Well, guys, after 8 hours sleep I must say I feel pretty good. There were no more disturbances last night. Hey, my wife and I even laughed at the spoof thread. It would be pretty farfetched for it to have been that simple. First, I know every single neighbor in both directions for at least a mile both ways. There is no one by the name Jeremy ***** anywhere near me. I will be asking a few people today if they have heard of him. Secondly, our FULL names are in very large letters on the mailbox. It would be hard to mistake our residence for another. Yes, I know that I wasn't prepared and made a few mistakes. The point of posting it here was to reveal those mistakes to others so that they can learn from my blunders without having to put themselves at risk to find out for themselves. My first response was to lie there quietly and let them leave on their own. After they returned to the vehicle, I made my move to the gun safe. This is when the pounding at the door started again. And to answer an earlier question, I locked the gun safe after removing the AR-15. I'm funny about that. I even lock it back if I remove a firearm to clean or something, even if I stay in the same room. A shotgun would be my first choice for home defense, but I would have to dig to the back of the safe to retrieve it. As for a .45, I ordered one recently, but it has not arrived yet. Like I said in my original post, I held the rifle behind the wall out of view. Even when I displayed it, it was never pointed at the guy. I even made a statement to the dispatcher on the phone that I displayed the weapon. The guy did not act drunk, at least no slurred speech. He actions were deliberate, but you could tell he was nervous and kept looking around. After I informed him that no one by that name lived here, he continued standing there fidgeting and asking if I was sure. He was larger than myself (wife says both men were). I felt that by displaying the weapon, I could lean him to the lawful side of the situation, if he was contemplating wrongdoing. I figure once he knew I was armed, he would forego any plans he had and vacate the premises. I did not threaten him with the weapon. I do not see any LAWFUL reason for the second subject to be hiding in my blindspot. If it were as simple as a mistaken residence, why hide in the shadows? All's well that ends well. Hopefully they know that I mean to defend our lives and property and will spread the word. From this day forward, I will be a hell of a lot more prepared. Keep the criticism coming as needed, we could probably all use a little education. Thanks!

Oddly enough in one's home in California one can wear any firearm legal to own. If I answer the door with my legally owned firearm at oh dark thirty I dare you to find a court (yes, even in California) that would convict me for answering with a firearm. The only charge might be brandishing. Thanks, but I'll take the risk with the jury and not the thugs at the door.

The California law also applies to ones camp ground too so when camping on BLM land where there ought not to be any visitors I'm always armed.

Now to the tactics. I would think that the bums could have rushed you faster than you could have brought the carbine up. Wrestling with two men and a long weapon is a bad thing. Even if they were armed with just knifes the distance is far too close.

I would have had the conversation though the door. No reason at all to open it. I would assume that you have at least a porch light which should have been used to light them up. If they kept up the assault on the front door I announce to them (and the 911 operator) "I have a gun, I've called the police, get away from my door" and then stood back from the door behind cover waiting for the door to get kicked open.

My own front door has a nice narrow approach about 20 feet long that is between the garage and the front room. There are lights at both ends of this corrador and windows looking sideways to the door. A small surveilance camera looks down from the roof covering that 20 feet. I can pop on any television in the house and watch the front door.

The side door has an IR camera with motion sensor lights. The backyard and patio door will have one soon to match its motion sensor lights and 15W night light that illuminates the area closest to the back of the house.

The last thing I want to do is to open the door to my home blind.

BobCole, I wish you well.  This tidbit of information sounds ominous as neither of you should "go to court."  He (the burglar) should be dead and you should have no charges pending.  Best wishes.  Please let us know the outcome.  

I have two hybrid wolves in a half acre enclosure behind the house that ONLY bark if there is a stranger in the yard. They also alert us to strange vehicles coming up the driveway. As it was very hot last night, they must have been back in the edge of the woods staying cool. We never heard a peep out of them, which is unusual. They cannot actually attack a perpetrator through the 6-foot high fence, but most of the locals know about them and are fearful just the same.

