Home Defense

[mts]

Home defense wasn't a topic that I spent a lot of time considering before I had children and now it's been something that I've been focused on as now I'm concerned with the safety of more people than just mine.

I presently have a Beretta 92 FS, a Taursu 24/7 in 45 caliber and a Mossberg 500 (12 ga.) with an 18.5" barrel as well as a 28" barrel. To date, I've always looked at my equipment as something to bring to the range and spend an afternoon with my friends (whether it be paper targets or skeet/trap shooting).

At the present time, I'm starting to change my focus to self-defense skills that would be necessary to develop i order to effectively defend my home. My question is which (or whether) the SSS videos cover home defense tactics that I could learn, practice at a range and feel more confident with in a home survival situation.

[Larry Wick]

Hi MTS,

First let me congradulate you on your firearms and for the mind set of practicing how to use them. There are a lot of people out there that do not think that you should have the right to defend yourself and that you need to rely on the police. Remember that in most cases they do not prevent crime, THEY RESPOND TO A CRIME THAT HAS BEEN COMMITED!!! Remember as a father, or husband, it has always been a responsiblity to protect the ones you love and to be there for those that may need your help. SSS dvds do not teach home tactics, they teach the survival mode and reality of being caught in a violent situation that has gotten past your security mindset. You can never be ready for viiolence and you may be caught. You may be carring a knife or firearm but are unable to use it because you have been caught off guard, which is not your fault. thats they way life is. IT may be a late at night home robbery, a car jacking, a robbery after leaving a theater, who knows? Be it hand, knife or firearm, the SSS series goal is to help increase the odds of survival in the most umsurvivalable situattions. MTS, if you have any certain questions or concerns, post them here and I am certain that those on this forum as well as myself will hopefully come up with an answer.

In saying that I will be in Arizona teaching Body Logic, RES-PECT and SSS from August 19 - 23. Go to my website for moe information. Split Second Survival .com.

Be Safe, Your Friend, Larry

[mts]

Larry, thank you so much for your response. I did check out the other videos and think I'm going to pick up the 4-DVD pack. I'm interested in the topics presented in those as well and if I still have questions when I'm done, I'll try posting them here.

Thanks again,

Mark

[MikeNY]

mts inside a house with children the Mossberg 12 guage and birdshot is the way to go, you do not want to penetrate the walls and injure a child. The 9mm and .45 are fine weapons but those rounds penetrate walls, and you don't want a child or neighbor injured. If you know the type of structure and what your walls are made of you can experiement with birdshot to make sure you won't use a pellet size that might penetrate the walls. At close range birdshot is lethal and as said usually won't penetrate walls and harm the family.

A home invasion threat is a frightening thing for a family, I'd recommend a burglar alarm and a generic sign that your home has an alarm. If you put up the sign the alarm compnaies give you then you are advertising what alarm system you have and bad guys know how to disable specific types of alarm systems. A dog is a cheap alarm and family pet, a larger dog like a German Shepard will defend his family and many times detour bad guys. Geese make wonderful burglar alarms and they bite to lol.

Larry has great advice. A gun and a legal folding knife (aka lock blade) make a good combo, and pepper spray where legal. Learning to fight is important to, JuJitsu, Savate and Boxing are the easiest systems to learn, most every city & many towns have a Judo School and they teach sport Judo but many teachers also teach the self defence branch, Savate outside of French Canadian Canada, NY and LA are almost impossible to learn and boxing is also easy to learn as a sport and most boxer's can use it as self defence and instructors teach them how many times. Asian Martial Arts are great but make sure you find a good instructor.

If you have a frend that is a cop from SWAT, Violent Felony Warrant Team or any of the specialized units or the Military equivilent they can train you and give you pointers. These guys are professionals at this.

PS build a small section of wall that duplicates your walls, take it to the range or somewhere safe, test it; smaller birdshot might be needed depending on your walls.

[mts]

Thanks for the pointers Mike, at the moment I only have #1 buckshot which was recommended by the Chuck Hawks website.

I'm not too concerned about neighbors as my house is situated pretty remotely but the children are obviously a concern.

I have the dog (actually 2 of them). I have Vizsla's which are Hungarian pointers. They actually make tremendous watch dogs however they are not good guard dogs.

My wife and I have been looking into an alarm and I appreciate the advise on a "generic" sign.

Thanks for the help.

[MikeNY]

#1 Buckshot is good, for a real gunfight the cops and military use 00 or 000 buckshot as sure stoppers. The cheapest shotgun ammo is birdshot, even the practice 12 guage cheapest ammo is deadly inside a house, the light pellets shouldn't penetrate most walls. At short range a shotgun does not have the same pattern at even a slightly longer range. Take some paper targets to the range and check. At close range the shot is a tight group and deadly, buy a few melons if you have a place and watch them explode with just birdshot.

Careful with geese they bite lol!