we did not move to the country for this

good phrase.

and when they sit you down and ask you on the spot what hapened, your best defense against the law is to break down in an emotional outburst of greif and regret.

oh I know, that aint manly or brave... screw that, it will foster pity and sympathy and keep me out of a jail cell.
the LASt thing I want them to think is "well, I have put a lot of thought intto this very evnet and decided a long time ago, if I had to shoot it would be to kill, because they deserve it if they are in my house *harumph harumph "

thats stupid... I plan on tossing the gun aside when the cops show up, shivering and bawling like a girl and screaming "omg.. is he dead? i didnt mean to! he was going to kill me! I just anted him to stop! omg is he ok? OHH nOOO whaaa! "

oh yeah ladies.... no shame here, I'll need weeks of counciling to rid me of the nightmares and guilt I tell em I have from it.

sometimes.... you have to give the system what it wants.... total regret and an emotional breakdown for the cameras.

here is the two reactions to having to kill someone in your house...
"I did it, I got em good the SOB deseved it !"
or
" OMG, I didnt want to kill him I just wanted him to stop, it happened so fast.. ohhh waaaaaa! *sob* *shiver* ~pass out~ "

who do you view as the least danger to society?

you see my point.
the truth doesnt matter, the only thing that matters is that the screwy justice system doesnt lock you up for defending yourself.

lol

Let me put it another way, for all the tough guys. You stand 20 feet away from me or 40 feet, it doesn't matter. I squeeze the trigger and you would hit the ground. While working at several game farms, I have seen shotgun would (Like Cheneys) happen. The hunters were using 8, 7 1/2 and 6 shot and at 30 yards, it would stop a man, I have witnessed it.

After looking in my reloading book, a 410 with 6 shot will penetrate skin at 141 yards. Not that it would hurt at that distance, but would penetrate. Thats 423 feet, so at 30 feet it would hurt for sure.

So I still say stand 30 feet and let me pepper you and see how tough you are then.

yes they will go down. They might even die later from blood loss. But on the chance that you hit a down vest or canvas barn coat or just do not make a good shot. Or if they are just tough or trained or on drugs you will be dead because they will still shoot you. If you are going to face an armed intruder you want to stop them with the shot. You need to end any threat to you or yours. A 410 will not guarantee that no matter what experience you have had. Shoot me with a 410 and I will kill you with a 230 grain .451 bullet before I hit the ground unless you blind me and I still may hit you before I hit the ground. I am not willing to take the chance. JMHO

After reading this thread ..
Why are any of you living in the country ??
You'all sound a tad nutz
Don't forget that you or your ancestor was once
the 'new' neighbor ..

Triff ..

I know for a fact that if you look crazy and act crazy then people will call you crazy and leave you alone. We had a tresspasser late one night after we were all in bed. I woke up to hearing our Akita in the bedroom growling deep down in his chest. I listened hard and heard someone sneaking around outside our house. I quietly woke up my DH who was not very happy to have to go outside in the cold and investigate. Imagine this if you will~~Yosemite Sam in long underwear and boots mad as all heck stomping around outside holding tight to a rifle as he tried to find whoever it was that was out there. Hair a mess, swearing up a storm and pointing that rifle at random places in the yard when he heard a noise. After a few minutes he came back inside and said that no one was out there. Next thing we knew "everyone" had heard of that happening and was saying to watch out for that crazy B-- on the hill. No neighbor is close enough to have seen him out there in the dark unless it was them in our yard.

The chainsaw gas thing happened to us one time too. DH had 2 gas cans~1 with gas in it and 1 with the gas mixed for the chain saw in it. He accidently mistook the chainsaw gas for the regular gas and put it in the van. What a time we had starting it and keeping it running until we got to the gas station and filled it up. After that it ran just fine tho so didn't harm it any.

I knew a woman who was afraid to fire her husband's gun. He was at work one day, just she and her kids were home. Her kids saw someone in her barn stealing things and ran in to tell her. She grabbed a package of firecrackers and set them off really fast. That guy in the barn took off running as fast as he could go dropping everything he had ready to steal. He surely thought the whole family was shooting at him! It did help when they were yelling "I think I got him Mom!" "Yep, you must have hit him that time!" and so on. They were labeled as being crazy too.

Sounds like good Kentucky thinking, my guess is probably less than 2%. Now, if you want to get into a grand discussion on the merits of shooting someone with a shotgun over a couple gallons of gas you found the place. Sounds like the same group from another thread planning for the next onslaught of the mongols. The best real life advice is to let your neighbors know you aren't going to put up with anymore thefts at your place. Stay vigilant, and when you catch the individual deal out appropriate non-lethal justice and the promise of more to come if it don't stop.

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~Only the rocks live forever~

Styrofoam in gas is kind of cool. I know, I was “experimenting” after I put a little gas in a Styrofoam cup for the weed-whacker and found out it ate through the bottom soon after. So boys-will-be-boys and I dissolved what Styrofoam peanuts I had into a little jar of gas and that’s when the fun began! What is the fascination with fire?

I've been away from the thread for awhile. I thought the Gal was having some gas stolen and a little juvenile-like vandalism around her place.

When I checked back in today, I see, "Act Crazy" and "Be Crazy" and "Shoot to Kill" along with all the necessary lies needed to get away with it.

Most likely a barking dog would do the trick.

Ya don't swat a fly with a tactical nuclear device. JMHO.

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"The most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being." - Sir Isaac Newton
(A REAL scientist)

Do you realize how many guys I have seen at the range that can't even hit the target at 15 yards with a pistol, let alone hit some one, who just shot them in the dark. As for all the 'IF'S' If my aunt had balls she would be my uncle. Any respected firearms instructor, military or law enforcement officer would tell you that a small shotgun is safer for the family and the user. They have done numerous studies where the shooter has shot his own family, not directly, but through walls. Pistols and rifles are no-nos in a house. Now if you want to shoot them outside, just shoot them with the .220 swift, 6 mm or the 300 win mag. They would be dead before they heard the crack.

