For those of you that live out in the country...

[GeorgeG.]

Question for any of you that live out in the country...have you ever had some strange shit go down in the middle of the night?

So this morning at approximately 3:30am the wife was awake due to drinking an energy drink too late and my daughter was up watching Netflix in her room on her phone, my son and I are sound asleep.

3:30 rolls around and the wife and daughter, in separate rooms, hears a loud, hard knock (about 8-10 knocks in a row) on our back door which happens to be in my son's room (this house is a weird layout). They bolt out of bed, wife goes to the room to stand by the door, daughter follows but then wife sends the daughter to wake me up. I crack the blinds to see if I happen to see anyone, then start throwing some clothes on and getting my guns ready (lesson #1 learned). It's dark out here in the sticks so I grab my flash light, which had weak ass batteries (lesson #2 learned), pistol, and shotgun and go outside. The immediate area around the house is clear and open but there's still 9 acres of heavy woods and shrub around us. Who ever it was, they had to be on foot and walked a good distance to reach the house. Closest neighbors are about 1000 yards away.

The wife called the sheriff which came out and swept his flash light around a bit and said he has a thermal system in his car and would drive around looking for anyone that might be out.

Anyhow, IMO, I was caught with my pants down but this will be addressed.

On another note, I'm now looking into security cameras but seems like Nest and Ring, being cloud based, require a minimum of 2Mb upload speed, which I don't have out here.

[GE]

...then start throwing some clothes on and getting my guns ready (lesson #1 learned). It's dark out here in the sticks so I grab my flash light, which had weak ass batteries (lesson #2 learned), pistol, and shotgun and go outside. The immediate area around the house is clear and open but there's still 9 acres of heavy woods and shrub around us. Who ever it was, they had to be on foot and walked a good distance to reach the house. Closest neighbors are about 1000 yards away.

What does "get my guns ready" mean? Sounds like you already know they should have been loaded and ready to deploy.

Not sure what kind of light you're running, but from the sound of it, it's not bright enough. Get something solid like a Surefire or Streamlight. All the lumens!

Why are you going out with your shotgun and pistol? This doesn't make sense. I'm assuming you didn't have a holster for the pistol, so how are you holding a flashlight, a shotgun, and pistol?

Sounds like some firearms training is in order.

[DamonH]

Lesson #3 - get your house covered by a decent camera system. Half the shit my wife hears in the night and wakes me up for can be explained away by watching playback of our camera system. Just the other night the wind blew a stainless plate from my grill over, and she swore someone breaking in and woke me from a dead sleep.

You can't be too careful out in the country - meth is prevalent and has people stealing and doing crazy shit to feed their habit. Definitely be able to light up the area around your house with flood lights, have cameras recording, and guns ready to use.

[bubbaearl]

ring sucks. i have one on my shop. a good security cam with lights is where i'm headed. a good dog is priceless in the country . loaded shotgun above bedroom door ready to go . it is an illegal or a meth head looking to break in . knock and hide .

[AnthonyS]

I have a Sig P227 with a streamlight nearby while I sleep just for this reason and I’m in the city. I have a travel bag and travel safe for said pistol too. I can also grab 10 rds of semi auto 12g and sling it over my shoulder on the way out the door. I live in the city.

A lot of people have firearms. Few people have holsters, slings, mag carriers, ammo pouches, good optics or lights. I will admit I bought my firearms first too, but you need the support gear too, and a plan to deploy it all.

[4bangen]

I have a good friend who does camera systems for a living. He did my setup and I couldn't be happier. I bet I could get you guys some DFWstangs discount pricing. He's also my website guy. So if you send an email to rumbuilder he will see it. just for laughs use this email if you have questions.

ringdoorbellssuck@rumbuilder.com

[lincolnboy]

I first would turn off all inside lights before opening blinds. Night vision goggles sure would be nice but maybe not so in some places.

[jluv]

Crime is pretty much non-existent where I live, so if I hear a loud noise in the middle of the night, it's almost certainly a bear knocking something over or even trying to get in. A little stomping, clapping, and yelling, and they typically wander off.

[GeorgeG.]

What does "get my guns ready" mean? Sounds like you already know they should have been loaded and ready to deploy.

Not sure what kind of light you're running, but from the sound of it, it's not bright enough. Get something solid like a Surefire or Streamlight. All the lumens!

Why are you going out with your shotgun and pistol? This doesn't make sense. I'm assuming you didn't have a holster for the pistol, so how are you holding a flashlight, a shotgun, and pistol?

