Rural Defense

[Ozarks]

I've tried searching and not found much...

Anyway, I live out in the country where minimum LE response time is maybe 20 minutes, if they can make it through a solar gate about 1/4 mile from the house. There is really only one way into the property since coming in the back way requires serious off-roading for maybe 1.5 miles. My nearest two neighbors are just over half a mile away.

So any tips for self defense for rural living by oneself?

 

[woof]

That sounds like where I am. I think living here is the best self-defense there is. But in addition I have dogs, floodlights and a few firearms.

 

[seeds76]

like woof said, get dogs. it's your best bet for a warning system. you have too much area to cover by your lonesome. so get two dogs and flood lights. you didn't mention firearms. do you have any? shotgun, rifle, handguns?

 

[Mr_Rogers]

Exactly the same problem.

Without getting neurotic start at the edges of your property and assess the possible routes an invader could take to enter your property considering time of day and difficulty. You will then be better able to close off weak points and concentrate your attention on the approved accesses. I planted Hawthorn hedges that grow well around here. Birds love the berries.

Floodlights, dogs, gates, firearms, locks. Great.

This situation creates a decision problem because if anyone knocks on your door at night can you credibly believe it is an innocent visitor? This is especially so in my case because, if someone breaks down on the highway that my drive leads to, there are many more inviting places to seek help than walking up my long dark drive.

 

[mr.trooper]

Making it impossible to get in is impossible. What I would focus on it making it very difficult to get OUT with anything of value.

Put a 6' chain link fence around your back and side yards. a shorter, less imposing one around the front. put some dogs inside; little yippy ones will make more noise, and eat a LOT less food.

Go to Walmart and put one of those cheap deer-hunting trail cams along your drive, aimed at the license plate.

Other than that, it sounds like you don't have to worry about your neighbors, so an AK-47 with a 75 round drum couldn't hurt.

 

[Grizfire]

Let me think here......oh, you could get a gun?

 

[TallPine]

This situation creates a decision problem because if anyone knocks on your door at night can you credibly believe it is an innocent visitor?

All unexpected visitors to our house are considered dangerous unless/until they are identified - night or day.

 

[Ozarks]

I've got guns.

I damn near always carry, too. I often have an AR 15 along also.

Mr_Rogers
Exactly the same problem.

Without getting neurotic start at the edges of your property and assess the possible routes an invader could take to enter your property considering time of day and difficulty. You will then be better able to close off weak points and concentrate your attention on the approved accesses. I planted Hawthorn hedges that grow well around here. Birds love the berries.

Floodlights, dogs, gates, firearms, locks. Great.

This situation creates a decision problem because if anyone knocks on your door at night can you credibly believe it is an innocent visitor? This is especially so in my case because, if someone breaks down on the highway that my drive leads to, there are many more inviting places to seek help than walking up my long dark drive.

I can identify. At my place, it's maybe 1/2 mile out into the woods after the end of the gravel access road. Then one comes to an unmarked solar gate. Nothing is visible from there except more woods. It is then over a rise and another 1/4 mile to the house. This is in the Ozark Mountains, btw, and guns are quite common here. There is very little reason for anyone to knock on a door around here.

 

[dmftoy1]

+1 on the dogs. We've got a couple of golden retrievers (not the most vicious breed. ) but you'd be amazed at how territorial they become and they make people think twice. (especially urban youths . .who for some reason are afraid of dogs more than the local variety) They also have much better hearing at night and sleep lighter than I do so they make a great alarm system. (Ours sleep inside)

 

[sacp81170a]

I grew up in Madison County in northwest Arkansas, very rural setting. One caution on the dogs: if your neighbors have cattle, be very careful to train the dogs not to run them. I've seen neighbors almost come to blows over dogs running cattle. I agree with those who say to put up a big fence around a large area and allow the dogs to roam there if you can't be with them all the time. BTW, the guy whose dog was running other people's cattle put it down himself once it was proven that it was his dog doing it. Sad, but cows are worth much more than dogs.

 

[TallPine]

If it wasn't so expensive and inconvenient for things like plowing snow in the winter, I would put up a chain link fence around about an acre around our house/garage, and run some wolves loose in there.

