[ARCHIVED THREAD] - For those bugging in (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 6/22/2008 9:08:56 AM EDT
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If you are bugging in a neighborhood inside your home, how do you plan on defending all the windows and doors and such? Also, what kind of supplies do you keep/where do you keep them at? I'm trying to get an idea of what to do, but I've never worried about this kind of stuff before. |
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Tag for result. I let my AR be seen just often enough to let my naybohoodies know that they'll be against some resistance if they break in. One thing: I literally have my front and back door furniture tactically arranged, so that it presents barriers to forced entries that I am familiar with. Looks pretty tasteful, too! 
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The easiest thing to do would be to close all the blinds and window shades. Keep people outside the house from being able to tell where you are at inside the house. Get some small security cameras and set them up around your propery. I would hide some in trees and bushes facing the house where people would not expect them. Use the cameras to keep tabs on people approaching the property. Move your family to the basement if there is a good escape route, like a hidden window egress (sp?) The basement can protect your family from stray bullets, but could be a problem if someone lights your house on fire to get you out. Have someone keep a lookout from the upstairs or an OP on the roof. Move your defenses as necessary to fend off approaching threats. Keep in mind you can only do so much with the people in your house. If a group a well armed adults comes to your door, you may be screwed. Band together with your neighbors if possible. I like to keep supplies all in one spot so I always know where they are are at and it makes it easier to pack if you have to bug out. |
Honestly, I don't plan much on defending via denial. A house secure enough to keep them out indefinitely might be secure enough to keep you in when they start burning shit. Electronic battery-operated "screechers" will be activated on anything we can't see from our immediate location and we'll be organizing our neighbors into an armed and commed neighborhood watch ASAP. We're in semi-suburban development, bordering on rural, bordering on mountain properties - not overly concerned about misbehavior, though I'm not completely stupid and have considered "active strategies" (including making mental note of common landmarks for range markers). If things went on long enough and our immediate neighbors vacated, I'd likely just go with plywood shutters, motion-sensor lights and old-fashioned aggression  until we decided to do the same. |
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Thought about making the Wife stay up and pull guard duty while I get my much needed beauty sleep. I'm not expecting MZB any time soon. All I have to fear is one half of my Kali-neighbors who will be too afraid to go out after dark, believing that the other half of country redneck neighbors might mistake them for MZB and declare open season and gun them down. A good dog should alert you of any wrong doings outside. That and good neighbors. Food, water, food, water, and don't forget some food and water. If you have not already start small and build up to a weeks worth. then keep going from there. Plan how you'll cook them, what you'll fix etc: make a plan, make several plans. I keep my food in several places. Inside pantry, pantry out in the garage, all through the house, running out of room to keep things here. BT |
Amen. R. |
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I have several of the motion dection alarm (portable ones) that can easily placed underneath the window blinds. Also have several fire extinguishers handy and located in key areas in case someone from the outside throws a Molotov cocktail. Shotgun at the ready with buckshots and rifled slugs. With food and water supplies is centrally located in the house. Keeping a low key, low light, minimum sound, and closed blinds or window shutters would be key. |
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I think the first question regarding home defense anyone should ask is do you really want your family n a firefight and is what you own worth taking that risk. That doesn't mean roll over like a victim but only address those scenarios that are the most practical to address. I often equate this question to the old totally outlandish John Wayne movie "The Green Beret". They had their camp laid out for a battle the best they could but still had an egress route for the dependents. Still the basic premise of the camp in that corny movie is the same for a home. As the others have mentioned, making your home a less desirable target is the first step. Fences and bushes are our barbed wire and motion detector activated floods our flares. More often than not, badguys will always take the path of least resistance. You can make your home have harder accessibility while still keeping the decor quite appealing. I personally like a keep my house a deterrent but limiting cover and concealment to those approaching house. Shrubs and rose bushes under lower windows especially thorned are both attractive and makes entry just a little more difficult. Fences slow people down, just remember if they can't see you odds are you can't see them. I'm not a fan of privacy fences unless they are the see through one way type. During all of this just remember, this isn't the 19th century and we're not captains sworn to go down with the ship even if a life boat is waiting over the side. After trying to save the ship, we take the lifeboat. Dieing is the opposite of survival. The first step anyone should take in prepping doesn't cost a dime. Its sitting down and doing a "Risk Assessment" which is simply listing what can happen, ranking it in order, and then adjusting that order by severity. Then simply "Prepare for the most likely event first and least likely last." Now you know why you will get so many water and food recommendations. Hope this helps. Tj |
For me, if there were an extended event and we were able to stay in our home, we'd likely move to the basement as our evening shelter. If someone broke into our home during this time and we lost a TV on one of the upper floors, so be it (it can be replaced)! However, if they wondered into the basement, looking for more booty, it would be an experience that they'd never forget! 
