My neighbor got robbed recently and it has really lit a fire under my ass to step up my security. I did some research and I think I want to start with replacing the strike plate on my front door with something like this

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64451[/ATTACH]

I looked up some install instructions and it mentions drilling out the hole a little more to make room for the new strike plate. However, I noticed a weird metal plate behind my strike plate, pictured below



What is that metal plate in the back, and how should I deal with it?
Thanks in advanced

 

The metal plate is a reinforcing plate on the back side of the jamb. It helps prevent the wood from splitting around the 2 long screws when someone tries to pry or kick your door open. Its good that you have one, so if you already have long screws in your strike plate, you should be more secure than most. If the screws are short, replace them with long ones.

 

Ditto what xsleeper said, you'll have better than average security using 3" long screws. It appears your first wall stud is quite close to the finished surface of the strike plate, and that's good, but do make sure that it's not so close that the bolt cannot extend it's full 1" or it won't deadlock.

If you'd still like to improve on what you have, and at the same time, not have to enlarge the cavity to accommodate the product shown in your photo, you might check out Don Jo strike plates; even tho they don't have that "pocket" they're more secure in my opinion, because a) they're 8 to 12" long which distributes a kick-in force over a wider area of the frame, b) more than 2 screws are used, and c) some of the screws go in along the back side of the plate, which allows penetration in the center of the stud rather than near it's edge. And the plates are usually thin enough you don't have to mortise them in if you have the usual 1/8 to 3/16" gap.

 

The Strikemaster II Pro is widely sold across North America. It is made in North Carolina by A-Safe Homes Intl. It is by far the best product of it's type made. Simple to install and very secure
see their site for an explanation....
The StrikeMaster II Pro

I sell many of these products, most often for repairing an already kicked in door frame. When you consider the average cost for supplying and installing a new door and frame at around $1500.00, this product sells for about $100 and I get another $100 to install. Completely repairing a broken frame with no need to replace the door and frame at all.