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Old September 15, 2010, 10:50 PM   #1
cdutton
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Practical practice.

Out of curiosity, how many of us have actually cleared our homes over a potential threat? Let's have some learning stories.

What time of day was it? How many rooms? Were you stealthy or dynamic?
What firearm and/or accessories did you use?
Was there a confrontation?
What were your in-place defenses? Do you have barricades set up in your home?

I'll start.

When I was eighteen, around three a.m. in the morning, in a real nice suburb, my mother calls me from her bedroom. Says she heard a bang so loud that she thought someone had kicked in the garage entry downstairs. I grabbed my K-bar (all I had in my room), made my way to her room, and was handed Dad's Glock 27 and a Pelican LED flashlight.

I took both of my dogs and cleared seven rooms, sending the dogs in first, then button hooking in the doorway and checking corners.

All of this in my boxers.

Turns out a tree limb had fallen from the neighbor's oak tree and hit the side of the house.

Still pretty hair raising. Talk about pucker factor.
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Old September 15, 2010, 11:28 PM   #2
TheGoldenState
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A few times. Once the dog (sch III for you dog trainers out there) jumped up and BOLTED from inside the house into the garage and out the back door out into the back and jumping/lunging at the gate. This was late around 12:30 pm. I believe someone saw all the open doors, and was walking in when doggy spotted and gave chase. I always am up late and windows/doors are usually unlocked until bed.

First time was when i was 18. Im in my room my dad is in his (upstairs of a fairly large two story house). Very loud crashing noise and some ruffling at 3am. Very unusual and profound. I get up walk into the hall to see if pops was up and was the source, he was coming out of his room at the same time to check vice versa. Dad was coming fresh off a semi-major surgery at the time and in no condition to do anything, so without question i went to my room and grabbed my SW MP .40 with light/laser that is in my nightstand drawer, and proceeded to clear the house. Definitely a hair raising, adrenaline pumping experience. I was going over everything i had learned over the years in my head-especially the "dont just shoot at the dight of someone/something" one. After going thru and clearing the kitchen and living i get to the spare room where i found the culprit. A large custom made shelf had fallen from a good height, and everything on it came crashing down and onto other miscellaneous things creating quite the ruckus.

Ever since i can remember ive been shooting and readily in access to a gun. My brother and i were often home alone growing up (well babysisters ceased around 12) in a single parent home with father as an LEO. What were to happen if i was 14/15/16/17 and used one of pops guns in defense of say a home invasion? Are there stories of young kids using their parents arms? Glad it never happened but i think back and go wow i was sure entrusted with alot of responsibility, trust, as well as wisdom and means to protect myself.
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Old September 16, 2010, 07:27 AM   #3
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I've done this several times - always seems to be about 3:00 am. I have a little routine I do - 1) grab my gun; 2) listen; 3) verify location of family members; 4) go and search the house, slowly listening and checking each room in a particular order. I have a long one story house, so I don't have to contend with stairs - once I clear the are where the bedrooms are, then that is my "safe zone" to retreat if I need to. Thankfully, I've never encountered an actual intruder.
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Old September 16, 2010, 04:37 PM   #4
woodguru
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Well, I know this isn't the macho excercise we'd all like to think we'd do, but it's what I did once. We lived in a rural sparsely populated acreage area.

Things weren't right when I walked in the door, I backed out, told my wife to call the police dept and tell them we had a possible intruder. I went around the back where I could see exit points and told Jeanne to tell the cops when they got there I was watching the back with a gun so I didn't get shot. The basement door was open a few inches which was not right.

I let the police use a canine unit that was on the way and they cleared the house much more safely and effectively than I could as they checked places you wouldn't look. I did not feel the least bit wimpy letting the police do what they do so well.

That week I had a very very sophisticated alarm system installed. Our exposure was higher than normal because I was running a high end stereo business out of the house and had $400k in demo items on display. I am now doing something else as the exposure to robbery and other invasions wasn't worth it to us.

I've gotta add this just because it's funny. When I was a teenager I was in the house alone and had just come home. I heard a loud noise in the back bedroom of a five bedroom house. I grabbed my dad's military .45, racked a shell, and went back through the hallway to the back bedrooms to "clear" them. I edge into the little L hallway to my sister's room and just about had a heart attack when I saw a man shaped outline to one side around the corner. I whipped the gun up and came a split second to blowing away a perfectly innocent mobile that had all these little moving shapes. I'd have never lived it down had I capped that monile.

Before being too harsh on me I was only fifteen or sixteen and it was a fundamentally important lesson I learned there all on my own.

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Old September 16, 2010, 10:10 PM   #5
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In civilian life, the nearest was when I was awakened one night by someone hollering, "Help, . . . Help me". I got up on one elbow and heard it again, from what sounded like the front yard (600 feet deep x 680 wide) and was a male voice, . . . sounded like he was in trouble.

I immediately sent my wife upstairs for my son, . . . I called 911, . . . we dressed, . . . grabbed loaded shotguns, . . . and handguns, . . . high powered spotlights, . . . and went outside, . . . staying together, . . . never more than 20 feet apart, . . . and searched our whole 10 acres before the sheriff deputy got there.

