A hole

Okay, more like a small bunker. Pretty neat project, especially the part where he kills a copperhead trying to invade his hole and eats it. Too bad it flooded.

Such a project is very interesting. It'd make a great pillbox at your BOL or home if you're out in the country. Use it for a hunting blind, a defensive position, or low-profile location to camp out instead of using a tent on your land. Make the windows closable with plywood flaps, add a ceiling hook to hang a lantern from, and seal the earth walls to prevent it from flooding like his did (from ground water rather than direct rainfall), and it'd be a pretty nice little hidey-hole.

Two tips.

Be sure and call your states one call before digging, especially a hole that big or deep.
Law suits for the repairing of cut lines are a bummer. I know he is hand digging, but it isn't that hard to cut the smaller phone cables.

For gawd sakes, before digging a hole that big and deep look into shoring, getting buried in your bunker isn't good survival tactics.

Ron

Darn, I thought this was gonna be a shoot, shovel, and post pics on arfcom thread.

that guy cracks me up.  It's like a kids book with snake cooking and coon shooting.

that was a great read.  We use to do that when we were kids out in the woods.  Spent all summer building them.  One of them collapsed, thank God no one was in it at the time but we lost a bunch of our dads tools.  That was hard to explain. Wish I could be able to do that again but condo living kind of sucks for that stuff.  

What would you use to seal up the dirt walls? I guess plastic would work. Anything else?

Pillboxes are a bad idea for the average guy.
It fixes your position and makes your vulnerable since you can't maneuver.
Unless you have a squad to prevent you from being flanked, it's just not worth it.

As a low profile observation post, it's a good idea.

I remember the first time I read this link a couple years ago.

He seems like the kind of guy I'd like to hang out with.

Quoted: Pillboxes are a bad idea for the average guy. It fixes your position and makes your vulnerable since you can't maneuver. Unless you have a squad to prevent you from being flanked, it's just not worth it. As a low profile observation post, it's a good idea.

Dig a bunch and just run from fighting position to fighting position.

Quoted: that guy cracks me up.  It's like a kids book with snake cooking and coon shooting.

Apparently "coon shooting" means something different in UT than in the South.

How doesn't his wife think he's a complete mental case? lol

Quoted: Quoted: that guy cracks me up.  It's like a kids book with snake cooking and coon shooting. Apparently "coon shooting" means something different in UT than in the South.

,

dig that hole deep enough, you can fight from it at night and bury the dead in it tomorrow morning.

Quoted: How doesn't his wife think he's a complete mental case? lol

Where did he find a wife that would let him
a) dig big hole
b) spend money on what looks like SOCOM Springfield
c) let him clean snake in bathtub


Other than that..........the guy seems pretty darn cool to me.  

I want bunker too.

Great hole!

That was a pretty good read.

pretty cool as a OP, definitely needs to fix the water problem, and put screen on the windows , that copperhead was damn near inside

Kinda fun building a bunker...

but not a place to go in a time of trouble...

"Bug-In-Bunker"?... NO

Nice looking wife and dog...

I'd definitely hang with this dude...

remember it's his big fat pregnant wife who lets him do all of this

I almost missed this part from the index

Own your own piece of the hole.
I'm considering selling scoops of dirt from the hole.  I figure 12 bucks should cover the shipping and the trouble.  I'll send you a baggie of dirt, with a signed certificate of authenticity.  If you want it, you better ask for it now.  My house has a sale pending so I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do this.
Just use the paypal link at the bottom of the page.  Make sure you leave me your name, email, shipping address etc.
If you want some other piece of a hole like a wood chip, a dead frog, or maybe a mud stained rag.  Just ask.
Click here for paypal
- Cy

i used to do stuff like that when i was younger, lived out on 10 acres in the woods, and my grandads land(then about 1000 acres) was adjoining on the North side of the property and my uncles to the south. we did kinda fued with the landowners to the east over a right of way(they also owned the landlocked land to the west, and forcefully used a trail accross our property to acces it)...

