This is a guest post and entry in our non-fiction writing contest by SurvivorDan
This is the definition of a survivalist retreat according to Wikipedia.
“A retreat is a commonly used term for a place of refuge for those in the survivalist subculture or movement. Retreats are also sometimes called Bug-Out Locations. Survivalist retreats are intended to be self-sufficient, easily defended, and are generally located in lightly populated rural areas.”
In this article, I am referring to a retreat as the place wherever you opt to make your stand..…in the city,suburbs or rural areas. Your actual retreat may change by plan or by exigent circumstances at any time. I will be addressing only separate free-standing structures as apartments and condos have a whole host of other security concerns because of overlapping services, adjoining living spaces, common areas, etc. That circumstance would require a separate dedicated examination to do it justice.
Concealment and Misdirection:
The first and most passively protective technique is to be low profile. Make your house/cabin/trailer seems abandoned, run-down (nothing worth having here), decrepit and even downright unsanitary. Black ooze and dried blood on the outside comes to mind as does a quarantine/condemned sign.
In rural areas I would have heavily rutted dirt roads cratered with pits and littered with deadfalls and other debris positioned to slow vehicular entry to my retreat compound. Make them walk in or drive in slowly if they insist on trespassing. Plant thorny and dense plants in perimeter areas to deter intruders who are afoot and if necessary funnel them into the killing (last resort) zones you want them in.
Board up your windows and smudge the glass with a soapy film. Looks terribly unappealing, offers little intel and affords additional concealment and even a bit of cover. Make certain you have a way to make a visual check near the boarded windows. And as always, have contingency plans to deal with any attempts to breach your security.
If you have an old out building with little of value in it, make it look overly secured so scavengers focus on that building. Such structures and large gear may be booby-trapped to give off an alarm, injure or trap an intruder/robber.
Some suggest living somewhere other than the main obvious living structure on the property. It may seem a bit extreme but there is some merit to that during ‘interesting’ times. A section of the barn may be converted to living quarters. The underground storm or bomb shelter comes to mind. If your ‘residence’ is suddenly and violently attacked by evil-doers you will be in a better position to hide from them or counter-attack with the element of surprise.
Folks with bad intent who have the forethought to ‘case’ your property will pick up on patterns, routines.When you do things. Where you go to regularly. Whether you are apparently armed or not and when. Etc. So don’t be a creature of habit. Break up your routine. Leave the property in a different direction each time. Mix it up. Leave them wondering. Wave back at the house when you are leaving even if no one else is there. Give the evil doers little or bad intel.
An elevated water tank should be replaced with an underground cistern. A visible water tank just advertises for curious and desperate folks to come a calling. Hide any pipes and pumping mechanisms to ensure your cistern remains low profile.
Some suggest hiding all your stores in or under several decrepit outbuildings. If one gets discovered or you are forced to negotiate and surrender ‘all’ of your stores then you still have additional resources. If someone has to enter my retreat I want that person to see very little in terms of food, useful items or creature comforts. Let them let slip in conversation or purposely report to the wrong kind of people that I have very little worth taking.
I do not have external metal security doors as I believe that sends the wrong message. My new doors and hardware will take a battering ram to defeat. But the doors themselves are innocuous in appearance. They do not scream….security door, I-have-good-stuff-to-protect-door, etc. Low profile.
Make sure your breaker box is very secure and the meter covered if you are still on the grid. Don’t wantfolks seeing your electric meters running nor have them easily shut off your power. Likewise place any solar panels so they are low profile even if such placement does not give you maximum power output. More security for less power.
Use propane and other fuels for cooking that generate little smoke for obvious OpSec reasons. If you must use smoky fuels like wood, charcoal, etc. then cook just before dawn and right at dusk. Also use your driest fuels as they will put off less smoke. It is not just the sight but the smell of your fire that may draw the curious and desperate. If you must cook aromatic foods then do so only very late at night or on a rainy day as there are less tangos out and about at that time.