If someone came without calling first, they could just sit outside the gate and honk

As it is, I'm thinking about putting a gate down by the county road and closing it at least at night.

 

[Nate C.]

+1 on dogs as an early warning for vehicles and pedestrians. Maybe a camera and motion sensor on your gate, but that might be expensive given the distance. Creative landscaping can conceivably channel vehicle traffic down to chokepoints where you want them. Exterior lighting.

Claymores?

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

well thought out lights work for me if i light em all its like a prison yard no shadows near house

 

[Superpsy]

This guy comes to mind after reading some responses.

 

[rrruuunnn]

i have night scope, haven't used it much. maybe night surveilance cameras. outside motion sensors?

 

[buck00]

Floodlights, dogs, gates, firearms, locks

You absolutely want to approach this with an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" mentality.

Criminals generally seek easy prey and easy targets. If some perps cruise up your road and find a quiet, dark house, they are going to grow bold... regardless if you have enough firepower inside to equip a platoon. The idea is not to get into a firefight in the first place.

If the same perps approach the house and suddenly there are German Shepherds barking and blinding pale light illuminating the whole yard like Giants Stadium, trust me, the psychological deterrent alone is going to win the battle. I would go one better- have the flood lights attached to motion sensors.

Unless you are worried about offending neighbors, a blunt sign might set the proper atmosphere:

 

[springmom]

Dogs, certainly. And I'm maybe missing something, but is there some reason you feel you cannot lock your gate at night?

We have a couple of cows on our property, and we only secure it by a chain and a caribener (sp?) but we could just as easily put a padlock on it if we wished.

RE: lights.... well, it's your choice, but we bought our property to get RID of light pollution, not create a bunch more of it. You could have lights that are rigged to motion detectors easily enough; and if the dogs are trained, they'll wake up when the lights come on and "welcome" whoever's coming.

That said, I gotta say: out on our ranch is the one place I do *not* worry about a home invasion. Not saying crime doesn't happen in rural America, I know it does; but you might be best served by doing an objective assessment of what kind of threat you think you are at all likely to encounter, and matching your response to that. I go out there by myself and am never afraid. I do take my dog, and I do lock my door; and obviously I'm armed (but then, I'm always armed, so that is nothing new). Beyond that, I sit and enjoy the bird song and the frogs in the pond

Springmom

 

[icebones]

nah, everybody within earshot must think i have an asenal or weapons, cause i usually shoot at least 100 rounds every day.
when i run into neighbors at the gas station or store, they usually say "hey, your that dude thats always shootin aint ya?"

that much gunfire coming from a house, and people know not to mess with it. especially true, cause some not too law-abiding people (bootlegers) live just down the road.

the only crime ive really heard of in my area is theft, and break-ins. some punks from the town need some cash and decide to make off with some tools, and anything they can carry. its never happened to me (thankfully) but i still keep any tools, farm equipment and 4 wheelers out of sight and locked in the barn.

a couple of dogs would take care of that.

my location bar says enough: the less people that know where you live, the better. its a one lane road and a dead end, so the only people that dive on it is people who live on the road, and occasionally some woman will get lost and need directions.

unfortunately, the bootleger has caused A LOT of traffic especailly on weekends and at night.
i have a bucket full of side-view mirrors, and one passenger side quartel panel form a dodge neon, people have knocked off hitting our mailbox during their midnight beer-runs
karma at work maybe?

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

i agree mom about light pollution i use radio controlled switches so i can fire em up by areas from several different points upstairs downstairs and out by barn

 

[DFW1911]

I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Texas on a bunch of land. Our defense strategy has already been stated:

Floodlights, dogs, gates, firearms, locks. Great.

It worked pretty good, but some guys managed to get up to the gate by the house - one of whom was carrying a crowbar. I was upstairs and my younger brother came running shout "get a shotgun, get a shotgun, we're about to be robbed!"

So I did (as did he) and we weren't (robbed)

BTW, the Sheriff's response time was nearly an hour.

