so easy to snipe you, burn you out

My thought was he/she is very young and lacks experince or just a troll. When most people get into survivalism they have grand illustions about how things will be and what they will do, I know I did. But the internet hadn't been invented by Mr. Gore yet. So I couldn't get on it and show my inexperince to the world. Alot of what he said in his first post I agree with, yea it's easy to die. If someone really wants you they will likely get you. All that you can do is make other targets look easier than you and yours. Humans are lazy and will take the path of least rezitance, so make sure the path to you is hard and keep a low profile. But still there are no way to be sure that you will stay out of someones crosshairs.

OGM

 

Interesting y'all bring this old thread to life again - I thought the little twerp had gotten out of Juvie and was back . . .
We sent him packing on a few different forums. His ideas were always . . . limited in scope, shall we say.

 

Juvie my a$$, he is in his late 40's and serving time in the federal pen, for the second or third time. Do a search on Meyah or Gunkid we have threads all about it. Complete with some really entertaining photoshops......

 

Meyah is aka/varient of Gunkid???

 

Yep.... Meyah was his username on this forum.

 

Ahh gunnut how we miss your wit and wisdom. Oh well he's safe and sound right now sitting in a fed pen making plans I'm sure for when the world will end and he can ride along in his tactical wheelbarrow.
Take care Be safe Poacher.

 

I hadn't read the previous page before posting up a bit. Now I see where this thread came from and which direction it was heading...What is ( was it ) about myeh that made him so universally obnoxious? Was it the short sighted pronouncements or the patronizing tone?anytimre i run across any of his old posts i get the same feeling and see the word "IDIOT" light up in my mind...Gotta be a thesis or phd study in there somewhere...

 

Never came across him as meyah. As I recall he would usually respond with insults and name calling which got him in deeper. I wonder what he was like in person. Probably didn't know how to carry on a conversation.

 

We knew him as "Plumb" and "Ohyeah" on other sites. Weird dude, indeed.

He was easy to ID no matter his name, as his M.O. never changed.

 

makes for a good chuckle though

 

Yeah, and his rap never changed and his personality always came right thru. Gets thrown off all the boards and thrown back in jail - slow learner.

 

Whatever one may think of Meyah, his theoretical scenario, or his suggested solution, the problems posed by him are not entirely without merit, and are worthy of critical evaluation. I acknowledge that there are flaws in the assumptions used by Meyah to underpin both his hypothetical scenario and suggested solution; flaws that many of you have identified and pointed out. I have also noted that only two or three posters have actually suggested counter measures to the threats of sniping and arson introduced by Meyah…the remainder mainly concentrating on either pointing out the flaws in the problem posed by him and his suggested solution; or on merely making ad hominem attacks against him. I don’t know who this person is, and probably don’t need or really want to know either, but the questions that he poses ARE relevant to anyone who needs to plan for, and execute counter measures to meet credible retreat security contingencies. Sniper attacks and arson attacks are, in my view, credible contingencies.


The aim of this brief (well I thought it was going to be brief) essay is not to offer suggested specific counter measures to sniper attack…there is a whole range of survival literature on this subject that covers the topic far better than I could. What I aim to do is to highlight the importance of war-gaming these kinds of problems to either determine the siting and architectural design of a survival retreat on a bare block BIL or BOL, or to make the most of structures that already exist at your retreat location. Doing so may save money, possibly time and other resources, and is likely to result in stronger defensive capabilities than having to retro-fit poorly sited structures. More importantly, doing so may give you, and the ones you love, more and better survival options and opportunities.

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><B><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comI have mentioned war-gaming as a planning tool, and some of you might have some mental image of a group of nerdy youths moving painted models of orcs and goblins around a War Hammer™ table-top battlefield. The idea of war-gaming tactical problems is not new. Modern war-gaming has its origins, as I understand it, in the Prussian Army. The Prussian general staff used the technique called kriegsspiel for various purposes: testing tactical doctrine, logistical and staff planning, testing leadership problem solving and decision making skills, and as a contingency planning tool to anticipate possible opponent capabilities and intentions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame)

