Training Scenario outline for this weekend...

[Modern Minuteman]

I firmly believing in laying out possible scenarios (utilizing METT-TC as a guideline) and then acting on them to help facilitate planning, training, gear usage, expose short comings, comms usage, calling variables in the field, and so on and so forth. The property where my camp is at really works well for this so we try to think of realistic scenarios to train to. One such likely scenario is in the case of a societal breakdown, folks may end up trying to source food (wild game, fish, gardens, and homes themselves) that is not theirs nor on their own property. So poaching would become a big issue here. So the following is a rough outline of what this weekend will entail. What would you change, add, or tweak?

-Mission: There has been suspected poaching on Eastern edge of property. Send 2-man patrol element to scout the area looking for signs of recent kill sites, use of bait, tree stands, hunting blinds, trash, spent shell casings, foot/motorized traffic, and anything else that would suggest recent human activity. Mark locations on map of any evidence found, place trail cams near spots of activity, report back to HQ any findings including pictures.

-Enemy: Possible poachers from outside of the area. Consider armed. May be on foot or using ATV’s to enter/exit area.


-Terrain/Weather: Wooded deciduous forest with marshy areas intersected by 2 old railroad lines running north/south with a Jeep trail running east/west. Bordered by active farmland with 2 nearby homesteads. Weather forecast is cloudy with highs of 35/lows of 25 with 40% chance of snow with light winds. Rain has been on/off the last several days leading to wet/muddy conditions.


-Troops/Support Available: 2-man QRF will be available during operation window as well as local county Sheriff if contact is made.


-Time Available: Mission window is 36 hours. Actual mission time on the ground from start to finish should be 6 hours.


-Civilian Considerations: 2 nearby homesteads within ½ mile of patrol area.

[DBD]

First off…a very reasonable scenario. In a WROL situation, property lines will mean very little if you don’t enforce them.

I have but one critique…if I had the resources to do so, I’d replace the concept of employing trail cams with Dakota MURS intrusion alarms or PRS-1A geophones in the suspected infiltration area.

If your recon patrol has already confirmed the trespassing/poaching, putting up a camera so you can go back and watch recordings of them doing it repeatedly doesn’t really fix the problem.

You need to know when they’re actively doing it so you can catch them in the act and put a stop to it.

Just my $0.02

[Modern Minuteman]

Jan 3, 2024 17:41:59 GMT -5 DBD said:

First off…a very reasonable scenario. In a WROL situation, property lines will mean very little if you don’t enforce them.

I have but one critique…if I had the resources to do so, I’d replace the concept of employing trail cams with Dakota MURS intrusion alarms or PRS-1A geophones in the suspected infiltration area.

If your recon patrol has already confirmed the trespassing/poaching, putting up a camera so you can go back and watch recordings of them doing it repeatedly doesn’t really fix the problem.

You need to know when they’re actively doing it so you can catch them in the act and put a stop to it.

Just my $0.02

Thanks for the feedback! 

Yeah I think the idea of placing trail cams after the confirmation does kind of just spin your wheels. Probably the best thing is once confirmation is made is to rig the area for alerts, traps, and so on and so forth. The intrusion alarms would be good to be able to react and conduct ambushes or other means to let folks know that being on your property is verboten and comes with severe consequences...

[Hawkeye]

I like it. I am a huge fan of running scenarios like this. I agree with DBD. Sourcing some MURS type alarms would be better than trail cams for the reason he mentions. Good stuff sir!

[deltalima69]

Wrol/no society/shtf
SSS.
Hope the scout team doesn't get spotted or rolled up by aggressive hunting party.

Not being Debby downer. But I always think of the worst case an event could go and do the work around from there.
They spot your group of poachers...set up a hasty and deal with them.

Biggest issue. Is who are they.
Cousins to the homesteads...other locals..are you now in a multicam fueled shtf fued?

Now. Non shtf.
Murs as posted, cell operating game cam...aggressive scout/patrolling presence in the area.

[Modern Minuteman]

Jan 5, 2024 10:04:42 GMT -5 deltalima69 said:

Wrol/no society/shtf
SSS.
Hope the scout team doesn't get spotted or rolled up by aggressive hunting party.

Not being Debby downer. But I always think of the worst case an event could go and do the work around from there.
They spot your group of poachers...set up a hasty and deal with them.

Biggest issue. Is who are they.
Cousins to the homesteads...other locals..are you now in a multicam fueled shtf feud?

Now. Non shtf.
Murs as posted, cell operating game cam...aggressive scout/patrolling presence in the area.

No "Debbie Downer" taken... This is the beauty of running scenarios, whether it be on paper or out in the field. It is an opportunity to learn and get better BEFORE the need actually arises. 

