Driving after SHTF

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FerFAL

SHTF skills

Blackeagle said...

On the actual subject of this post, you’ve talked here and in other posts about financial and physical preparedness, what about skills it would be useful to learn before TSHTF? Despite wanting to buy every shiny new gun I see, I’ve always tried to discipline myself into prioritizing software over hardware. So far, I’ve managed to spend more on practice ammo and professional training than I have on firearms, and I feel like I should apply that to other areas too. Self defense skills are an obvious asset, but I’d like to diversify my skill set a bit. What would you recommend? Driving skills? Medical? Others?

For self defense I suppose you are set regarding gun fighting since you found me through Gabe’s forum.

I’d do handgun and rifle training, but concentrate mostly on handgun and hand to hand combat.

Its sad to see some excellent shooters that would get their asses kicked by girl scouts.
You probably know it well, but at close range most gunfights will have a lot of hand to hand fighting.
Its not the first time someone pulls a gun, ends up loosing it in the struggle and gets shot with it.
Same for knifes, though guns are much easier to pull away than knives.

Usually, the hand to hand you get in shooting schools isn’t enough, preferably you’ll do box, tai box, and BJJ or judo. That covers, striking ( feet, hands, knees and elbows) and grappling.

This is all what you end up using when you failed at awareness, so situational awareness should me your priority in terms of defense.

Take for example my wife. If I could bottle and sell the level of awareness my little lady has I’d make a fortune.
Yesterday she told me that she was in a pharmacy when a guy walked in. It’s summer here, and the guy was wearing his hood over the head, ( too much for the warm weather we have these days) also had something she couldn’t identify wrapped and carried under the arm. She said he also looked nervous and had something his eyes, like sick or insane.

She was already close to the door ( she stays near the exits in case the place that she’s in gets robbed) and right as she saw him walk in, she decided what to do that same second and walked out.
She didn’t freeze, hesitate or wait. She instantly left as she saw him come in.
If the guy pulled a gun and robbed the place my wife will never know. She was already outside before the guy went all the way in and did whatever he had in mind.
She’s used to doing this. She’s always well aware of her surroundings, and quickly walks away when something doesn’t feel right.

Of course she got to be this way because she’s been robbed and kept hostage at gunpoint at her home and business more times than I can remember.

A good first aid class, specially that teaches how to deal with GSW, hemorrhages and other basics should be on your list as well.

You’ll need to carry some basic first aid gear in your every day carry bag.
(definitely get a practical EDC bag, I carry mine everywhere I go ever since I put a decent one together)

Defensive driving is something that you should do too. I’ve always wanted to take such a class but they are usually too expensive for me.
I can tell you that it is useful since high crime and general poverty requires good reflexes, and knowing a couple tricks behind the wheel is very useful.

I’ve read about it, practiced it and used many of them a number of times in complicated situations. My car is all chewed up by protestors and roadblocks and the suspension needs replacing due to emergency driving over places where a normal car shouldn’t go through at those speeds. The streets and roads here are in pretty bad shape so its not entirely my fault.
Downtown is nicer but the suburbs have some craters were you could burry someone.
Keep in mind that there are lots of dirt roads in the southern suburbs and they get pretty bad, specially after if rains.

You can keep a nice proficiency level in self defense shooting with dry fire. Saves a lot of money and improves trigger control, even practice and run dry fire mock scenarios at home were you are likely to end up defending yourself.
You can reduce the amount of ammo you shoot. Instead of shooting 1000 rounds a month you can shoot 200 and mostly concentrate on dry fire, using the live ammo at the range only to test the improvement.

Mostly, do a lot of reading. I’ve learned lots of things out of necessity. Since I don’t have the money for classes for everything I’d like to learn I read about it and later put it to practice. Woodworking, metal working, finances, computer skills, etc.

Gardening and business development classes have become also popular.
If you have some land and wish to keep an orchard, again, reading a lot or taking a few seminars or classes, that’s very valuable.

