Home Defense question

[Moosie]

So, last night I slept a total of approx. 20 mins. From my side of the bed, I have a clear view past the bottom of the stairs going upstairs, through the living room and into the kitchen.  Since we lost one of our bulldogs in May, the other guy has been sleeping in our bed most nights.  He's pretty quiet unless someone is in our yard, etc. but he has to SEE them before he starts carrying on.  Last night after being in bed about a half hour, (he was on the floor asleep) he started growling, got up and stood in our door way and barked a few times, and continued growling.  I grabbed one of my handguns and started investigating. I didn't find anything, checked all the door knobs to make sure they were still locked, etc.  Back to bed I went.

Of course every "normal" house noise that I'm used to hearing now sounded like something! Grrr... couldn't go back to sleep. At about 2:30AM, pup starts the same routine all over again but this time is louder and seems to be more aggitated.  Again, I went and cleared the entire house.  Again, found nothing.  

This morning we found the garage light on, but hubby can't remember if he turned it on last night as he was putting the recyclables out or not.  Nothing else seemed to be disturbed in the garage.  

My question is this...  of course I thought about it as I was creeping through the house at 2:30AM searching for the freaking boogey man!  First, have any of you had this happen to you... I'd love to hear what you learned or discovered about your "plan" that you hadn't thought about before, but more importantly, have you thought about if you should say something like, "Identify yourself, I have a gun, you're about to get shot, freeze MF!" etc.   I didnt say anything.  I also didnt turn on any lights, but holy crap am I thankful to have tritium night sights on this gun!    

Thanks for your feedback,

Moosie

[muleman88]

moosie I have heard things at night and investigated before but fotunately have never found anyone there.  Im certainly no expert by a long shot but I wouldnt say anything at all unless I actually seen someone and had my tritiums on them. I wouldnt want to give them a warning that I was there and possibly ambush me. Now If I seen someone I MAY holler something out like HANDS UP GET ON THE GROUND NOW! But that would ONLY be if I felt I wasnt in danger of being shot 1st and was more trying to hold the suspect till leo"s arrived . To tell you the truth , im not sure what I would do if they run. I wouldnt want to let them go because I would be afraid that the le wouldnt catch them and risk future break ins to me or others. I guess I would probably get the best description I could then "knowing me" give chase although im sure thats not the smartest thing to do. I just couldnt stand there and watch them run off. I guess thats when the dog can do his job.
  I also watched a training somewhere about using lights and clearing a house. It was interesting to me that they just use a quick flash and supposedly you can see people and it keeps the "target" off of you instead of walking around with a flashlight. Ill see if I can find it.

[muleman88]

Sorry moosie I cant find it. I cant remember if I seen it in line or on a dvd I have. It was a mainly saying to use a quick flash from door frame then move to avoid you being shot.

[Moosie]

Thanks, Muleman.  I'll search and see if I can find it too.
Moosie

[rusirius]

Sorry moosie I cant find it. I cant remember if I seen it in line or on a dvd I have. It was a mainly saying to use a quick flash from door frame then move to avoid you being shot.

I suppose that might work with a normal flashlight... but not with mine... it's kicking out 750 lumens...   A quick flash with it and back into darkness would have you blinded for about 15 to 20 minutes!  When investigating it just stays on... That way I can see... Anyone in it's line of illumination is going to instinctively look toward it, and trust me, once you do your eyes do NOT recover for several minutes...

[Condition 1]

Sorry moosie I cant find it. I cant remember if I seen it in line or on a dvd I have. It was a mainly saying to use a quick flash from door frame then move to avoid you being shot.

I have seen / read the same in several places. Your flashlight helps to identify you as a target. Whenever I run my drills at home I practice just tapping the flashlight enough for me to have a visual of the room and move quickly.

rusirious, the blinding would work regardless if you have a 200 lumens or 750, the thing to consider is that you might have more than one BG in your house - there could be someone parallel, behind, diagonal... to you while you point the flashlight directly at one of the bgs, the others will have a clear picture of where you are.

[TwistedKarma]

  The flashlight is  a target.  This is why I say, hey honey, hold this.       
Just kidding ..

   So, As bump in the night storys go.,, .
 We're in dead of sleep, and this horriable sound, I mean nasty, screaming, small kid, or cat being mangled sound.  A sound that makes you Spring out of bed,  Jump up, grab and run, ,,,, just like a comando, get all the way outside, still half asleep, no noise at this point, only quiet.... I hear the screen door finally shut, then   she says in  a soft voice, i wish we had a flash camera,  do you want to come back inside and put pants on?   There I am, in the middle of our yard with my handgun....

So as plans go, slow down and dress,
  I was born on the farm, 200 acreas.  I just cant remember ever hearing a fox howl for mating, ...............

[Moosie]

LMAO.  Well, I was going to leave that part out, but I didn't take the time to stop and dress, but then again, I wasn't standing out in the yard either LOL.

Moosie

[Lumspond]

Worst one I've had, 12:30 AM, watching the end of a race I DVR'd. Volume low, lights off, heavy curtains closed, two hounds asleep on the carpet. All three of us heard the distinctive sound of my front door knob turning. Sends a chill up your spine, even knowing the door is locked. The two hounds were right on it, barking up a storm and snarling at the door. I was still dressed, and had my carry gun in my pocket. I went to the bedroom and grabbed my 200 lumen flashlight, and my HK45. Scanned the door area from a front window....nothing. Then left the lights off and let my dogs into the backyard, with me right behind them. We never saw anything. Guess they left when the dogs howled.