Some of the things you mentioned would/should already be answered via ongoing area surveys and interactions with mentioned neighbors. Things like who would they be expecting (family, friends, etc) in a SHTF/WROL/Societal Collapse. Also knowing not just the immediate are, but the outer lying areas as well and what drifters/marauders/ and just plain undesirables could be expected. It is a lot of work and details to explore and it is constant. 

Now, current day, the scouting/patrolling is a regular occurrence on the property so we do have that going for us as well as trail cams that do get checked.

Good comment...

[deltalima69]

Minuteman or others. At times I'm fast posting at work...shhh don't tell the supervisor.. oh that's me lol.

Imho one skill that should be addressed if not already by the qrf/scouts is tracking and maybe not the right term but observational skills.

A simple jungle lane..or a used camp. See what they spot , see,smell and detect.
It seems easy till it's not.
What style shoe treads...trash,how any structures are built how they are used.
Deer hog carcasses. Are they quick dressed( straps and hams only) or are they skinned, quartered out etc.

I made it a point to always observe boot tracks hiking.
Certain vibram outsole go to certain brands, tred styles that are issue?
Follow me? On where I'm going.

Not everyone will be your eagle eyed Mohawk scout..who can track a fly...
But having basics goes a long long way..

Again. Sorry if my post during work are short,and blunt.

[Modern Minuteman]

Jan 5, 2024 16:14:38 GMT -5 deltalima69 said:

Minuteman or others. At times I'm fast posting at work...shhh don't tell the supervisor.. oh that's me lol.

Imho one skill that should be addressed if not already by the qrf/scouts is tracking and maybe not the right term but observational skills.

A simple jungle lane..or a used camp. See what they spot , see,smell and detect.
It seems easy till it's not.
What style shoe treads...trash,how any structures are built how they are used.
Deer hog carcasses. Are they quick dressed( straps and hams only) or are they skinned, quartered out etc.

I made it a point to always observe boot tracks hiking.
Certain vibram outsole go to certain brands, tred styles that are issue?
Follow me? On where I'm going.

Not everyone will be your eagle eyed Mohawk scout..who can track a fly...
But having basics goes a long long way..

Again. Sorry if my post during work are short,and blunt.

You are reading my mind, so spot on... These were all things we went over this weekend! Took advantage of a lot of opportunities to point things out, discuss, and play out. 

[Modern Minuteman]

So a little follow up from our weekend...

With some fresh snow on the ground the opportunity presented some great, hands on lessons/experience. The gentleman that spent the weekend with me, while a seasoned outdoorsman (bushcrafter/hunter) this was his first time on any sort of "patrolling" scenario. The initial plan (as you all saw in the opening post above) centered around looking for possible poaching in a societal collapse situation. This was altered last minute because a new scenario presented itself that was probably a better environment for learning anyways. 

We were in camp working on breakfast, and my buddy that owns the property texted saying that he was a 1/4 mile due east of our camp hunting and would be so for the next 2 hours, so no more than an hour later we hear a shot and that was followed a 1/2 hour later him coming out to get a tractor to go back and retrieve it. He gave us a description of where he setup and where he shot from, distances, direction, all that. So we changed our plan a little bit to more tracking and identification of landmarks provided. 

I pulled out a property map and we planned out our route and geared up and set out. 



Within the first couple hundred yards the guy with me was having an issue with his sling pulling too much on his neck so we took the opportunity to reconfigure it so that it would ride more comfortably with less neck strain. Second thing we did was when reaching a railroad crossing we used it as an opportunity to discussing crossing linear danger areas (small and large), the pros and cons of ways to do it...





Things like near and far side security, when to cross and when to go around, conducting SLLS (SLLS was a reoccuring theme), hand signals, and speed of movement. Since this was one of several teachable moments we really broke it down, discussed, walked through it, role played, and then went over it from an OPFOR point of view to understand how someone may setup to monitor such a spot. While doing this we also discussed tracking due to the fresh snow on the ground and how that specific spot (photo above) had lots of information in it regarding footprints, boot/sole types, determining # of people, direction of travel, etc... After this we worked our way another 100-150 yards and took several minutes to discuss visual indicators like trash, signs of occupation (like evidence of recent fires, camp sites, blinds, cord left tied to trees, etc), and things like turned up soil/leaves/broken ice on standing water/and more... With this was an opportunity to see if he caught an indication of an old blind setup. I gave him the opportunity to scan around to see if something was out of place and after several minutes he caught the edge of a low slung camouflaged tarp about 40 yards into the tree line. But now here is a good lesson from his reaction to it, as soon as he spotted it he turned to walk right to it. I let him take a few steps and then asked him if he thought that was the right move. He said well we should check it out. Told him that we need to work our way around it to make sure it isn't occupied, that there aren't any signs of items like trip wires, and to see if there are any tracks going to it or leaving from it. So we worked our way around it in a 360 circle deeming it safe to approach (still with caution). This was another good opportunity to take the time to discuss dealing with things like this. 