Sounds like some firearms training is in order.

Well, full disclosure since I learned my lesson and will be changing things up immediately.... My pistol was in my night stand loaded. My spare mag was zipped up in a backpack I took to the deer lease this past weekend. My IWB holster was on the floor that I had to find in the dark. My first attempt was putting it my front pocket but it quickly sunk all the way down as I was walking so I had to go back and find the holster. My shotgun was in the safe in another room, empty. The closest rounds accessible were bird shot and on top of that, it still had the plug in to limit capacity to 3 rounds. I have a couple boxes of #00 buckshot tucked away in 1 of 4 ammo cans in a closet.

Once I found the holster I strapped the pistol. Loaded the shotgun with bird shot in case there was an immediate attempt to kick the door in, decided screw that, opened 3 ammo cans till I found the buckshot, unloaded the shotgun and loaded back with #00. Then went outside with the weak flashlight in one hand and the shotgun in my other hand (although it was basically pointed at the ground since my other hand had the flashlight)

The flashlight is actually pretty good if you ask me. I don't see the brand but I got it at Academy to replace my mag lite. It's LED and on the brightest setting, has about 2 hours of runtime. We use it often so the batteries do wear out but can still be used for normal non-important use for a while until I get tired of the dimness.

ring sucks. i have one on my shop. a good security cam with lights is where i'm headed. a good dog is priceless in the country . loaded shotgun above bedroom door ready to go . it is an illegal or a meth head looking to break in . knock and hide .

We've actually been contemplating getting another dog since our last one died earlier this year. Security cams will be happening today, for sure. I just have to find a good one with local storage.

I have a Sig P227 with a streamlight nearby while I sleep just for this reason and I’m in the city. I have a travel bag and travel safe for said pistol too. I can also grab 10 rds of semi auto 12g and sling it over my shoulder on the way out the door. I live in the city.

A lot of people have firearms. Few people have holsters, slings, mag carriers, ammo pouches, good optics or lights. I will admit I bought my firearms first too, but you need the support gear too, and a plan to deploy it all.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it but this is me right now. Thankfully I'm sure the guy heard movement or saw the wife's phone light as she moved around the house and probably took off but I keep asking myself what if this got ugly?

[Ruffdaddy]

Your problem is making perfect the enemy of good enough.

Grab the loaded pistol and go. Problem solved. If they're bringing a damn war then you arent going to win anyways.

Next, the birdshot is still going to be good enough to deter a person. Unless again...they planned for an all out war with you. And even at that...if they planned that well...they're going to win

[kingjason]

I have a Ryobi 18v spot light. That thing will illuminate the entire back yard, plus the battery just swaps out and starts to blink when going dead. Or, the Streamlight TLR1 HL on my rifle/pistol is fairly decent also. I have a variety of frogs by my ponds and in my pool. My wife has made a hobby out of looking for them in the back yard. She even attempted marking them one time.

[lincolnboy]

Flashlight/strobe combo

[jtm98snake]

I've been running Reolink Cameras and NVR for a little over a year and they work pretty good.
As long as you are on the same network via your wifi you should be able to view easily with your phone.

https://www.amazon.com/Reolink-Surveillance-5-Megapixel-Security-RLK8-410B4-5MP/dp/B016UCNP3A/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1546879852&sr=8-3&keywords=reolink+security+camera+system

[GeorgeG.]

Your problem is making perfect the enemy of good enough.

Grab the loaded pistol and go. Problem solved. If they're bringing a damn war then you arent going to win anyways.

Next, the birdshot is still going to be good enough to deter a person. Unless again...they planned for an all out war with you. And even at that...if they planned that well...they're going to win

Well, true. I think my thought process behind this is knowing I'll hit the target every time with the shotgun. I shoot pistols every now and then but it's at a non moving target with me standing still. I bird hunt and shoot skeet all the time so hitting a moving target from a distance is gravy.

Dos this not sound logical? Would I be better off grabbing the AR with 30rd mags when leaving the house?

[GeorgeG.]

I have a Ryobi 18v spot light. That thing will illuminate the entire back yard, plus the battery just swaps out and starts to blink when going dead. Or, the Streamlight TLR1 HL on my rifle/pistol is fairly decent also. I have a variety of frogs by my ponds and in my pool. My wife has made a hobby out of looking for them in the back yard. She even attempted marking them one time.

I think a mounted light will definitely be the way to go if I ever have to be on the move again.