"Buggin" In - Can you defend your place?

derek said:
If you think you can defend your home by yourself you are mistaken.
Click to expand...

Well, I think people can, but only to a certain degree. There are
a lot of variables at play, starting with the size and scope of
the disaster and going out from there. There's a big difference
between opportunistic looting (like the crap usually seen in the
gulf coast during hurricane season) and, say, a band of people who
are systematically trying to take other people's property for their
own camp/village/whatever. Once you have an organized force
attacking you, one would need a similar force to counteract
it. There's no real getting around that... that I can agree
with.

And WRT torching houses- that'd be more than likely at the
full blown "post-apocalypse reorganization" stage. To a typical
looter, burning a structure down is sort of counterintuitive, unless
their goal is to steal charcoal. There aren't too many things
that will survive a fire and still be worth something. Guns,
ammo, fuel, food, are all easily ruined by fires of even moderate
temperatures. They might, however, burn out people who
they consider a threat, but IMO they're more than likely just going
to skip that house and go to the next one... not worth the
effort.... at least until they start running out of sheep to kill off.

-Mike
 
Mikey said:
Yeah but you got to find him before you can shoot him...[wink]
Click to expand...

Very true, but the area where I live could be easily cordoned off from outsiders with multiple layers of defense. Most of the local neighbors here are well experienced hunters, shooters, and ex military. This would be the worst neighborhood for someone to plan on invading. Now if they had mortars or artillery, that might change things but in vehicles or on foot, they'd be toast.
 
derek said:
Yes overwhelming forces is great if you have it. But unless you have a MK19 and a 50 cal MG, it's hard to be that force when it's just you, the wife, and kids.
Click to expand...

Remember the movie "Stand by Me" when the older gang was threatening the young kids. Gordie, the kid with the gun fired a warning shot. The gang leader, Ace, says: "What are you going to do, shoot us all?" to which Gordie replies, "No, Ace, just you."

In a situation where your home is threatened, taking out a few BG's will do wonders for dispersing the crowd, and at least offer some time to escape to another location.
 
maybe you guys need more fire power???

maybe im naive???

i think if a mob of bad guys came knocking id be prepared...i have a few friends who id welcome over and who i know could handle themselves and help in the defense of the house...i also have have to think that anyone trying to kick in the front door...and whoever they had out front waiting to get in would be hard pressed to make it past drum mag after drum mag of 7.62x39 AP coming from my rpk...i would like to think that 75 rounds of sustained fire would be enough to eliminate any possible threats...maybe im wrong?
 
The whole point I'm trying to make about defending your home is this.

It's only going to be you and your family. Bad guys can come from any direction, any time of the day or night, and sheet rock won't stop rounds from coming in. And yes you can kill a few of them, but I tell you what if I was a BG and you killed my homie, I would come back when you least expected it and burn you to the ground... You have to sleep sometime.

Inch by inch, breath by breath... I will close in and kill my enemy.

Don't assume the BG's are all stupid street thugs, because they aren't.
 
My pup's would warn me of anyone within 75 ft of my house (as they do constantly). Problem is, I'm the only person in it that can handle a gun. I'm SCREWED! [crying]

Jr
 
I see 2 different types of bugging in.

The first is surviving a temporary event. Hurricane, ice storm, blizzard etc. If you have to defend your property in a situation like this it is most likely going to be against someone trying to steal your generator, gas, car etc. In most of those situations the threat of violence will most likely be enough to deter them. Here a think an individual can survive and protect his property.

In a true EOTWAWKI situation, the first question that has to be asked is what are you defending and why. If it is an event that is so large that it will never recover why stay? Can you grow food there? Heat it effieciently with a woodstove? Do you have the manpower to protect it as well as do all the other chores necessary for survival? If not then why stay. All the guns in the world wont feed you once you run out of grub. If you live in a neighborhood with several like minded folks then you might have a chance if you can get organized.

Dont underestimate your non-gun friends. Most of my friends all say "I am coming to your house" also. I gave them a list of what they had to bring if they show up. They laughed but it sparked a number of questions from a couple. The list was basic. Food, good clothing, bedding, toiletries. The least of my worries was firearms. Also try taking them to the range. If anything it might make them a little less uncomfortable around them.

As for food. Store what you eat. As others said things like MREs and MH meals are no good if your kids eat mac and cheese and chicken noodle soup. You can also stock up fairly quickly on this stuff by buying extra every time you go grocery shopping. Also get a good multivitamin.
 
derek said:
And yes you can kill a few of them, but I tell you what if I was a BG and you killed my homie, I would come back when you least expected it and burn you to the ground... You have to sleep sometime.

Inch by inch, breath by breath... I will close in and kill my enemy.

Don't assume the BG's are all stupid street thugs, because they aren't.
Click to expand...

Derek, why do I get the image of you slowly surfacing through some swamp water ala Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now" with a knife between your teeth?
 
PatMcD said:
Derek, why do I get the image of you slowly surfacing through some swamp water ala Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now" with a knife between your teeth?
Click to expand...

