Blend in or stand out ? A brave show or no go ?

K

Kevin the grey

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Aug 26, 2005
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O:K: the poop has hit the circulating device and you are in a rural setting . (medium to large city . ) It is the kind of disaster where things will get better but not any time soon . Lets say you are on your own for a month as far as assistance is concerned .

You can,t bug out or you choose not to bug out . You are reasonably well prepared . You will still need the occasional article . Mostly you can buy sometimes you may have to trade .

In other words you will have to be out among common folk , shop owners and trader , trader/piratical types .

Do you stand out ? Ready for anything armed to the teeth ? Do you appear as common folk ? How would you handle it ?

Second scenario would be how should I handle it ? I,m a pretty big older man .
Still able to move fairly well but evidently out of shape . I have found my size makes me a target . Let us just put it down to the fact that I stand out .
 
Even a large man can blend in. Consider your clothing. Consider your footwear. Use small bills when you have to pay for something, and fein an empty wallet. Keep your money elsewhere, NOT in your wallet except some show and throw. And not in your shoe. If I have to go about armed, I prefer to do it openly. Militaristic black guns draw attention. Granpappy's thuty-thuty don't. Ditch all jewelry. Crack the chrystal on your watch. Patch your eyglass earpiece with tape. Now, you don't want to look like a bum, but not a source of easy income either. There are some good books out there on how to avoid being a mark.

Codger:thumbup:
 
Codger_64 said:
Militaristic black guns draw attention. Granpappy's thuty-thuty don't.

Codger:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Very good advice, while coming through the gate on a military reservation shortly after 911 a friend of mine was caught with a remington 1187 with a choate tactical stock and magazine extension, it was perfectly legal, unloaded and in a case. The gate guards hassled him for over hour even running the serial on the shotgun. I come through with the exact same shotgun with a factory walnut stock and the mag extension not attached and all I get is asked where the good bird hunting is.:D Black guns might be all the rage but I go to great lengths to make my guns look as common as possible. Chris
 
Yea , there are certain things one can utilize that blend in far better and still do the same job.
Some folks perfect survival vehicle is maybe a Hummer or a huge SUV , both of which literally scream "I'm rich!!" , also a side note both of those vehicles would make excellent vehicles to "commandeer" by some auto totin' National Guard folks , if it came to that.
My perfect survival vehicle would be a well weathered and dinged older ford pickup- think F150 - (or Chevy etc..) with well maintanenced *sic* engine , tranny etc.

Shiny new clothes and boots make one stand out ,
carrying that .460 Weatherby Mk V rifle makes one stand out as do any other fancy gear.
If I did have to go in public I would make myself look as inconspicuous as possible , act as inconspicuous as possible.

Remember most people do not think like us , especially in larger cities.
I cannot recall how many times I've heard a co-worker or associate say they are coming over to my place in case of disaster, whether they were joking or not it does show that most people tend to avoid the possible and sometimes , inevitable..

To be honest if things went to hell , other than my family and closest of friends , everyone else is shit outta luck , unless they happen to be a single , atttractive female ;) I am a man afterall and someone has to help rebuild society.

Good call on the guns too, I love my 30-30 , it will provide meat and defense , although I would back it up with a good quality Combloc AK variant for more "troublesome" varmints.
 
Blend in, always blend in, unless you know the people around you are likely to get aggressive. Then it's best to stand-out as much as possible so as to give them something to think about.

In other words, is shit happens I'll be armed but I'll be doing so concealed carry. No point in getting the local suburbanites freaked out by my weaponry. On the other hand, if looters and other rogues decide to pay a visit to my neighborhood, I'll be on my roof with a rifle and a good amount of ammunition.

They say during the riots in Los Angeles, the only stores that didn't get looted/burnt out were the ones that were obviously protected by armed men on the roofs of those businesses.

So, as is the case with all survival gear and tactics, you adapt your tools and strategies to the current conditions.

I believe this strategy is sound, regardless of whether I'm in the city or in the country.

Comments?
 
The roof...hmmm... high ground. High ground can be good. A roof can be a piss-poor place to be caught in a gunfight though. You'd look like a pop-up target in a shooting gallery skylined like that. Personally, I'd prefer the mobility of outside or at least moving from room to room in my house. A "looters will be shot" sign is pretty effective. Always better to figure out ways to defuse a situation than to escalate it. Shooting someone may sound cool or brave, but believe me it is not. Neither is being shot.

Stir a little here, stir a little there..... :D

Codger
 
Codger_64 said:
The roof...hmmm... high ground. High ground can be good. A roof can be a piss-poor place to be caught in a gunfight though. You'd look like a pop-up target in a shooting gallery skylined like that. Personally, I'd prefer the mobility of outside or at least moving from room to room in my house. A "looters will be shot" sign is pretty effective. Always better to figure out ways to defuse a situation than to escalate it. Shooting someone may sound cool or brave, but believe me it is not. Neither is being shot.

Stir a little here, stir a little there..... :D

Codger
Click to expand...

The scenario that I'm describing was one of prolonged, out and out rioting. There was a complete breakdown of law enforcement. Businesses were being burned to the ground, and people were being assaulted and killed upon a whim.

It was in fact a situation where the mob mentality ruled. Like all mob mentalities, it tended to lose it's steam if the mob was forced to stop and think.

A fellow on his roof, rifle in hand, plainly visible for all to see, has a tendency to make people stop and think.

That said, I don't know if those people on the roof tops had cover to duck behind if the mob got too close. My guess is 'probably.' My other guess is, the mob tended not to get too close as there were plenty of other undefended properties to attack.

Anyway, not a strategy that would work for all, or even most, survival scenarios. But in that particular case, it seems to have been the right way to go according to all the evidence available to me.
 
I recommend blending in but be prepared. Low profile. Kind of like the hot car with th pain exterior. Conceal handgun or other weapons. Long guns out of sight. As above don't let yourself be preceived as a source of resupply for others.
 
I live in a nice rural town 50 k in town 250 k in the metro area, riot nah, life style change, some, maybe for the better for most of us. Where I live we are pretty much all kith and kin.
 
I say blend in, look like a local good ol boy, and in fact actually be one. I know my neighborhood and the people around me and I'm known by them. My Dodge truck looks like a beater but it is well tuned. I don't carry a gun in a window rack. If I did decide to carry in the truck, it would be on the passenger seat where I could easily get at it and stick it out the window.
 
A further note about gunfights (I've never been in one) but I remember reading in the old Field & Stream magazines an article by Robert Ruark about how the old white plantation owners in Africa would keep shotguns laying on the floor of the house. The maids would clean around them (I know, this sounds sexist and racist) but they were there when the SHTF and you could drop down and easily get to them.
 
They also did this during the Rhodesian war, according to an old soldier of fortune magazine article. I recall it stated even the dogs and children would leave the guns alone. During the Chicago riots in the sixties my stepfather kept guns on tables and shelves and we children did not think of touching them.
 
Back to Kevin's question, I think staying under the radar is a good survival technique anywhere...go with the natives, the tribe, blend in...If you go around looking like a bad-ass you might get killed before you even know a fight has started.
 
Definately blend in...
Many social problems and discrimination are caused by percieved diferances. If you have a flock of turkeys and only one is white; whih do you think will get shot?
In foreign countries I try to stop in a local shop and pick up the same clothes as are normally worn by the populace (protective caomflage works!).
Enjoy!
 
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