To begin this article, although it shouldn’t be, I feel like I better preface this by pointing out, as I did in the first installment, in EDC, this is my personal solution to a specific contextual problem. It’s not going to work for you—probably—because of differences in circumstance, including background/training/experience, location/neighborhood, likely/potential threats, and logistics. So, before some mouthbreathing fuckwit goes off on, “That’s not a very realistic loadout! Mosby’s LARPing, try reading the fucking article, and actually consider the reasons WHY I chose the equipment and setup that I chose. To begin with, let’s look at my situation: I live in a rural location. There are two “roads” (and I am using the term excruciatingly loosely) leading to the farm. One if an old logging trail that is largely grown over with brush, because nobody uses it except one of the neighbors, and they only drive it on ATVs or UTVs. It also goes through four different properties, after leaving the pavement, before reaching us…and it’s about four miles from the pavement, on a small, rural road that barely has pavement, and never has paint. In fact, the pavement ends about 100 yards past the turn out onto that “road.” The “main” road into our farm is county-owned, right up to our gate, but…our gate is ¾ of a mile from the pavement, which is a county paved road, starting in the middle of nowhere, and leading to even deeper in the middle of nowhere. The first half mile of the dirt road to the farm is county “maintained.” By which, I mean, the county sends a grader out to smooth it out, about once a year, when they remember, and if there is enough surplus in the roads department budget to pay for the fuel. Considering the road floods up to 8” deep, in several places, from pond overflows, when it rains more than 1”, it’s in pretty rough shape, most of the year. The last 1/4 mile of the “road” is a washed out, potholed farm trail. My neighbors regularly haul several tons of hay down it, loaded front and back on tractors, and there are several seep springs in the middle of the road, so it ends up with holes big enough to swallow a small SUV. I managed to rip the drive-line out of my wife’s 4WD Dodge Dakota (with oversized tires), falling into one of the potholes. It gets maintained when it dries out enough that the neighbor can run the bulldozer down it a couple of times…about once a year. So…you’d think the chances of “accidental” visitors was pretty slim. Right? In the last three months alone, despite record rainfall and the shitty condition of the road, we’ve had five vehicles show up at our gate (they tend to stop and turn around at the gate, courtesy of the dog, which I will discuss shortly.). On top of that, the closest “urban” center (which has a state university, and a very large heterogenous demographic, and a known gang and cartel presence), is the better part of an hour’s drive away. So, I’m not particularly worried about the “bump in the night” being a random burglar or opportunistic criminal looking to score. If someone is showing up at my house, with ill-intent, they already know what they came for. Considering the fact that everyone within about 10 miles radius is well aware of the fact that we have guns, and a relatively large number of them, and that our guns aren’t the run-of-the-mill .30-30s and .30-06 hunting rifles present in most homes around here, it’s a safe bet, if someone shows up at my gate, with ill intent, they KNOW what they’re walking into, and have decided the reward is worth the risk. So, what kind of criminals do we have in this very rural area? 1) Tommy Tweaker and Mikey Methhead are the most likely to cause problems. They also tend to do shit in groups around here. “Hey, man! I got an idea! That dude John has a pile of guns! We hear them shooting every week. I bet we could trade those for some more dope!” 2) The regional narcotics task force busted a cartel safehouse, on our mountain, about a half-mile (as the crow flies), from my front gate, the year before last, and there have been a number of break-ins in the last year, where security cameras caught video of Hispanic “gentlemen” stealing guns and power tools. Chances are, those guys weren’t cartel members, but… Finally, none of my people will ever show up at my house, outside of an emergency, without letting me know beforehand that they’re coming. Partly out of common courtesy, and partly out of survival instinct. So…if someone shows up at my house, after dark, unannounced, it is fairly reasonable for me to assume they probably don’t belong, and if they do have ill-intent, simply waving a pistol at them isn’t going to solve the problem. That’s one set of considerations. ——— The second set of considerations is, I live on a fucking farm. Granted, it’s a small farm, and we have a limited amount of livestock (although, the fact that we have three freezers full of meat, and just GAVE AWAY four whole hogs to members of the clan, I’d argue we’re doing okay on that front too…). As a general rule, I don’t shoot wildlife, unless I’m harvesting it to eat…or, it’s in my feed bins. Raccoon