In my time in the army, we used the term, TEWT, (Tactical Exercise Without Troops – though when Vietnam was in full swing, we called them JEWTs – (Jungle Exercises Without Trees)). We would be given tactical problems, which we were required to solve, draft and deliver to our peers and to a remorseless Directing Staff a tactical appreciation and an outline plan. Sometimes we were also required to draft and deliver a set of orders based on the plan we had presented. There were times when I would have much preferred to have taken effective fire on the two way rifle range than face the withering forensic dissection of a plan that was crashing and burning before my very eyes. One rapidly learned to develop problem solving skills and to think and act quickly. Eventually I climbed the greasy pole of promotion and became for a while one of the tactical forensic examiners, fully understanding my responsibilities as an instructor, and the necessity for REMORSELESSNESS….certainly the enemy is remorseless and unforgiving, and just as unimpressed with tap dancing as tactics instructors ought to be……but I digress.

It is said that the best way to catch a poacher is to think like a poacher, and indeed in the British Isles, many game keepers were former poachers, so thinking like a poacher was a natural ability for them. If one is to defend against a sniper, put yourself in the sniper’s shoes.

·How would you take out your own retreat by using a sniper strategy?
·What are the advantages to the sniper of using sniping as a tactic?
·What are the disadvantages to an opponent of using a sniper strategy?
·What are the things about your retreat that would make a sniping tactic easier for a sniper?
·What are the things about your retreat that would make sniping difficult for a sniper?
·What are the things that you could do, to make sniping against you more difficult or unacceptably risky to the sniper?
·What would you do if sniping was used as a stand-alone tactic against you?
·What would you do if sniping was used as part of a suite of offensive tactics against you?
·What passive defences could you prepare against sniper attack?
·What active defences could you prepare against sniper attack?

I could go on and on, but I think you are getting my drift. I don’t intend to provide solutions for you, because each situation is unique and needs to be considered on its own merits. Only you are in a position to make those judgement calls. However, your analysis may provide you with guidance for:

·Equipment acquisition.
·Buildings and structures planning, design, location and hardening options et al.
·Construction and siting of field defences, obstacles, camouflage, cover and concealment.
·Deception and distraction.
·Contingency planning.
·Developing SOPs
·Training, drills and rehearsals.


This is by no means an exhaustive list. Again, there are plenty of books and web sites that you can get information from in dealing with this issue.


When thinking about a sniper, what does a sniper need to do their job?


·A fire position with alternative positions that offer adequate fields of observation and fire to the target or target area of interest.
·Their fire positions should desirably offer concealment and cover, though sometimes a professionally trained sniper will forego optimal conditions and rely on personal camouflage and movement skills to occupy a position that may offer better opportunities to exploit surprise or some other advantage.
·Covered approaches to their fire position, and covered lines of withdrawal.
·Time. Time to recon, time to prepare and occupy a firing position / hide. Time to observe defender’s behaviour, routines, defensive measures, defender’s reactions, identify leaders or personnel with special equipment or roles within a group.
·A base to operate from where they can feed and rest with security.

Again this is not an exhaustive list.


Assessing a sniper’s intentions can be quite a challenge. Possible aims for a sniper are:


·Cause casualties, thereby decreasing combat power that can be used against him.
·He may kill outright, or wound to create opportunities for causing more casualties from rescuers, or taking the initiative away from the defenders by creating problems for the defenders to solve under pressure, that may cause the defenders to make mistakes that can be further exploited.
·He may harass the defenders thereby attacking morale, increasing psychological stress, and fatigue, each of which may force the defender to make mistakes.
·He may want to restrict the movement of defenders so that they cannot respond to an attack elsewhere: perhaps your neighbours, the looting of exposed outbuildings, or the stealing of stock or produce etc.
·He may be conducting a war of attrition with you…exploit surprise, kill one or two, or as many as he can get away with, and bug out and come back at an unpredictable time further down the track and do the same thing as often as it takes to reduce the defenders to a number that he thinks he can handle for a coup de gras end game.
·He may be part of a deception plan or a diversion to distract attention away from or provide covering fire for a coup de main assault.
·He may be a lure for an ambush.
·He may want to blind the defenders by removing the defender’s night vision or early warning capabilities.
·He may want to destroy the coordination of a defence by killing the leadership.
·He might want to destroy or damage infrastructure that will force the defenders to take risks to protect, such as water tanks, solar and wind power generation equipment, farm machinery etc.