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dude. what were you in your previous life? i'm thinking probably the original TJ reincarnated. you NEVER cease to amaze me with your lines of thought. you sir, are one well thought out individual. |
| I have pre-cut 3/4" plywood to fit over the front windows. I keep the panels stored screwed to the top of my garage. My backyard is a very defendable slope which is nearly impossible to walk down. I don't think my neighborhood full of military and retired military folks are going to suddenly turn into zombies. |
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I am with TJ on the first step is to perform a risk assessment/security survey of your house/property. This will help you get a better feel of where you are at and where you need to be in the security department. I had to do a security survey of our school for my final in my security and crime prevention class and it was actually pretty fun. I would highly recommend finding a checklist on the net or in a book because just going off what you think and what the experts know to look for are two different things. They are good to help you prepare for when the SHTF and for everyday crime prevention. Then you have to realize a criminal’s main goal is to go undetected. The easiest target is the one that has a no exterior lights, privacy fence, big trees and shrubs blocking people’s view of your house from the street and or your neighbors. So basically a criminal would have all day to break in and do as they wish even if the cops drove right by your house they wouldn't be able to see them. So your goal is to put up as many barriers and lights that will help deter and detect them as possible. So a chain link fence is nice and would be nicer if there were barbed wire or concertina wire at the top and bottom of it but for if something were to happen you would be looking at a big law suit and a big hassle so let’s just leave them in the barn until the SHTF then put them up. Next you need to add exterior lighting. This is one of the most important and cheapest ways to prevent crime because criminals like the dark because they can go undetected a lot longer. So add lots of lights preferably with motion sensors so your electric bill isn’t threw the roof. The next thing of importance is a nice steel framed door with some heavy duty locks. For the windows I would say look into the laminate film that can be added to them, sure it wouldn't do much in a firefight but to stop someone from breaking in it can do wonders. Also unlike plywood it would be on your windows everyday protecting your loved ones and your possessions. This is just the basics I mean alarm systems are nice and so are cameras but if the SHTF and the powers out they aren’t going to do too much good, either are the lights but lights are cheap and are just nice to have. Other than that do some research into CTED (crime prevention through environmental design) to learn some things about landscaping to deter crime. |
1st off if its that bad where you are having to stand guard or be in firefights you should have Bugged out. Yeah yeah i know " i dont have anywhere to go protus.." i mean who would even wanna network right now..  Like TJ said risk planning. You plan for what you can handle. For one you dont want to have any kind of incoming lead to be focused where your family sleeps. That means your home is nothing more than a big target. "but i got 5 uncles and 3 guys from work showing up ..we'll kill em all and let god sort em' out.." same thing as above, you could have 20 guys there, all youve done is turn your home into a BIGGER bullet magnet. see your neighbors house 20 yrds away, can see beyond that? AHHH,,but look the mzb, has snuck close and while your "guards" are shooting at what they can see, the one with the gas can just set your ass on fire. Now where are you gonna go. trying to defend anything that is semi suburbyish is a lost battle. plan ahead,leave when you can, cut your loss's and move on. Or sit tight and be that hardest damn shell to crack....either way its just prolonging what will happen anyway... the above is based on a LT event. If your only planning for a year power flop and the occansional "lootie" have fun making a fort...but dont fool yourself into to thinking you cant be taken. |
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There is NO WAY you're going to defend your place 24/7 over an extended period. Someone WILL get close and burn you out, if nothing else. My plan has been to be low key. Can't see my house from the road, and even the lane in is overgrown and looks unkempt. (haven't mowed ANYTHING in about 6 weeks  )Heck, my house about looks abandoned from a distance already, and very few folks even know we're back here now. |
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I live in a low-crime area 20 miles north of Dallas and most of the homes have fences and such but Protus in correct in that any single individual will find it difficult to secure their prop. long term. I feel the only plausable defense is an orginized effort of your whole block or neighborhood. This good work for a longer period.