[laugh2]

But in the scenario of a SHTF (or worse), who from NES would be equated with Robert Duvall's "Apocalypse Now" character of "Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore", just walking through the chaotic war-time madness nonchalantly with complete confidence?
 
MrTwigg said:
Like others here, I have relatives who have seen my stores & presumed I'll open my doors and be handing out rifles and I can tell you, as I've told them, that's not going to happen.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry for you, Dennis, that you feel that way. If any of my relatives or friends who know where I live come knocking on my door, I'll do my damndest to shelter them. I don't invite people I don't like to my house... If my nephew, for example, made it out of NY and came here, I'd hold the door open. If I was worried about the zombies, I'd ask him if he's got the 10/22 I gave him yesterday. If not, his fiancee gets my 10/22 and Ben gets handed the M1 carbine... he can shoot it.

kevin9 said:
I figure I only need to make my place harder that the neighboring places until some measure of order is restored. In order to burn us out they have to get close enough to be able to do that. I have the family "manpower" to guard all the approaches: It would not be a walk-up job.
Click to expand...
Which is why my relatives and friends would be allowed in - I'd need more manpower.

LR308_GNR said:
Unfortunately, I am literally the only person within my network of family, friends and casual acquaintances, that owns firearms.
[snip]
Just about everyone I know is scared of guns, guns make them feel "Uncomfortable." Yet every damn one of them says "I know where I'm going when things get bad"
Click to expand...

Baby steps, friend, baby steps. Bring them to the range with a .22. Heck, I've been talking up the Appleseed shoots to my friends and it looks like we're going to have a mob at the next one! Slow and steady; ease back on the SHTF talk as it scares the sheep... and you need to slowly convert the sheep to sheepdogs.

Here's something you might want to ask them the next time you hear "I'm coming to your place when TSHTF": WHY? If you think that the only thing that is going to save you is a gun, why aren't you learning how to shoot NOW and getting one? A gun isn't meant to be comfortable, it's meant to be comforting - and having one when the zombies are closing definitely counts as a time when you need that comforting!

sksguns said:
the people on my street look like they'd help load their own posessions onto the looter's truck and then feed them before they leave asking them to stop in the next time they're in the neighborhood.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know the feeling. [hmmm]

Finalygotabeltfed said:
Very true, but the area where I live could be easily cordoned off from outsiders with multiple layers of defense.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, I live on a major road in town, and there's no way to cordon off the area. And there's no large fields of fire, either. I could defend my house with a Beretta Bobcat - I can hit a smaller than man-sized silhouette at 25 yards rapid fire with it, and that's about the distance from my house to the road. [sad2]
 
dwarven1 said:
I'm sorry for you, Dennis, that you feel that way. If any of my relatives or friends who know where I live come knocking on my door, I'll do my damndest to shelter them. I don't invite people I don't like to my house... If my nephew, for example, made it out of NY and came here, I'd hold the door open. If I was worried about the zombies, I'd ask him if he's got the 10/22 I gave him yesterday. If not, his fiancee gets my 10/22 and Ben gets handed the M1 carbine... he can shoot it.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not being a hard case here, I'm just being practical. I have friends I'd welcome in a heartbeat. But as for family, here's a little history...

What you don't know is every last one of them are either drunks or drug addicts who have been freeloading off me for decades.

Some people are lucky to have loving familes. I grew up in a, ...let's just call it a "dysfunctional" family. I dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Navy on my 18th birthday just to get away from them.

I got my GED in the Navy, which I hold to be my first "family". I also learned how to trust and depend on others while in the service. and managed to get a degree when I got out. I've done quite well for myself despite despite the crap my parents and siblings put me through.

Unless you've grown up in a house with dry drunk for a father and mother who wouldn't defend her children you would'nt know what I'm talking about.

Unless you've had a sibling murder your mother you wouldn't know what I've experienced.

My wife and I cared for both of her parents until her Mom passed away three years ago and we still care for her father. He unfortunatly, is in in the terminal stages of a neurological diease and we are watching him slip further away a little bit every day.

I learned more about how a "real" family is supposed to work from her parents than I did from mine.

Here at NES we have announced births, weddings, divorces, the passing of loved ones and days both good and bad for all to share. So yes, I even consider NES to be part of my "family" so I thought it appropriate to give you a bit of my personal history so you would understand my commentents.

At least I learned how to stand up for myself, to be responsibile for myself and others, and always willing to be held accountable for my own actions.

You want to be sorry for somebody, be sorry for my relatives, not me.
 
Last edited:
Many of you may not remember the 80's - red dawn, the Russians are coming, nuclear strike this - nuclear strike that....

I was born in Massachusetts, but was shipped off with my family to a little bedroom community in Northeast Ohio. Our house came complete with a bomb shelter. The steel industries, car industries and military industries made where I lived a ripe target. We used to watch "Duck and Cover" films at the Catholic school I went to every year.