Turned out to be a prank by a drunk in the back of a pickup, . . . but there was no way I was going outside by myself at 2:30 in a pitch black night.

May God bless,
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Old September 16, 2010, 10:21 PM   #6
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Turned out to be a prank by a drunk in the back of a pickup,
worst prank ever?
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Old September 16, 2010, 10:36 PM   #7
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First clearing your home.... bad idea

Just from a tactical standpoint - you would be a loser to clear your home.

Clearing a home takes a "team" - you by yourself does not make a team. Nor you and your mom or sister.

If you have an intruder - get to safety with your loved ones and hold tight once you call 911. If the intruder is dumb enough to enter... do what you have to do.

If you don't think clearing is a dumb idea. Have someone hide in your home with an airsoft pellet gun and shoot you. 8/10 you'll lose!

Just another way to think about... something banging in the middle of the night.

You do have to tailor your response to your situation (family, little ones in other parts of the house, etc). Also the size and location of your home is a factor.
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Old September 16, 2010, 10:40 PM   #8
TheGoldenState
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Quote:
If you have an intruder - get to safety with your loved ones and hold tight once you call 911. If the intruder is dumb enough to enter... do what you have to do.
Agreed its not the best choice, but are you supposed to call the police to clear your house every time a shelf falls in the night, or a loud noise, or barking dogs, etc.?? Certainly ignoring "it" isnt a good idea either. Sometime ya got to do what ya got to do.
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Old September 16, 2010, 10:54 PM   #9
cdutton
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I gotta agree with TheGoldenState. Crying wolf is only going to bring more trouble, not to mention the possibility of broken doors and dirty floors after a bunch of bored, gung-ho LEO's get some action

And also, this is why I have dogs. As much as I love them, they go into every doorway ahead of me. I'm only double-checking their work.
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Old September 17, 2010, 12:32 AM   #10
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Quote:
Just from a tactical standpoint - you would be a loser to clear your home.
NOPE:

It's my house, its up to me to protect it. I got a series of bomb threats one time. I sent the wife and kids out of state. Every night I came home I did a sweep until we caught the guy. I'm not calling other cops to search my house. Same thing when I got burglarized. I did the sweep.

I did it for a living at other houses and businesses, why should I call someone for my own house. And we didn't have swat to do our building searches, we did them, mostly alone.

Anyone that has to call for help better not start out.
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Old September 17, 2010, 02:38 PM   #11
MikeNice81
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Just from a tactical standpoint - you would be a loser to clear your home.

Clearing a home takes a "team"
My kid's room is on the opposite end of the house. I wouldn't have the option of hunkering down. More importantly I would not want to. A person has no right to enter my house with out my permission.

More importantly if they do they know I am home. So to me that means they are willing to do harm. In that situation keeping them away from my family is first priority. I am not hiding and hoping they decide to only take my belongings.
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Old September 17, 2010, 03:03 PM   #12
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About 2 years ago I woke up to my dog going ape by the hallway closet. This was out of charactor for my Blue heeler to do. He does not bark unless someone is either at the gate, or in the yard. So I grabbed my .45 and head to find out what it was. I had to put my dog in my room. By this time one of my 2 roomies is there asking what the heck is going on. My thoughts were there was probably either a rat, or a snake in the closet. Well I slowly opened the closet standing back a bit. Nothing on the floor. On the topshelf there was a ferret with a pink collar. She was quite friendly actualy. Turns out she was the neighbors pet, and a better escape artist than Houdini.
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Old September 17, 2010, 06:47 PM   #13
raimius
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Anyone that has to call for help better not start out.
That is one of the dumber things I've read here in a long time.

There is a reason why teams are highly preferred, and why most teams practice a lot. Since you did this sort of thing for a living, you have a lot more experience than most. You should know how iffy room clearing can be!

Obviously, the situation should dictate the response. Hearing an intruder may reasonably be handled differently than hearing "something." I don't see a problem with investigating odd noises, if you really don't know what it is. If you hear someone breaking in, you should assume a defensive posture. IMO, room clearing isn't a sound defensive reaction. (Granted, some cases will be different i.e. getting to children.)
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Old September 17, 2010, 07:16 PM   #14
oldkim
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I think.... you are losing perspective

So, playing out these scenarios:

You hear a noise. You turn on the lights or not (I don't care) as that topic has been argued too. For most situations turning on the lights is preferred as you just woke up and it can better orient yourself. Most thieves are after "soft" targets - meaning easy hassle free opportunities to make money to feed whatever habit they may have.

So, again you have to "tailor" your response to your living situation (size of home, location of rooms, upstair/downstairs and all that). I do not have any kids. So, that's easy for me.

Just a noise? Sure? You hear voices? Yell out and let them know you have a gun and you are calling police.

Change situation: you just hear your daughter screaming! Well... enough said.

All these scenarios have variables that change with the situation and during the event - you do not know what's going on. You have to decide (again on what is going on and your living situation) what to do.

