My home, My Castle.

[Sabertooth]

You’re Castle or a trap. Defense of your Castle.
Got your food, fire arms and other supplies you need. Now let’s think about your Castle. Do not assume the assault on your Castle will be by one person only.
Go to Google earth and find your home. Use the satellite picture mode. Expand the picture to about 500 yards around your home. Print the picture. This is your security zone.
With a note pad in hand look out each window and door of your home. Don’t forget your attached garage. What do you see? Where can someone with a firearm hide and shoot at you? Don’t overlook windows and door ways in the other homes. What can your firearm shoot through? Board fences, bushes etc. Note light sources, street lights that may be on at night.
Establish a 100 yard free fire zone. In a SHTF scenario anyone is this area with out your permission may be shot.
Home construction. Thin wood on the outside, hollow space filled with insulation with sheet rock on the inside. Small caliber bullets will penetrate this with ease. Homes with stucco on the outside provide much better protection from small caliber bullets. Stucco is concrete about 1.5 inches think. Brick overlays on the outside of the home are good protection.
Windows. No protection. During the day visibility through a window is fair. Binoculars, scopes better. Night time it is like watching TV. Stand outside your home and check it out. Draw the curtains and have some one walk around in the room. Nice shadow. From the outside, if you know where the light source is that produces the shadow, you have a target.
Hiding beside a window or door is not good. From the outside of a house the aiming point is 12 to 16 inches from the edge of the window or door and 3 feet up, under a window 16 inches up from the floor. Odds of wounding or killing the person inside the house are good.
223/5.56 or bigger will do the job.
Doors. Protect you on the, can’t see you plan only, providing they do not have any glass or glass inserts.
Are there any other people in your neighborhood who will be ready to defend their homes?
If it comes down to it, your exit plan and where will you go.
How can you improve the defensibility of your home?
This also applies to your hide out in the woods. Stay away from any situation which may silhouette you on a skyline. Top of a ridge etc.
Smoke from a chimney or fire say’s I’m here, come and get me.
Underground shelters. At least two entrances. With only one entrance one big rock or log and you are trapped. I will come back and dig up your firearms and ammo at a later date.
Air vent needs to concealed, remember water vapor escaping from a vent is a give away on a cold day.
I know I have not included all the details, but do not want to write a book here. Just give you something to consider and think about.

Read More

 

[Decker]

Some good tips, thanks.

-d

 

[Mike1C]

I was thinking about buying several thousand sandbags and storing them empty, then using them to fortify the walls if it ever came to that.
Good idea or bad idea?

 

[BigCat]

I was thinking about buying several thousand sandbags and storing them empty, then using them to fortify the walls if it ever came to that.
Good idea or bad idea?

Might as well just dig a moat around your house and fill it with alligators.

 

[Mark W.]

I guess I don't have to worry about this since on the south my house is barely 20 ft away from the neighbors and while I do have the only two story house on the block and can see over top of this house. To the north that house blocks most of my view at about 35 ft away. Across the street to the West are houses that block any view past them below about 10 ft. To the east I have a narrow alley that goes to the end of the block with part of the backyards being fenced. Again due to my second story deck I can see over top of all these fences.

But then I didn't buy a fox hole I bought a house.

 

[Sabertooth]

I was thinking about buying several thousand sandbags and storing them empty, then using them to fortify the walls if it ever came to that.
Good idea or bad idea?

I have some to fill up and put in front of the shop door.

 

[Sabertooth]

Moat with gators good idea if you have the realestate.
House not foxhole. At least you are aware of your situation. Good or bad.

 

[Burt Gummer]

I don't think most people that are well armed with be at too great a risk from 'bad guys.' The 90% that are not prepared at all will provide the baddies with plenty of places to rape, steal and ravage for months.

The threat to you will come when the government comes collecting guns, doing searches, moving the unwanted to Fema. That may or may not happen in our lifetime, but it is a real possibility.

It won't matter much at that point how well defended you are, lay down your weapons and bend over. Have you ever heard of a swat team doing sweeps deciding a house is too well guarded and then moving on? No, of course not. You can't match the technical superiority either. Night time>Thermal>50cal>bang, done. You can defend against individuals and maybe groups, but not the government. What goes around comes around and what we have been doing to so many others around the globe will eventually land on our doorstep.

 

[A.I.P.]

