Security on your homestead for when SHTF

[Seeker1001]

Hey all,

If it comes down to having to bug in I plan on heading to my parents homestead where they have a few acres and the beginnings to prepping. A big concern of mine, beyond prepping items, is our security. We are right off the highway and the house is in plain view. What can we do to secure our property from intruders during a SHTF situation?

 

[Brent S]

No doubt that being off the beaten path is preferred, but we all have to deal with the situation we have. Maybe plant a privacy barrier along the property lines. Also have some defensive weapons and train everyone how to accurately and safely use them. Even though security is in my top five of the prepping priorities, water and food are still my primary concerns.

 

[Dani]

I would check into trying to camouflage the home as much as possible with high shrubbery along the roadway. Look for thorny shrubs that grow good in your area. Also like Brent suggested, have everyone get proficient with weapons. Material General posted a good video about how to make Caltrops over in the Set Up & Use Defensive section. A good guard dog or two also comes to mind. Set up ****y traps when the time comes. Lots of possibilities.

 

[Seeker1001]

I would check into trying to camouflage the home as much as possible with high shrubbery along the roadway. Look for thorny shrubs that grow good in your area. Also like Brent suggested, have everyone get proficient with weapons. Material General posted a good video about how to make Caltrops over in the Set Up & Use Defensive section. A good guard dog or two also comes to mind. Set up ****y traps when the time comes. Lots of possibilities.

What type of ****y traps would you set up and where? I'm curious to find out what my options are to set up now that can be armed in the future

 

[Dani]

It would really depend on your set up, how things are positioned, how many people can help with security, landscape. Do you have trees? Is your place flat or do you have mountains? Are you fenced in? If so with what? Go check out the threads I listed above and also tactics. You might get some ideas that will work for your home.

 

[Brent S]

There may be a time when you could need defensive measures in place, but with anything leathal it would just be too dangerous and probably illegal right now. I think concrete planters are a great idea. One you can plant edibles in them, and as a defensive firing posistion they are great. They can also be used as a barrier to slow vehicles. One thing to consider is a normal house will barley even slow a bullet down. Having some kind of reinforced furniture to hide behind could be considered. If you have flat ground you could dig some furroughs to use for cover in a fight too. Just throwing out ideas here.

 

[jontte]

about ****y traps,just look what type the Viet Cong made and used,nasty,effective,leathal...

 

[Seeker1001]

It would really depend on your set up, how things are positioned, how many people can help with security, landscape. Do you have trees? Is your place flat or do you have mountains? Are you fenced in? If so with what? Go check out the threads I listed above and also tactics. You might get some ideas that will work for your home.

We are working on getting a fence around the property, but it's quite the investment at $50,000 for the material we need. fairly flat area

 

[Seeker1001]

Thank you guys, some great ideas here

 

[pengyou]

You can consider some fast growing trees/shrubs as a natural fence to hide a barbed wire, electrified fence. Keep in mind that, while a fence is useful to protect you, it is also useful for those who are attacking.

 

[TexasFreedom]

It takes a lot of work to keep the trees/shrubs OUT of the barbed wire fence. It stretches the wires, makes it easier to climb over, it's bad news. And even worse for electric fence, it'll short it out every day. And rule-of-thumb is the labor is equal to the materials cost.

 

[Brent S]

You can consider some fast growing trees/shrubs as a natural fence to hide a barbed wire, electrified fence. Keep in mind that, while a fence is useful to protect you, it is also useful for those who are attacking.

Reminds me of a city built on a high bluff with huge walls that were impenetrable. the invaders just circled it, cutting off supplies and starved them out

 

[Maverick]

We are working on getting a fence around the property, but it's quite the investment at $50,000 for the material we need. fairly flat area

First put a 300' parameter around the house before putting it around the property but $50k for your property? how many acres?
For a 5 run barbed wire field fence it shouldn't cost no more than $750 per 1320' and that includes everything (except tools) that's a little over a 5 acre run $1500 for a 10 acre run, a square 10 acres would cost $6000

From defensive perspective, you want to fence off what you can defend (defensive parameter fence) Once you get your defensive fence built then work on the outer parameter fence starting at the most vulnerable points.

 

[TexasFreedom]

Mav,
I'm not sure you know the details. I've got a mile or two of fencing on my small place. And when you get to dry creeks, gates, cross fencing, etc, it goes right on up. A fellow I know was fencing in a couple hundred acres and it was going to be $200 or 300k. It was flat land and no rock but he was doing high-fence for exotics.

Another friend was quoted about $25k to repair/replace about half of his fencing around 200 acres. If I remember that was about a 1 mile of fencing. And that was plain 5-strand barb wire.

I remember putting up the first mile or so of fencing when I moved out here, with the help of a neighbor & our wives. Not easy, not cheap. Free labor, and wholesale materials. $50k

 

[Maverick]

Mav,
I'm not sure you know the details. I've got a mile or two of fencing on my small place. And when you get to dry creeks, gates, cross fencing, etc, it goes right on up. A fellow I know was fencing in a couple hundred acres and it was going to be $200 or 300k. It was flat land and no rock but he was doing high-fence for exotics.