Scenario: you hear the back door being kicked in.
Best advice is hunker down. Get your protection (hopefully a firearm) and call 911. Yell out - try to scare them out. If they enter - do what needs to be done to protect yourself. Let them come to you. It's tactically the best option for these cases. Also clear cut for self defense.

If you live in an apartment or if you live far off in some secluded part of town or country on some farm. All these factors into what you need to do to protect yourself.

If you are definitely sure there is a "home invasion" type of case. Hunker down as there are usually more than 1 perp. Clearing a home in these scenarios is a losing proposition.

Property can be replaced but either getting harmed and/or killing someone will be with you for the rest of your life.

It's not worth it.
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Old September 18, 2010, 02:12 PM   #15
woodguru
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There's hearing a noise, and there's knowing someone is in the house. I secure the bedroom area, meaning I have my wife drop to the far side of the bed away from the door. I sit behind the edge of the bed with my arms pointing a gun at the door. All I care about is not getting me or my wife shot. Either someone in the house wants me specifically with harm in mind, or they want something in the house, I'm worried about the ones that want me, if someone tries to come through a locked bedroom door to where you obviously are they are by definition dead men walking.

I have kept large amounts of money and valuables in my home in a business capacity and that has it's very real risks.

After putting a very sophisticated alarm system in the house I started sleeping better than I ever have in my life. It has zones with heat and motion detectors and the most important zone in my mind is the one covering the hallway to my bedroom. I wake up alert and sharp so the alarm system going off is all I need to have the door covered. We have not yet had a false alarm except for the kind where I forgot to disarm the system in the morning, the bells will wake the dead they are so loud. We are rural so it is legal to use an alarm that is so loud you can't use them in the city area proper. Setting it off by forgetting to disarm is something that only happens once, it'll make you pee your pants it's so loud.

For those who have reason to worry about the possibility of a home invasion alarm systems have gotten amazingly affordable. Basic effective models can be done for under a grand. I have a separate little unit that had 4 motion/heat detectors that are wireless to the base unit. The four sensors can be put anywhere you want inside or outside. There is a separate noise for each so once you know which is which you can tell where someone set it off outside. With the kind of warning that pinpoints the location I am way okay with going out the basement or one of the other strategically placed doors. That little 4 way motion system only cost an extra hundred bucks or so when we bought the main system. I have one in my garage and by each of the three main access points to the house. It has a very soft chime setting that doesn't even wake my wife up and then four lights that tell you which one went off.
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Old September 18, 2010, 03:26 PM   #16
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When I was eighteen, around three a.m. in the morning, in a real nice suburb, my mother calls me from her bedroom. Says she heard a bang so loud that she thought someone had kicked in the garage entry downstairs. I grabbed my K-bar (all I had in my room), made my way to her room, and was handed Dad's Glock 27 and a Pelican LED flashlight.

I took both of my dogs and cleared seven rooms, sending the dogs in first, then button hooking in the doorway and checking corners.

All of this in my boxers.

Turns out a tree limb had fallen from the neighbor's oak tree and hit the side of the house.
Neat. Tree limbs won't shoot you from more than one direction at once.

The few times I "cleared my house" (and those were before I knew better) I came out OK--because no one was there.

It is always far better to fight from a defensive position than to expose oneself to ambush.

All instructors I know, and most of the professional LEOs who have been trained in the clearing of buildings who post on these boards, say the same thing: first, get your family to safety (that's something you have to do no matter how risky it may be) and if you survive that, make the threat come to you.

He who walks into another person's ambush will lose--every time. Let it not be you.

This comes up repeatedly, and no matter how many well known instructors or experienced LEOs weigh in, someone will say, no, I can't call every time I hear a noise, or I know my house, or the crooks I'll encounter are probably not good shots, or hunkering down is cowardly.

If professional advice isn't convincing, and if considering the reasons why those who clear buildings for a living operate in teams, wear body armor, and use such things as tear gas and stun grenades doesn't illustrate the folly of grabbing one's handgun and traipsing around alone in an exposed position, here are two things to try:
  1. Force on force excercises using simunitions--let the "defender" familiarize himself completely with the layout and try several exercises each involving both (1) clearing the house or (2) staying in a defensive position when two intruders invade and letting them come to him; see which method proves successful most of the time.
  2. Try the same thing with airsoft guns and some kids whom you will reward if they shoot you. This will cost a lot less than the first suggestion.

I used a less costly approach. I considered the path I would take from the bedroom and down the stairs and toward the places where a potential intruder may be. It took about thirty seconds to realize that during that journey, I was completely exposed to ambush from points fanning out almost 180 degrees in some places. I then went to some different places in the house and looked at my "house clearing" path from those angles, and I realized that I was a sitting duck. That's all the convincing I needed.

If one cannot tell the difference between a door being jimmied and the ice maker acting funny and an unlatched screen door banging in the wind, I do not know what to say, but I suggest that a good alarm system is a good idea and that the low cost remote TV cameras available today can tell you whether there is someone in your house or not.

If the answer is "not" you don't have to grab your gun, and if the answer is "is", what you do first is going to depend entirely on whether you have others in the house who must be brought to safety.
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