My gun sets off store alarms

[2wheelDuke]

I've never had alarms set off, even when I carried a newer J-frame. I've been through all sorts of stores on and off duty without any issues like that.

[rockrat]

If your gun is magnetic, you might be able to check it with a compass, if you have one of those ancient devices.

[45workhorse]

I've never had alarms set off, even when I carried a newer J-frame. I've been through all sorts of stores on and off duty without any issues like that.

Same here!
I usually (read always!) carry a 1911, won't leave home without it.

[Blanket]

I call BS. What set's off store alarms is RFID tags, not metal or guns. And yes I have carried a sidearm for 36 years

[SSBNsquid]

Not BS. The only time the alarms go off is when THAT gun is my pocket.

[OptimusPanda]

You could put the gun in metal box (or similar Faraday cage like device) to remove any possibility of an RFID tag being the cause. Beyond that it has to be the metal if it's the gun at all.

[tomme boy]

Pull the mag apart

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It sounds like it is happening in the sort of stores that don't have much reason to use simple metal detectors. Like airlines, their security procedures are probably secret to some extent. Maybe they want to detect guns.

It wouldn't, by any chance, have been some kind of police or other institutional surplus item? The British army in Northern Ireland used to install undetectable transponders in weapons found in arms caches, and leave them in the hope of giving someone a nasty surprise later. It would make sense if you didn't want your bodyguard choosing a bad day to leave his gun at home.

[2wheelDuke]

Too bad you're not local. I am on pretty good terms with a few different loss prevention departments after responding to their store so many times. They'd have no problem helping narrow down the source of the false alarms. Some of them even have a portable scanner for the anti-theft tags.

[pmer]

Did you buy it used because it set off alarms for the original owner LOL? Try it once with different ammo or empty? Maybe just bring the slide and see if the alarm goes off. Then the receiver ETC.

Divide and conquer, it works for the Left.

[StolzerandSons]

Those aren't metal detectors at the front of MOST store, they are RF/RFID scanners.

Is your holster stitched together? If it is I would guess that you have an RF or RFID sewn into the holster somewhere.
My wife bought a pair of shoes online a couple years ago that had one sewn into them and they would set off the door alarms all the time, it took us a while to figure out what it was specifically. A friendly store manager was nice enough to swipe her with a handheld and find it for us and deactivate it.

If you can't find a manager that will run a hand scanner over it, you could figure it out by a process of elimination.

There are probably a few stores still using magnetic tag detectors but most have converted their inventory to RF/RFID.

[Mica_Hiebert]

http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=74860

[mozeppa]

If you have a Weller or similar soldering iron ( the ones with the lights in front and big coils inside) you can de-mag anything with that. TV servicemen back in the golden days of color TV use to use those to degause the CRT. I have a couple watch repairman's de-mag coils I use on stuff I do not want to be magnetic.

Turn it on, bring close to the metal, "scrub" around a little as you back off. Turn off after away from the metal item.

my dad was a t.v. man ....he had a degauseing coil that was about a foot in diameter.

when color t.v. was in its infancy these were used at the customer's home
because women would play havoc with the color on the screen by vacuuming the carpets right up to the screen.

and once in awhile kids would try sticking their magnet toys to the screen..."oooh, look at the pretty colors i made mommy!"

[flyingmonkey35]

That's odd ball . have a manager or security guard try the fire arm buy itself.

And the holster.

And if the its just the gun that goes off call the manufacturer. They may know something we don't.

Sent from my draconis using Tapatalk

[Hickory]

You may have one of those guns that just comes to life. You know, the one gun in 10 million that comes to life and throws its owner into a trance and goes on a shooting spree. The guns the democrats tells us that kills people.
These guns have been known to set off security alarms at store entrance.
Before this gun puts you into a trance and goes on a shooting spree with your hand attached to it, destroy it as soon as possible. Who knows how many lives will be saved.

[Beef15]

Those aren't metal detectors at the front of MOST store, they are RF/RFID scanners.

Is your holster stitched together? If it is I would guess that you have an RF or RFID sewn into the holster somewhere.
My wife bought a pair of shoes online a couple years ago that had one sewn into them and they would set off the door alarms all the time, it took us a while to figure out what it was specifically. A friendly store manager was nice enough to swipe her with a handheld and find it for us and deactivate it.

If you can't find a manager that will run a hand scanner over it, you could figure it out by a process of elimination.

There are probably a few stores still using magnetic tag detectors but most have converted their inventory to RF/RFID.

I had a sweatshirt that had the RFID strip in between the layers of the hood. Have also had a belt that had the strip between the layers. They've gotten very creative with them. Unfortunately it will drive you nuts trying to isolate the item. I asked many times for loss prevention to check me so I could figure out WTH was going on, they refused, eventually I isolated the items.

If it wasn't under the grip I kinda doubt it's the gun, not much free space and a heck of a lot of effort to put one in the internals, also not an item customers generally have unsupervised access to.

[OS OK]

Those RFID tags have an antenna that resonate with the particular signal that they are being scanned with and actually send back a small signal or attenuate the signal the receiver in the scanning device is set to intercept…this is as best as I can understand this technology. Perhaps a spring in that weapon is the exact length of the antenna in the tags...resembling the corresponding tags those stores use and depending how sensitive each stores unit is determines whether or not you get detected.
At first thought I was thinking that you were sporting a new belt or cell phone case or anything that had one of those tags in it and not deactivated.
But…I wouldn't put it past the HSA, NSA or any of the Alphabet agencies to try and track CCW licensees.

Our world is getting crazy screwed up as each day passes…OS OK

[Hogdaddy]

Tell em to call the "law" Scroom. walk on ; )
H/D

[Handloader109]

Holster is my bet. Not the gun. And not magnetic.

[rockrat]

Long shot, and I am just speculating, but maybe put the holster in the microwave for about 5 seconds. Might "burn out" any RFID chip buried in the holster.