, and eventually moved to Brazil because he was weary of the “withering virtues” of Japan.  He eventually went back to Lubang Island where he donated $10,000 to the local school.
    Hiroo Onoda is the bad ass of bad asses.  Taking on the population of an entire island, burning food supplies, blowing up transport ships, and evading capture for roughly 30 years.  We should all be so well equipped in the same situation.

  • Found on the Internet: How to Throw a Tomahawk

    Like the article says, it may not necesarily be a very useful skill, but there will be that one time that it could be the difference between life and death and looking back on it you’ll be glad you learned it.

    You’ve probably seen it in countless movies. A mountain man or Indian takes a man down by hurling a tomahawk through the air and sticking it into his enemy’s back. If you’re going to strike a man down, I can’t think of a more badass way to do it than with a tomahawk.

    But contrary to popular belief, Native Americans and mountain men rarely threw their tomahawks, or ‘hawks, during battle. A tomahawk was one of their best hand-to-hand weapons, good for both offensive and defensive moves.  Throwing a tomahawk to kill an enemy, while certainly very cool looking, put considerable distance between the thrower and his very best weapon. Even if a mountain man or Indian warrior killed his target, he was pretty much defenseless while he scurried to retrieve his hawk from his victim’s body.

     

    [How to Throw a Tomahawk Like a Mountain Man] via [The Art of Manliness]

  • TV Review: Battlestar Galactica

    The reimagined Battlesta Galactica aired beginning in 2003 with a miniseries and continuing for four season.  In this series, the Cylons (a race of sentient robots, originally designed and constructed by humans) attack the human race after a 40-year armistice between the Cylons and the humans.  The Cylons, using nuclear weapons and devious tactics, destroy the Twelve Colonies and chase after any fleeing humans in an attempt to utterly destroy the human race.  The namesake of the series, the Battlestar Galactica (a military carrier and relic of the Cylon War), evades the attacks in the midst of its decommisioning ceremony and puts together a haphazard fleet of survivors and spend the rest of the series running for their lives from the Cylons.

    This show takes an interesting look at what it would be like to survive an apocalyptic event both on a post-nuclear holocaust world as well as fleeing through space.  While most of the show focuses on who is and isn’t a Cylon and spirals further into this whirlpool as the show progresses, it actually addresses some of the issues that would be encountered in these situations. 

    There’s a whole episode that focuses on how essential water is to survival and how finding it in space would be like trying to find a needle in an infinite haystack.  The President of the Colonies keeps a white board in her office with an up to date tally of the population of the fleet and it really hits home how desperate the situation is for them every time that number goes down.  Eventually, the counter starts to go back up and you feel like they’ve finally arrived.  They aren’t grasping the proverbial precipice for dear life anymore and they might actually re-establish human civilization.

    Throughout most of the first season, one of the Galactica’s pilots is stranded on Caprica – one of the nuked colonies – and we follow him as he evades Cylon patrols, radiation sickness, and tries to survive long enough to figure out how the hell he’s going to survive.  Basically, the ultimate survival story.

    As they transition from the initial survival stage into a maintenance and rebuild stage, they address the issue of what you do to keep things working without specialists or proper resources.  How do you replenish a squadron of pilots when all the trained military pilots are already flying in said squadron?  What do you do with prisoners that commited crimes under a government that no longer exists?  How do you deal with overcrowding?  What happens when your highly efficient spaceships start to run out of their seemingly endless supply of fuel?

    All in all it’s a good series, and it gives a good perspective on what life in the P.A.W. would be like.  Just don’t get disappointed when the show goes bat-sh*@ crazy in the last couple seasons.

  • How to Pick a Pin Tumbler Lock

    DISCLAIMER: The following is highly dangerous or illegal and it is not recommended to be used under any circumstances, except zombies.

    In a P.A.W., there is potentially going to be a whole lot of empty buildings with no owners around.  These buildings will be treasure troves of supplies, tools, and shelter, but the more goodies inside a building, the more likely it is to be guarded by locks, barred windows, and thick doors.  The easiest way to gain access to this stuff is just simply break the door or a window or something like that, but that may not always be convenient or the best approach.  To take a scenario from the UK series Survivors, say you come across an inventory depot for a grocery store chain (a warehouse where all the inventory for a number of stores is stored until they need it).  It’s locked up tighter than a drum with serious security (steel doors, deadbolt locks, barbed wire fences, no windows, etc.).  If you happen to find a pickable lock (and you can pick locks) you could get into the building without permanently ruining the security – meaning you can stay there and keep all the supplies inside away from everyone else’s grubby little hands.