Individual Homes are not defensable.
For you guys that think nobody will bother your home/you can defend it. think again
What you need is a neighborhood milita/ baricades, radios, etc.
Once the professional gangs are done with the high dollar homes, the mansions and other areas that they have been stragicaly targeting they will head for suburbia, just for kicks. Each gang will have been assigned an area to control and do what it likes with.
Plus there are the Pervs and Pendergasts, the Panty Sniffers and Pediophiles, Rapists, Arsonists, Serial Killers whose prayers to Satan have apparently been answered.
Sand bags are a start, just a start.
If you think this is just a Recesion think again. This is an engineered collapse, most everything in this collapse is controled from The Top
Mexico has 40,000 fatal shootings a year, what do you think it will be lke here?
Add the 1 million dead in the 1st month due to a failed medical/transport system.
This is Asymetrical Warfare against The West and America is the Lynch-Pin. Obama called for a Private Army and he has one. We are on the cusp of a Clash of Civilazitions,
Just in time for this massive slaughter someone has figgured how to generate electricty by burning bodies, I kid you not.

 

[strongtower6114]

Good thoughts Sabertooth. Reminded me to make those range sketches for each window that I'd forgotten about.

 

[Burt Gummer]

A.I.P. if any populace deserves what is coming it is the American Sheeple. They will go from their spoiled bubble ponzi-economy lifestyles straight into hell on Earth.

Not if, when.

I just hope that 'when' is as far off as possible. As long as Americans let our military be used as a billy club for the euro banking elite and travel back and forth to the mall in willful ignorance perhaps we will be granted some more time. Every day should be greatly treasured for these are indeed the last of the good times.

 

[Sabertooth]

Down boy!!!
Back to the Castle please.
I want a moat with gators and fish.

 

[mjbskwim]

A.I.P. if any populace deserves what is coming it is the American Sheeple. They will go from their spoiled bubble ponzi-economy lifestyles straight into hell on Earth.

Not if, when.

I just hope that 'when' is as far off as possible. As long as Americans let our military be used as a billy club for the euro banking elite and travel back and forth to the mall in willful ignorance perhaps we will be granted some more time. Every day should be greatly treasured for these are indeed the last of the good times.

Cool story brah,now how 'bout some info about defense?

My buddy is a broke down old guy.He can fling a tennis ball 75 yards with one of those deals for his dog.
Wonder if he could launch a gasoline bomb that far?
In the city or suburbs,you house can be had easily by a couple molitoffs ,no need for the sand bags.
They'll shoot you on the way out.

If you aren't watching the neighborhood and leaving BEFORE any roving gangs arrive,or you and the neighbors haven't configured any neighborhood plan,then don't bother with the satellite pics.
As the two threads from people that have been in the SHTF situations over seas have stated,you need to have more than just yourself and family in an urban environment.You need the community's help
Or you need to be gone before the whole ordeal starts
You need to be in something other than a stick built house
Is there alligators or crocks that are bullet proof? Parana would do better.Kinda hard to shoot fish swimin' around.

So,basically,I'm seeing that if you live in suburbia or worse,instead of doing stockpiles of supplies,you are better off spending the money to have a destination out side the war zones.
All that food ,guns and ammo are worthless when put to fire.If you can't carry it in your vehicle,it will be gone up in flames.
Why not have enough to get to a better location instead? Why not begin to move to that location?
Wouldn't it be better to have a location than to have supplies that will be burned down by roving gangs?

Unless you are patrolling the neighborhood and getting rid of all bad guys,AT ALL TIMES/24/7,your house can be had easily.

Just here to brighten your day,like all the other posts.

 

[Thebastidge]

Without being snarky...RE: the sand bags:

Have you ever spent a day filling sandbags? Do you have any idea how many you can fill in a day? I do, and it's not as many as most people probably assume. It's also not something you can practically do alone.

Where will you get the sand/earth from? Look at the height you plan to stack them, the width and depth of the bag- now imagine that much dirt or sand and where it will come from. Consider that in an explosion, any rocks in the bag become shrapnel.

Figure your bags will get filled to about 4 inches in depth, how many do bags do you need to fill to get even reasonable coverage?

Are you trying to shelter your home from rifle fire? Explosives? Molotovs? Bottom line, unless youohave nothing better to do in an emergency than taking 3 weeks to sandbag your house, I recommend that the sandbag idea be laid to rest. If you have the option to build your own house, or do improvements, consider some better way of achieving the same goal.

Also, google "hesco barrier".

As for stucco- most of it is not anywhere close to an inch and a half. You'll be lucky if the concrete is half that, and it is sprayed on over a styrofoam core. Not particularly good for the NW anyway, because any cracks allow moisture in, and stucco ALWAYS cracks.

Brick is better protection, and better thermal mass, but a single depth red brick is no protection from hunting caliber rifles. Watch mythbusters or R. Lee Ermie's shows on the History channel. Brick, even cinderblock walls will disintegrate under rifle fire. Interesting Mythbusters I watched the other day had a cinderblock wall with truck bedliner sprayed on- stood up to a pound of C4 from a few feet away while the untreated cinderblock wall turned into shrapnel and "killed" the dummy in a chair on the other side. Something to think about. About the only thing that will stand up to sustained rifle fire would be adobe or cob 2 feet thick. Even monolithic concrete would be better protection against rifle rounds, but monolithic concrete is subject to allowing blast shockwaves to travel through it. I have seen T-walls in Iraq (Texas barriers like you see dividing the highways, but 10-14 feet high) over a foot thick that get hit by an explosion on one side, and a spattering of concrete shrapnel flies off the opposite side, without making a hole all the way through. the face of the concrete is simply brittle enough that the shockwave hits the opposite face and spalls gravel off of it. Red brick simply becomes shrapnel when hit by an explosion. I've seen concrete columns that had been whittled down pretty badly by rifle fire as well, but I don't think it's an insurmountable problem.

