Urban Survival Preparation - More on Home Defense

I received another question on face book (see Urban Man on Facebook) regarding my previous post on Home Defense Preparation (view it by clicking here). The question was concerning enhancing interior wall protection, especially around the windows which would be your home’s observation and firing ports, what would be some materials other than sand bags, sheet steel and heavy layers of plywood to enhance this protection.


The diagram I placed on the aforementioned Home Defense Preparation post showed protection on both sides of the window. I failed to note that protection underneath the window is a good idea also. But primarily outside the window frames as people in your survival group assigned to this window should be observing (and firing if need be) from outside the frames of the window. This is actually a concept derived from the Vietnam War called the DePuy fighting position (replaced the old foxhole), providing interlocking fields of observation and/or direct fire with small arms, with protection from frontal fire. The DePuy fighting position diagram is shown below.

The below diagram shows how multiple DePuy fighting positions provide multiple interlocking fields of observation and fire, and being mutually supporting, while providing frontal protection.

So basically, we are just applying the DePuy fighting position concept to your home. We also believe in a Defense in Depth concept. Fences, barriers, cleared fields of observation and fire in order to interdict attackers at the earliest opportunity and to slow any assault on your home. Cut down telephone poles, large rocks, T-posts, etc., driven into the ground at a sufficient distance from your house will help prevent vehicles being driven up to or into your home. This is like the large concrete, dirt filled planters that the government positions in front of their facilities – to deter car bombs.

Anyway, back to what you can do to harden or enhance protection for your interior walls. Sand Bags, are available from multiple sources on the internet, urbansurvivalskills.com recommends the burlap bags as opposed to the newer nylon bags with rapidly degrade. In any case line these bags with plastic 13 gallon garbage bags to help reduce sand spillage. When filled each sand bag weight about 50 lbs. The advantage of sand bags is the contained and compressed sand provide good protection from small arms fire and are easily used to customize to your needs. The disadvantage is they are hard to stack high and remain stable.

Cut down rail road ties are easily stackable and provide great protection from small arms fire. A thin sheet of plywood can be added in order to nail or screw the railroad ties to to form a stable wall. You would cut down rail road ties to workable lengths. These are available at most landscaping places and some major home improvement stores.

Sheet steel is great, doesn’t take up much room, but is heavy. One quarter (1/4) inch sheet steel is common and easy to move in small packages, say 3 foot by 2 foot pieces, but hard to integrate into your interior protection unless you lean them up against the wall (not a bad idea). However, 5,56x45mm NATO rounds (or .223 Remington) even in the 55 gain ball configuration will penetrate ¼ inch steel. The idea is for the exterior wall of the house to slow the round allowing the sheet steel to stop the round.

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com mentioned plywood because it is an easily available material. Many homeowners in Florida (Hurricane country) has pre-cut sections of ¾ inch plywood ready to be placed over their windows when hurricanes are heading their way. Plywood can be cut to configure around windows frames and can be nailed or screwed together in layers to provide better protection. However wood will just not have the bullet penetrating stopping power that the others materials do.

Even buckets filled with dirt or water and placed on the interior wall will provide some protection. With round buckets you’ll have several weak points where the buckets abut each other. I guess you do what you can do. The whole idea here is to harden your house for an asault from gangs or mobs. A successful defense may make these groups go elsewhere in search for an easier target.

After Armageddon 5 of 9 - A History Channel Program and Lessons Learned

Week 17 finds Chris, his wife Ellen and son Casey's escape or withdrawal from the city continuing. Chris gets an abandoned vehicle started and finds a snub nose revolver. Three days after they left their house they continue on in this vehicle but run into a road block by armed persons committed to not letting anyone into their community.

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com believes this will happen all across the country even in gated type communities in the suburbs. People will be forced to work together as Survival is a team sport. As resources become scarce people will become barbaric and the Urban and Suburban environments will see survivors leaving in search of food.



Chris and his family leave town and demonstrate very little Situational Awareness. His lack of route planning continue to effect his ability to travel. The commentator speaks to the fallacy of traveling on major routes.

Poor initially planning and not effectively conserving their resources, Chris is forced to enter into an industrial park to barter for water and food which goes no where. After Chris is confronted trying to steal water, and food that he failed to obtain through barter, his wife shoots the ifle wielding mutt then Chris and his wife run away as opposed to grabbing the dead mutt's rifle and a case of water as they ran away.

Watch this again and see what you would have done differently. Hopefully you'll see how the Survival Preparation and Planning phase makes all the difference in the world.

Urban Survival Skills - Bug Out Bag Questions

We received a message on Face Book (see Urban Man on Face Book) from Paul, who is married and the father of two girls, 10 and 14 years old.

