My gun sets off store alarms

[Bonz]

I would carry just the gun in and let my wife carry just the holster in just to see which one sets off the alarm

[Ballistics in Scotland]

My wife helped me with domestic tidying up once, by putting my small micrometers and some small micrometers in a bowl together with a really vicious neodymium magnet which I bought for making a case neck thickness gauging device to stick to the bedplate of a dial height gauge. So in use I ended up measuring x plus various steel chips. I bought a very cheap electric demagnetizing device on eBay, from China, and it worked fine. Some have a little gate you slip tools through, but I needed one with a little flat bed.

In a spirit of scientific inquiry I tried to see whether it would demagnetize a smaller neodymium magnet. It promptly did a small-scale imitation of an electrostatic rail gun, but both the device and the magnet, when I found it, seem to be unimpaired.

[BigMagShooter]

sure it's not your BELT?

[Walkingwolf]

OP do you have a defibrillator/pacemaker? If you do you can show the staff your card. The frequency, and strength of the wireless in the device can be adjusted. It is strong enough to mess up cell phones, and wireless devices close to the device.

[garym1a2]

I think the barrel an cycl are stainless and the frame is Al. None of which was magnetic. Small internal parts are probably not an issue also.

[koehlerrk]

OK, the store sensors are RFID... Not magnetic.
Having a spring the "right length" isn't the issue. RFID tags don't work like that. They send a radio pulse at a fixed frequency, and they "listen" for a response chirp on a different frequency. Tags a small, thin, and flexible. They are often sewn into the tags on clothing nowadays.

I agree the holster is the likely culprit, but there could be one embedded in the gun somewhere. Underthe grips, molded into the grips, inside the magazine, lots of places one could be hidden.

[Bad Water Bill]

Call S & W and explain your problem.

If they had installed the strip they can tell you how to find and remove the strip.

If they did NOT install it now you need to contact the place you purchased the gun from.

[SSBNsquid]

I'm going to try unstitching the holster this afternoon, thankfully my wife can put out back together for me. If that fails I'll call S&W.

[jakharath]

Gen 2 RFID tags are about 2 cents each, purchased in volume. Before un-stitching, I would take just the holster thru one of the readers that you have set off.

The RFID reader sends out a pulse that is received by the tag. This pulse powers the tag up and it then transmits its data out and the reader receives it. The tags are passive, dumb devices and will send out a number.

[gunoil]

has not happened here at Walmart or 70 other places ive been.

[NavyVet1959]

There was this one store that my wife and I went to many years ago whose alarm would go off when we entered the store. Through the process of elimination, we eventually determined that it was something with her underwire bra. LMAO...

[Blanket]

Funny thing, I have never had a store alarm set off by the handgun(s) I have been carrying. Have been asked what was under my shirt a couple of times, but the asker always became passive when I showed them. IT IS NOT THE GUN

[2ndAmendmentNut]

There was this one store that my wife and I went to many years ago whose alarm would go off when we entered the store. Through the process of elimination, we eventually determined that it was something with her underwire bra. LMAO...

Now that is funny!

[jeepyj]

Wife bought me a new 637 couple Christmases ago, my daughter bought her a new purse off the internet. We would set the alarm off going in and out of Wally well we both though it was my new S&W and after some process of elimination we found a tag in the side compartment of her purse. We both got quite the chuckle from that. Just wondering if you may have purchased some new shoes or a new coat about the same time you started carrying that new sidearm?
I believe like others there a tag somewhere.
jeepyj

[Bad Water Bill]

A friend bought a top of the line pair of Red Wing boots.

Even the store he purchased them from could find the chip or what ever it was that kept tripping the alarm at his nearest Home Depot.

It became a joke there when he entered..

BEEP BEEP

OH OH sounds like Larry is back, "HI LARRY" would echo through out the store.

[David2011]

I used to set off the alarm at a Wally World every time I went through the door. Finally the greeter, a retirement aged gentleman, found a strip in the sweat band of my Stetson.

David

[2ndAmendmentNut]

Curious to hear a follow up from the op.

Ever find out what was tripping the store alarms?

[Outpost75]

There are several types of “loss protection” systems on the market.

The ones in common use may be either magnetic, acoustic-magnetic, or radio frequency identification, the latter type being an application of a tank circuit or “dip meter.”

One of the most common RFID detectors is "Sensormatic" and the oddest things set them off.

RFID tags on employee badges and Castle key cards are the most common problems, but even a coiled telephone earphone is also known to have set them off, as well as laser-cut decorative zipper pulls, intricate metal earrings, or even a pocket of paper clips!

Diagnosing “false positives” is a source of wonderment and delight for those servicing the equipment.

While not the current usual practice, a few firearms manufacturers experimented with RFID tags for automated inventorying; one maker in particular got into trouble for doing so. Since then I haven’t heard of any other gun companies applying them to the guns themselves, but only to their BOXES.


I am not aware of false positives being caused by the presence of a firearm. When such an alarm occurs it was almost always because the person was carrying something ELSE which activated the sensor.

This provides all the more reason NOT to try to sneak a gun into a place where doing so is prohibited by the management, — lest you get charged with criminal trespass, especially if you’ve bought new cowboy boots, belt, hat or imported Italian silk shirt or gold jewelry recently!

[thegatman]

If it has a laser as I think bodyguards do, take off the "protective " laser tag. It might have an RFID strip or as My NSA "friend" says good luck.

[TXGunNut]

I used to like guns that would set off car alarms. Last time I set off a store security alarm the guy in front of me hollered "RUN" and I just giggled and kept walking. At some stores the alarm goes of constantly, as a rule I ignore them and most employees do as well.