Defending Static Positions in a Survival Setting

Via Survival

Sometimes a display of force will be enough to discourage looters, so that they will go find easier pickings. As I mentioned once before in SurvivalBlog, one of my consulting clients is a rancher in the intermountain west. He has a 24" diameter, 3/4"-thick round steel plate hung up on chains above his perimeter fence gate, which is 250 yards from his house. (He has a typical western ranch entry gate with a very high, stout crosspiece.) This plate is painted with his cattle brand logo, so to the casual observer it merely looks decorative. He's told me is that his intention is that if miscreants stop and show signs of forcing his gate, he will used a scoped FAL rifle to apply several rapid shots to that steel plate. He calls it his "Go away" bell. Hearing his "bell" ring will be a clear message to los hombres malos: "You have 250 yards of open ground to traverse to get to my house. Do you feel lucky, or bulletproof?"
Again, in genuinely Schumeresque times, during hours of darkness it is likely that a semi-auto burst of tracer rounds fired over the heads of a gang of looters might have a similar effect. One of my readers also suggested placing 20 pound Tannerite targets in positions around a retreat's perimeter. Ideally, these target would be positioned so that they can be seen and targeted by the retreat defenders but not by the attackers. (Tannerite can be really impressive.) Depending on the circumstances, demonstrating one or two of those going "boom" in plain view somewhere between the looters and your retreat residence might be a good way to encourage the ruffians to leave.