    How a Pin and Tumbler Lock Works

    Cross Section of a Lock

    Take a look at any key you have in your pocket.  The shaft of the key is a series of peaks and valleys.  Each of the peaks coincides with a pin inside the lock.

    Every lock has a series of pins of varying lengths.  Each pin is divided into two pieces, the top halves all being the same length and the bottom half being the excess length.  If the wrong key (or no key) is inserted into the barrel, the pins prevent the barrel from being turned.  If the appropriate key is placed into the barrel, the pins will line up so that the top portion is perfectly outside the barrel, and the bottom portion is perfectly inside the barrel – allowing the barrel to turn freely inside the lock (and thereby locking or unlocking the door).

    Picking Locks with Lockpicking Tools

    A Tension Wrench

    A lockpicking set (at its most basic) consists of a tension wrench and a pick.  The tension wrench is a strong, thin piece of metal with a 90 degree bend at one end.  As the name implies it needs to be strong enough to withstand a little tension.

    The pick can take on any number of shapes.  A masterful locksmith or lockpicker might be able to tell you the benefits of using one pick over another or what benefit different shaped picks have, but for our purposes you only need a simple half-diamond pick.  This is the most versatile pick in any kit and the one pick to have if you only have one.  The half-diamond pick is a straight pick with a triangle-shaped peak at the end of the pick.  The half-diamond pick is used to trigger each pin individually.

    A number of lock picks

    Insert the short end of the tension wrench into the bottom of the lock and apply a little bit of pressure.  The idea is to create enough force to create a misalignment in the barrel, but not enough to grip the pin and not allow it to move freely in the pinhole.  Finding the right amount of pressure is a trial and error endeavor and you’ll get a better feel for it the more you practice.

    Insert your pick into the top of the keyhole and feel your way back to a pin.  I prefer to start at the back and move my way forward.  This gives you an opportunity to count the pins on the way back.  Once you find the pin you are trying to trigger, push it up slowly.  You will feel a faint click from the pin.  This click is the top portion of the pin leaving the barrel, allowing the break in the pin to align with the break between the barrel and the rest of the lock.  Since you’re applying pressure to the barrel, when that break alignment occurs, the barrel will twist ever so slightly, causing a misalignment in the pinhole which forms a lip that the upper portion of the pin will rest on.  You’ll do this pin by pin until all the pins are resting on this lip.  At this point, what you’ve essentially done is simulated inserting the key into the lock and the barrel will freely rotate, unlocking the door.

    Alternatively, you can use a rake pick (which looks similar to a saw) to pick locks, if you aren’t so good at picking locks yet.  Just making a sawing motion back and forth until the barrel rotates freely.  This won’t work for every lock, which is why learning with a half-diamond pick is preferable.

    Picking Locks with Improvised Tools

    The methodology of lock picking doesn’t change, just the tools.  As difficult as lock picking can be sometimes, using improvised tools makes it that much harder.  As far as the tools go, you can use anything that you can think of to do the job.  You essentially need something that fits into the bottom of the lock that won’t bend, and something to stick in the top of the lock that will give you fine manipulation.

    For a tension wrench, you could use a small flathead screwdriver, a large flathead screwdriver with the end filed down, an allen wrench with the small end filed down, etc.  The two most common items used as a pick are paperclips and bobby pins.  To use a paperclip, you just need to make a 90 degree bend very close to one end, or if you have access to needle nose pliers, make a very small loop at one end.  You don’t need to do anything with a bobby pin except to break the ball off one end.

    Bumping Locks

    A 6-Pin Bump Key

    By far, the easiest way to “pick” a lock, but requires very little skill and no finesse.  Modern lockpicking enthusiasts frown on this practice, but in the P.A.W. nobody cares.  This may not be a feasible technique in the P.A.W. because you need a bump key, also called a 9-9-9 key, configured for the number of pins in the lock you’re trying to bump.  If you don’t have one of these ahead of time, it’s going to be close to impossible to get one after Armageddon.  A bump key is just a key with the valleys cut as deep as possible (the setting is 9, hence the 9-9-9 key) and a number of valleys equal to the number of pins in the lock.

    Place the bump key all the way into the lock and the pull it out until it clicks once.  Place a bit of pressure (about the same as if you were picking the lock) on the key and then hit it with a rubber mallet.  This will force the key into the lock all the way and jolt the pins all the way up, allowing the barrel to rotate freely before they come back down, giving you free access to the other side of the door.

    This won’t work on all locks, and a lot of lock companies are now marketing “bump proof” locks that make it harder to bump the locks.