Re: Clearing a house questions
A couple of things I have noticed by looking at your floor plan are this. Your probably in the worst placement possible. For a few reasons. The number one reson is that your bedroom is a the end of a Funnell, as soon as you exit the Master bedroom door, your possibly in the sites of anyone in the living room, dining room or kitchen. Think of the fields of fire from the attacker standing in those rooms.
Second, Your kids room is across that funnel, so taking a chance of getting them and heading back to your room, you put yourself in danger once and your child in danger once.
Third, and I am guessing your childs room is the one straight across from yours, if you decide to try to wait it out, while the wife is on 911, and you cover the door, you are going to be shooting towards your childs room, should the attacker appear in the doorway.
And lastly, as far as not wanting to fire onto the neighbors house, your entire route down the Hallway and untill you get up against the living room wall, you will be shooting into the neighbors house.
I would suggest this as far as clearing the house. Come out the room "low and slow" bad guys arent looking for people crouched, and if it's dark your probably gonna get the jump on them. Make your way up against the opposite wall from your bedroom, then hit the spare bedroom, then out (unless the door is closed and locked)and follow that wall all the way around the perimeter. This should pretty much allow you to clear the entire house, except the laundry and storage. Always think of the enemies line of sight as your doing this.
Some suggestions that I would make to make this a safer practice, Pick a spot in your bedroom, that you will approach the door from, and keep in mind the location of your child, and try to keep from having to possibly fire in that direction. If the childs room is across the hall, place thier bed againt the exterior wall all the way to the right of the picture. And approach the door from the wall against the storage room, That way you will be the last thing the bad guy sees if he comes up the hall. Tell the wifey to get in the floor and call the Police. Keep all the doors in your house closed, and locked if possible, it's not foolproof, but it should slow them down and they will be concentrating trying to quietly open doors, so you may get the surprise on them, also if they go into a room, they probably arent going to shut the door behind them, so you should be able to tell where they are or have been, and if you come to a room with an open door, you may need to double back. keep your house as dark as possible, especially that hallway, Chances are ambient light will be present in the living area, so if you can get that hallway pitch black at the end, they will never know whats going on down there, also you could hang a bead curtain. etc. up there to break thier vision even more, this wont affect you as much as you will be looking out of the dark into the light.
Doors are the most dangerous part of room clearing! And if at all possible dont stick your muzzle through, untill you have checked as much as possible, Sidestepping a circle around the door.
Also as stated above, try to get some rounds that wont penetrate 6 layers of sheetrock.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot1.htm I would suggest getting the MOUT MCI, and studying up on that. Your gonna be doign this by yourself with no flash bangs, no nothing so it's super dangerous. I would suggest as stated above, waiting it out. Basically the same strategy as I said above, bed against the exterior wall, you against the storage room wall, get on the floor, and wait for the bad guy, If the door is shut wait untill you get a positive ID on the person opening it.
Half asleep one night, my son decided to come sleep in our room, I awoke to a squeaking floor, and before I had time to gain my bearing, the door handle turned, I was feet on the floor and headed for the door ready to kill, "Dont move motherfucker," and what comes from the other side of the door but "daddy?" I dont know if it was me or him that was more scared, I know he went back to sleep before I did!
ETA, I knew I was forgetting something. Mirrors, Keep a small hand mirror in your room, you can check areas around corners, without putting your head out. We used em in Iraq, it works. Thanks for reminding me UKD.