Funny thing is, earlier that day the ice cream truck was driving through the neighborhood. Stopped in front of my house, as a neighbor woman and her child flagged it down. I also went out and got an ice cream (terrible ice cream). The really creepy guy serving me seemed to be looking past me at my house. Didnt say a word. Guy was REALLLLY creepy. Good way to case houses I say. I've seen the truck a few more times.

[oldgraygeek]

We all live at the end of the hallway on the top floor, farthest from the doors. We have a Plan.

The plan is, I investigate any noises. I have excellent night vision, and I'm the bait for whatever might happen.
My wife and her mother wait at their end of the hallway. Anything coming back up that hallway needs to sound exactly like me and speak Russian, or shots will be fired.

If I call out the "all clear" in English, they know I'm lying, and I'm in trouble, and my wife comes out. Shooting 12-gauge slugs. I hope she misses me, but if she gets the bad guys I'll settle for that outcome.

[rusirius]

rusirious, the blinding would work regardless if you have a 200 lumens or 750, the thing to consider is that you might have more than one BG in your house - there could be someone parallel, behind, diagonal... to you while you point the flashlight directly at one of the bgs, the others will have a clear picture of where you are.

That's true, but I guess what I'm getting at is I have a 200 lumen light, (Actually I think it's like 180 or something like that) which yes, will blind you for a moment if it's completely dark...  But the 750 is just absolutely debilitating.  Even indoors during daylight hours one quick cast in your general direction is not just blinding but actually a bit disorienting.  In the dead of night, I just can't imagine.  To put it into perspective, holding your hand about a foot or more away from it and shining it on it (away from you, just catching the reflected light off your hand) will actually have you blinded and seeing spots for a while.  (and yes, it is a BLAST to play with! LMFAO!)

With that said, you make a very valid point about being more than one BG.  In my particular case I don't think it's much of an issue.  For starters, as I said, even a reflection off another object can blind you pretty well, but moreso the design of my house lends itself to a bit more security in that way.  Despite being stick built, the interior resembles more of a trailer or modular design.  It's very long... No room has multiple entrances, no loops, or anything like that.... There is a large room on one end (currently the billiard room) which is the entire width of the house, and from there on it's basically one big @@@ hallway with rooms shooting off to either side and the bedrooms on the opposite end from the entrances.

[rusirius]

and while I'm at it, I'll share a story of my own...

While I've never had any issues with the house itself, several years ago I had my bike (a 2004 Suzuki GSX-R 1k) stolen out of my garage in the middle of the night.  While I had a full security system in my home, it was never extended to the garage.  The bike itself had one (proximity and motion), but go figure, it was winterized and I had pulled the battery out to put on the trickle charger, so no alarm!

After that happened I immediately extended my alarm out to the garage and installed two motion sensors covering it.

Now in all the years I had owned this alarm, it NEVER false alarmed... It just didn't happen... Not once had it EVER gone off without some reason.

So it's about 2:30am with everyone sound asleep when  DURRRRRRR! DURRRRRRRRRR!!  DURRRRRRRRR!  DURRRRRRRRRR! the alarm starts going off.  Before I ever even had a chance to wake up, my "action plan" had already taken full effect.  I had already popped out of bed, opened the pistol safe (electronic) and had my M&P 9 in my hand.  According to my wife, I was up and armed BEFORE the soundwaves ever had a chance to reach the rear wall of the room. 

I cleared the hall and made a beeline for my sons room.  Everything was secure there.  I ushered my wife into his room and began to sweep the rest of the house.  When I finally made it through I found absolutely nothing... Even stranger, no doors or windows open, or anything that indicated why the alarm had went off...

Then I guess I was just starting to come to full awareness when it hit me!  THE GARAGE!!!!

Out the back door I flew making a quick sweep of the back yard, then into the side door of the garage.

I do a quick sweep and don't see or hear anything.... Just as I'm about to turn and walk back out, I hear a small rustling back in the corner behind my boat!

As if the adrenaline wasn't already flowing like the BP oil spill, I got a fresh dump and I figured my neighbors would have already reported gunshots just from hearing my heart beat and mistaking it for shots!

I work around the corner of the boat... and WHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEE!!!  HE LUNGES FOR ME!!!

So here I am, pistol up in my sight line, showing proper trigger discipline with him now flying through the air directly toward me...  Time slowed down and everything just started to fall into place... I realized I had no way out, it was too late to attempt to flee.  I had resolved to take a shot... I had him in my sights, front post on... My trigger finger dropped down onto the trigger and had just BARELY started to move when....

WAIT!!!!  "are you serious?"?!?!!?  HOLY MARY MOTHER OF.....

That's the cat!!!!  Who had apparently decided to crawl up on some storage bins and curl up for a nice nap while I was in there working on the boat.  After which I shut the garage up and left him there... Around 2:30am I suppose the nap was over and he decided to move around a bit.. which the motion sensors promptly picked up...

I learned 3 things that night...

1) Adrenaline is some WICKED stuff... Clark Kent wasn't from another planet... He just learned how to release adrenaline...

2) Never EVER shut up an open garage without first checking and making sure no animals are in there...  At least when you have motion sensors installed....

3) Without proper trigger discipline, there would be one less cat in this world.  I have no doubt that the extra time needed to move my trigger finger down was the time needed for me to recognize the target and act to stop it.  If I had already been on the trigger I have NO DOUBT the pull would have been completed before that recognition took place.

Ohh, actually I learned 4 things...  4) Adrenaline is some WICKED stuff... and after an event like this, don't even THINK of trying to get any sleep for the rest of the night... It's NOT going to happen... You might as well go run, work out, lift some weights, lift some cars, stop some speeding trains and perhaps leap over some tall buildings, because you sure as hell won't be sleeping...

[Moosie]

Old Gray, that sounds like a great plan! 

Rusirius, thanks for sharing your kitty story!  LOL

Moosie