This is a difficult article to write, because security is SO SITUATIONALLY-DEPENDENT!
Security for after SHTF will be completely different for somebody that lives far out in the countryside, compared to someone who lives in a small rural town, and then compared to somebody who lives in the city and in an apartment.
But let’s say there are roving marauder gangs that are actively hitting targets in your area, and you know that an attack will eventually come:
In a case like this, you can make your strongest defenses look weaker than what they really are; and make your weakest points of defenses look stronger than what they really are.
For instance: if you were in a prepper retreat location with a decent perimeter… then you could hide the fact that you have good fighting rifles to defend certain access points to your retreat. By making these strong defense-points appear weak, this is where your enemy would choose to attack. And then when they attack this area that they think is weak, then your group opens up with the effective fighting rifles.
And then if you are low on men that are capable of fighting, you can try to make it look like you have more fighters than you actually do. This again is very situationally dependent; but some ideas would be to have extra tents set up (to give the illusion of extra sleeping quarters), or using intercept-able radio traffic to give the illusion of extra men, etc.
But if a criminal group thinks that you’re a hard target to hit and that the gain may not be worth the losses they’ll suffer: then that that group has a higher likelihood of passing your area by to go find an easier target.
Also: while there’s always a time to be the ‘gray man’ where you don’t bring attention to yourself or your prepper group… there’s always the time to not be the gray man.
It’s always worth considering that sometimes showing your strength is a good DETERRENT to criminal groups that are picking and choosing their targets.
Now this can get expensive because a group that shows strength will usually use ‘uniformity’ and this can cost money in both gear and in training.
But to see a video where I discuss this in more detail, then click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWFzpVjsrzw
But there’s many tricks that a person can use to make their land more defend-able:
For instance, a person can use barbwire (or natural vegetation that’s thorny) to ‘funnel’ a trespasser or an attacker where the defender wants him to go. You can use obstacles like this to funnel a criminal into a booby-trap you have set up, or within range of your rifle.
And to see videos on how you can defend your property or your retreat location, then click here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQjbpeX3sEc&list=PLa2nLSRBPkgww6yTIdVnzvpeOXRXg24df&index=3
And entry points to your neighborhood will be very important to control in a total SHTF scenario. And I honestly believe that if the grid goes all the way down… and if it becomes a Without Rule of Law situation: that neighborhoods will band together for safety purposes. So to see a video on some ideas for an effective roadblock for after SHTF, then click here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJRBFci-V8
Now something that I like to utilize for security is solar-powered motion sensor lights.
Just imagine this:
You’re at your bug-out retreat location.
And you’ve used natural thorny vegetation or barbwire (or whatever) to cause any intruders to go to where you want them (into your kill-zone).
And it’s nighttime and it’s dark outside; and you’ve placed those motion-sensor solar-powered lights in those kill-zones.
You’re standing guard and watching and listening. But all you hear are the crickets and other nocturnal creatures.
Because it’s so dark, all you can do is listen for noises…. because you couldn’t afford the hundreds or thousands of dollars that night vision costs.
And while you’re keeping watch, suddenly one of those lights kick on and completely illuminates an intruder trying to enter into your retreat/bug-out location.
Now: if you place those lights to shine towards an incoming intruder instead of towards you or straight down… it’ll temporarily blind the intruder and have little-to-no effect on you.
And this will give you the advantage to protect your bug-out location. While the intruder is tripping and stumbling because he’s blinded, you can do what needs to be done to mitigate that threat.
And if you're interested in some of those solar powered motion lights, here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HQGK23J/?ref=exp_ethicalpreparedness_dp_vv_d
So there are a TON of tactics that you can research and find on the internet. So the best thing to do is to try to figure out where you’ll end up at after SHTF… and then figure out the lay-out of your area, and then research which tactics will work best for you in that specific situation.
Now there’s a lot of debate about the best types of guns and how much ammo a prepper should have.
For me, I like having:
*at least one fighting rifle (with spare parts) such as an AR15 or an AK47
*a shotgun with different types of shells (such as 00 buck & deer slugs, etc.)
*a good scoped rifle that will reach some distance accurately
*a good 22 caliber rifle
*and a solid handgun that shoots a common round such as 9mm or 45 caliber
And I like to have 3,000 rounds per fighting rifle;
And about 1,000 rounds for my handgun;
And at least 500 shells for my shotgun (of various types)
And at least 500 shells for my scoped rifle;
And just thousands and thousands of rounds for my 22 rifle.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying this is the amount of ammo that YOU should have. Those numbers are what makes me comfortable.
You may believe that you don’t need that many rounds for after SHTF; while somebody else may believe my numbers are way too low.
But one thing to consider is: unless a person is a millionaire that’s been able to afford to purchase hundreds of acres and has it fortified… chances are that if it gets that bad after SHTF where you’re regularly getting into gunfights, then you’re probably going to have to move/change to a different location.
And if a person has hundreds of thousands of rounds, then they’re probably not going to be able to move all of that ammo when they have to leave.
So a person always has to consider that if they have hundreds of thousands of rounds… that there’s always a good chance they may have to leave them behind where they end up getting used by someone else.
Also, one has to really think about how many firefights they can get into and actually survive.
When rounds are being fired, eventually one is going to find you.
Even if the round doesn’t kill you immediately, after SHTF the infection probably will.
So I think preppers need to be realistic about thinking they’ll be getting into firefights every day and keep continuing to live to see another day.
So something to really consider here is: if you expect to get into firefights on a regular basis… then you need to plan to be at a different location when SHTF hits… at a location where you won’t be getting into a firefight every day.
Simply put: a prepper who gets into regular firefights will have a very short life-span after SHTF… no matter how well he’s trained.
So a buddy of mine who was a marine and who served in Afghanistan, he advised that in the typical firefight they had against the Taliban that each team-member would expend approximately 100 rounds.
Now, these were a group of US soldiers going up against a group of Taliban… and not a “full army” of soldiers storming a heavily-defended beach like in WWII. And my thoughts are that rounds that are fired in self-defense after SHTF will mostly be from one prepper defending himself against a criminal or two; or from a group of preppers defending themselves against a group of marauders (and not large armies).
So at having 3,000 rounds for my fighting rifle, this would give me about 30 gunfights against a band of marauders (of course I would be with my prepping group and they would have their own ammo).
And I’m not stupid. I would not allow myself to remain in an area where I’d end up getting into 30 firefights.
So hopefully this article gives you a few tips of what kind of firearms you’d like to have; along with an approximately number of rounds you’d to have for each firearm; and also give you some idea of some tactics that you can possibly utilize for the area that you believe that you’ll end up in after SHTF.
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