My company constructed a villa for us in Iraq. The roof was a monolithic concrete poor 18 inches thick. Above that was about 8 inches of sand, hemmed in by a parapet. Above that were two-inch-thick by 24"x24" square concrete pavers. A morter hit the pavers, cracked the hell out of it, but the sand underneath absorbed the impact and the paver didn't even move. That's security (but it cost almost 2 million bucks to build theplace). I slept well even during rocket attacks (much worse than mortars).

Consider the difference between cover and concealment very carefully. A brick wall is "light cover", IMNSHO.

And of course, a well-fortified position that is left unmanned simply becomes your enemies' home. Without the manpower to do patrols, and keep a sentry, you cannot survive a situation where hostile forces are actually attacking homes. Suburban environments are probably the absolute worst place to be in an actual urban combat scenario. Even an office building is probably more defensible. The suburbs have poor field of vision, the houses have zero defensive capability, limited ability to support yourself via growing food or collecting clean water, most places don't let you set up any kind of home business that would work to support you in the Zombie Apocalypse, etc.

 

[Sabertooth]

Thebastige, you are 100% right. I'm here because of a 3 sandbag wall. The morters hit 15 feet on the other side of the wall, the sand bag walls also stoped the incoming AK rounds. How ever this is to get people to think about there decision to stay home and to give them the best possible way to survive an attack in a SHF seniaro. When it comes to being attacked by groups armed with military weapons, its grab your Nike's an beat feet time. The average bunch of thugs that you will have to deal with will only be armed with small arms. They will not want to engage in a long term firefight eather. They know they can come back later.
I live in a rural area for a reason. Know where I can get some claymores and C-4?? That comment should get me on the terriost watch list.

 

[Sabertooth]

Thats a sandbag wall was 3 bags thick. and 5 feet high. Brain goes faster then my fingers.

 

[Redcap]

Individual Homes are not defensable.
For you guys that think nobody will bother your home/you can defend it. think again
What you need is a neighborhood milita/ baricades, radios, etc.
Once the professional gangs are done with the high dollar homes, the mansions and other areas that they have been stragicaly targeting they will head for suburbia, just for kicks. Each gang will have been assigned an area to control and do what it likes with.
Plus there are the Pervs and Pendergasts, the Panty Sniffers and Pediophiles, Rapists, Arsonists, Serial Killers whose prayers to Satan have apparently been answered.
Sand bags are a start, just a start.
If you think this is just a Recesion think again. This is an engineered collapse, most everything in this collapse is controled from The Top
Mexico has 40,000 fatal shootings a year, what do you think it will be lke here?
Add the 1 million dead in the 1st month due to a failed medical/transport system.
This is Asymetrical Warfare against The West and America is the Lynch-Pin. Obama called for a Private Army and he has one. We are on the cusp of a Clash of Civilazitions,
Just in time for this massive slaughter someone has figgured how to generate electricty by burning bodies, I kid you not.

 

[Thebastidge]

Sabertooth:

To rebuild a sandbag wall around my hooch in Iraq, it took 8 Hajis two weeks. Now, with somebody who actually understands the terms "urgency" or "motivation" it would probably be much quicker. But you still need a team and a lot of time.

Bottom line, sandbagging an entire ordinary house to a useful extent is simply not going to be an option on your own simply because of the time and effort required. Too many other things with more immediate need will get in the way. No to mention, they'll only last about a year or less depending on weather before they have to be entirely replaced. That means tearing the entire wall down and re-filling new sandbags.

Covey's 7 Habiits of Highly Effective people provides a model:

The Urgent/Important Matrix - Using time effectively not just efficiently - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com

 

[MinnesotaORnewbie]

I like Will Smith's house in the movie "I Am Legend." With gold mining becoming more mainstream in the U.S. may one will be able to buy and stock pile up some explosives to set up the 100 yard, last line of defense Oh bubblegum Fense.

 

[mjbskwim]

How about some type of wall with some sand in it? Box 'O Truth's test show it would help.
Just a matter of how decorative you want it and if you want it permanent

The Box O' Truth #7 - The Sands O' Truth - Page 1

I don't know the 'R' factor of sand or if it would be feasible to incorporate it into your stick built as it would want to collect water over time.
But it is an interesting idea.