but i used to dig/build all kinds of little holes, camps, and trenches, etc... this thread made me remember how much fun some of those childhood activities were...

when i was around 21, 3 friends and i were out looking for good hills to sled ride on. it was about 11pm when we went out, hit a couple other spots first looking for a bad assed hill to ride down. we stopped at one of the guys places of employment which had a particularlly nasty steep hill we were gonna try. it was actully was to steep to climb back up and we ended up using the winch on a jeep and some rope to improvise a "lift". it was on one of those engineered hills at an industrial park, and was nearly a straight drop instead of a hill, probabally a 60 degree angle, we tired of it pretty quickly it was just too steep.

anyway we came accross a parking lot that had been plowed. in typical fashion there were several extra large snow berms/banks piled up, we ended up making an improvised snow shelter(yes, just because). using just a plastic sled and a couple pieces of scrounged cardboard we built an entrance tunnel about 6 feet long a central chamber large enough for all of us to set in fairly comfortably, and a couple little antichambers to kinda lay into with our feet sticking out into the main chamber. we used the scraps of cardboard we pulled out of a nearby cardboard dumpster as shovels/trowles. we took turns one of us and carved the snow pack out dropping it onto the sled then the others pulled  the snow out of the hole on the sled used it in berming up the entrance out front to provide cover/concielment and a windbreak for the entrance, later on we covered the floor of our shelter with more scraps of carboard, it was actully pretty comfortable and fairly warm...

i have pics somewhere, if i can take pics of the pics with my camera phone, i'll upload them to my photobucket account and post them here, it was a hell of a lot of fun, and i guess it may have even taught us a little bit about cold weather survival shelters and whatnot, if i ever have kids i'm teaching them this hobby/skill, or if i can find a couple folks willing to play in the snow for a couple hours, i'm definatelly doing this again...

this really makes me wanna dig another hole...

I want to know how he gets away with calling her his "big fat pregnant wife."  

she was a big ole fatty fat preggo, and she is his wife, and it was obviously a silly loving term of endearment....

Ever see the movie Frailty? I thought for sure you were going to build a shed on top of the hole and use it for killing demons with the axe God gave you.

Holes are cool indeed. Sucks that it filled in with water... I think if I did that in my backyard my neighbors would definitely have me arrested.

When I was in Albania for a short "visit" there were concrete pillboxes EVERYWHERE. They were so awesome I wanted to take some home with me... and stick them all over my yard.



I guess they manufactured them then just dug holes and plugged them in. They had larger ones for artillery and I think wider ones for machines guns. When I say everywhere I mean you would almost see more of them in a mile than you would trees.

I too have fond memories of digging holes... sigh. I'd love to be in a position with some land where I could bust out the old shovel/pick ax. I'm going to add a +1 to the jealousy factor since his wife must be pretty darn cool.

He didn't say anything about underground wires. In this day and age with cell towers everywhere, you have no clue where wires are run.

I know back home, we have to call DIGGERS HOTLINE before we do any digging. If we hit a wire, and we didn't call, we pay for it. If we called, and hit something, we are off the hook for any damages, so long as we stayed within the area we said we were digging. It is free to call and have them come out to mark every wire, so there is no reason not to call. Gas lines as well, they have to be marked out so they are not hit.

You may be VERY surprised at where you will find wires, and where they are run.

Quoted: I want to know how he gets away with calling her his "big fat pregnant wife."

    Maybe she has a big, fat life insurance on him.  That hole he dug might become his burial ground.  It's a win-win situation for the wife.  "Frag and bag anyone?"    Nice hole he dug though.  

Cool....holes!

That is possibly the coolest thing ever, I want one so bad

'Twas a fun read.