In thinking about the sniper, be careful about the assumptions that you make about your opponent, and yourself.
·Don’t assume that a sniper is dumb or inexperienced. He is not likely to be a mutant zombie biker without a brain. Especially if you think his shooting is inaccurate. Hubris and over confidence can get you killed, just as easily as dysfunctional indecision and overcautiousness.
·Don’t assume that a sniper is a superman or incapable of making mistakes.
·Don’t assume necessarily that a sniper is rational, doing rational things for rational reasons.
·Don’t assume that a sniper is acting alone, but don’t assume that he is defended by a whole army such that you can’t get at him.
·Don’t assume that a sniper is an adult male. Although I have used the male gender personal pronoun throughout this essay, a sniper may well be female, elderly, or just a child. A child or geriatric sniper can kill you just as effectively as a 20 to 40 year old if they have the necessary equipment and marksmanship skills. (I qualified as a marksman in my school cadet corps with an ancient .303 at the age of 14 with iron sights. It was a mark of pride to carry a rifle manufactured in WWI, as some rifles were of that vintage in our cadet corps armoury at that time).
·Don’t necessarily assume that a sniper will choose a firing position, or approaches to or withdrawal routes from a position that you would. ( I know, I know, what I said about looking at your retreat from a sniper’s perspective….just remember that they are making decisions from their perspective based on THEIR knowledge, THEIR experience and THEIR training, regardless of what you may believe their perspective to be.
·Don’t assume that a sniper will engage at the maximum effective range for their weapon, nor that he will be using a super duper .50 calibre weapon. A sniper can kill just as effectively with a supressed scoped .22 from 80 metres if they can get close enough to you and the conditions are right.
·Don’t assume that a sniper will necessarily withdraw from a firing position the same way that they approached it, but don’t discount the possibility.
·Don’t assume you are powerless to deal with a sniper attack.
·Don’t assume that a sniper may not have night vision capability, but don’t discount the possibility that he may not.
·Don’t assume that a sniper rifle is the only weapon he may be carrying.
·Don’t assume that a sniper will not use booby traps to cover his withdrawal, nor that he necessarily will; be cautious but don’t be paralysed with the possibility.
·Don’t assume that a sniper attack will attack only occur during the day. Lapses in light and movement discipline may be punished severely by a sniper at night. Full moonlight conditions may be sufficient for a sniper to exploit without having dedicated night vision equipment. Night time sniping is a good tactic to wear down defenders, interrupt their sleep, and whittle away at the defender’s reserves of stamina and patience, the psychological stress may cause tensions and conflict among the defenders, and may be a severe test of a leaders’ perceived competence and authority within the group.
·Don’t necessarily assume that a body found where the sniper was located is the sniper, even if he’s clutching a scoped rifle in his cold rigid hands.


If you are a leader


·Don’t make a target of yourself…to the sniper you are a high priority. Don’t do things that signal that you are a leader by waving your arms around extravagantly like a semaphore signaller, giving obvious target indication gestures to your team. Learn to give verbal target indication and fire control orders. Learn doing this with your hands in your pockets if necessary until you master the skill until you can do it naturally without conscious thought. Don’t wear distinctive dress or equipment that differentiates you from the rest of your group. (Keep binoculars and radios out of sight). Don’t look to the sniper like you are the biggest sardine in the school…because you’ll get eaten first.
·Make range cards for your retreat. Including bearings and distances to prominent features.
·Have a map of your retreat with transparent overlays. The map should cover ground on your own property and adjoining properties at least out to the maximum effective range of a .308 scoped rifle + 50%. Mark any dead ground and covered approaches to your property. Identify any dominating topographical features surrounding your retreat, noting particularly features that will have the sun at their back at dawn and dusk.
·Have contingency plans, and ensure, consistent with Opsec, that your group knows what they are, and when they are to be implemented.
·Time is your enemy if you don’t have the resources to withstand a lengthy siege, or if help is far away. If duration is an issue, water will probably be a significant weakness if you have an insufficiency of that resource.
·Time is your friend if you have the resources and can sit out an attack until help comes or conditions change more favourably your way.
·Maintenance of morale is vital. Fear is your group’s enemy, and the sniper’s friend.
·Ensure that your group gets adequate rest, sleep, hydration and nourishment during the course of the attack. Don’t wait until the attack has become prolonged and defenders start dropping with low blood sugar levels and dehydration. Tired, hungry and thirsty defenders will react more slowly, be less attentive and become careless.
·Ensure that there is a succession plan in the event that you become a casualty. Ensure that you have a nominated second in command who is fully briefed and capable of taking over from you, and make use of that person so that YOU get adequate rest and sleep. The quality of decision making degrades rapidly when one is fatigued. Your body chemistry under stress can help and hinder you. Adrenalin can only take you so far.
·Plans can be helpful, but be prepared to change them when circumstances change. Try and make your plans as flexible as you can so that they can be adapted if needed to achieve something better than you originally had in mind.
·Predictability is your enemy…the sniper will be observing your routines quite probably well before the attack is launched, possibly over a period of days, and will exploit any repetitious practice or procedure. This will assist him in his approach to a favoured position and in selecting the timing, direction and targets for his attack.