With this we caught sight of the land owner field dressing his deer that he had shot earlier so we went over to talk with him and while hiking over to him we noticed a brown squirrel twitching in the snow/leaves. Come to find out there were 2 guys that the owner let squirrel hunt there the previous day and this squirrel was likely the result of a poor shot from the hunters. I proceeded to take the .22 pistol out of my pack (remember the discussion on pistols as part of patrol kit) and put the poor guy out of his misery. 

So we met up with my buddy and he walked us through exactly where he was set up at for hunting that morning and where the deer had come from and where he shot it to where it collapsed. So I decided to take the guy with me to the far corner of the property and try and work our way around from where the deer would have likely come from. But first lunch and a mid day discussion of what we had done so far...



This was a good opportunity to discuss different gear loadouts, food use on the trail, clothing layering, water, etc... First big thing (as you can see in the picture) was patrol kit. Since it was a quick outing for several hours I had elected to go with my Light Scout Rig and a day pack. My partner elected to wear his LBE. In this picture I still have my fighting kit on with rifle at my side while he has no fighting kit on and his rifle at his side. While I am a huge fan of wearing LBE for patrols lasting at least 24 hours I usually revert back to a chest rig and small pack for shorter duration patrols. Anyways, if we were bumped or whatnot I could grab my rifle and skedaddle with the ability to lay fire and break contact while my partner here would have been caught a little bit with his pants down. THere was another item discussed and that was clothing for cold weather patrolling. It was about 30 degrees with a light breeze. I made sure to start off cool with just a long underwear top and unlined softshell jacket on with long underwear bottoms, BDU pants, wool socks, and hiking boots (I often refer to this as my "Action Suit") while my partner had on 4 different layers on top making hm warmer to start but while I was comfortable, he may have been a bit on the warm side and perspiring more lending himself to getting chilled during short stops/breaks. Plus too many layers makes putting kit on more difficult (which he momentarily struggled with buckling the waist on his LBE) and can impede his movements. I had kept a puff jacket in my pack for throwing overtop everything during long stops to prevent getting chilled.  

Another observation was his gloves (there was a discussion here recently on that) were a bit bulky and made manipulation of kit a bit more difficult and lack of eye protection on his part. 



Navigation was another topic and while we initially started off by laying out our map and getting ourselves oriented we never once took it out to reference. Instead we relied on dead reckoning and terrain familiarization for navigating. On the second half of the "patrol" we simply followed the path of the deer and letting their natural paths lead us to wear the one was shot earlier that day. This was used as another lesson on natural funnels and choke points. We started off on the deer trail but after pointing out the dangers of such movement we then moved off the game trail to parallel it instead, always keeping it in view but always at a comfortable distance away. We found where the deer had bedded down the night before and then where it was caught in my buddies shooting lane where he sat and waited.

One last point is physical fitness. It can not be stressed enough to be healthy and cardiovascularly fit. You can tell in the following video where a bit of fatigue is noticeable. Wearing kit, carrying a rucksack and rifle, and navigating varied terrain combined with cold, wet, and constant focus can be exhausting.



There was a bit more of things and ideas discussed but all in all it was a good experience for another guy just starting to get his feet wet in this.  I will say that he is hooked and is hungry for more information. I felt this was a good experience for helping a guy get his feet wet in this and to do it in a way where he didn't get discouraged or feel as though he was in over his head. I'm glad I was able to help him out and get him going in the right direction.

[Hawkeye]

Most excellent. This is quality time well spent.

[deltalima69]

Good write up.
I always run cold per say. Because once your wet and stop. Your cold. I'd rather run a tab cold and when stopped put on an extra layer. This is where a poncho liner or even better down throw comes in. Jut wrap up and get warm with out bulking up on layers.
Again great AAR

[Modern Minuteman]

Jan 10, 2024 5:56:51 GMT -5 deltalima69 said:

Good write up.
I always run cold per say. Because once your wet and stop. Your cold. I'd rather run a tab cold and when stopped put on an extra layer. This is where a poncho liner or even better down throw comes in. Jut wrap up and get warm without bulking up on layers.
Again great AAR

Thanks, appreciate that... I like doing these AAR's as a way to reflect and learn from what transpired. There will be a video of sorts too for it.

But yeah, a lot of folks misunderstand the layering concept and how it is designed to work WITH your body and activity, not against it. A Woobie or a big, puffy jacket takes up minimal space and weigh next to nothing. 

Thanks again!