I have an aluminum ladder stand that I bought some time ago that I want to secure in the woods with a hardened steel government surplus security chain. 1/4" or 3/8". I had one stolen from me before as I thought if I left it out only one night in the boondocks it would be alright. I left the tree when it was dark and came back in the morning when it was dark! Needless to say I learned something especially not to be a moron again.

What lock would be hardest to break. Someone recommended a hidden shackle padlock but I don't know if it would be compatible with a 1/4" or 3/8" chain.

Any advice much appreciated...Thanks, Tree

Try to consider vandalism also.
We frequently had issue with someone taking a small sharpened stick,
forcing it into the keyhole, and breaking it off.

On a cable around a tree, to hold a gate, we loosened 2 bolts and could take it to
the shop to work on it.

10 feet up, not able to take it apart, a jammed lock would be a problem.

Went to a cheap Master Lock padlock. No issues in over 10 years.
And it still works! Every few years it gets a couple drops of oil from a dipstick,
But it's been fine out there.

Abloy makes a very tough padlock. But they are $$$.

I guess I would consider how hard is the aluminum to cut to get the chain off.

Click for lock.

Abus or Mul-t-lock (sp)- tough but pricey.

After watching this guys channel you will see there is no such things as a secure lock. There are only bad lock pickers. LOL

Lock Picking Lawyer
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ

American makes good locks

Just remember, at some point in upgrading a lock, the chain becomes the weak link.


😲😄.

By locking the thing you are really only deterring casual thieves. Someone who happens by it and just takes that opportunity to grab a stand. For that, virtually any chain and lock that can’t be twisted apart by hand or broken with a rock will work.

People who are setting out to steal stands will more likely be carrying lock picks/rakes/shims than bolt cutters. The latter are lighter, easier to conceal, just as quick if not quicker, and a lot less conspicuous to use. Trying to find a lock that can resist an attack like that is a waste of resources.

A guy can spend $10 on a rake and 15 minutes practicing while watching a YouTube video, and be able to open a literally bulletproof Abloy padlock in 10 seconds.

Battery powered metabo and no lock or chain has a chance, 2 mins and your stand is gone.

Locks keep honest people honest".

I store stuff that is highly regulated and hazardous. I use American Locks.

Pick any lock you want. 30 seconds with a cordless angle grinder and .045 cutoff wheel and is all over anyways.

Not a $100 plus Assa Abloy, but fantastic for the price:

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Hardware-S828-160-Shrouded-Hardened/dp/B001V5IYT2


Also, get some grade 70 (gold colored) chain. Much harder to cut with bolt cutters...

Or if they want it bad, they just cut the tree.

That's just sorry. I hate thieves, litterbugs and poachers.

Locks mainly keep honest people honest. I use these to keep them honest.. BRINKS 173-80051 80Mm Stainless Steel Resettable Combination Discus Padlock

I agree. Years ago we had a barn/outbuilding broken into by someone who broke the lock by beating on it. My Dad was a welder and his solution was to fab a heavy metal box over the lock to protect it from future attacks and weld it to the metal door. The box was so small that it was hard to get the dang thing open with a key.......and wasps loved to nest inside the box. But, no one got in for years until an enterprising and patient thief got a small enough bolt cutter or whatever up in it to cut the lock. I really don't know exactly how he made it happen.

Afterwards I was all pissed off and thinking like the OP about getting the mostest baddest assed lock around. Then I realized that the little barn was made of sheet metal and a guy with a cordless drill/impact or heck a socket wrench if he wanted to be quiet could just unscrew the fastners, take a sheet off, walk in and get all the small items he wanted.

I went back to the same kind of lock the thieves cut. Locks are only gonna stop crack and meth heads looking for a quick score......a lot better than nothing but its mighty hard to stop a determined thief.

Some of the bicycle locks and chains are pretty good supposedly. Bicycle theft is huge in the cities what with a high end bike going for multiple thousands of dollars. So there is a lot of "field testing" done.

https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20017112/best-bike-locks/#chain_locks

This guy knows a thing or two about locks

I can't believe I actually watched that, pretty hard core locks there.

Pretty sure I've used one of those locks down in the bottom right of the video you posted. If not it looks very similar to ones I've used in the past.

If they want it bad enough they are going to get it. I am no locksmith but I can pick a lot of padlocks in 30-40 seconds with my lock pick set. Master lock are super easy. As someone said......................they keep honest people honest. Sucks I know as I hate thieves.

