Things that go Bump in the Night

[Lone_Gunman]

I'm not an expert, but having gone through a couple of CCW classes, and a home defense shotgun class I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER leave the house to clear the yard.

Have bright outside lights, either on a motion sensor, or a switch you can access from inside the house. Hear something, turn on the lights, let them know your home and awake. Call the cops if necessary.

You don't know who or what is outside, you may come across an LEO looking for a suspect, and there you are toting a loaded 12 Gauge. It may be different if you live on a large piece of land in a rural area, but in town? Hells to the no. Say you come across a teenage in a hoody, he makes a move and you, with no training, blast a big hole in him with your 12 gauge. He's unarmed, on the way back home from the store buying skittles and iced tea. He just jumped your fence to take a shortcut home, it saves him a few minutes of walking. Now he's dead, and you're in jail.

Stay in the house. If they come inside, game on.

[Zartan]

I would NEVER go outside and pursue. Watch from inside, phone ready

[UBFRAGD]

Cool post. Saturday night, heard a distinct knock/ bump at 3am, dog barked twice, armed with 9, can't find anything or anyone. Finally back to bed, get to sleep, bump/bark again, now I'm pissed, this time grab the 930, yes I sleep with two guns, again, nothing amiss, no one around, go back to bed, look out window, see the fattest raccoon ever waddle out my front yard. Dang that thing was as wide as he was long.

[guitar-nut]

Only ever had one scare. At about 2AM I heard breaking glass, extremely loud. Rolled out of bed, grabbed the AK, and checked out the whole house. Turns out the cat had gotten into a cupboard and knocked a large glass serving dish to the floor from about six feet up.

Lessons learned: Never keep the rifle case zipped up. Unzipping it to get to my rifle cost me a lot of time and makes noise.

Always keep one in the chamber. Having to chamber a round also costs time. I don't have children, nor does anyone bring children over so keeping a loaded accessible firearm handy is a viable option for me. I realize that might not be the case for everone, do what you're comfortable with.

And last, but not least, lock the damn cats up! They now sleep in my spare room at night, with no breakable objects around. Next time I hear glass breaking, I'll know that it's not a tabby cat vandalizing the cookware

Edit: Just remembered a 2nd scare. Load noise in my sideyard at 11PM. I live in a rural area and had no problem taking the AK out to investigate. Turns out a Mountain Lion was drinking out of my (mostly drained) swimming pool. Bad drought must have brought him into the yard looking for water. I backed up slowly and went back in the house, my heart racing. My lesson with that one: if it's not in the house, leave it the **** alone.

[Calplinker]

Good advice

I understand that this thread is about facing your personal fears and being able to act through them; I also understand that you don't have any formal training. So if you'll allow me to point out a couple of things training would have taught which would increase your margin of safety during these incidents.

Incident 1. You noted correctly your failure in your response, however you didn't note the easily avoid error. You shouldn't search with a Weapon Mounted Light (WML) because it means you point the muzzle at everything you're illuminating (Violation of Rule 3). A WML should not be used as a substitute for a hand held light for searching a room. An even better idea is to just turn on the lights in the room.

Incident 3 & 4. Are tactical failures. You should never leave the safety of your house to clear the yard. First, you have no idea if someone is laying in ambush waiting for you; secondly, your ability to use deadly force in this situation is much more questionable than inside the residence

+1 on everything said here. I don't use weapon mounted lights for this very reason. If this is your only light, then to illuminate something, you have to point your muzzle at it. Not good.

And, as stated above, it is never a good idea to leave the safety of your home and go outside. If you need to use deadly force, be prepared to explain why you "went looking for trouble". I know that wasn't your intent, but you will be asked to justify this behavior in the inevitible civil proceding, and if you're unlucky, perhaps in a criminal proceeding.

[eckerph]

Stop watching scary movies before bed.

[Sheperd80]

Edit* tapatalk has a mind of its own.

Anyway you all make interesting points. I dont usually go looking outside but once the house was clear i felt the need to go make sure no one is around as opposed to waiting all night not knowing. However the point made about stumbling across a LEO or something else unforseen makes sense.

About weapon lights, i dont usually walk around with finger on the trigger and ive had to use a flashlight in the offhand in the past and didnt care for it. I dont think im gonna change that. I just keep the muzzle low, it lights up the whole room.

I definitely need some training, its one of those things ive always meant to do just havent got around to. I told the ms. thats what i want for my bday so we'll see.

Thanks for the replies and insight.

[paul0660]

I like motion sensing lights and alarms. Finger on trigger? Is this 1975?

[scrubb]

May I suggest switching to decaf? That and some yoga/relaxation classes. You sound extremely wound up if you clear your house twice a month. Good luck boss....may the force be with you.

[Sheperd80]

May I suggest switching to decaf? That and some yoga/relaxation classes. You sound extremely wound up if you clear your house twice a month. Good luck boss....may the force be with you.

"Grab gun and casually look around once or twice a month" maybe less. Im not commando rolling down the hallway with a knife between my teeth... Im not that wound up really but there are a fair amount of break-ins in my neighborhood and when i hear something that sounds like humans id rather be safe than sorry.

Its unfortunate because as i said before, my neighborhood is relatively nice, mostly families and older people. But just a few blocks away is another story, i think my street is attractive to thieves.