Paul have viewed the first four segments of After Armageddon and was introduced to the Survival Bug Out Bag concept that was commented on in After Armageddon Chapter 4. He lives in the city and is now starting to make plans in case of a collapse (economic or pandemic are his two main fears).

Paul also viewed the previous posts on UrbanSurvivalSkills.com relating to Survival Bug Out Bags and other posts on Survival Gear and Equipment. His primary questions were: 1 – should each person (including his girls) have separate items in their bag, in other words spreading out the items, such as one girl carrying water and fire starting items and the other girl carrying food and the first aid kit? What type of bags and the maximum weight would I suggest that the girls carry?

As far as splitting up Survival Gear and Equipment I think Paul needs to ensure each Survival Bug Out stands alone. Consider the people in your Survival Group being separated. Each Bug Out Bag needs to fully support each survivor. Food, water, Survival tools and clothing in each bag. Each person carrys their own important paper documentation and better yet multiple copies which can be crossed loaded.

As far as weight to be carried or limited to,......depending upon the type of bag they are using and the girls’ physical condition. I would think a very maximum of 40 lbs, maybe less for the younger girl. A lot of this will be water, which will be consumed and therefore lightening the load as you go. Same as food as it will also be consumed. Your foot movement will be slow, as it should be to ensure security. You would be taking multiple breaks or temporary halts during movement to rest, do navigation/map checks, adjust loads, looking and listening for others approaching and generally ensuring you are not being followed, especially by two legged predators.

Many great bags out there. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com is partial to bags made by CamelBak, Eagle and new bag we have been testing from Mystery Ranch. All good kit – sometimes it boils down to personal preference.

Paul mentioned he has an older Jeep Cherokee in good shape and he has two full up spare tires for it and two five gallon fuel cans that he would also take. That’s a good start. You would be leaving the urban area during a collapse, first in your vehicle, and possibly later on foot if and when that became necessary. The Survival Bug Out Bags need to be within arms reach and the contents never used while you still have a vehicle to transport you. Drink and eat out of stocks in the vehicle. The Bug Out Bags need to fully stocked if you have to immediately run from the vehicle and don’t have time to be screwing around cross loading other Survival Gear or Equipment.

I would consider a firearms for each girl based on their firearms training and capabilities. Worst case, .22LR rifles for each with a minimum of 100 rounds of spare ammunition.

Paul, the bottom line is that the Survival Bug Out Bag equipment list won’t change much per bag or per person carrying it. Consider everything in the Survival Bug Out Bag as individual kit. Thanks for your excellent question and hope this helps.

Survival Chronicles of Jim – Chapter 13

It seems to me that Urban Man and his associates have picked up speed on this site. I can see why they started slow with me as well as the information on this site starting with the basics. I now believe that you can’t do Survival Preparation for all likely events (economic collapse, Pandemic, or nuclear attack scenario) in your spare time. It has to be at least a part time effort. Part time is a dedicated effort whereas spare time is when you can fit it in.

Man, look at me! I have went from someone not even owning a gun to now someone planning to survive any number of likely catastrophic, society collapsing events. Since I wrote last, I bought another case of dehydrated food (Sliced Strawberries, Green Beans and Diced Beef) from EarthWaveLiving.

I recently bought an 12 Volt DC to 110 Volt AC power inverter that produces 900 watts continuous, 1800 watts peak power for use with a vehicle battery, although I realize that re-charging the vehicle battery will be problematic without fuel. I did look at Solar re-charging panels from a previous UrbanSurvivalSkill.com post on Portable Solar Power, but felt those panels were too expensive for my Survival Gear and Equipment budget. Reminds me to ask Urban Man to see if he can write post on more affordable solar panels.

The History Channel segments on After Armageddon and the commentary that Urban Man has recently been posting are outstanding. I had Neomi watch the first three and it must have spooked her as she asked me to explain in great detail what I have done so far to prepare for Urban Survival in the event of a collapse. She asked for the address of the Survival food companies, so I told her to go to this web site to access EarthWaveLiving.

I bought five more boxes (25) cartridges total of 12 gauge 00 Buckshot, and another 25 round box of #8 Birdshot, and, another 550 round box of .22 LR. Urban Man and his associates have been telling me I probably need a decent rifle so I’ll look at that purchase for the near future, especially since the scenario theat “After Armageddon” depicts are pretty scary.

I added ten (10) more one ounce Silver rounds to my collection Silver rounds and coins for Silver melt value. I have taken to keeping $400 in cash at my house just in case a collapse is sudden and I have a use for buying something, probably fuel, before paper money becomes worthless.

Well that’s about it for what I have accomplished in the past three weeks since I wrote last. What have you done?