Little scare last night (with AAR)

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Little scare last night (with AAR)

Posted: 12/14/2005 8:46:04 PM EDT

We had a little scare last night. At 2am the dog started barking wildly and the girlfriend shakes my shoulder and says very insistently,"Someone just came in the front door." I knew from the tone in her voice that she was absolutely certain the someone had come in the door.

I jumped out of bed and grabbed the Mossberg 590 by the bed. I got tangled in the tac sling but sorted that out and moved towards the living room. I cleared the apartment as I went and saw that the front door was open. No one was in the apartment and I don't think that anyone was. Maybe the wind blew the door open. Who knows. What I do know is that I moved into the living room fully expecting there to be an intruder in the apartment. The adrenaline was flowing and it took a few minutes to calm down.

Kudos to the dog for the alarm and to the girlfriend for letting me know in the least amount of time what was happening.

Lessons learned: Get rid of the fancy tac slings for your home defense long guns. You won't be holding them long enough to need them. Keep that weapon where you can get to it as you're coming out of a sound sleep. Be familiar enough with the weapon that you can operate it in the dark in a big hurry. Make sure the damn door is shut and locked. Get a dog.

And the biggest lesson... It's a great thing to not have to shoot someone in your living room in the middle of the night.

Posted: 12/14/2005 8:47:34 PM EDT

[#1]

Wow, glad it was a false alarm, and good thing you learned something from the experiance too.

Posted: 12/14/2005 8:53:42 PM EDT

[#2]

Good training/learning experience. If it ever happens for real you have had a realistic dry run up to the actual confrontation. Glad it was an apparent false alarm.

Posted: 12/14/2005 9:02:30 PM EDT

[#3]

do you have a light on your gun?

if so, were you using it?

just curious

Posted: 12/14/2005 9:03:39 PM EDT

[#4]

I wouldnt get rid of the sling entirely, ditch the 3 position tactical bs and get a good old fashioned sling. That way if you should need your hands your only option wont be to drop or put down your shotgun.

Posted: 12/14/2005 9:09:31 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
do you have a light on your gun?

if so, were you using it?

just curious

Tag

Posted: 12/14/2005 9:10:29 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Lessons learned: Get rid of the fancy tac slings for your home defense long guns. Check You won't be holding them long enough to need them. Keep that weapon where you can get to it as you're coming out of a sound sleep. Check Be familiar enough with the weapon that you can operate it in the dark in a big hurry. Check Make sure the damn door is shut and locked. Check Get a dog.Check

And the biggest lesson... It's a great thing to not have to shoot someone in your living room in the middle of the night. +1

Posted: 12/14/2005 9:18:24 PM EDT

[#7]

Give your dog a nice steak, and your girlfriend some damn good loving, pancho.

Posted: 12/14/2005 11:33:02 PM EDT

[#8]

HAd a similar situation a few years back. Instead of dog there was the alarm and when I got to the top of the stairs the door was still opening. When I yelled it stopped opening. My weapon was an AR.

Posted: 12/14/2005 11:37:24 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
HAd a similar situation a few years back. Instead of dog there was the alarm and when I got to the top of the stairs the door was still opening. When I yelled it stopped opening. My weapon was an AR.

screw ghost stories... These are what really keep me up in the middle of the night

EPOCH

Posted: 12/14/2005 11:41:38 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Quoted:
HAd a similar situation a few years back. Instead of dog there was the alarm and when I got to the top of the stairs the door was still opening. When I yelled it stopped opening. My weapon was an AR.

screw ghost stories... These are what really keep me up in the middle of the night

EPOCH

Yea, that is some willie givin' stuff right there.

Posted: 12/15/2005 12:00:49 AM EDT

[#11]

Yeah, I got rid of the tac sling on the AR shortly after a dry-run showed how useless the thing was in a home-defense environment. It looked bad-ass, though!

Glad everythign turned out alright.