Take care,
DFW1911

 

[BullpupBen]

If I were serious about self-defense and lived without any neighbors too close here would be how I'd do it:

1. Dogs to warn of invaders
2. Shotgun in bedroom if they enter your house and its too dark and your too groggy to aim well
3. Pistol-caliber carbine in .40 if you have time to get awake and prepare to face the threat:
-low recoil for good follow up shots
-bullets wont go forever and hence hit someone far away (hey you never know, any rifle round will still be in flight and have some power to it at 1/2 mile and more)
-probably more stopping power than a .223
-very low muzzle flash and low noise, less eye/ear damage

Also that "no trespassing.. survivors will be shot again" will put a healthy dose of fear into any criminal, provided he actually reads it

 

[mbt2001]

I don't know how your property is set up, but lets assume that you live in 30 acres or so. If you live on 5 or so you can adapt this technique the same way. Try to give yourself a 3+ acre DMZ.

I would clear cut (leave only trees) about 3-4 acres (square) aroung the house and put a fence about 1 acre around the house (smaller white picket fence is fine, whatever floats your boat here). Mount motion lights around the house and have regular lights mounted in the trees interspered through your DMZ. You can then throw the switch and light up the whole area. The DMZ is the buffer between your 1 acre fence and the area you didn't cut. Make sure they are pointed at the ground and can light up most of the floor area that you clear cut. This takes cover away from the bad guys and just like any other animal, bad guys want "cover".

Get some dogs. Labs, Pointers, Cowdogs are find for this, something that will bark. Feel free to get something else, but never train a "security dog" to be aggressive, not unless you are loaded and if you are, hire a security expert and quit getting freebee's from us.

I second BullpupBen on the pistol caliber carbine or carbine advice. 30-30 would work nicely here and they are pretty "lawyer" friendly. Also, get a pistol, holster, belt, flashlight rig so that you have it all together and some clothes by your bed.

There are driveway alarms that you can get, they just go off (like a ding ding ding) when someone comes up the drive. I would also get a video camera system, put camera's (night / day capable) at the front gate, put them also around the house, garage and what not.

With all of the above, you should be secure against hooligans.

Don't deactivate or bar your gate. It needs to open or God Forbid, what if you want to get out or the police, fire dept or medics need to get in... One strategy I have seen employed is to lose the gate in favor of a cattle guard and purposefully let the brush and trees and grass grow up around the entrance... That makes it tougher to see, easier to miss, easier to notice someone "searching / probing" for the entrance and makes you a little less of a target of opportunity. When people see a gate, the first thing they do is wonder, "what's back there?".

Don't forget, they may cut your phone line, so Cell phone or a CB base station to channel 9 or something would be a good idea...

The below photo might give you an idea... and no, this isn't my crib... Would be nice though.

 

[Gunsby_Blazen]

Like the guys said, get some dogs, BIG MEAN ONES. And your shotgun, rifle, and four wheel drive should be able to take care of the rest...

The guys who posted above me seemed to have covered all bases on this one.
Some big bright lights wouldn't be a bad idea... and shotguns scare off most people.

 

[sarge83]

Same situation here, long response time to LEO.

Flood lights, dogs (Irish setter and a Jack Russell), not the most aggressive but they let me know when something is around. Security system, keep things locked down, woods are cut back away from the house giving us a good view and the motion lights come on catching anything coming into the yard. Phone lines run into the house under ground so no accessing them to cut them from the outside. Gun safe bolted in with easy access to a SKS, .12 gauge or a .357. The only neighbor is my wifes mother so we keep an eye on each others places.

There is no perfect defense, just layers of defense to slow a hobgobblin down.

 

[mbt2001]

There is no perfect defense, just layers of defense to slow a hobgobblin down.

Time, space, cover, concealment... Those things mean something. The key in working from a defensive posture is to make those things work for you. Have several layers. You have to approach it like a war.

The surviellance system, drive way alarm are your intel guys. The flood lights are your scouts the dogs are your light infantry. The battle field needs to be prepared so that you can negotiate it with maximum effectiveness, but it produces maximum problems to "Charlie". If you can use space to maximize time, then criminals will instinctively pick another location. The lions eat the old, the sick, the slow before they every try to eat the Breeding male....