Bury all your refuse as an exposed garbage heap offers reams of information about what you have in your retreat. Bury all your human waste.Small footprint equals low profile.
If you have a running vehicle and fuel for it, make sure it doesn’t look too fancy. If you go into town complain about it what a worthless heap it is. Don’t forget to be low profile yourself.I can go in to town looking shabby chic with a brace of pistols hidden on me rather than sporting my tactical vest, Danner boots and my decked out AR-15.
Conceal your vehicle and limit access to it on your property. Make sure the vehicle has a solid bumper in case you have to push anything or intentionally hit anything/anyone with it. At close quarters a motor vehicle is far deadlier than any handgun you own. Even if you seldom drive it, always keep it fueled up and ready to go (and stocked with supplies. Your primary vehicle should be fully fueled, mechanically perfect and OpSec ugly.
Hardening:
What can we do to make our retreat more of a turtle’s shell than a banana slug’s skin?
Let’s start with the outside. Even if you are in the suburbs you can artfully arrange large boulders and logs (perimeter safety barriers) to prevent bad folks from ramming your dwelling. And don’t make the boulders too large. In fact, you should reduce the available cover around your property. Give yourself a clear field fire
Out here in the desert I recommend several medium size cholla (‘jumping’ cactus) or a bunch of catclaw in front of your windows. They offer little concealment but are the devil when you brush up against them. In other climes any low growing nasty thorny plants may be the ticket for this outside layer of window defense.
Solid doors are absolutely crucial and don’t neglect the hardware and beefing up the door jambs. A solid steel door is useless if the door frame splinters to one good kick. An internal hallway mounted steel mesh security door will greatly increase the defendability of your retreat. It stops or slows the intruders and creates that desirable choke point where you will have an advantage from your prepared defensive positions. It also gives you time to use a trapdoor or escape tunnel.
My friend has a wrought iron security door inside the front hallway. He has one off the kitchen hall as well. Any intruder breaching the outer doors is bottled up in my buddy’s kill zone. He has several prepared positions that offer cover as well as concealment even from rifle fire. The iron security doors create choke points. Therein await other noisy and nasty surprises. Gives my buddy time to employ other counter measures. Dreadful ones.
At first he had planned to install a mechanism to close off their exit and trap his intruders. {Ex-Rangers are a little nuts} I discouraged him from doing that as now injured and frightened intruders may fight furiously like trapped animals. Stop them, punish them but leave them an escape route (if they have survived your countermeasures). Let them go lick their wounds(bleed out) and dwell on the folly of their ways. I might want to kill every intruder attempting to violate my castle but I am aware that while one KIA means one less foe, one wounded usually takes at least two more enemies out of the fight as they must render 1st aid to the wounded or even evacuate him from the area.
Next there are the windows. I recommended boarding them up and I would add heavy curtains and wrought iron bars out of sight on the insides. Some will disagree, after all, what good is surviving the Collapse if you have to hide in the dark like a gopher forever? I get it. Find the level of window security that you are comfortable with. But you have to limit ingress by nefarious persons somehow. Booby trap and alarm your windows or get a pair of big pit bulls inside the house…fine. Just do something to limit easy window entry by tangos. If you choose not to board up your windows, have the materials you need cut and ready for when you have a warning of impending threats both from nature and aggressive persons.
I have heavy hardwood bookshelves adjacent to the windows. Provides better cover than most walls. I can push them in front of windows and brace them if necessary. And actual books on them are fair bullet stoppers. During a firefight, rounds may come through your walls and anything that slows or stops them is desirable.Speaking of incoming rounds, several pre-positioned 1st aid kits would be desirable.
Layering your defenses is the best course of action. One layer after the other until even the determined tango is advertising his presence by moaning in pain and cursing, or is discouraged and may be even stopped entirely. My ex-Ranger buddy puts nasty spiked strips inside, directly in front of all eight 1st floor windows every night and removes them in the morning. I have dogs to worry about and I am a bit bemused and absent-minded in the morning and would doubtless impale myself (while moaning in pain and cursing) so I have passed on the spike strips. For those that live alone and are very disciplined, you may want to lay out the spiked welcome mat during interesting times.