My neighbor was a WWII tank commander who saw a lot and hated the Russians plenty. He put the bug in my ear early on about being prepared to defend your home in case of a disaster. Much of it I took with a grain of salt, but some of it stuck. One thing he said to me rings a bell when it comes to this topic: "You see all those people swimming in your pool?" "They're in your pool today but may be in your gun sights tomorrow". It seemed a little extreme - even then, but I think what George was trying to tell me was that in crazy times, people tend to do crazy things - especially when desperate. That person who you chit-chat over beers with about how much food you have and the preps you have made, may just the one who clips you when he and his kids are hungry during a disaster....Nobody thought they's eat people either.....
 
MrTwigg said:
I grew up in a, ...let's just call it a "dysfunctional" family.
[snip]
So yes, I even consider NES to be part of my "family" so I thought it appropriate to give you a bit of my personal history so you would understand my commentents.
Click to expand...

[shocked][shocked][shocked]

Pardon me while I remove my foot from my mouth here...

As I think I've mentioned in other posts, I do realize how lucky I am in my family... I don't even know what I can say to all that. I do, at least, understand now your posts, though.

Somewhat sobered,

Ross
 
I'd be screwed. I live in "oldtown Marblehead" whole streets have burned at once several times over the centuries here With a Fire Department. One house burning down the street and it's over if the Powers That Be are not working. But I have plenty of firepower & ammo , 2 very paranoid barkers , & 2 fwd vehicles , a good bug out kit - and a cabin Maine.

I'll "Bug-In" until the nightmare that I95 will be is settled and take the back roads North.

There's also been recurrent discussions of seizing one of the smaller islands here with a few well armed friends and changing profession to Viking.
 
P-14 said:
Gentlemen:

First, your job is to convince the people that want your house and possessions in dire times that it is not worth the cost approach your house. They will then go somewhere else.

During the Rodney King riots in LA, there was a report I read in NRA's Freedom First that one old man with a .22 rifle sat in a lawn chair at the entrance to his trailor park to protect the park. The angry crowd came down the main street, looked at the old man with the rifle and kept going! It wasn't worth it to attack the guy when there were undefended stores, etc. nearby.

Convince the opportunists during lawless times that it is wiser to go next door, than to approach your dwelling.

Bob
Click to expand...

Your thoughts are correct. Nobody is going to attack an armed house/neighborhood, when there are easier targets down the street. A few signs that say 'You Loot, we Shoot" posted near a few guys with rifles will clearly send that message.

I'm also a big fan of getting the neighborhood in on a plan. Wait for your opportunity (in my case it was bad flooding two years in a row, with a seven day power outage due to an ice storm) and while I ferried people to the Home Depot for generators we had a chance to talk about being prepared. Now all six houses in my neighborhood have back up generators, a week's worth of supplies and a communication plan. We actually used the coms plan last week when the school caught on fire to make sure all the kids got picked up and had a place to stay. We meet during big Patriot games (the wives just hang out and gab), but the infrastructure is there and I'm confident that we could manage (not easily, but manage nevertheless) most SHTF scenarios.
 
Last edited:
Biggest problem with a "Bug In" situation is that if you decide that it's getting too risky, Bugging Out might not be an option anymore.

My Bug-In would only be for a local incident. Mainly weather or localized terror thing. Something that we would likely see external support in a matter of weeks.

Larger than that and it's "head for the hills" time.

The trick is going to be figuring out as quickly as possible exactly what is happening.
 
Makes owning a little vacation cabin or a chunk of
land in the middle of nowhere even more appealing. Then
if one wants, they can default to "bug out" with the only limitation
being the logistics of moving people there. If it's a static location
one could have plans using multiple transportation methods, etc, and
just have a "pre cache" of supplies at the remote location.

-Mike
 
I plan on rounding up all the liberals in my neighborhood and chaining them up all around my house. In addition to providing a layer of protection around the structure their screaming will alert me whenever somebody is trying to attack the house. I haven't figured out how to get used to the whining yet though. [smile]
 
I know what I'm going to do, and I better get started soon:

Killdozer

Google it, not a bad idea if you have some extra equipment not being put to good use.....

I don't have a whole lot to worry about. We are out in the middle of NOWHERE, we look to be the poorest house in the "neighborhood" (<10 houses within 2 miles) and my neighbor/friend has a 6k square foot house on the top of 85 acres of hill with 200+ yards of low cut field in all directions, a lookout tower on his roof and Unimog. :D

Who wants to come on up to Royalston in the event of a TSHTF situation? We'll have a grand old time!
 

Similar threads

The Hedge Fund in Your Pantry...
Replies
27
Views
416
MisterHappy
MisterHappy
Water, what’s your plan?
2
Replies
39
Views
1K
MisterHappy
MisterHappy
investing in metals
Replies
22
Views
380
tinhorn
tinhorn
Always carry your gear - lost hunter found...
Replies
22
Views
1K
P-14
P-14
Sealing food in Mylar Bag Question
Replies
9
Views
391
samsonsjack07
S
Back
Top Bottom