wandering the woodlot? Fuck, his ancestors were here a lot longer than mine were. He ain’t hurting me at all. Copperhead hiding in the leaves out in the woods? He’s just looking to survive too. I don’t have a beef with him (Although, venomous snakes in the yard…the innangarth…do get slaughtered, without question, immediately. I got kids to protect, and they’re fearless enough to try fucking with snakes…). We also have feral hogs in the area, a number of feral dog packs, and, contrary to what the state fish cops like to claim, we’ve actually SEEN two different mountain lions on the place, and heard reports of them from different people on the mountain. We also have a 200# Mastiff dog that serves as a companion/guardian for the kids, whether they are playing in the yard, or adventuring in the woods. So, generally speaking, a “bump” in the night, around our place, is usually not people, but wildlife doing something that the dog doesn’t approve of. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a 200# mastiff lose his shit barking, but it is enough to wake the dead. Additionally, a sounder of pigs screaming at something is plenty loud as well. So, occasionally; usually about twice a week, I have to get up out of bed, at some ridiculous hour, throw on a pair of muck boots (they’re the fastest to get on in a hurry, in the dark), and go out and see what the problem is. Last week, it was a raccoon in the feed bins…which is the typical issue, or a possum. The week before it was a possum in the front yard, and the dog was just flipping the fuck out, thinking that possum was going to eat his people. Because of this, my typical response, for a long time, was to simply grab a flashlight and a Glock, and wander out to see what was going on… Then, last fall, my wife woke me up because the hogs sounded like they were killing something. She was worried one of the barn cats had gotten in with the pigs and wanted me to go rescue it…So, despite knowing that was a wasted effort, I slipped on my muck boots (imagine me, in Ranger panties, and muck boots, with a Streamlight in my left hand, and G17 in my other….), grabbed my pistol and flashlight, and wandered down to the pig pasture….I could see the pigs across the pond, on the edge of the brush, and it looked like our 600# boar was beating on the feeder pigs a bit, so I shined the flashlight over there, and kicked it onto strobe function for a minute to distract them. It didn’t work. I lit them back up with the steady beam, just in time to realize that the boar was fighting a reddish-brown hog….all of ours are solid black. The other pig also had short, straight, erect ears…all of ours have big, floppy ears that protect their eyes in the brush… “Fuck! That’s a feral boar! And it looks like he’s winning!” So, I looked down at the popgun in my hand, and decided, discretion being the better part of valor…that I might not want to get close enough to shoot a pissed off feral boar with a pistol… So, bidding our boar good fortune, I went back to the house and grabbed my M4 (and this is where all the pseudo experts chime in with how I should have chose a rifle in a more manly caliber….). Then, I jogged back down, climbed over the fence into the pig pasture, and circled the pond to a position of better vantage, about 50 feet from them (it actually turned out to be 47 feet and change. I measured it the next morning). So, I’m shooting a moving target, embroiled in a fight with a very, very valuable no-shoot target (go price registered breeding boars some time…), in the dark, shooting with a white light for illumination….I lined up the magnified optic (thank the gods of war for magnified optics on fighting rifles!), and waited a half-second for them to turn in such a way that I had a clear shot. My round went in just behind the left front shoulder, on a quartering away shot. The boar went down, instantly. He wasn’t dead, but he also wasn’t using his front legs anymore. I moved in closer, and dumped a few rounds into his head to make sure he was dead. My boar proceeded to huff and puff a little, and pissed on the head of his vanquished foe. I left the carcass until morning, because we sure as shit weren’t going to eat that testosterone and adrenaline laced meat, and took my time walking back up to the house. In the morning, I checked on my hogs. The boar was a little torn up, but seemed fine, and the rest were unmarked. I called for some help moving the carcass (because a 300+ pound dead hog is heavy as fuck). The night before last, the dog was raising a fuss, so I walked outside, onto the front step, and lit up the yard with the flashlight, and saw a raccoon in the feed shed. Our feed shed and animal pens are between 100 and 150 yards from the house. I quickly flipped the light off, and went back inside. I threw on my muck boots, tossed on my “bump in the night kit,” and grabbed the M4, and went back outside. I moved over to the hood of my truck, leaned across the hood, and lit up the shed with 1000 lumens, and dropped the raccoon with one shot. The point is not “I’m the great white hunter!” I’m not. I harvested two