What is your midnight strategy??

[jgcoastie]

I clear the house. I know that everyone (including me) says and knows it's risky at best, but I have no choice. Due to the layout of our home, for me to get to my kids room, I am exposed to the rest of the house. If I were to go straight to the kids room, I would be exposing my back to whoever is in the house, and I would be doing so blind. So I slice the pie and clear everything before turning my back to the rest of the house and entering my kids room. Everything checks out? Back to bed. I clear their room with a low-powered red LED light. It's bright enough for me to see everything, but not so bright as to wake the kids.

[SigP6Carry]

my midnight strategy? I live in a college town on a very busy college street, so my procedure to bumps in the night is: Sig in the IWB holster in the small of my back while I check for various sounds, sometimes just in my hand depending on what PJ's I'm wearing. I live in an old building that makes many bumps in the night, so I've done the check many times. I've got a single bedroom, two doors, a kitchen and a small hallway, so pie slicing doesn't really gain me much advantage as compared to someone in a larger abode. A lot of your own "midnight strategy" has to come from your own experience with your home, not advice given to you by us.

actually, ironically, I just got had to use the "midnight strategy." I'm in my apartment watching Exorcism of Emily Rose with my GF asleep in bed behind me when I hear a pounding on the door. It's 2 in the morning. I strap my sig to my back and immediately investigate. No one's at the door, as it has been about a minute. And I ask the party-ers next door. It's a pizza man who has apparently crossed the street to deliver pizza over there now. But, they're drunk on Halloween spirit and I don't buy that explanation, now I'm totally awake and alert, ready for anything at an ungodly hour of the morning. My strategy is to just answer the door in such a manner as to not be taken by surprise or advantage of. I checked the building back to front and top to bottom, and there was no sign of a "knocker" and it a pizza delivery guy got the wrong number of building, I believe that he would have stuck around long enough for me to find out the issue. I can't say what really took place, but I can honestly say that I took a good approximation of the area to make sure it was secure at this point.

[badlander]

My wife raises exotic birds so I am out in the yard at least once A week after midnight checking on noises.
I let the Big black dog do the clearing of the house first then he clears the yard. I just carry the benelli in case he finds something bigger than he can handle. big mercury vapor lights in fornt and back help visibilty.
Ain't been nothing badder than him out there yet!!!

[JimL]

I clear the house. I know that everyone (including me) says and knows it's risky at best, but I have no choice. Due to the layout of our home

As you say, everyone knows it's a dangerous job, but LEO WILL be a long time coming and you don't know what can happen while you are waiting if you don't have one of those wide open houses. Plus, he is going to get sick of you calling him out because you heard a rat playing soccer with your trash basket. And you can NOT leave the house in a questionable state until morning.

[MTT TL]

If you are a sleep awakened by a feeling that someone might be inside your fence(property limits) or the dogs are barking. What do you regularly do?

Well that depends. Here we have officers patrolling the street several times a night. We have not had a night break-in, in the city in several years. Since I live in a condo, I would have to believe that there is actually someone inside the house before I would react. This would be evidenced by some loud chewing sounds of the puppy (180 lbs) eating the BG or a BG shot putting the puppy down. Then we would 1. Grab the shotgun (me) and the .45 (wife) 2. Call the police (wife), Secure the kids (me) 3. Wait till police show up (about 2 minutes or less).

There is a long hallway running through the house where the bedrooms are that is about 45 feet long. That would be as far as I would go.

Now If we were on the homestead it would be very different.

[N.H. Yankee]

Elbow the wife and ask her to see whats going on, roll over and assume sleeping. When things go bump in the night I usually wait a couple seconds until I am alert, the dogs will have already sprung into action if there's intruders in the house. I then grab my weapon and assess the situation, and call 911 if appropriate, since we don't have a full time PD things could be unnerving for quite a while. now if the problems outside, well they can have at it, I am not going out to make a target of myself and only if I feel threatened will I let the dogs loose. there isn't much outside worth me or my dogs dying over. I have insurance that can replace material items but not lives.