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we have a bit different take on bugging in. several of my neighbors are also well prepared with gardens, running water streams/springs, and armed to the teeth. We actually talk frequently have plans should society break down in the short term. one road into our area that is easily blokced off and or watched at both ends and we are a failry tight bunch when it comes to such things. Bugging in SHOULD consist of a neighborhood or atleast group of neighbors you can depend on. |
I really don't think that you can. I've said this before in this forum, which sums it up prett well. If a man's home is his castle, then his neighborhood is his kingdom. You cannot let anarchy reign in the streets and expect to be safe in your home. You have to own the street - and that usually requires either the cooperation of your neighbors or the ability to call in close air support. Shane |
Concrete structure, with masonry walls. Steel grating door and bars on most windows and doors, and a 7 foot high metal fence upfront. None’s getting in while I'm armed inside.
Food, water, meds, guns and ammo, flashlights and lots of batteries, just to name what comes to mind right now. FerFAL |
Granted all of that, and that nobody manages to burn you out, how long will your food and water last inside those prison walls? Once it does run out, then what? If you're not winning in the street, then you're just losing slower than everybody else. Shane |
This is for your windows. The first window has no film on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TziTRSPAePQ |
I’ve got food for a few months, and I'll take my "prison walls" over the average stick frame any day. At least mine can stop a few rounds. But I know what you mean, if things are that bad I’m leaving the country. I have no delusions of fighting hoards of zombies. FerFAL |
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I was working in my house today on the North end of my home. The Dogs started going nuts in the living room. I walked down the hall to see a truck that had just tunred around in my driveway (my drive way is 100+yards deep). I moved immediately back to my office and grabbed my XD. I rushed to the side door rather than the front door so I could exit the side of the house and have my vehicle and a fence between me and the guy in the truck. As I came out and up to the fence he was slowly driving out...I stepped out into the open and with me silhouetted against my light colored garage door I'm sure he saw the weapon. I actually believe he was coming there to steal and my 45 lb English Bull Terrier standing on the back of the love seat barking at him out the window and the sound of four other dogs deterred him...not to mention my vehicle being there. I should have just popped a tree beside him on the driveway but figured it might ricochet. I now am going to buy a gate. I work at home, but leave for errands now and then..... Dogs help! I do have an alarm system also. I was not expecting it to be a human in the drive when they barked, I expected it to be a deer or the rabbits or squirrels.... |
How exactly does one get out of a firefight when surrounded? Are you going to trust invaders to let you and your family leave safely? I can't imagine a scenario where you get to decide. Invaders have the upper hand. How does one "only address those scenarios that are the most practical to address"? You just can't wish Murphy away. Better have a long escape tunnel or two. "Regardless of the size or quality of defensive forces, the defender usually extracts large costs from the attacker in time, resources, and casualties." -- Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) - MCWP 3-35.3 |
Which is fine if your house is built for defense, but how many homes in your neighborhood are? Turn it around. Look at your house and each house in your neighborhood. How would you attack it? In most cases, it's like taking candy from a baby. Shane |
I'd burn the first one down and then ask the others to give up or burn also. Stick frame houses are un-defendable IMHO. |
Exactly so. That's why you can't just hole-up in your house. You *must* own the street. You have to own your block, and preferably your entire neighborhood. You have to be the kind of person willing to do violence so that peacable people can sleep protected in their beds at night. Shane |
| Im thinking that I have it kind of good. I own about 6 acres, most of which is surrounded by a thick patch of black berry and stinging nettle bushes. The only entrance is down my driveway which is 1000 feet long and opens up into my field. So I have a clear field of fire. |
| I didn't read all the posts, but the sandbags, and concrete blocks filled with aggragate are the best IMO. That said, you must also have an alternative offensive point, IE, outsidefoxhole, inside cutout not located by window, just something you can still see the zombies coming at ya. |
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Keep sand bag materials around so you can make a short walled area in your living room to sleep in. Make your house as stealth as possible, blackout curtains, no generator noise, no odor cooking. Out in the country might even use camouflage and hide your access road. In a neighbor hood have materials available to block the road so they will have to leave their vehicles if they want to attack. Hang chicken wire from your eves so firebombs can not hit your house. Turn your sprinkler heads around and be able to turn water on to put fires out. Have materials on hand to put sprinklers on your roof. Put a big rock over your water turn off so they don't know were it is or it could slow them down (better targets) to move it. Make landscaping walls, etc so they can't drive a vehicle into your house. Have outside barriers to shoot from. Have a sniper nest that can be accessed from your inside house to keep them at bay. |
