4Sevens MiniX 123
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FerFAL
Life in Argentina after the 2001 crisis.
FerFAL,
I just started reading your blog a few weeks ago, and have begun implementing a few of your suggestions. Even with the little I have done so far, an incident last night showed me just how valuable a little bit of preparedness is.
At 4AM my wife shakes me awake and whispers, "I think someone may be in our house." I jumped out of bed, fumbled around a bit for my 9mm Glock, then though, "Oh crap I need a flashlight!" Obviously what I needed was a tactical flashlight, but those were in another room. However, what I did have was a keychain LED I started carrying after reading your blog. Not much, but at least I could see. I then proceeded to check the house. Thankfully it turned out to just be our cat making some noise.
Even though it was a false alarm, I was glad I knew the basics of how to handle it. Also, I knew that if it came to a fight, I at least had some knowledge of how those go down. Nowhere near as good as actual training, but better than nothing.
Here are my lessons learned:
ALWAYS keep a tactical flashlight with my gun
Install a light where I keep the gun that comes on automatically when I open its container so I'm not fumbling around with a loaded gun. I'm thinking one of these magnetic switches wired to a AA battery and a red LED.
Buy some JHP ammo. I did not enjoy having to worry about overpenetration from my FMJ rounds.
Sleep in something I can clip a knife and a reload mag to.
Secure my doors and windows better. It was hard to feel like I had fully proven that there was no intruder when there are so many EASY ways in.
Make sure my wife knows that if she thinks there is a problem, wake me immediately. I later found out she had been awake for 10 minutes worried that someone had broken in but thinking it was probably the cat and therefore did not want to wake me up. I told her what I read on your blog, that she has to wake me any time she thinks something is wrong because even though 99% of the time it will be nothing, that 1% could be life or death. I will gladly trade a little lost sleep for the safety of my family.
Also, before I read your blog I had kept my gun with the magazine removed. Now I keep it with the magazine in but no round chambered. This is because my wife is absolutely not ok with having a round chambered before we go through Front Sight. However, I was quite thankful last night that I at least had the mag in because finding both the mag and the gun in the dark and getting the mag in correctly would have taken a LONG time.
Of course, most of these are things you have said over and over. They made sense when I read them, but now I am quite motivated to actually do them. Even the few changes I have made over the past few weeks in both preparedness and mindset helped tremendously. If this had happened a month ago, I would have been fumbling around with a magazine in the dark, blundering about the house with no light, and still convinced that a round or two of FMJ 9mm will put down an intruder no problem.
So in sum, thanks for writing this blog! My family is and will be safer because of it.
John
I've got to say you book hits the nail on the head 100%
I was recently burglarized and had 3 AR-15's and a Saiga 12 shotgun were taken along with the wifes jewelry. This county in Ohio is very rural only, one deputy is on duty at any one time and the crooks know this. There are 4 three man teams working hitting in broad daylight, night when ever they want. I suspect this is only going to get worse. Concealed carry classes are going on almost daily.
I've learned a lot from this; dumped this years tax return into security cameras solar motion detecting lights, a new gunsafe a steel front door etc. Thanks for the book, I wish I had implemented more of your suggestions early on.
K-
You might be better off with adding bicycle as suppliment to your a bug out vehicle sometimes. Roads bridges maybe clogged with traffic and protestors, fuel may be scarce. You can carry a decent amount of stuff on sturdy bike and keep moving. Granted if you have small kids you are still screwed.We hada small earth quake here a few months ago on the east coast, a 4.5. Traffick was snarled to a crawl and the subway was limited to 15 MPH. A bike would have been handy in getting home.note to all Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita put about 10,000 infantry on bicycles to keep up with his tanks. He used them as “motorized infantry”. He choose the bike, to increase speed and effectively double carrying capacity (for food, water ammo) of his grunts while keep fuel needs down, saving that limited “lift capability” for the ammo, food and water that couldn’t be carried on the bikes.
Hey Fernando,
First, fantastic book! I’ve read it twice and referred to parts of it many times. Both your book and your website are invaluable.
I have what might seem to be a dumb question, but here goes anyway. I am about to buy a new vehicle. Years ago I had a pickup truck and when I had it always said “I never want to be without a pickup truck”. Well, after many years of good service it died, and I ended up with a minivan, thanks to the family life. After a little while with it, I grew to love it and began to say “I never wanted to be without a minivan”. Anyway, the van has died and I’m now trying to decide which to get. On the positive side for a pickup truck are things like ground clearance, ability to throw absolutely anything in it, and oh by the way it’s a truck. As great as all that is, I found over the years that the minivan was almost better. Taking the seats out gave me tremendous space, and it was all enclosed, all the time. So if I had “stuff” in it and it was raining it did not get wet. If I wanted to stop someplace I didn’t have to worry about someone walking by and taking things out. As dumb as I feel like it sounds, I really cannot figure out which might be better if something bad breaks. Everyone thinks the truck is better, but I’m not sure. Any thoughts??
Thanks,
Terry