[Parapliers]

My dogs have only alerted several times after bedtime in the past 10 years so I tend to take them seriously but I never assume that there is a deadly threat. Mostly out of courtesy to the dogs I will get up and look around in the dark. When I'm satisfied they are too.
My last dog was solid black and never sounded off till one time he did. I got up and was slowly moving through the dark hallway with my hands out in front of me feeling for the wall when I touched a warm hairy creature about my height standing in front off me. The terror that gripped me took my breath away. I never saw Pookie walking around on his hind legs before. Maybe he only did it at night while I was sleeping. I had to laugh. Makes me laugh now.

[GojuBrian]

I'm not home at midnight. My shift starts at midnight. If I'm robbed, I won't be there except on the weekends, then I'll be awake. More annoying than robbers are those dwebs who keep ringing the doorbell wanting to sell something.

[Rich Keagy]

Put on ear muffs;
Pump three rounds .45 ACP into a big bucket of sand (kept for just such an occasion);
Remove ear muffs but remain alert. The threat is most likely gone.
Collect the empties.

I never said it was a 'good' idea.

[JimL]

More annoying than robbers are those dwebs who keep ringing the doorbell wanting to sell something.

Were you around when the song "The Raiload Runs through the Middle of the House" was popular?

As I recall, the last line was, "And he never more bothered us!"

You might put a sand bucket right by the front door. Better yet, get a fully automatic and put a barrel by the front door! (Think "Home Alone"!) Or maybe ask the landlord how he would react to a front door all full of holes... (I thought I heard a tiger out there!)

[GojuBrian]

I thought about nurturing some big red wasps nests on my front porch.

[ltcdoty]

I throw the old lady out in the hall...slam and lock the bedroom door..then root around in the dark for a gun

[NRAhab]

Protip: if you don't have kids, don't try and "clear" your house. Hunker down, call 911 and wait for the cavalry. Why people are so insistent on abandoning an easily defensible position to fulfill some kind of rambo fantasy is beyond me.

Note: if you have kids, this changes the equation, because you obviously need to get them to safety in the event of a home break-in.

[jontz]

If something goes bump in the night, I clear part of my house after grabbing my Sig P228 out of the nightstand. I have two young ones, and I have to know that they are OK. No dogs (yet), so if there is a noise it probably isn't good. All of the bedrooms are at one end of the house down a rather long hallway with a bathroom being the only other door. I check the hallway, and then peer into the large great room. I hold position there and wait for 5 minutes. If a BG pokes his head down the hallway, it's the 14 9mm bullets for him. I won't venture into the great room or the kitchen looking for trouble, it's too wide open and too easy to be seen. If I don't hear anything else, it's back to bed. If something else happens, the wife is on the horn with LEOs.

[MLeake]

... I'd be very surprised if somebody could actually get to our house without causing an animal alarm, let alone inside.

If something alerts the horses or dog, I'm more likely to assume it's a 4-legged predator than a human.

And unless the lady is outside, I don't worry about those too much. (The dog's a Jack Russell; we don't let her out without one of us, because as a breed the Jack Russell's leading causes of death are getting hit by cars, or getting lost in the woods; if ours is outside, she's on leash or in an enclosure, and either way a human is with her.)

Our horses run from 1400-1800 pounds, and are bred from warhorse stock. I can't picture any Georgia black bear in its right mind challenging any of them, especially since they are paddocked in pairs. One of those horses would kick the crap out of any predator in the southeast; two of them would just be a massacre.

Same goes for 'yotes. There's plenty of easier prey in the adjacent woods. I've never heard of an attack on horses in our area. Deer and wild turkey are plentiful.

The weak link around here (with regard to dealing with animal predators) are the humans and the dog. Might as well stay inside.

If I were to see a bear in the yard, I'd break out the 700 ADL .30-06 from the safe, as well as my .44 and holster, just in case it got ideas about the house. The doors are not going to stop a bear, but the odds of one taking a serious interest in B&E are pretty slim.

In the case of 'yotes, it would be the AR, and depending on direction (safe shot vs unsafe field of fire) I might thin the local population a bit, but from the vicinity of the door.

However, in case of human encroachment, whatever handgun I carried that day is on the nightstand, with spare mag(s), and an 870 12ga loaded with 1 #7.5, 3 00, and 2 slugs is convenient to the bed. (Birdshot is the lead-off simply because the 870 is more likely to get used for rattlesnake dispatch than home defense, and that way the lady doesn't have to go rummaging around or changing loads before going back to deal with the snake.)