I dug one 8'X8', 8 feet deep in my front yard for a storm shelter. Took about one winter, digging with pick and shovel. When I finished digging it, I leveled the bottom and dropped in a 1500-gallon plastic water tank. Makes a nice storm shelter, and the temperature stays at 58 degrees year-round. Mine gets a little water around the tank when it rains, but I made sure to contour the surface around it to divert the water away from it. Being on the top of a ridge helps keep the soil drained, too. I filled in the soil around the sides of the tank and covered the top with a bit of soil. The top is domed, so it's a bit stronger, but it's still not made to hold up much dirt. I made an internal framework from pipe(from an old jungle gym) to support the pressures from the sides and top. If I was doing it over, I'd probably put a separate cover over the top to support dirt.
It's not a fighting position, but it'll do for a storm shelter.

Quoted: I dug one 8'X8', 8 feet deep in my front yard for a storm shelter. Took about one winter, digging with pick and shovel. When I finished digging it, I leveled the bottom and dropped in a 1500-gallon plastic water tank. Makes a nice storm shelter, and the temperature stays at 58 degrees year-round. Mine gets a little water around the tank when it rains, but I made sure to contour the surface around it to divert the water away from it. Being on the top of a ridge helps keep the soil drained, too. I filled in the soil around the sides of the tank and covered the top with a bit of soil. The top is domed, so it's a bit stronger, but it's still not made to hold up much dirt. I made an internal framework from pipe(from an old jungle gym) to support the pressures from the sides and top. If I was doing it over, I'd probably put a separate cover over the top to support dirt. It's not a fighting position, but it'll do for a storm shelter.

Worthless without pics!!!

I didn't take any pictures while I was digging it, and now there's not much to see. I wanted to make sure it was low-profile when I finished, so it doesn't stand out too much now. I even planted some bamboo in front of it to help(I have bamboo planted in about a dozen spots around the yard, so one more doesn't stick out much.

Awesome!!! Gotta go get my shovel!

Cool Hole.

Cool "survival hole"

When I checked out the pictures I was thinking it was sort of a hybrid between a fighting position and a shelter. He doesn't mention anything about being in the Army, but if he had maybe he'd have started with a fighting position(AKA foxhole) instead.

Quoted: He didn't say anything about underground wires. In this day and age with cell towers everywhere, you have no clue where wires are run. I know back home, we have to call DIGGERS HOTLINE before we do any digging. If we hit a wire, and we didn't call, we pay for it. If we called, and hit something, we are off the hook for any damages, so long as we stayed within the area we said we were digging. It is free to call and have them come out to mark every wire, so there is no reason not to call. Gas lines as well, they have to be marked out so they are not hit. You may be VERY surprised at where you will find wires, and where they are run.

Good advice for sure, locating phone lines is part of my job. Another thing to remember is that private lines aren't located by these services, so don't hit the power/phone/water going to one of your own sheds after you call.

The HOLE, would have been better, if it was dug out with a back hoe, let's say  16' x 24' x  7 ' deep ....
, Then  Concrete floor & Walls were poured, then you could use steel for the above ground Frame &  Inch thick of Armored steel for the Hatch, about 3 feet of packed earth on top of it  & a  air filtration system & you go your self a hardened nuke bunker....maybe .

Quoted: I'm sorry that there is some funny shit! That guys gone off the deep end of survival lunacy.  I think he would have been better off building forts as a kid than as an adult.  If he had he may have learned holes tend to try fill themselves up, attract bugs/animals/insects, and fill with water.   I mean really a foxhole with shooting port complete with an extension cord from the house? I'm sure that was fun but it will soon be an useless eyesore in his backyard. Tj

It's YOU, isn't it?

Lighten up!
I don't think, (or at least I HOPE) no one here is taking this seriously.
I'm knocking on the half-century mark,and I STILL play in the dirt (but usually w/ a backhoe) It's FUN!

Sorry your inner child has gone.

Thats my plan when I win the lottery, but I might make it a tad larger, maybe  40' x 80'x 8' deep., complete with fresh water well, septic system & kohler generator..add weapons locker , food stores , communications equipment, solar power panels & boo koo Ammo. All reenforced concrete, built nowhere near a flood plain, on HIGH ground.

Yep, like said, after I win the Lottery.  HA ha