I like the way you think. |
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I live in a very rural area, far from any large cities. If things get to the point where I would need to "bug out" from the house, then there will likely be no where else safe that I can go anyway. So I'd be inclined to stay put and fight it out. If the situation is really that bad and you lose all the supplies you have (other than what you can carry on your back), you are more or less screwed anyway. Sometimes you can only run so far until you run out of places to go. Now, if I lived in a city, town or suburban area, I'd have a different strategy. But again, I live in a rural county with a population of about 5000. And I am 13 miles outside the biggest town within the county. That town only has a population of about 500. LOL. So again, my home is about as "bugged out" as you can get. |
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first of all... there are two main things you are going to have to deal with. survival and defense. Survival deals with your two most basic needs, food and water. Food you can go without for up to and or around 40 days. water is only a couple of days. Buy some cheap distilled water. estimate 1/2 gallon per day per person (and thats minimal) secondly is food. figure 2000 calories per day per person roughly, although you can survive on less. secondly is defense/shelter. Look at where you are living, where is the weakest point or the most likely point for a break in? have an escape plan. And personally, if you have a basement... i would get some plywood, long decking screws, and a cordless drill. cut the plywood to match doors/windows in your basement leaving the bad guys only one way in. One other thing. if somone trys to kick your door in the most likely thing to go will be your latch plate (the one in the doorframe) get some of those long deck screws and replace the little stubby one and anchor into a 2x4, it will make a big defference. |
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+1 I've heard people say stuff like "but bro I have 10 AK's and 100K rounds so I'm good." I just laugh. IMHO the only way you can feasible protect your home for an extended period of time is to get in with your neighbors. For me, their are only 3 ways into my neighborhood and a lot of people in the neighborhood. Problem is I have no clue how to start a conversation about these things. I just moved here and they seem to be Sheep. Granted you never know. I try my hardest not to make my firearm possession public knowledge to my neighbors so they may do the same thing. Basically, what they said!!
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Ferfal: Given what you have been through have you scene a lot of looting and such? Did new gangs and such start (or old ones get stronger.) Thanks for jumping in! ETA: Sorry for the slight Hijack. 
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The lootings occured in 2001, yes they were widespread, across teh country. The houses that got looted where mostly empty, but in most cases they looted shops and supermarkets. If you are inside armed, I wouldn’t worry much about looters. We don’t have gangs as youdo up there, with fancy names, colors and clothings. What we do have a lot of is small groups of professional criminals. Some specialize on bank robbery, armored trucks, jewelry shops, car dealers, home invasion, kidnappings. There’s also “asphalt pirates” that rob trucks for their cargo, or that take advantage of holyday seasons and stop and rob tourists on the roads or move over to vacation centers and rob people there. Some specialize on commando type strikes against guarded country clubs or private neighborhoods, neutralizing the security there and robbing the rich home owners inside. Home invasions, violent robberies ( they are quick to shoot you, even if you give up everything) and kidnappings are the things I worry the most about here. Most of this stuff didn’t occur that much before 2001. After the crisis they got more organized, more violent, and it was no longer something you heard about on the news, but it was what happened to your friends, relatives and neighbors, or to yourself. Yesterday I heard on the news that 97% of Argentines has been at least once, victim of a violent crime. Sounds about right. FerFAL |
| I agree with most every thing said. I think staying home is very feasable and that your home is also very difficult to defend. However what is the likely hood that in a survival situation that you will be facing armed bands of thugs buring every one out of their houses? It is possible but how likely? It there historical evidence of this? Such as after a receint natural disaster? I am sure you will encounter looters but once they realize that the home is occupied by some one willing to defen it they would move on as people like this are opprotunists. Im not saying this shouldnt be a consideration just asking a question? |
To my knowlege there is no historical evidence in *recent* US history - and certainly no widespread cases since the War of Northern Aggression. The OP, however was postulating the defense of the home and in order to postulate that some attack must be concieved. We were speaking to that particular 'what if'. Shane |