Rural defense

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Balrog

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I may be about to relocate to 100 acres of land, which is mixed timberland and agricultural land, of which I would build a house. The grounds for the house would be 5 to 10 acres. I would plan on fencing the acreage the house lies on. Its out in the country, and would be under the jurisdiction of the Sheriffs department. Not sure exactly what response time for law enforcement would be if there was a problem. I am thinking about how one would defend oneself there. Its not totally out in the boondocks, but it would definitely take a deputy 15 minutes to get there I would think.

A good dog or two, exterior lighting, fence around the part with the house on it would all be good ideas. Do any people in rural areas have any other ideas on how to harden up property out in the country?
 
We live pretty far out in the country on twenty acres of which 3/4 is fenced in. A Pitt Bull (check your homeowners insurance) and a Doberman. We board horses and one of our boarders got thrown. The response time for the ambulance was about 25 minutes.

We feel that the dogs are an excellent deterrent. Not that they are necessarily going to bite someone but rather their excellent senses can alert us to possible dangers.

We do have motion lights on the house. One great thing about moving to the country is the abundance of critters. The bad thing about the abundance of critters is they do an excellent job of triggering the motion lights. Skunks, bunny rabbits, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and deer to name a few.

Good neighbors are priceless as a deterrent.
 
I live in the country and spent a lot of years in rural law enforcement. Depending on the size of the county and the number of deputies, 20 minute response time is probably optimistic. I figured a minimum of 20 minutes to get back up and that was with the backup officer running lights and siren.

The same methods to harden your property that you use in urban areas work in the country. One thing you’ll pins useful is an alarm at the end of your driveway or road so you can tell when someone pulls in. This can be as simple as a pressure sensor like the hoses they used to put across the drives st gas stations to let the attendant know a customer was at the pumps to video devices.

Security lights are common and most power companies will make you a deal to mount one on your service pole.

My home defense weapon is my old patrol rifle, a Colt R6920 LE Carbine. I keep it cruiser ready. (Loaded magazine in the mag well, bolt forward on an empty chamber).
 
I live pretty rural and, like most remote living, you're very reliant on the benevolence of your fellow man unless you're able to really harden your house.

I have just over 60 acres. House on 4 acres of yard about 100 yards off a semi-quiet county road. I'm near the corner of 4 counties, probably 30 minutes response time for sheriffs office.

-Awareness
Dogs
Alarms
Cameras
Lights

-Defense
Door locks
Plan of action
Guns

Aside from that, I'm not building walls and moats. Can't do much about big windows and patio doors. What will be, will be. Hopefully I hear them coming.

Get good training. Keep your head on a swivel when you're home. Get good theft insurance for when you're not home.
 
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I've lived almost all of my life on a farm way out in the mountains of the rural South. While being prepared for a break in at night is a good idea, that sort of crime is rare. The most likely threat is going to be from someone simply knocking on your door, day or night, and sizing you up. If they don't sense any vulnerabilities, they'll most likely fade away with some kind of trivial excuse to explain why they came to your door, leaving you with nothing more than a bad taste in your mouth and perhaps a bit of suspicion, unless you have the bad luck of a truly desperate criminal stumbling upon your door step.

Put more bluntly, it's fine to sleep next to a rifle and a shotgun and be ready for anything, but all that preparedness is wasted if you assume that the stranger knocking on your door is a friend you haven't met.

By designing your own house, you can avoid the flaws inherent in many older homes where windows are situated in such a manner that the person answering the door is more exposed than the person knocking on it. The safest policy would be to ignore a person knocking on the door late at night, but I could have stock escaped out in the road, or it could be a neighbor or a family member in trouble, although, usually those people would know to call me first.

A flaw with much of modern architecture as well is too much glass. A person on the outside of a lighted home can see inside, but you can't see out.