The general plan calls for the shotgun to be her primary. If somebody's in the house (very unlikely), call 911, give the "Cops are coming, we're armed, leave now" warning, and wait.

[Fer]

I got a Dachhund puppy two days ago, so in acouple of moths I will have a good barking alarm to aid in the situation

[JimL]

A lot of these responses talk about "the dogs." I don't have any dogs.

Anybody know how to train a really big kitty to attack?

[OldMarksman]

Why people are so insistent on abandoning an easily defensible position to fulfill some kind of rambo fantasy is beyond me.

Death wish? Ignorance? Stupidity? Failure to use common sense? Too much television?

[Parapliers]

Death wish? Ignorance? Stupidity? Failure to use common sense? Too much television?

Self confidence? Preparation? Wisdom? Common sense? Nothing to watch on T.V.?

[Dannyl]

Anybody know how to train a really big kitty to attack?

Easy, let him read GARFIELD strips.


Brgds,

Danny

[MLeake]

Anybody know how to train a really big kitty to attack?

Why I am suddenly picturing Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn?

[jgcoastie]

Death wish? Ignorance? Stupidity? Failure to use common sense? Too much television?

Wife? Children (I have two)? Training? Peace of mind for when I turn my back to the rest of the house to enter my kids room? I only watch Fox News, Outdoor Channel, and the occasional NCIS episode...

Not every situation allows the Protector (you and me in this case) to remain in a defensible position. I assume the risk of clearing my house knowing full well the risks involved. Those risks I assume are well worth knowing that my children are safe. It also helps to have been trained to clear boats, which are much more confined than your average house.

Might want to ease up a bit, most of us wouldn't do anything willingly to put ourselves at great risk unless there was a real good reason. And yes, my children's lives are more important than mine, so is my wife's.

[OldMarksman]

Wife? Children (I have two)?

Everyone always recommends getting them to safety, no matter what the risks. I do not think anyone would compare doing that to a Rambo fantasy.

Training?

Surely your training involved a team effort and was intended solely to prepare you to do your sworn duty, and not to assume risks that would otherwise be avoidable.

Not every situation allows the Protector (you and me in this case) to remain in a defensible position.

Again, everyone recommends that Step 1 is to get to the family and ensure their safety. Step 2 is to get yourself and them into a defensible position and work from there.

[JimL]

Again, everyone recommends that Step 1 is to get to the family and ensure their safety.

And you're going to drag them through an uncleared house?

Everyone's situation is different. Every floor plan is different. Everyone's situation is theirs alone to decide. Doing what they must is no call to declare them Rambos.

[OldMarksman]

And you're going to drag them [the family, in getting them to safety] through an uncleared house?

Well, I'm sure not going to wait until I've found and confronted one or more home invaders before doing so.

Everyone's situation is different. Every floor plan is different.

That is true. In a three room apartment, for example, or in the home of our Coast Guard colleague, getting the family to safety may actually require, or result effectively in, clearing the house anyway. Generally speaking, however, working from a defensive position is a lot wiser than going on the offensive.

I might also point out that there may be good reason to try to not put people in bedrooms that are not easy to get to safely, if doing otherwise is reasonably possible.

Also consider the possibility of fire.

Everyone's situation is theirs alone to decide.

Yes, and the idea is to give them the background to make a wise decision. To be honest, before I took CCW training (and took two minutes to think about it), it never occurred to me to let the threat come to me (after securing everyone, of course).

Doing what they must is no call to declare them Rambos.

The choice of the word was not mine, and I do not think the poster meant for it to apply to anyone "doing what he must". He referred to people who would insist on leaving a place of safety in the event of a home invasion, and I'm sure he meant "unnecessarily."

However, if the person has had at least minimal training or has read a little something on the subject and he still insists on traipsing about with gun in hand when he has a choice, I don't think the poster's use of the term "Rambo fantasy" is necessarily that far off, but I'll grant that in many cases the real reason may be pure ignorance and not bravado.

In my case years ago, it was a matter of ignorance. However, since there was no one there, I'm here to reflect upon it.