deer last year, out of the six I had tags for. One, I shot out the kitchen window, at 75 yards (she was standing on the rifle range eating…ranging it was cake…). The other, I sat down on the front step, and shot across the pond, at about 90 yards. Both were standing still, and both dropped immediately, with one shot (for the ballistically curious….the one from the window was shot with a 175gr .308 BTHP MatchKing. The other was shot with a 62gr 5.56, out of a 10.5” barrel. The one I shot with the .308 dropped so fast I thought I missed. The one shot with the “anemic” 5.56, out of a short barrel, took one jump and fell over DRT. Interesting thing, when I butchered them, both rounds had went through the heart. So, maybe it really is shot placement after all….and yes, shooting deer with 5.56 is perfectly legal here.) I have neighbors that filled all of their tags, and their spouses’ tags as well, and spent the entire three weeks of rifle season in the woods, getting out before daybreak, and coming back after dark, to do it. I’m not the great white hunter. I can just shoot well enough to make the shots I need to make, on demand. The point is, my “bump in the night” requirements are probably drastically different than yours. I’ve also taken raccoons in the feed bins by sneaking out to the feed shed, lighting them up, and shooting them at close-quarters. I’ve also missed the opportunity to save feed that way, because the raccoons heard me coming before I got all the way there. The last issue made me decide to start using my PVS-14s, anytime I need to move away from the front porch to check on a situation (I’ve also gone out to see who was at my gate, after dark, with NVG on, only to have it turn out to be the neighbors going to check on their cattle…) ——— So, my “bump in the night” kit is set up for a couple of very particular contextual scenarios. 1) Interfering with wildlife depredation. That can range from something as simple as a raccoon or possum in the feed bins, which in theory could be dealt with using a .22LR pistol, but as many would get away as I would kill, to something as complicated as a high-risk shot, on an extremely dangerous animal, at reasonably close-range, with valuable no-shoot targets in play, like the feral hog situation. 2) The probably unlikely scenario of uninvited human visitors with ill-intent showing up looking to steal shit, knowing I have guns on the place. (Brief interlude…I am well aware that, typically gang activity, and especially cartel activity, is limited to intra-community violence. That’s fine…right up until they decide you have something they want, and they think they have the ability to take it, or until you—even unknowingly—offend their sense of honor, and they come looking for you specifically…both of which there are numerous recorded examples of, on both sides of the border.) All that shit having been said, what’s in my “bump in the night” kit? 1) It’s built around an ATS Gear battle belt. If I was more concerned about people, and less concerned about wildlife, I’d probably either throw a plate carrier on over it, or I’d switch out and use my plate carrier set up for “bump in the night” duty. The fact is though, the types of human threats I could potentially face are PROBABLY not going to walk to my farm. They’re going to drive up to the gate. The chances they are going to make it to my gate without me knowing about it before they get there are pretty slim. It COULD happen, but it probably won’t. So, the animal issue is the more likely, and last time I checked, none of the wildlife were packing rifles or pistols, so I’m not too overly concerned about the ballistic threat. 2) I’ve gone to using suspenders on both battle belt setups. It’s just convenient. This one has a pair of HSGI suspenders. 3) Starting at the left of this photo, which also happens to be the left side of the belt buckle when I’m wearing it, I’ve got two (2) HSGI taco pistol magazine pouches. Neither holds a pistol mag. The first one has a 1000 lumen Streamlight Protac light in it. The second has a Leatherman Wave multitool. As a general rule I hate multi-tools. If I want a tool, I want the right tool. However, being able to temporarily fix a hole in a fence, to keep my animals in, or to jury-rig a gate that they busted, in a hurry, is pretty fucking handy. The Leatherman isn’t ideal for that, but it allows me to fix something long enough to go get the proper tools out of the shed, without leaving a hole unattended. 4) Next up, I have three (3) HSGI kangaroo-style taco pouches, with rifle magazines and pistol magazines. What are the chances I’m going to need four magazines of rifle ammunition to settle anything? Pretty slim…unless it is a carload of tweakers or bangers…and—more practically relevant, I tend to use this as my primary training LBE on our weekly range days, so having multiple magazines is just convenient. 