An instinct I've seen displayed too often in rural people, especially new people, is the tendency, when something makes them nervous, to turn all of the lights on, and stand in front of them. Darkness is your friend. Use your lights for a specific purpose you can articulate and not to reduce your own tension.

From a public relations standpoint and as a matter of expense, I don't think I'd be interested in putting a fence around my house elaborate enough to hold off intruders. I'm running miles and miles of fence to hold in cattle and that's expensive enough. I've nothing against creating a fortress. I just think you'll be better off if your home doesn't look like a fortress.
 
Obviously, the responsibility of your security is yours. Counting (or praying) on a quick rural response from law enforcement is optimistic, they just can't be everywhere. Using measures like fences, dogs, dusk to dawn as well as motion activated lighting are good ideas. Deadbolts on all the doors, locked at all times, even when you are home. Things like keeping your garage door closed, (keeps the baddies from knowing who is home, and when) vehicles parked outside locked and devoid of valuables helps. Harbor freight has motion detector yard alarms for less than $20. They are effective. Firearms placed safely away from children in your home, at the ready, are a good precaution in any location. +1 on the AR platform, easy to shoot, accurate, and effective. If your family is new to firearms, getting some instruction is warranted. Cue friends and relatives to call or text before the arrive, so when the dog barks you know why... :thumbup:
 
I’m out of town a ways and figure on a 30 minute response time for the gov folks.
A sign warning of bees and several bee boxes and a sign warning of dogs on the premises has worked so far.
No bees in the boxes and I don’t own a dog. It might also help that my driveway is 1/4 mile long in the middle of the farm and you have to go past my dads house and my uncle is on the other side of the farm.
Over the years they sort of built a reputation and I’ve kinda kept it alive that if you show up unannounced, unwarranted or looking suspicious you might just see iron and be run off.
 
40-82 gives a lot of good advice. The biggest problem we have around here is people breaking into outbuildings an barns.

My son’s family stayed with us while he was deployed twice. Once to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. One of the first lessons I had to teach the grandkids was how to answer the door. They weren’t in housing at Ft Hood or Ft Riley any more. So they didn’t just run to the door and open it when the bell rang or someone knocked. You looked first and if it wasn’t someone you knew, you didn’t open the door.
 
I live rural, 34 years in the same house and 55 on the same 60 acres.

I don’t believe in fencing or anything that overtly says I’ve got something worth taking.

built my house with limiting access in mind but I believe the best thing I do is sit outside during the warm days, establishing my presence to those who drive by on the dirt road.
 
Before we moved where we live now we were robbed twice. During one robbery while we away our Doberman was shot and killed. Lost all my guns never to be recovered. We moved way out. I think this the best of all possible solutions. At least this has worked perfectly for us for 12 years now.

After the first time were robbed our lifestyle changed. Different attitude and different level of preparedness now.
 
People I know who live in rural areas and have been robbed often get burglarized more than once. My theory, confirmed at least once, was that neighbors were watching for them to leave and taking advantage of the situation once they knew the house was empty.

The one that was confirmed was when an acquaintance became suspicious when the burglaries kept happening when he was out of the house, even when he was out of the house at times different from his normal schedule or what a typical schedule would normally be. He caught a neighbor's teenage son in the house by setting up a situation where it looked like he had left but he stayed home.

For that kind of situation, I suppose a setup where it's hard for people to watch your comings and goings might be a good deal.
 
A camera system is cheap now days, they are wireless, battery powered and only turn on with motion which can be adjusted. Point one at the driveway to get plates, and one at the doorways. Signs stating that you are under surveillance would be good. You can get alerts to your phone with the camera system and can look through the cameras remotely from a smart phone if you are away.
 
