Its more like that matted lint in the dryer lint filter, but this best cheap entertainment I’ve had in months !
Yaahhhhh!
AMEN!!!
As a long ex-burglar, I can say that all myself and my accomplices ever wanted to do was get your badly protected property as quickly and as effortlessly as possible. I’ve met a few burglars in jails, and the ones who actually wrecked up shit for fun and giggles, or went out intent to do physical harm for the same reasons, were very, very rare. When ever I entered a property, my first action would be to make sure I had an escape route ready in case anyone came in. Then I would start gathering anything of value into one spot. I’d carry no weapons, other than the tools of my trade(screwdriver, crowbar mostly), which were usually hidden in a safe spot before entering, but if anyone had got between my and my escape route, they would have definitely needed to forcibly restrain me to prevent me leaving. I guess I was very lucky, and that scenario only ever occurred once, when I was aged about 14. I managed to talk the guy into going outside and made a run for it, losing a shoe in the process. If you’ve ever tried running in one platform shoe*, you haven’t lived( I’m giving my age away here.).
Even funnier thing is, my mam had just bought me the shoes, so I had to tell her I’d been chased up a railway embankments by some ruffians. The next day, she had me, my dad and 2 younger brothers scouring the embankments looking for this shoe. I tried my best to feign interst for half a hour or so, until my dad got pissed off and dragged us all home.
I never told them the truth until about 10 years later.
- Burgling lesson number one learned. Wear the right footwear.
Are you absolutely sure about that? I’ll state up front that I don’t have much experience with shotguns (I only have one – a simple 12-gauge Remington 870 with an 18" barrel). But it’s been my impression that birdshot has pretty abysmal penetration, even at relatively close range, and given the tiny projectile size, is unlikely to have any significant stopping power even if the subject is hit by a large number of the pellets.
Most people I’ve spoken with about defensive shotgun use suggested something more along the lines of 0 buck or 00 buck at minimum as a “man stopper” shotgun load.
See, this is where you’re making a mistake. We all know what you mean by “tells” and I think that most of us are capable of reading subtle body language. But it doesn’t fit with the scenario. If I break into your house and you find me scampering about in your den at 0300 you have a split second to decide…in the fucking dark…am I going to attack you? am I just there for your DVD player? If I move towards you maybe I’m going to shake your hand…or maybe I plan on cutrting your head off and making stew from your brains. You don’t know, and you wouldn’t know what i’m capable of…but you’d know this…I’m in your fucking house obviously for no good and its dark. So unless your wearing Jame Gumb infra red goggles your probably not even gonna see clearly to read my “tells”.
And I gotta tell you dude, as nicely as I can, this tell thing is kinda stupid to bring up in this discussion. It not only makes you seem like an adolescent braggart, but it also makes you seem slightly delusional. I’m not trying to insult you, but hey, man, calling other people morons here ain’t that cool either. I can “tell” when someone is lying to me by subtle clues. I can “tell” when a person is thinking about cornering me on a secluded street. Heck, I can tell when my platoon leader is going to tell me something she knows I’m not gonna like. But not in the dark in a split second.
the thing is, if you;re in my house i’m not willing to risk the chance that you aren’t a crazy person. you already said you’d have to be restrained to keep from leaving. What if your path were blocked by me or another family member. most likely my wife would insist on coming with me if we heard a thief…so that ups the chance that i’d be willing ot use lethal force.
Its a no brainer…if you break into someones house you pretty much deserve it if they harm you.
Honestly, less so than I was before. After looking it up, I stand correct. Bird shot is for birds, not people. Even in a situation where you’re worried about Over-penetration, I’d go with something other than bird shot (a pistol).
Personally, I have a remington 1100 (18 inch barrel) with 00 buck, and a 9mm. I honestly don’t know which I’d grab in a home defense situation, probably the pistol.
While a bird shot would likely cease an attack on you (no cite), it wouldn’t be enough to actually stop the intruder (according to FBI Penetration requirements).
It doesn’t penetrate deep enough to damage the Cardiovascular or Central Nervous system.
Well, at least if you pack your own you can throw in some rock salt for bonus points. I think I’d throw in some habenero juice as well 
OK, something bigger than birdshot then. But I suck with a pistol, despite having qualified on the M9 once upon a time. I’m not going to stake my life or my family’s lives on being able to hit shit in the dark with a handgun. And I sure as shit ain’t walking into a defensive position. Shotgun and hunker down behind a steel door if you’re serious about safety, I stand by that.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot33.htm
That stuff hurts. I’ve never been on the wrong side of it myself, but I have a few friends who have been.
FYI: Anyone who doesn’t live in the boonies or know anything about it…
It’s a less-than-lethal load, and it’s used as a pest and thief deterrent (for crop-shitters or cow tippers). It usually bounces off the skin, but a few pieces, inevitably, bury themselves just under the skin. Not far enough to permanently injure. But far enough that even after the salt is gotten out of the skin, flakes remain for a few hours/days before they dissolve.
You should practice with any weapon you want to use as a home defense weapon.
Whatever your ‘standard’ accuracy is with a weapon, count on being half as accurate – or less – when you’re in a high stress situation.
Yeah, I’d also bet that a torso full of bird shot would almost certainly stop most people from being interested in any further activities, even if the wounds would be (from a gunshot standpoint anyway) superficial. It’s the occasional more determined assailant (possibly with chemical assistance) who will find the stinging pellets more of a nuisance than anything else. Of course, I seem to recall a story about a guy who took a 12-gauge rifled slug through the lung during a shootout with police, and continued returning fire for some time afterwards. So I guess nothing is guaranteed. :eek:
Todderbob: I was just looking at that same Box O’ Truth article! From his results, though, it looks like even a leather jacket would probably stop all of it except at extremely close ranges, and much farther out they’d probably have to be naked… 
The main point I was trying to make is that a little home security will usually put off all but the most determined thieves, and you’d never have to consider cleaning up blood out of your new sheepskin rug, or possibly having your own spilled. I live in a country where guns are far less easy to get hold of, but if things were different and I was still a burglar, why wouldn’t I take a gun, just in case you’ve got one? The chances of you surprising me are far less than the other way round, as I am operating on heightened senses, and you have probably just woke up!
What were your…tells?
See, I told you there would be NINJAS!
Well the standard thing to do in the UK is to wear little bells on your shoes.
If you are wearing bells, that means you are armed and dangerous and intend harm.
If you are not wearing bells, that means you can just go back to sleep, as that means they are only after the Tivo.
Of course its much more complicated than that, but thats the main one.
The have quite the system worked out. It’s like a gentlemans club for criminals and their suppliers.
I never needed tells whilst burgling. My alertness had me leaving several places in a hurry and with a minimum haul, after disturbing the owners.
If I had a movie of my life, and showed you a couple of specific moments in it, you’d think I WAS a Ninja. It’s amazing what adrenalin can help you do!
WHOA
Not quite right. The ones you have to worry about are the ones who don’t give a fuck about making noise even knowing you are in there. If they start heading towards your sleeping quarters, you’ve got my permission to blow the shit out of them.
Do I detect an element of doubt?