Posted: 12/15/2005 12:12:54 AM EDT

[#12]

You have your girlfriend on the phone with 911 in case you ran into someone or a group of someones in your living room?

Posted: 12/15/2005 12:39:16 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
You have your girlfriend on the phone with 911 in case you ran into someone or a group of someones in your living room?

Maybe "with her finger hovering over the keypad." Around here, calling is likely to cost you a half hour of sleep, because the chances are very good that after she says "False alarm! Thanks, though!" and hangs up on a possible home burglary (occupied) , a patrolman will be knocking on the door in the next half hour or so to make sure. YMMV.

Posted: 12/15/2005 3:33:01 AM EDT

[#14]

The "wind blew your door open"?

1) Get a sturdier door than THAT

2) LOCK your door, the knob and deadbolt

Posted: 12/15/2005 4:00:57 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
You have your girlfriend on the phone with 911 in case you ran into someone or a group of someones in your living room?

+1

While you were clearing the apartment, what did she have to defend herself? What if he or they got past you?

Posted: 12/15/2005 7:57:21 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
do you have a light on your gun?

if so, were you using it?

just curious

I forgot to add the lesson about the light in the original post. No I don't have one on the gun. But I will. It's a very good thing to have.

Posted: 12/15/2005 7:59:37 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
You have your girlfriend on the phone with 911 in case you ran into someone or a group of someones in your living room?

Another good point. We've got that covered.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:01:05 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
We had a little scare last night. At 2am the dog started barking wildly and the girlfriend shakes my shoulder and says very insistently,"Someone just came in the front door." I knew from the tone in her voice that she was absolutely certain the someone had come in the door.

I jumped out of bed and grabbed the Mossberg 590 by the bed. I got tangled in the tac sling but sorted that out and moved towards the living room. I cleared the apartment as I went and saw that the front door was open. No one was in the apartment and I don't think that anyone was. Maybe the wind blew the door open. Who knows. What I do know is that I moved into the living room fully expecting there to be an intruder in the apartment. The adrenaline was flowing and it took a few minutes to calm down.

Kudos to the dog for the alarm and to the girlfriend for letting me know in the least amount of time what was happening.

Lessons learned: Get rid of the fancy tac slings for your home defense long guns. You won't be holding them long enough to need them. Keep that weapon where you can get to it as you're coming out of a sound sleep. Be familiar enough with the weapon that you can operate it in the dark in a big hurry. Make sure the damn door is shut and locked. Get a dog.

And the biggest lesson... It's a great thing to not have to shoot someone in your living room in the middle of the night.

is lock the door.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:01:12 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
The "wind blew your door open"?

1) Get a sturdier door than THAT

2) LOCK your door, the knob and deadbolt

I think this was user error. The girlfriend got home about 1:30am from work and probably didn't get it closed completely. We've already gone over proper door operating procedures.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:02:09 AM EDT

[#20]

good job, and thanks for the AAR. I have only cleared my home (basement) once after hearing noise. Stupid 15lb cat....

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:02:24 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
Quoted:
You have your girlfriend on the phone with 911 in case you ran into someone or a group of someones in your living room?

+1

While you were clearing the apartment, what did she have to defend herself? What if he or they got past you?

Springfield 1911 Longslide. She loves that ugly thing.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:04:40 AM EDT

[#22]

Clearing the place alone is a good way to end up dead.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:07:22 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
And the biggest lesson... It's a great thing to not have to shoot someone in your living room in the middle of the night.

I lay plastic on the floors and furnite every night before i go to bed.

The sling thing sounds like good advice.

I always had an issue with the apartment we used to live in because the locked they had on the doors were crap... easily pickable. And the main office always kept a spare key. If you changed the locks you were required to give them one of the spares. Nice if you lock yourself out... not so nice if someone breaks into the leasing office and steals the box all the keys are in or if they have a shirt bird employee making copies for their thief friends.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:08:20 AM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Clearing the place alone is a good way to end up dead.