5) There’s a Benchmade SOC-P dagger in the small of the back. The SOC-P has a bad reputation in some circles, because of the potential for degloving (ring avulsion) the finger with that ring is so high. It’s not something I’m particularly concerned about, because I don’t actually use the fucking ring as part of my grip. If I need to draw the knife, I hook the ring with the very end of my finger, and pull it just enough to get a grip, then I remove my finger from the ring as I’m gripping the knife (and yes, I’ve done it under pressure). I really probably don’t even need a knife on this kit, and if I’m going to carry one, a more practical knife like a RAT-3 would make more sense, but it happened to be what was on the top of the pile, in the safe, when I finally put this kit together. It’s in the middle of the back of the belt, for access with either hand, and it’s low-profile enough, unlike a bigger, more practical knife, that I don’t have to worry about spinal damage if I bust my ass backwards with it on. (Fuck it. It’s there because it looks cool. I’m not even gonna try and justify it more…) 6) There’s another HSGI taco, rifle magazine pouch. It normally has a Yaesu FT60R radio tucked into it. If I need to chase something into the woods, I can call the wife, on the matching unit, in the house, and let her know what is going on. It’s not in there this morning, when I took the picture, because it’s with our resident radio geek, getting worked on, since I managed to foul some of the buttons, and they weren’t working. 7) Next is an HSGI bleeder/blowout pouch. It’s got a TX2 tourniquet strapped to the outside, and inside has a CinchTight miniature compression dressing, two packets of H&H compressed gauze, a NPA, a chest dart, a set of Hyfin chest seals, and nitrile gloves. From the photo, it looks like the BOK would interfere with the drawstroke on the pistol, but when the belt is on, it wraps around, even on my skinny ass waist, in such a fashion as to allow an unimpeded draw. 8) Gen3 Glock 17 with a Streamlight TLR-1HL weaponlight, in a Safariland ALS holster. If you look close, you’ll see that this originally had the SLS hood as well, but I remove those as soon as I buy the holster, since I’m not regulation-bound to have it, it slows the draw down noticeably, and I like to fool myself into thinking I can fight just well enough to protect the gun, with the aid of the ALS lock. 9) Somebody is probably wondering why I didn’t mention the big-fucking-dump pouch on the left side… Well, it’s because I forgot it until I got this far, and looked at the photo again… It’s a Tactical Tailor dump pouch. I’ve not, in the past, bothered with carrying a dump pouch. I never used one when I was in uniform, and I’ve not bothered trying to learn to use one since, until recently. When I put my wife’s battle belt together, a few years ago, as a Yule gift (fuck off, she appreciated it…), I went ahead and put a dump pouch on there. Since she’s worn the fucking battle belt like four times in the ensuing four years (on range days, she runs a single Kydex pistol mag pouch and a single Kydex rifle mag pouch, and tucks one more rifle mag in her back pocket), I started scavenging components off it, including this dump pouch. I use it as a dump pouch on range days. I’m really trying to streamline my tactical reloads, in lieu of JUST using the old school “speed reload,” and “grab the partial if you remember, and have time.” That’s perfectly legitimate, and works really, really, really well…but it also, I’ve found, tends to result in me not bothering to practice my tactical reloads enough (which is also the reason for the particular choice of subscription drill this week….). Typically however, this kit hangs on a peg next to the front door, above where all of our boots and shoes get dumped. Thus, it is incredibly convenient to grab in a hurry. I’ve found, putting my PVS-14s in the dump pouch for storage means I don’t forget to grab them when I head out the door to check on something. Hanging on a peg next to the belt kit is a FAST helmet. I’ve used the TNVC “Night Cap” for several years. It’s super convenient when you’re worried about storing it out of the way, but it’s kind of a pain-in-the-ass to put on, and even with a counterweight, it never felt really well balanced or secure on my head. The helmet goes on quicker, and feels better once it is on…and it’s got ballistic protection, just in case the raccoons start packing heat! ——— If you go check through various online gun and gear forums, you’ll see a lot of different battle belt setups, with various reasons given for carrying different gear in different setups, from guys who have been downrange, and done shit for real. You’ll also see lots of setups from guys who’ve never patrolled anything but their backyard. None of them are wrong. This is simply MY way of doing it, based on my understanding of MY needs, given MY contextual situation. What you won’t notice is any cheap gear on there. I didn’t pay retail for anything on that belt kit (well, except the dump pouch…and the Glock…but you get the point). Most of it either came from scouring Ebay, or waiting until I saw it pop up for sale somewhere. All of it, despite my not paying retail, was still brand-new, with the labels/in-the-box…Quit making excuses for being a cheap fuck. Continue reading...