Another friend was quoted about $25k to repair/replace about half of his fencing around 200 acres. If I remember that was about a 1 mile of fencing. And that was plain 5-strand barb wire.

I remember putting up the first mile or so of fencing when I moved out here, with the help of a neighbor & our wives. Not easy, not cheap. Free labor, and wholesale materials. $50k

That seems awfully expensive, we replaced a little less than 1400 feet wire and post and the cost was a little more than $800 with taxes just 4 years ago

 

[Maverick]

I need to clarify my statement(s) using the phone to posts leaves a lot to desire

Would it not be cheaper to put up a defensive parameter fence before going to the expense of installing a fence around the whole property?

 

[Mountain trapper]

I've never really figured out the total cost of fencing before. But every year I replace between 200-400 old fence posts at a cost of about $6-$24 per post. Most are metal T-posts but a lot are pressure treated wood posts too, including railroad ties. I've got about a mile of fencing in a rocky area that I have to build cribs out of 4×4's and fill with rocks. Each crib takes most of a day to complete. This spring I'm going to try out a rock drill to set some posts in the solid rock areas. I'm also taking out about 5 miles of old barb wire, which I'll reuse in other areas. A few weeks ago I made a trade with a young man to help me with repairing and building new fence. I'm giving him an old barn in trade for his labor. He'll start dismantling it this spring when the snow is gone. If I had to hire someone to re-fence this property, even with the typical 3 strand barb wire, it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course my fence is designed only to keep my cows in and free-range cows out, not for security.

 

[Gazrok]

I'm with Mav on first fencing around the house. Create a defensive perimeter (but also gives an area for some mean looking dogs to go out in)....

For cheaper fencing, I often use cattle panels. These are about $21 for an 18 foot panel, and then 4 posts at about $6 each or so. The gates are the expensive part, at about $100 for a 10' gate. (enough to get a car or truck through). I pretty much have a mix of this and chain link around the ranch. Chain link is a pain to do yourself....cattle panel is much easier and cheaper.

You can also use these wooden posts to create vehicle barricades. While they could be removed with work, if put in an area that would be exposed to rifle range fire......

Barbed wire is good, and can be cheap. Now this is all assuming you save on the labor (i.e. do it yourself).

I don't know where all the electric fence stuff comes from. It may scare off people that don't know, but it's typically just a wire (not the whole fence, or it will ground out), and used to keep livestock from damaging the fence. It's not much against a thinking human, who just uses a stick to then twist the wire and break the circuit....

Another good note about a fence. It can work as a range marker for you, to use with your rifle scope. So you will know EXACTLY how far away a target is on the fence, and hit them with MUCH more accuracy than they will. (unless they have a laser distance finder).

 

[Gazrok]

Brings up another point. You should have range marker cards, at each position that may potentially be a shooting position. This way, you use your property landmarks to gauge the distance to target. These could be created after the SHTF of course, as they would look a bit odd hanging up before then...but in a drawer....

 

[Gazrok]

Other tips.

Motion sensitive lighting. (solar powered is best) charges in the day, on at night. (even off grid)

As mentioned before....DOGS

Once you have a fence, you could encourage vine growth along it. However, keep in mind it also prevents you from seeing past that point too.

Post SHTF, just practice having lights off at night, having sentries with SHORT shifts (to guard against boredom and complacency). Also, be stealthy with things like noise, smoke from cooking, etc. I don't know about you, but if it's SHTF, and I'm wandering the highway, and then see smoke, I'm thinking...."they got food?"

 

[Averagedude]

Range cards are a really good idea expecially to do it now. Depending on situation your lazer range finder might not work any more

 

[Seeker1001]

First put a 300' parameter around the house before putting it around the property but $50k for your property? how many acres?
For a 5 run barbed wire field fence it shouldn't cost no more than $750 per 1320' and that includes everything (except tools) that's a little over a 5 acre run $1500 for a 10 acre run, a square 10 acres would cost $6000

From defensive perspective, you want to fence off what you can defend (defensive parameter fence) Once you get your defensive fence built then work on the outer parameter fence starting at the most vulnerable points.

about 10 acres, convenants prevent barbed wire

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

This place has covenants?

Personally, I think HWY 20 would be a more likely escape route for refugees leaving Chicago than say I90. Not those two specifically, just that any small highway leaving Chicago would be a better route than the Interstate corridors. Small highways would still be easy to follow, offer a pretty straight line of travel, and would have lots of scavenging opportunities. If I were desperately leaving Chicago, I would not take the Interstate system. Maybe as a first step, go to where you think the majority of the people you think will be a problem are, then try to decide if you were them, where would you go? How would you scavenge and where would you start? Where are the first easy pickings?

Your defensive needs would also depend on where you are. Elgin is a lot different than Carpentersville, IMO, even though they aren't that far apart.

Anyway, if your beginning homestead is in a suburb with covenants and an association *shudder* then there isn't much you can do right now. If I had to stay there, I would plan on getting to know the neighbors, and having a couple bigger dogs, and try to pick some places with the best view of the property, places you could sit and watch out for problems. 10 acres is big, but doable. Sucks though, room for growing food and having chickens and rabbits, but hard to defend because of the location and current rules.