My wife and i used to own a duplex. Before we rented out the top she thought she heard someone upstairs. I grabed the 870 and my rott. I stood in the first doorway and sent him in. After he came back and told me it was ok we both went and looked again. Gotta love good dogs.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:10:30 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
We had a little scare last night. At 2am the dog started barking wildly and the girlfriend shakes my shoulder and says very insistently,"Someone just came in the front door." I knew from the tone in her voice that she was absolutely certain the someone had come in the door.

I jumped out of bed and grabbed the Mossberg 590 by the bed. I got tangled in the tac sling but sorted that out and moved towards the living room. I cleared the apartment as I went and saw that the front door was open. No one was in the apartment and I don't think that anyone was. Maybe the wind blew the door open. Who knows. What I do know is that I moved into the living room fully expecting there to be an intruder in the apartment. The adrenaline was flowing and it took a few minutes to calm down.

Kudos to the dog for the alarm and to the girlfriend for letting me know in the least amount of time what was happening.

Lessons learned: Get rid of the fancy tac slings for your home defense long guns. You won't be holding them long enough to need them. Keep that weapon where you can get to it as you're coming out of a sound sleep. Be familiar enough with the weapon that you can operate it in the dark in a big hurry. Make sure the damn door is shut and locked. Get a dog.

And the biggest lesson... It's a great thing to not have to shoot someone in your living room in the middle of the night.

Actually I'd not ditch the sling, it's a weapon retention thing. I'd instead say practice more on slinging it up. Other then that I have to agree with everything. Especially the not having to shoot someone in yer living room in the middle of the night.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:11:40 AM EDT

[#26]

The wife and I just moved into our first home and I’ve done a lot of remodeling. One of the first things I did was to change out the front door lock and I replaced the entire backdoor (it was old and didn’t close correctly). I went out and bought some real nice Schlage deadbolts. I’ve drilled it into the wife’s head to ALWAYS turn and lock the door anytime you come in. I keep a loaded GP100 .357 and my Z3 Surefire on the nightstand. . I have the Winchester 1300 in the closet, no sling, 5 shot carrier on the stock and a 50 shot bandolier on the closet self (25 #4, 25 slug). Everything else is in the safe.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:20:07 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
Clearing the place alone is a good way to end up dead.

+1

+1 for what photoman said also, learn how to use it.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:25:18 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
Clearing the place alone is a good way to end up dead.

I agree. If the situation happened to me I would shut my bedroom door and put something behind it and call the cops. I would be ready in case someone came through the door, but I would not go looking for someone. I don't have any kids or anything to worry about either right now so that woudl affect the decision.

Posted: 12/15/2005 8:32:02 AM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Clearing the place alone is a good way to end up dead.

I agree. If the situation happened to me I would shut my bedroom door and put something behind it and call the cops. I would be ready in case someone came through the door, but I would not go looking for someone. I don't have any kids or anything to worry about either right now so that woudl affect the decision.

I disagree. If somethings wrong in my home I'm going check it out.

While your suggestion may be the safest plan, it's not one I could stomach. Plus, most of the time it'll just be the clumsy cat knocking something over.

Posted: 12/15/2005 2:12:31 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Clearing the place alone is a good way to end up dead.

I agree. If the situation happened to me I would shut my bedroom door and put something behind it and call the cops. I would be ready in case someone came through the door, but I would not go looking for someone. I don't have any kids or anything to worry about either right now so that woudl affect the decision.

I disagree. If somethings wrong in my home I'm going check it out.

While your suggestion may be the safest plan, it's not one I could stomach. Plus, most of the time it'll just be the clumsy cat knocking something over.

Until the time that it isn't...

Posted: 12/15/2005 2:16:39 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
I wouldnt get rid of the sling entirely, ditch the 3 position tactical bs and get a good old fashioned sling. That way if you should need your hands your only option wont be to drop or put down your shotgun.

So if you need your hands quickly are you even going to take the time to sling the gun. My sling is to stablize for a shot or to transport. I am not too tactical... yet.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Little scare last night (with AAR)

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