Best defenses for homestead?

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VenomJockey

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Aside from wireless trail cams and motion detectors, does anyone have experience with other defensive applications?
 
There are no best defense. The priority here are multiple option to evac and a secondary and a backup to the secondary place you can evac to. There more than one type of threat to the primary than just marauders over running the primary locations. Perhaps the best plan is the OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act)
 
There are no best defense. The priority here are multiple option to evac and a secondary and a backup to the secondary place you can evac to. There more than one type of threat to the primary than just marauders over running the primary locations. Perhaps the best plan is the OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act)

So you'd have to have at least two BOL locations? Adds a lot of expense, but if that is what it takes, would just have to bite the bullet.
 
I agree with there is no one thing that’s best. You never know what kind of threat could be coming. One or two looters may be simple. A group of twenty well armed is another. Govt soldiers looking to be resupplied is another. Having a retreat option is pretty wise. Live to fight another day.
 
I think location is my best defense. I'm 20 miles from a town of 500, over 100 miles from a town of 6,000. My homestead is 2 miles off the county road behind 2 locked gates. Nearest neighbor is 4-1/2 miles away and I'm completely surrounded by Nationa Forest lands. My only real threat here is forest fire, but I still have 2 BOL's just in case. One for summer; a high mountain lake, and another for winter; a low elevation river canyon.
 
@VenomJockey As stated by others, no one plan fits all. If funds are unlimited or available, then multiple BOL might be an option but again depending on the situation. National grid down and I doubt anybody is going anywhere far. Economic collapse and rural area's may have some options but city life just became dog-eat-dog.

As you pointed out, trail cameras, motion detectors AND I also like noise / smoke trip wires --- NON-lethal. Safe for children of all ages. MODs can relax now. :D WROL situation brings about a whole new category of options. Depending on your life requirements, Senior Citizen and / or in poor physical shape (medical or past injuries) and Bugging out to a secondary BOL just may not be an option. Arcticdude seems to have a good situation as he is way out off the beaten path. To me that is the key element. I can build and defend but every fortress built by man, has or can be defeated with enough fire power and / or determination. Best defense, not having to defend. JM2C
 
Security patrols.

It's hard to beat someone out there, watching and listening.

Dogs are pretty great. Hate to lose a friend if it ran into some bad guys, but better the dog than the kids.

I'm not really into some of the out there defenses, no pits or anything. If at all possible, I want a brain behind a gun out there. Another reason for a good group.
 
So you'd have to have at least two BOL locations? Adds a lot of expense, but if that is what it takes, would just have to bite the bullet.

My location is away from any towns and the property sets high above the road, the road has two wooden bridges that can easily be taking out in a long term shtf, they would play hell getting here, it would take a top rated rock climber to climb it especially with the cliffs basalt. our biggest issue is wildland fires and two volcanoes one with an attitude.
 
Security patrols.

It's hard to beat someone out there, watching and listening.

Dogs are pretty great. Hate to lose a friend if it ran into some bad guys, but better the dog than the kids.

I'm not really into some of the out there defenses, no pits or anything. If at all possible, I want a brain behind a gun out there. Another reason for a good group.
I guess the key is not to let them hear and not to let them see. I guess I am thinking castle walls or something. But, geez, not like a castle is inconspicuous.
 
First thing is not to make yourself a conspicuous target. If someone is determined enough, they will defeat your security. I mean face it, you'll never have anything close to the security that the Antwerp Diamond Center had when it was robbed.

The vault that housed the diamonds is situated two floors below the main floor. It was protected by multiple security mechanisms, including a lock with 100 million possible combinations, infrared heat detectors, a seismic sensor, Doppler radar, and a magnetic field. The building itself had a private security force.

Yet all that was defeated and someone made off with 100 million dollars worth of diamonds and gold that were never recovered.

You're only hope is that nobody sees your stash valuable enough to go to the trouble of breaking in.
 
Just as a side note. When times get real tough, pets and guard dogs get eaten. Either by the family of by the folks that want your food and critters. Farm guard dogs got wiped out very quickly in Venezuela. A lot easier to steal the chickens if you have killed the watch dog.
 
the best defense requires 3 stage's,,,a fenced yard 4 ft. will do 6 ft. is better ,,,,several medium to large dogs inside the yard,,,I like the Great Pyrenees ,,,,and in your hands a pump action shotgun loaded with 00 BUCK,,,,,,,I go with the pump because I feel it is more reliable than a auto loader,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
 
IMO, the best defense for a homestead is location and stealth. During an extended crisis, you don't want to be along any evacuation route from the cities. But since I expect there will still be gangs roaming about, that is where stealth comes into play. To me, the critical time will be a few weeks following the event. During that time I will have no fires and will run no generators. Luckily, I live a mile off a rural road on the way to nowhere in Mississippi. I also have solar resources.