Alarms / Detection / Booby traps:
One of the best and oldest alarm systems used by mankind is the domesticated dog. It has been postulated that part of our rise to the top of the food chain and dominance on the planet is at least in part due to our long partnership with dogs. For countless millennia they have served as our early warning systems, carried and pulled burdens, hunted for us and fought alongside us in serious social situations. Their heightened sense of smell and hearing and their teeth make them an invaluable partner for defense of the retreat. Those of you with hunting dogs are doubly blessed.
I have seen others write that the protein requirement of dogs makes them unaffordable in a SHTF or EOTWAWKI situation. I respectfully disagree as the added security they offer offsets their food consumption. You don’t need a very large dog but only an alert and territorial one. I have a 6 lb mutt (the dominant dog) that patrols my house and challenges anyone who gets close. Granted, I have her sidekick, a 90 lb pitbull who’s very appearance alone can provide a deterrent effect like few other dogs.
But if I had to choose only one,I would keep the little dog. The pit is not very territorial and he seldom is alert to a possible intruder until the little one barks. And the little one eats very little. Though as dogs are non-obligate carnivores you can feed them a variety of other foods if little meat is available. For those of you who also have a rooster in the henhouse, they are another layer of your alarm system as are peacocks, ostriches, ornery goats, etc.
Obviously a good modern alarm system with motion sensors is ideal. I have one and it works well….while I still have electricity.
I am herein addressing mechanical/jerry-rigged and non-electrical alarm systems only. Firstly, my doors have bells hanging on them.I always hear them open and close. I can disable them if I need to leave undetected. Outside and inside the retreat one can run some 8 lb test line through eyelets and hang bells and cans to create a noisy greeting for intruders. A few well placed empty beer bottles can create quite a ruckus if disturbed in the night. You will have some false alarms but that comes with any alarm system. Calmly check out all triggered alarms. React butdon’t overreact.
Alarm systems and booby traps are limited only by your imagination and ingenuity. I’m sure all the hunters,trappers, LEOs and ex-combat arms types who visit this blog can offer us a plethora of creative devices to detect and deal with unwanted visitors.
I will therefore only suggest a couple of the more obvious and simple to construct and leave it up to the Wolfpack to present their own ‘recipes’ for the unannounced visitor who comes as a thief in the night.
Anyone who has made simple powered snares can rig a few trip wires in the weeds or behind any outbuildings. Rig the trip wires high enough that bunnies, chickens, dogs and such don’t trip them. When the power poles are released they vigorously wave some bells or pebble filled cans about alerting you to your ‘guest’. You can pre-site the poles without setting trip wires except during heightened security periods. There are a myriad of potential jerry-rigged alarms one can set up limited only by your imagination. The only wrong alarm system is the lack of any or one that you neglected to set. Get creative!
To detect whether any intruders have been scouting or ‘casing’ your property and dwelling, place some disturbance markers around your property including on your doors and windows to indicate if they are moved or disturbed. Such can include but not be limited to small pieces of tape, small twigs or stones strategically placed on or about doorways and windows on your residence and outbuildings anytime you are away or during the night.
Trackers such as those employed by the Border Patrol may drag a heavy ‘rake’ for miles along a dirt roadway to obliterate previous footprints and thus creating a ‘trap’ for fresh prints. You can accomplish the same around the perimeter of your property by dragging a piece of old chain link fencing behind a jeep or ATV.
If you live in the ‘burbs’ you can neatly rake the dirt,sand or gravel adjacent to your house in the pretext of tidiness while creating a smaller ‘trap’ for anyone prowling about your dwelling. Knowing that someone has been reconning your property can be an invaluable early warning. If you detect such signs, take counter measures. Plan. Prepare. Discourage the would be attackers/burglars. Beef up security.Harden up. The best fight is the one you can avoid be being pre-emptive.