My brother-in-law was in the contracting business and kept his tools at the job site in a truck trailer. The thieves didn’t even bother with the lock on the back, they cut open the side of the trailer.

Someone stole a 15' tri pod where the feet were burried in 2' of concrete off our land. Fast forward to when there were no leaves on the trees, we saw that stand on the neighbors property where a deer hunting club is.

Great advice....as someone said, they could just cut the aluminum somehow and then repair it.....but I got that in mind. Kryptonite makes some pretty good motorcycle locks that have an integral key-lock.... I might try one of the longer ones.

Someone once told me if you make it too tough an enterprising thief will try to swipe it just for the challenge. I know they will get it if they want it bad enough.

What happened when you got it back?
Any azzwhooping?

Our remote place has strong cable, the strongest reasonably priced combination lock and a sign on the gate shows a handgun and asks if anything in there is worth your life.

Done in a matter of minutes. Now imagine if you have hours and hours of darkness in a secluded forest.

I was pissed off and thinking like the OP about getting the mostest baddest assed lock around. Then I realized that the little barn was made of sheet metal and a guy with a cordless drill/impact or heck a socket wrench if he wanted to be quiet could just unscrew the fastners, take a sheet off, walk in and get all the small items he wanted.


That's has happened several times here.

Also, on newer houses with nice strong security doors and some with security systems,
They have used a utility knife to cut the vinyl siding and Cellotex cheating and then kicked
through the drywall. Literally walking through the walls. Unless there is a motion sensor,
The door, window, and glass breakage sensors will never be tripped.

In one case, the first clue the owners got was their dog in the driveway.
They thought he had been left inside. He had been.

If you use a "hidden shackle" or disc lock, be CERTAIN not to lose the key. Thank me later.

One year one of my friends bought a high dollar two place leaning stand. He was hunting on public land, and was worried about theft. Bought the best American puck lock he could find, and used heavy anchor chain to secure the stand waaaay back in Walking through waist deep swamp. He thought it was safe, but after walking close to two miles back in the swamp on opening day of archery, he found that thieves had taken the ladder sections of the stand and left the top part, still securely chained to the tree. He was pizzed.

Next, He bought new ladder sections and moved the stand to an even more remote location, and this time used 50’ of even heavier anchor chain and the same high security puck lock. Next time he went back to hunt the stand, everything was gone, including the top portion, with the chain and lock still secured to the tree.

A few weeks after hunting season was over, one of our other friends saw a similar looking stand on Offer Up for a pretty cheap price and contacted him to see if he was interested in looking at it. They both went to the seller’s house and, after looking at the stand, realized it was HIS stand (with his name and number written on it). Apparently this little punk dirtbag took one of the above mentioned cordless die grinders and cut through the legs to get the stand free, then welded them back together and tried to resell it. They yoked the guy a little, and called the police, who showed up pretty quickly. After a bit of investigation, the PD found that this kid, along with a number of his buddies, had an entire three car garage completely full of stolen tree stands, all with cut/weld marks like my buddies stand. The kid and his friends were arrested and convicted, and spent a short time in jail for their efforts. After their arrests, there were no further stand thefts in any of the area management areas for quite a long time. Prior to their arrests, almost everyone you talked to had at least one stand stolen from those areas.

Funny thing is that prior to the theft and arrest, I had a rusty beater $79 Bass Pro leaner there for 5 years without it being touched. I mean it was locked with a cheap cable lock that a 6 year old with a hammer could defeat, and left on the tree year round until it was too risky to hunt it from rust. The reason it was left out there was that it almost killed us bringing it in all that way (it wasn’t light), and I fully expected to have it stolen, eventually, which it never was. Each year during archery, I would walk/wade out there and see my stand still standing, like an old friend. It even survived a prescribed burn, which basically soldered the lock shut and the cable coating to the stand legs. Shot quite a few deer from that stand.

So the moral of the story is...don’t expect that your high dollar stands will not be taken, no matter how good your lock is, and don’t hunt in South Florida.

Sargent Greenleaf dial combo is approved for Secret and Top Secret storage. However,as everyone has stated everything else is your weak link. I can cut 1/4 chain links with my 18" bolt cutter

What some of you guys say about circumvention of even the toughest locks and chains/cables is quite true - criminal determination will win most of the time. We have been fortunate to never have experienced any kind of break-in, and that is probably attributable to the location and fact that anyone showing up in that particular place will be most conspicuous and exposed - no quick way out. But, no guarantees.