Dogs are excellent, and can be multi-purpose tools, as they can serve as both audio early warning systems, and possibly as a "kinetic measure". Supposedly peacocks can do the same thing, but they come with other issues. Cameras around the house, along with trail cameras with solar cells covering key avenues of approach (driveway, etc.) that send an alert to a cell phone are also effective early warning, not to mention evidence-collecting tools. Motion- activated lighting is a good feature as well, but in the event of a power outage, cannot be relied upon, such as after a major storm. Regarding weaponry, the good old home defense handgun isn't as useful in your situation as a primary defensive option as it would be for someone in an apartment, nor would the over-rated shotgun in a fight with increased stand-off. For this application, some sort of rifle with a decent white light mounted and kept accessible would be the superior choice.
 
We've been in our rural residence twenty-four years with out problem. We take basic measures in regards to our safety/security. One asset happens to be a local paper printed once a week which has the County Sheriffs report in regards to criminal activity. We've undertaken certain preventative security measures that are prudent/reasonable.
 
Buy a semi auto rifle with a couple dozen hi-cap mags and a few thousand rounds of ammo......
I stick with standard capacity mags personally. Hi capacity drum mags and that sort of thing tend to have spotty reliability. I think that 28-30 rounds per mag will generally work fine for most situations. Train and get good at reloads. I'll leave the drums for turning money into noise on the range.
 
When we moved out to the sticks (80 acres, about 30 minute response time) about the only firearm related change I made was moving from an HD shotgun to an AR to extend range "just in case".

The AR has come in handy multiple times to deal with coyotes.

Other than that, we have dogs, dead bolts, alarm system, external lighting (that's manually activated). Most importantly I've got a great neighbor that's a full time farmer and keeps an eye on the place. For storage I had a safe room with vault door constructed under the garage. They can get in, but 1st the alarm, dogs, reinforced concrete etc.
 
I like just about every post on this thread... the only thing I'd add is - get to know your neighbors wherever you live out in the country. Some will be first rate and will become friends - others not so much. Make a point of helping out the good ones since they'll be your best for an early warning of trouble in your area. Good neighbors are your best defense when you're not at home, in my opinion....
 
I like just about every post on this thread... the only thing I'd add is - get to know your neighbors wherever you live out in the country. Some will be first rate and will become friends - others not so much. Make a point of helping out the good ones since they'll be your best for an early warning of trouble in your area. Good neighbors are your best defense when you're not at home, in my opinion....
I couldn't agree more and this would be good advice for city dwellers as well.
 
Between the bull with the sense of entitlement, the outside dogs and the inside dogs it would take a pretty determined burglar to get to our house. My hubby had the same concerns about the picture window out front and installed LED exterior lights on the theory if the light level was equal (or greater) outside the chance of casual "peepers" would be less. He also installed a switch on the cattle guard that alerts the house when someone pulls in the drive. But that's more to get the unknowing visitor past the 3/4 ton bull standing in front of the vehicle wanting his treat more than security.
 
Layers. Lights are a layer. Dogs are a layer. Like insulation, the more layers, the better it is.

Remember the joke about the guy asking "How are you going to outrun a bear?" The reply was
"I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun YOU." Make it difficult and complicated, and
most criminals looking for an easy score will go somewhere else.
 
Life in the country is slower and quieter. My dad has been living out in the middle of nowhere for a while. No fence. Some posted signs around the property. A dog not for security, but for company. That and a cat. Again for company. Guns, enough to fend off the occasional coyote, skunk, feral cat, red squirrel, and other pesky varmints. Doors get locked sometimes and other times not. Its quiet. A couple years ago someone made a nice pot field in the middle of the corn field. State Police took care of the harvest. A pistol under the pillow and one by the back door. Lighting is need to help locate and shoot the pesky varmints. Since most encounters happen after dark. So spots work well.
 
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I like just about every post on this thread... the only thing I'd add is - get to know your neighbors wherever you live out in the country. Some will be first rate and will become friends - others not so much.

Yes!

Soon after moving in, show up to your four closest neighbors bearing a thoughtful food gift, if your neighbors haven't already done so to welcome you. You'll very quickly know who's your friend and who's not.
 
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