I have three Rugers, a little one and two really big ones. But if someone breaks in my house out comes the little shotgun. I also have a 410/45 colt pistol. It rolls snowshoe hares to 20 yards not a flinch.

Not true. Being a certified NSCA shooting instructor and knowing many combat instructors I have had many recommend a shotgun of 12 gauge or even 20 gauge. I have never had one nor would I recommend a 410. Get real, a 410 is not a defense weapon unless it is all you have.

Hi - I would be careful about tricking drug addicts, especially if they are "tweakers" (methamphetamine addicts) - the drug makes them strangely hostile and paranoid and if you trick them with tainted gas etc. they very well could make it their life mission to cause you constant grief. Criminals usually go for the quickest safest crime; so the more difficulty and time-wasting you can add to the scenario, the less attractive your stuff is. This might mean something like parking your car so that the gas cap isn't even accessible (maybe you'd have to crawl in/out the passenger side) or etc.; any little delay can add up but it depends on how long you're away, obviously. Also is it possible you could drive the car a short distance to a friendly neighbor's and leave it there under observation, if you're not going to be using it?

thats the point, you dont wanna pepper, you wanna plug.

good its working!
I didnt see anyone say shoot them for stealing gas....

but it sure would leave no doubt they were dead....

of course, you would have to have a legal reason to kill anyone, and this keeps us from blasting each other into next week.... the fact that short of threatening your life, I really cant shoot you for much of anything.

the shooting people stuff came around via the self defense weapon choice.... not the gas.
IF you are going to pull a trigger on someone.... the ONLY time you would pul that trigger is to kil them.
if you try to scare em, thats attempted murder.
if you wound em, thats malicious wounding, excessive force, assult and a whole bunch of stuff.
plus its just crazy... UNLESS they are, or you believe they are trying to kill you/someone else.

we sound crazy..... I dont think anyof us actually are crazy.

I'd rather a person, preferably not you, as I probably would like you as a neighbor, be shooting at me with a .410 at 141 yards, if I can use my super redhawk scoped .44mag 9 1/2" barrel sighted at 75 yards... I'd be able to absorb many more birdshot than the other person would my 325 grain handmade bullets, loaded hot! Now iffen I was buck nekkid it might sting a tad...I've been peppered with birdshot dozens of times from less than 50yds... squirrel hunting is sometimes a contact sport... At 30' the birdshot would hurt bad... my .44 at 50yds leaves an entrance hole my thumb can go thru, and the exit hole is fist sized in a large mule deer.

I'd also trade fire from a 141yd .410 birdshot round if I can use my Ruger 10-22 scoped, sighted in at 200yds. Yes, 200yds is a long zero, but that's where mine stays, as my varmint problem waters at the 200yd range...

Pepper spray makes a good condiment if you like hot sauce. When working for the NPS, we couldn't use pepper spray unless we took a blast in the face first.

Still maintain a .410 is way too lite for anything useful........ But if a .410 was all I had after the TSHTF, I could quickly fall in love with one. I do have a .410 barrel a guy gave me for my Contender, and might have fired a small box of shells thru it, and no more in over ten years...

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Some interesting reading in this thread.

We once kept missing gas. If there was a can of gas left out, it would be empty when we went to use it. Once my Dh needed some diesel to use on a brush pile. He filled the gas containers up with diesel. Left them setting where they always set and sure enough they emptied them too. Wasn't but a couple days one of the neighbors trucks and a motorcycle went by smoking like all get out. Then within the week they were beyond going. We have been able to set gas cans out ever since then and they won't get them. But fill up the gas tractor and it will be empty the next day. DH usually just puts enough gas in it now to do the job he wants to do with it.

Earlier this year we had bacon taken out of one of our freezers that sets on the carport of the garage and biscuits taken from the fridge that is there for extra storage. We put locks on the freezers. So far we haven't missed any more out of the fridge. Guess they were hungry.

Now for the mailboxes. It is against the law to fix one that could harm someone. There are specs that you can get at the Post office telling just how a mailbox is supposed to be fixed. You see mail boxes mounted on metal plows and such. If someone slids off the road or something and tears up their vehicle or injures themselves, they can make you liable for it.

Lately there have been several burglaries going on in and around our community. They are taking stuff they can get rid of fast, like tv's cameras, jewelry and guns. They are using crowbars to break in. Some are being done in the day light while the people are at work and school. It makes you not want to leave the house, so you can guard it.

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If no one broke in and took anything, its probablly teenagers at work.

Locate your close teenagers and introduce yourselfs as the new neighbors.
Ask the parents while your there if they have had problems with break ins or gas thieving.

I would get a dog and once you have that down, get another, Its not fair to leave one dog home alone a good bit of time. Also two dogs are a better deterent to theft.

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Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away

WVPEACH (paula)

Many years ago I took a test for a guard job at a ammo dump. One part of the test was the ability to hit a target with a pistol, 45 cal. There were 130 people taking the test. This was in an area where there were many farmers and hunters. Out of the 130 only 6 passed. Many didn't even hit the target. The range was 30 feet.
Most people can not even hit a man size target when they have plenty of time and in a calm situation. In the middle of the night, target moving, excitement, fear, low visibility, unfamiliar with the weapon, you are in more danger of tripping over something than you are of being shot.
The more pellets you can throw in the direction of the intruder the better. Forget the pistol, high power rifles, anything with a scope. Use a shotgun, you might have a chance of hitting something.