[b][size=3]UPDATE[/size=3][/b]

My wife and I just got home today and saw the latest edition of our local paper. The headline reads [i]"Couple Shot At Heltonville Home"[/i]. It appears that approximately five hours after our incident mentioned in the first post of this thread, a couple in another rural area of the same county we live were awakened by the sound of a car horn in their driveway. When they went outside to investigate, they were shot by a male in a small blue car (no make/model known). Both the man and woman are hospitalized; the man was shot multiple times in the torso and the woman in the face. It may just be a coincidence, but it happened within a few of hours of our incident and the vehicle that was in our driveway was a smaller dark blue vehicle about the size of an early '80s Ford Mustang. Makes you wonder anyway. I'm just glad that everything turned out well for us, and I pray that the injured couple will survive and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

Sounds like you were saved by the presence of the rifle then. Might have been the same pair as how crime ridden is your county?

We have a murder now and then. According to the last census, the population of Lawrence County is 46,000. Heck, a lot of cities have more people than our entire county.

d-d-d-damn M4! That could have been you and your wife! [shock]

I hope you contacted local cops and gave them the info on what happened to you. If not, you should. Let them decide if your incident is relevant or not.

M4Madness,
I read this thread a few times and I would like to say that you handled the AR15.com critique very well. It is great to see that you and your wife are OK. Yes, you made some mistakes, most of us will, but you posted this with good intentions, not worrying about how we would react to your mistakes you posted it to help us learn from them so we don't repeat them with deadly results. As many have said already, the door should never have been opened to a stranger, especially at night and even more so in the manner of which the person banged on your door. I find this a little suspicious behavior, it could have been nothing, but we must expect the worst or we will not be ready when it comes. I say this from personal experience because I lost my brother to a similar situation. He had an old neighborhood friend stop by our shop one morning and moments before I arrived, my brother had let him in and he was subsequently rushed by four armed men who were hiding around the sides of the entrance door. They ended up beating, robbing and then killing him. This wasn't even a stranger and this still happened, so please be carefull out there when someone is at your door. Don't worry about insulting someone by not opening the door to speak to them.

Amen to that!

Yeah, chances are slim that the same persons were involved in both instances, but you just never can tell. Definitely better safe than sorry. If it turns out that the shooting was a random act, then it shows me how easily it could have been my wife and I had they chosen my house. Hopefully my judgement and aim would have been true had I needed to discharge my weapon in self defense. As for notifying the police, my wife gave the dispatcher a good description of both subjects involved in our incident that night. The only description she gave of the vehicle was that it was a mid-sized car possibly dark blue. I thought that it looked somewhat like an early '80's Ford Mustang. It was parked in the dark, so it was very hard to see anything about it other than its size. Both situations have shown me the need to be prepared. Last year should have been enough. Just down the road from me a gentleman came home to find four subjects burglarizing his home. They fired shots at him as they fled in a vehicle. He pursued UNARMED in his truck. When he rounded the corner, they were parked broadside in the road SHOOTING. He rammed their vehicle and the gunman ran up to his truck and raised the pistol at pointblank range. The gun jammed and the suspects fled into the woods across from my home. They were apprehended within a few hours. The guy now has a large fence around his home and did go out and buy a firearm after that. I saw in the paper where he tried to sue the suspects for monetary compensation for the price of his vehicle, security measures, and the firearm he bought to protect himself and his family. He was denied any compensation for these things by the court. Dangerous situations like these seldom happen near my home, but once is too much.

M4- Sounds like you are mature enough to take the well meant criticism here, glad you and yours are safe. A follow up regarding "opening the door" Our CCW instructor posed this question to the class- A man and young girl come to your door, the girl is bleeding badly and in obvious pain, they franticly ask for help... do you open the door? NO! You dial 911 and wait. Scenes like this can be created to gain access. NEVER open your doors. Gene

Thanks to all for their replies, well-wishing, and criticism. Some folks do not get a second chance to correct their self-defense maneuvers. Luckily our situation didn't end with ill effects. I have picked up a few pointers and now realize the need to keep a firearm handy at all times. I use my safe as a means to protect my firearms investment from theft and possible fire. I just never gave too much thought to what would happen in the event that I needed to retrieve one in a hurry. I am a firm believer in using a shotgun for home security. I only grabbed one of the AR-15's due to the fact that it was in the front of the safe and the easiest to access. Thanks again for all of the advice.