New Patrol series

[Hawkeye]

[rmplstlskn]

The situation some of us are in, I assume, based on my situation and people I have met, is lack of NUMBERS. If I patrol alone, or with wife or daughter, then I am playing russian roulette... If I patrol to the north, my other compass points are unguarded and the homefront is left insecure and somewhat undefended. So what chamber is the single bullet loaded? What are the odds that my patrol will bump into an approaching threat as compared to the odds that I will be 180 degrees on the wrong side?

So until my situation changes, or events allow a bug out via vehicle, as you spoke about, then I look to observation and listening posts as my best defense.

But good patrol info... Good thoughts on gear.

Rmpl

[Paul]

Hawkeye, what kind of rail are you using on your rifle in this video?

[panzer0170]

Feb 8, 2016 10:22:41 GMT -5 rmplstlskn said:

The situation some of us are in, I assume, based on my situation and people I have met, is lack of NUMBERS. If I patrol alone, or with wife or daughter, then I am playing russian roulette... If I patrol to the north, my other compass points are unguarded and the homefront is left insecure and somewhat undefended. So what chamber is the single bullet loaded? What are the odds that my patrol will bump into an approaching threat as compared to the odds that I will be 180 degrees on the wrong side?

So until my situation changes, or events allow a bug out via vehicle, as you spoke about, then I look to observation and listening posts as my best defense.

But good patrol info... Good thoughts on gear.

Rmpl

You don't have to patrol far. 500m in any one direction will clear out the majority of people actually in any sort of threat range, and/or identify people who may have been carrying out recce on your location. You don't even really WANT a contact, what you want is advance warning of one in the future. It may be that you set up cameras, flares, trip wires of some sort. They don't have to be set to alert you directly - The mere fact they have been triggered shows that SOMEONE has been there. Naturally you'll have to tailor this to local wildlife, but you will still want to patrol and clear. 

In an urban area you might not even go 500m. One street either direction is a good start. If you don't move, as you've said; You've only got one (three tops!) set of eyes. You can only observe one direction, and you can only observe to a set distance. Anyone with patience and a modicum of tactical finesse should be able to get within rifle range of your position without being spotted - The trick is it will take them a long while to do it, if they believe there is any likelihood of being engaged, observed or otherwise contacted.

Patrolling the dead ground is key, not so much the open spaces. Throw as much in the way of obstacles up in the dead ground as possible and it will limit the area you have to patrol regularly. You'll want to check on the obstacle laden dead ground still, but the chance of a threat coming that way is drastically decreased, especially against anyone that ISN'T switched on. Switched on types may choose that route for that very reason, but switched on types are going to be a massive problem for a one man fighting team at any range, and so it's a problem that in this scenario, you have to kind of accept and focus on things you CAN affect change on.

[rmplstlskn]

This is all getting my brain gears to spin and think... Winter is a good time to ponder this and explore, as the dormant, bare vegetation allows one to really see the lay of the land.

But I am also not fooling myself either when it comes to perimeter security and patrolling, as I only have 1 acre in a semi-rural area, so I have neighbors several hundred yards from my right and to my left, both who have 10 acres or so, a road 40 yards to my front that is a fairly active country road, as it goes between two towns, and then a huge buffer of heavily forested land that goes for over several miles to my rear. All of this is PRIVATE property. So doing any patrolling will be restricted to just the rear. I will have to rely on my neighbors being the sacrificial anode to alert me, I assume.

It might actually be my neighbors, or the neighbors down from them, and so on, that may be my REAL threat when things go really bad. We are too far from a town to get much "walkers" from the city, but trapped in the rurals neighbors who are desperate could be a real danger.

Basically, my plan is to bug out to friends land, but they are all too far to walk, or even bike. It would take weeks, if not a month to get there by foot being cautious, taking power line cuts or railroads routes. Plus, I have way too much stuff I wouldn't want to leave, as all if it is highly desirable for making life like life worth living in a bad event or collapse. From tools to gear, I really hope and pray I can use my truck and RV trailer. But the odds are possible that I could be stuck here...

So I see Hawkeye's video on patrolling especially of interest if I make it to people of like mind who actually HAVE land in the rurals. So I soak it in, as well as the comments and other posts here, for I perceive the experience level far higher here than sites like ARFCOM... LOL! It may not be fully applicable for my location at home, but could be useful to have in my head elsewhere...

Rmpl

[whitebear620]

Good stuff Hawkeye. I've done a complete walk around my apartment complex, we have a big pond and a tiny bit of wooded area, these are areas that need to be exploited and defended as possible exit/entry points. Since I am in a suburban AO, visibly armed patrols outside of the complex won't work for me most likely, but it is still something good to know as I'll hopefully be moving to a rural area in a couple of years.

[panzer0170]

Even a good quality, printed map to do a map recce on is a good idea - If nothing else it'll get you thinking and looking at what is important/what can be improved now/what can be improved hastily.

[whitebear620]

Working on that, although I would definitely consider an aerial map over a standard topographic if you in a urban AO, it might be more important to know where buildings are rather than hills.

[panzer0170]

whitebear620; Give me a 'target' building. Don't pick your own house, naturally. But pick out a nice rural and a nice urban example, and I'll throw some map/imagery packages together showing what you can do with open source data available to you, along with some suggestions on how to augment. It's part of what I used to do as a job and I've been meaning to do this for some time.

[Dave R]

I'd like to see this, Panzer.

[panzer0170]

Well. Soon as I get a location I can start throwing some stuff together. The basic overview things only take a couple of hours. Just need to pick somewhere, but ideally don't want to generate a ton of work for somewhere pointless.

[Hawkeye]

Feb 8, 2016 10:47:10 GMT -5 Paul said:

Hawkeye, what kind of rail are you using on your rifle in this video?

This one is a Daniel Defense Omega rail.

[trailrunner909]

Panzer, What are the best sources for maps? I have been using USGS 1:24000 maps/aerials, but would like something with more detail. I will probably end up ordering a set of MGRS maps for my area, but a free digital option would be nice. Good map reconnaissance is a useful tool in developing a defensive plan, and planning individual patrols. Using them now builds/maintains a skill set that could be of much use later.

Sample of USGS topo, and aerial view. Can add countour lines and other detail to aerial view but it makes it messy. Easily scaled and printed.

[panzer0170]

Hopefully when I've run a mockup of what I'm trying to demo you'll see - From the little nosing around on the various state/federal websites it's going to differ depending on what is available from individual organisations. I've checked into a lot of the Topo @ 24k and it's... Well, in some cases it's older than I am, and the ACTUAL SHAPE OF THE TERRAIN is wrong, compared with newer data gathered from state surveys, so... Bear with me. I'm going to ask Hawkeye to dump this somewhere as a whole thread and see what information/skills I can share.

[trailrunner909]

That would be very useful, especially in conjunction with a Land Nav compilation sticky.  I think most of us could use at least a refresher in it.



Hawkeye, Is there any way we could get a course outline for your series? That is if you have it planned out already.