But if & when it comes time for fighting, then fight I will. I'm not leaving my farmstead. No bug out location for me. My farm is my Alamo. I will either live or die there. But I think many preppers don't really consider who they will have to fight. They think of roaming gangs but what about your neighbors? If you are properly prepared and they aren't, are you prepared to watch them starve while you eat well? You prepared to kill a neighbor kid trying to get food to eat? How are you going to keep your deer hunting neighbor from taking you out when you walk about your property? These are a few of the questions my adult son asked me, knowing I was prepping for our family.

So being the prepper I am, I took his questions to heart. I decided I could not watch folks I know starve while we ate. I decided I could never be safe if a neighbor was hungry & knew we had food. So to me the logical conclusion, if I REALLY wanted my homestead to be safe, was to build a small community of our neighbors on our rural lane. Our lane is somewhat isolated from other folks nearby and consists of 10 or so families. Two neighbors have medium sized farming & cattle operations. One neighbor down the lane is a dentist and another two neighbors are nurses. The folks closest to my house are the most redneck of rednecks. They don't farm or garden but are always hunting and fishing. Point being, I determined I'd rather have these folks as companions rather than enemies. I'd rather they be a resource for survival as opposed to a danger.

So at that point, my prepping style changed. As opposed to having a few years supply of resources for just my family, I switched my thinking over to having enough food for all these neighbors to survive short term... until we could ramp up food production. Thankfully, here in north Mississippi, we have very long growing seasons, especially if one grows the spring & fall cool weather crops. In my mind I figured the worst case scenario was the crisis starting at the end of the growing season, say late November, where we would have to largely live off of stores. So I set a goal of storing 150 lbs of long term food per person and immediately started doing so. Took me a couple of years but I reached my goal.

So my preferred method of protecting my homestead will be to communicate with my neighbors after they realize the extent of the crisis. My goal is to use my food/seed stores to provide hope and a plan for us to build a small community for self defense and for self reliance. As a group, I figure we can also protect and manage our resources, including abundant wild game, ponds & lakes stocked with fish, farm equipment, herds of cattle, chickens & plenty of land.

I personally don't think one can survive an extended crisis alone. Humans are social animals... always have been, always will be. My biggest chore as a prepper during such times will be as a manager. To communicate a plan & to communicate that if we work together we have hope.
 
the trick in trying to feed others, whilst very laudable and commendable, is having enough food to go around, fairly obvious but some forget that, trying to feed others from ones own food stores just makes you the ones starving too-eventually, if you have a ranch or a large homestead with land then its possible....maybe. if you can get others to work for their food that is.
I do laugh though when people trot out the old "chestnut" about humans being "social animals"...especially in a city, once SHTF comes along you'll find out just how "social" people are when they haven't prepared, me, i'm not social at all,(a lifetimes experience of humans, mostly negative, has caused this), low key, isolation and remoteness will be my survival tactics .
 
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the trick in trying to feed others, whilst very laudable and commendable, is having enough food to go around, fairly obvious but some forget that, trying to feed others from ones own food stores just makes you the ones starving too-eventually, if you have a ranch or a large homestead with land then its possible....maybe. if you can get others to work for their food that is.
What I do wouldn't work in an urban environment but IMO, can work on a rural homestead. Remember, this thread is about defending a homestead... not a house in the city. As a prepper with a plan, I would never feed others from my own food stores. That is suicide. As a prepper, my stores are designed to feed others. Plus many homesteads are run where they already provide lots of food and are located where there are additional resources close. The goal on a homestead should be to ramp up food production and protect resources.

I do laugh though when people trot out the old "chestnut" about humans being "social animals"...especially in a city, once SHTF comes along you'll find out just how "social" people are when they haven't prepared, me, i'm not social at all, low key, isolation and remoteness will be my survival tactics .
I agree the best way to survive a long term crisis is by being prepared & 100% away from others. Problem is, very few live in such a world. Few homesteads are in such an environment. So that being said, one who does not live an isolated life has to deal with reality. That means dealing with roaming gangs of dangerous folks and dealing with folks you know & live along with... neighbors. To me, holing up & trying to defend your homestead alone from all is not realistic. My plan is designed to work for me in my environment. IMO, it is a viable plan for many homesteads... the nature of this discussion.
 
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very few people , excluding preppers, live in the real world anyway, give it a month or two and most will be dying or dead, from starvation, dehydration, heat exhaustion in the summer, hyperthermia in the winter, disease at any time of the year once the mains go off, and violence from others especially in urban areas.
if they haven't put back supplies they aren't going to make it...period.
 

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