Had to "Clear" my Backyard Last Night....now a Question

[goodlookin1]

Then how did you know gramps cleared his yard many times?

He's making a general statement about the "good ol' boys", and what your grandpa would likely have done in years past.....he was not talking about my grandpa

[goodlookin1]

Check. Prudent.

The law permits a lot of dumb stuff. (which I'm thankful for) But I'm not putting anyone on trial here. Never said it was illegal to take a gun outside. I said in the OP's scenario, it was a bad idea. And the more I see of his responses, it was a really bad idea. (if it actually happened at all)

I'm giving what I believe is good prudent advice. That's all.

Why would I make up a story that I knew would elicit negative responses? What possible benefit would that give me? Do you think I'd enjoy looking like the know-nuthin, village idiot? When I was writing it, I knew, I just KNEW people would react this way....get their panties all up in a bunch over walking outside to investigate a noise which I had all but verified wasnt caused by a perp. Sheesh. I was initially hoping this was going to be a tac light discussion, but that idea is long gone now.

Prudent advice is great. But calling into question my integrity is not appreciated.

[dieselpower]

^ and the reality is once again...THOUSANDS of people check their back yards after hearing a noise and gaining confidence it was not a person. I can safely bet it happens in every single town across the US every single night.

To try and suggest it is somehow dangerous is preposterous since we would hear about thousands of deaths every day from it.

ITS A NORMAL THING TO DO.

Calling 911, barracking in the house after a bump in the night is not the normal reaction.

It happens at my house twice a year. In fact I can remember several times this year.

1) My crazy drunk neighbor screaming in his back yard got me up, I slapped the glock in my back pocket went out back and yelled if he was OK.. He said yes just pissed at his wife. He agreed it would be better to go back inside his house and not scream profanities at the top of his lungs at 2am. I had the weapon..JUST IN CASE. Its my training to be prepared.

2) Dogs freaking out, something is in the far corner of the yard. I opened the sliding door and lit it up with my 951, finger off trigger, RDS on. There is a big-ol raccoon.

3) daughter comes screaming into my room, someone just jumped the fence, she heard two men's voices and the sound jumping a fence makes. The dogs were in and I wasnt going to let them out until I knew was in my yard. It was not a stealthy entry. I grabbed the glock and dialed 911, then I heard the squad cars radio and saw the red and blue lights. I told the 911 operator my address and told her to relay to the officers someone either passed through my backyard or are still there and its ok to check out my yard. no need to make contact with me. I will stay inside. They caught the kids 4 or 5 houses down from me. They let one go and hooked one up.

I have nothing against hiding in your house, I find calling 911 over every little noise bothersome to a community...but I see no reason for you people to mock, flame and insult Goodlookin1 just because he didn't feel those actions were needed here.

[xibunkrlilkidsx]

I can't believe you would put your family and yourself at risk over a noise in the backyard. Why try to be a hero when the cops get paid to do that. Slow down on the cowboy tactics and let the professionals investigate the scary noises outside. Inside the house, is a whole different story.

Who is dead asleep at 10:45pm anyways?

Because the last time someone tryed to get into my back yard my 90lb dog had him pinned down, with him hitting my dog with a pipe, Dog is ok. Tough SOB. The guy thought no one was home and was going to break in. I'm the same mentality. I will take the fight to you. Then a different time someone tryed to break into my shed out back. They kind of froze when they get hit with a light and told to put their hands up or youll put a 45round through the back of their skull.

Police response time in my area is over 10min.

[fiddletown]

...Training is not experience. Training is training. Experience is experience and there's no amount of practice that substitutes for the game. Furthermore, extrapolating results from simulations designed to fail aren't illustrative either...

The overall goal is to find the best ways to get the best results. The Modern Technique of the Pistol is the foundation of the ways most of us shoot these days, and that evolved out of things learned in the training and competition exercises put on by the Southwest Combat Pistol League in the 1960s.

Training, analyses of incidents, simulation exercises (including the now unfortunately defunct National Tactical Invitational), all provide data that help improve our understanding of various approaches to problems and help find better ways to get better results so honest people can better protect themselves and their loved ones.

BTW, here's a link to an interesting article by Michael Bane illustrating how simulations can help suggest better defensive strategies.

...Instructors who teach courses structure their material as to not open themselves up to liability. So though in some situations where going outside might be beneficial, no one is going to advocate that because they might be sued for it somewhere down the line.

That has not been my experience. In the classes I've taken the possibility of needing to go looking, that it might be necessary, and how to go about it if necessary, was always acknowledged and discussed. A simulator exercise during my most recent class at Gunsite was premised upon a family member in imminent jeopardy and requiring immediate rescue.

The point is to distinguish between circumstance in which immediate action is necessary and circumstances in which waiting is better calculated to produce a good result.

[BillCA]

We might as well close this thread down.
We are far-far off-topic for what the OP wanted to know - how much light is "enough" for a tac light?

Instead, we've bogged down into a tactical discussion of checking/clearing back yards. There are 2 schools of thought dominating
-- the macho-do-it-yourself school used when you've determined it's most likely NOT a person out there and,
-- the strictly-legal-minded-tactical-operatorSpecial Operations Group soldiers - Green Berets, Seals, Force Recon, Delta Team, etc. In which case if they want you dead your survival odds are close to nil, regardless of staying in or going outside. Not even from Haliburton or Blackwater.If the prowler is intoxicated it's likely you'll know he's present, stay inside and let the PD handle him.

[Kestryll]

Agreed.