Booby traps. My buddy has some deadly ones that he sets at night. I think the possibility of killing the wrong person or yourself for that matter negates the benefits of lethal traps. But I can see a need for multiplication of self-defense efforts over a larger area via booby traps. More efficient, just as many animal traps set to provide wide coverage are more efficient than you stalking and hunting as the snares can cover a larger area and work while you are engaged in activities other than standing watch over your retreat.
We may disagree but I will set less-than-lethal traps. I have an LEO/grandpa mindset and worry about accidentally strangling or skewering my grandchildren, a lost and confused stranger, my big pit bull or even myself. But that’s just me. If I rig a pig spike it will be sans spikes but give quite a wallop to an intruder. A deadfall will be painful and perhaps bone breaking in nature but not likely to kill a human.
A 12 gauge ‘pest control’booby trap will make a ruckus and fire pepper gas but have no shot. A powered snare will ruin your day and alert me to your presence but not drag you into a wall of punji stakes. And any such trap will be rigged with tin can noisemakers (pin flares?) in addition to the screams and/or curses of the ensnared of course. You people are so resourceful that there will be more booby traps designed than stars in the sky.
If you have no knowledge of how-to rig a booby trap, look up primitive powered snare construction on U-tube. Lots of videos to teach you the basic types of fixed snares and powered traps. (There are also videos on making VietCong style traps. Sadly, the VC were really good at it.)
As this is Mr Creekmore’s site and a subject that I believe he is knowledgable about, I will leave it up to him to recommend videos and books on snares and traps. This is a win/win activity for the uninitiated as it will teach them to build traps they can also use to acquire game with.
Once you experiment with and learn a few simple principles of trap building you can construct and modify booby traps using your own creativity. Make them deadly or not as you believe necessary. Your call. Your responsibility. Remember all traps intended to do harm to another person are illegal and you can be sued, jailed or both if someone gets hurt by your trap….
Escape Tunnels/Hidey Holes:
“Run away and live to fight another day.” That may stick in your craw but I recommend having an escape tunnel (steel culvert?) or at least a hidey hole. When your defenses are overwhelmed and all is lost then you and your loved ones should have a place to hide in or the means to escape from a determined assault on your retreat. Live to fight or survive another day. The plans for construction of a false wall,underground hidey hole or escape tunnel are to be found throughout the net.Choose a design that suits you and build it. Short of TEOTWAWKI, a undergroundhide may save you from a tornado or hurricane.
A tunnel may save you from a wildfire overtaking your home. At any rate, having such a back door or emergency shelter could only be a good thing.
Multiple Caches:
Don’t have all your survival supplies in one place. This is common sense in case of a fire or natural disaster and may not seem directly retreat security related. But what if you have to negotiate the surrender of your retreat to a superior force? Let them believe that you are giving up most or all of your supplies. But you will know that you have several hidden caches waiting. You can establish a new retreat elsewhere. Thus you avoided an all out apocalyptic battle. I know it would sting but an unnecessary desperate fight to the death would have been far worse.So multiple caching is also a good defensive tactic.
Weapons:
I recommend pre-positioning within your retreat as many weapons as possible. Bats, nine irons, hatchets, knives,swords {What! You don’t have swords?}, machetes then, staffs, compound bow, pepper spray dispensers, collapsible batons, crossbows,handguns, rifles, shotguns and ammo. You don’t have to make your home and property look like an arsenal. Hide them. Disguise them. Be creatively decorative.
Many situations after a Collapse will progress rapidly to or even start at a lethal level of force response in the absence of sufficient law enforcement. In such times, bad people get more stupid than usual and even ‘good’ folks can go crazy from fear. Behavior I witnessed at Katrina confirmed that weakness in human nature.