It would take a real horrific, long term emergency to send hordes out combing the countryside, I think. Me, I would focus on food stores and sustainability, and armed defense, before worrying about ****y traps, or fencing. There really isn't a fence good at keeping out people, not when they access to tools and time. I wouldn't be against a nice hedge to hide the property from view. No need to have the garden on display.

 

[Gazrok]

the real value in a fence vs. people is the deterrent and that it wastes time.

Any determined human will defeat a fence or even a wall. (though a good, tall wall, with some anti-scaling measures, is a pretty damn good barrier....though expensive).

My garden area is behind my garage though, so can't really see it from any vantage point unless you are on the property.

 

[firewallsrus]

The highway poses a risk. Fencing, shrubs and anything else you can do to narrow the lane of approach will be good (Remember the 300 stood off a larger army by choosing a very narrow battleground.)

While you are expecting an approach from the highway, someone who is determined not to be turned away might have someone approaching from another direction (behind or from one side) while they (or perhaps their women and children) draw your attention to the front. Try to forget everything you know about your family and the interior of the house while you walk around the property and try to see it from a stranger's point of view. Is there a good looking approach?

Is there concealment or cover for someone approaching from any direction? It might help to have some concealment that appears to be cover when viewed from outside. Something that looks solid but can be easily shot through may be handy if the bad guys duck behind it. In the case of concealment and cover locations, you might think about burying some wire to those locations so that you can install strobe lights or highway flares with electric igniters on the side of the cover that faces away from the house. If someone comes in at night, strobe lights in their faces can give you an advantage.

Finally, there should always be a backup. If there are simply too many people heading up the driveway, do you have an escape route in mind? We have buried camping supplies near our house so that if we get caught flat footed, we can just lay low a few days until our BOL has become boring to the bad guys. This is also why the supplies are buried all over the yard in 3 month barrels so that if someone takes our home, we'll have something to return to later.

 

[tmttactical]

Keep in mind human psychology. Humans tend to take the least path of resistance. Rows of blackberry (thorny brush) and a small clear opening and you can guess which path they will follow. Do not make it look too man made but just narrow. that facilitate folks walking in line, which the tend to do anyway. That is where you want you hidden surprises (after WROL). Range markers can be just simple colored flags, which also help provide wind directions. The real facts are, modern farms, ranches, homes are not defend-able. Too many windows, too many approaches and inadequate ballistic cover. The modern building are good for shelter but are not good fortifications. Early warning and information will serve better than stake pits or caltrops. Those are delaying tools to allow the family time to bug out. Just remember, while you can't defend the home, neither can the invaders. Have a near by retreat / fall back position, with supplies and ammo. That gives you the opportunity to return and harass the invading force or completely eliminate them, if the group is small enough. Just always remember "The Alamo" was a lost battle and they ALL Died. That is not what you want for your family.

 

[JackDW]

I will be teaming up with a neighbor. He has several pieces of heavy equipment (excavator, dozer, etc) which we can use to build barriers. Our biggest protection will be the dogs. Early warning system that cannot be switched off. I think once the dogs come out, people will move on to an easier target.

 

[KateMTx]

I will be teaming up with a neighbor. He has several pieces of heavy equipment (excavator, dozer, etc) which we can use to build barriers. Our biggest protection will be the dogs. Early warning system that cannot be switched off. I think once the dogs come out, people will move on to an easier target.

Someone who will be a threat to you will have no problem "switching off" the dogs too. So while they're great to have as members of the team, they're not 100% deterrent.
What type of barriers do you plan to build? I have come up with several ideas (for my as-of-yet unpurchased/nonexistent BOL) but for one reason or another I've judged them all impractical or ineffective.

 

[Brent S]

I’ve thought a lot about security. History shows that even the most secure castles were taken or surrounded and starved out. While I do think some security measures are wise, I believe being mobile and flexible makes more sense. I would rather run and hide than fight any day. If a group takes over your place it makes more sense to use sniper tactics and pick them off from a safer distance that to take them on font and center. One thing to consider too is modern homes are not secure enough to defend. Most rifles will penetrate walls easily, even lower caliber ones. I would never waste ammo shooting at a window, just hit the sides where the person is likely hiding.

 

[Frostbite]

Rural fencing is for keeping stock in (or out), not two legged predators. At my rural retreat I'm slowly stockpiling 44 gallon drums. Place strategically outside areas of the house you want to harden (windows, bedrooms, doors, other ground floor firing points), fill with dirt, even plant low growing herbs or vegetables in them if you like.

The drums are either free or very cheap, the dirt is free, and you have a ballistic barrier around sections of your house. Combine with sensor lights and/or dogs for early warning, practice you response to attack, have a secure fall back location and plan.

At my retreat I have drums of supplies ready to bury in the hills behind my cabin. They will get buried almost immediately if I bugout, so that I have a fallback option if it looks like my retreat is about to be overrun. I won't lose all my supplies, and will hopefully have enough to sustain my group until we retake my retreat or find somewhere else.