Never underestimating the power of money, seminars with money making ideas and business developments, micro businesses as they are called here, those are great alternative ways of making extra money or increasing the profit within your business or profession.
Check the local community center or local college for classes on business development, marketing, sales, or other additions to your profession that may give you an extra edge in the more competitive future that awaits us.

FerFAL

Evasive Driving

Don Williams said...

3) Re automobile evasive manuevers, have you heard of the executive protection driving techniques to avoid ambushes?

Ex: Moonshine turn -- one slows to 30 mph, pulls the emergency brake, and then turns wheel strongly to throw the rear of the car around so that one is facing in the opposite direction and driving away from an ambush.

Or the J-turn -- in which you stop, accelerate strongly to the rear until you are at 20 MPH, then cut the wheel sharply to throw the front of the car around so one is facing back in the direction from which one came and can accelerate away from the ambush.

One thing not commonly mentioned is that you need to make sure your tires are fully inflated. Else, the tires may come off the wheels if you do one of the above manuvers.

In which case, the robbers will mock you cruelly with scorn and derisive laughter.




I’ve heard of them, read about them, practiced them until I learned them well and have used them many times to get out of trouble.

I drive manual and the car is relatively light and has enough weight in the trunk thanks to the natural compressed tank in there ( dual fuel car ) so speeding up a bit, pulling the emergency brake and doing a 180 isn’t that hard one you learn to do it.

In my experience, it’s important to learn how to drive well backwards too, so that you can do it fast and still avoid hitting people or obstacles.

Most of the time that’s what I do: I see trouble or something suspicious, put reverse, and take some other route.

Maybe the most important thing: React fast. There’s times when waiting a couple more seconds makes all the difference.
You see the opening and you just speed away. If you doubt you get caught.

I don’t know how you train yourself mentally to react this way but you should.

Road blocks these days are far less common, thought there still are protestors burning tires and making a nice mess every now and then.

Again, you have to react fast, DON’T stop, and keep on moving.

It’s not for the weak of heart to push through protesters with your car, but getting out of the vehicle isn’t a good idea either. The mass, taking advantage of the anonymity, can be very brutal.

You have to be careful and PUSH them with your car, careful not to speed up because you’ll run over someone and you don’t want that.

Of course after doing this for a while your car starts looking pretty bad, mine is full of bumps and nicks, it’s been hit with fists and sticks by roadblockers a number of times and I haven’t repaired it.

A maneuver not very common but rather useful is drawing quick “s” with the car.
This kind of scares other drivers and people and they instinctively move away a bit, maybe giving you the opening you just need to slip away.

I want to take an evasive driving class, but the couple ones I saw are just too expensive.

FerFAL

Weirdest thing that happened to me yet on the road…

The “EDC” and “10 things you would have done differently” posts are taking a bit longer than expected, but something happened the other day and wanted to tell you guys and girls about it.

The day before yesterday I was driving through General Paz highway.
About 4 PM, not a lot of traffic but still several cars around.

Minding my own business as usual when suddenly the car in front of mine starts slowing down (little red flag in the brain went up), and from the front passenger’s window a guy pulls most of his torso out of the window and points towards me with something in his hand, at first I thought it was a weapon, but instantly recognized the deodorant kind of bottle shape that protruded from below.
He started spraying my windshield with foam!
The instinctive thing to do would be to hit the brakes, but given the speed and cars near by, it would have been a big mistake.

I already had my gun out, so I went right and got close to the AH, pointed the gun to his face. (AC doesn’t work so the window was down)
He made the usual “entire life flashes before your eyes” face people put when you do that, eyes opened wide, combination of stupidity and surprise look.
He started shouting something to the driver.
They immediately slowed down and disappeared, didn’t see them again.
I don’t know if they wanted to carjack me, or just cause an accident, but being cautious always worked out for me.

Just wanted to share that because I thought it was pretty weird.
People here sometimes get robbed after they throw stones into the windshield, but this is the first time I saw this foam thing being used in such a way.

FerFAL