But there may be situations whereless-than-lethal weapons are called for. Use your own judgment but don’t deploythem without someone on overwatch with a firearm. I recommend personal size pepper spray, fogger pepper spray, taser (not touch stun guns), collapsible batons and bean bag or rubber projectiles fired from a 12 gauge. Also, I like to have sets of cuffs handy. If you don’t kill ‘em…..cuff ‘em.
Those who know my multiple gun-toting and shooting proclivities may be shocked at my assessment of what is the ideal retreat defense firearm. Use the long guns and pistols that you have at hand and are most familiar and competent with. We all have our favorite self-defense weaponry that suits us. A weapon is just a tool for me. I will use whatever tools that are at hand. The successful outcome in a fight is mainly determined by mindset and planning and not just by the size of the bore of one’s gun or the number of rounds expended. Out gunned? Adapt and overcome.
Use the old noodle and plan and scheme for the best outcome. I was taught long ago that the most powerful weapon you possess is not that .44 Magnum you carry or even that Barrett 82A1 50 BMG you sling. * The most powerful weapon you have is your mind. * If I use bad tactics and set up an ambush of a moving car with a crossfire from opposing 50 caliber machineguns, I am likely to kill my own gunners.
Instead, I drop a tree on the road and shoot my foes in the ear with a 10/22 while they stop to gawk at it. My point is that it is your planning, tactics and mindset that win the day. Not necessarily the large-caliber and powerful optics of your whiz-bang rifle. {Of course, I do love them whiz-bang rifles.}
I can’t teach the uninitiated military tactics in this one article nor do I feel qualified any longer to do so but there is plenty of instruction available from schools like Gunsite herein AZ. Get some training or train yourselves. There are books and teaching videos on small squad tactics available from Paladin Press (go through MD, of course) and other publishers of military books.
Before trouble comes you should have cleared cover from your property. ‘Uglied’ down and hardened up the retreat. Set up an early detection and warning system. Planned and rehearsed tactics with your companions for various what-if scenarios. Pre-positioned weapons, water, communications, binoculars and 1st aid kits.
Ranged your property and placed inconspicuous markers at set distances, ie 100, 150, 200 yards. Created fighting positions for yourselves and killing zones for the tangos. Booby traps placed and tactics rehearsed to drive or lure your attackers into them. Have audio and visual signals for changes in strategy (all good plans go to sh*t as soon as the bullets fly). Have a plan to retreat or hide if necessary.
You get the idea. Planning. Tactics. Practice. Weapons competency. Familiarity with many weapons (you may need to pick up and use an attacker’s weapon). Confidence in your abilities and plans. The willingness and commitment to act decisively without hesitation. Besides your mind, the best weapon is the one you have at hand and are capable with and willing to use.
Remember that you are not simply defending a survival retreat……it is your home.
{Notice I never mentioned the term ‘zombies’ even once?………Doh!}
This is an entry in our non-fiction writing contest where you could win:
First Prize) Winner will receive a Nomad – 1 Person Standard Survival Package courtesy of Shepherd Survival Supply, a One Month Food Pack courtesy of Augason Farms, a $150 gift certificate for Remington Ammo courtesy of LuckyGunner.com and a EcoZoom’s Versa Stove courtesy of EcoZoom stoves. A total prize value of over $875.
Second Prize) Winner will receive two (2) Rothco Sure Paks With Heater courtesy of Camping Survival, a Wise Food Vegetable bucket courtesy of LPC Survival and a Wonder Junior hand grain mill courtesy of Kitchen Kneads. A total prize value of over $509.
Third Prize) Winner will receive 3 – 27 Variety of Non Hybrid, Heirloom Non GMO Survival Seeds, 2 – Fruit Pack of Non Hybrid, Heirloom Non GMO Survival Seeds and 2- First Aid Kit with Sutures in a Waterproof Resealable Bag courtesy of Be Prepared Now. A total prize value of over $215.
Contest ends on March 30 2012.
Originally at: The Survivalist Blog dot Net Copyright © 2012 · All Rights Reserved
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