I guess I could go on and on….but I have given you enough to digest, and my object was not to write the definitive tome on counter sniping for retreaters.

Before leaving you, I will offer two sage pieces of advice that I learned as a young soldier, neither of which I can claim as my own creation.

The first, I was taught by a Warrant Officer Class II when I was doing my officer training, and has stood me in good stead over the years. I suspect the dictum predates him, and has a number of different contenders for its authorship. He fought with the 8<SUP>th</SUP> Division AIF, during World War II, was captured by the Japanese in Malaya and survived some years as a prisoner of war in Changi.

“Rules are for the guidance of the wise, and the blind obedience of fools.”

The battle of Isandlwana is a testament to that dictum.

Battle of Isandlwana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If the circumstances in a particular tactical situation make a rule (principle) irrelevant, then if necessary, discard it or substitute it for something that better suits your purpose….having said that… you ought to have very sound reasons for doing so. This advice, I should add, is not an incitement to break the laws of your municipality, state or sovereign nation.

The second aphorism is an adaptation of an old standby of unknown origin which I have embellished with a little artistic license.

"The third Eye doesn’t mean that you have reached the highest state of meditative enlightenment….it’s just God’s way of telling you that your fieldcraft isn’t up to scratch."

Having grand plans and unbeatable strategies won’t count for a great deal if you and your group neglect the fundamentals of fieldcraft and battlecraft.


Cheers from Chelloveck.

Disclaimers and Copyright
​

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As I have invested a fair bit of time an effort producing this essay, I assert the right to be identified as the author of this work for copyright purposes. I grant permission for this document to be displayed on the survivalmonkeys.com website. This document may be reproduced for the personal use of registered members of survival.com for educational and entertainment purposes only. This document may not be reproduced for commercial benefit nor be disseminated by any publisher, digital or otherwise without my prior written consent.

The views represented in this document are my own, and do not necessarily represent the views of the owners or operators of survivalmonky.com This document represents hypothetical suggestions to a thought experiment on survival retreat security. The information contained herein should not be construed as an incitement to break the laws of any local government, state government or sovereign state. I make No warranties, either implied or express as to the suitability or usefulness of this information for any particular purpose. As I have no have no control over the use by readers of this information, I accept no responsibility for any loss, damage, injury or death as a consequence of its use or misuse. Using this information is entirely at your own risk.


P.S. I have not addressed the arson scenario, as dealing with the sniper / counter sniper scenario took time and space enough….I will submit a separate post on that subject in due course.

 

Any reason for the Bump? This does sound oddly familiar to some other ramblings lately...

 

Chell, while some of the points he brings up are relevant and we do need to consider such things, it's largely his attitude that grates. His "My way is the ONLY way!" mode of thought.
And maybe his dogged insistence that survival boils down to simply living in a hole and sniping others for their preps........

A limited philosophy at best, as would be his life in those circumstances.
A party of hunters who know the land, with a pack of good dogs - he's kibbles........

 

Kibbles is right. Well put SC.

[rofllmao]

I really don't want to run him off, but he just brings out the offense in me. I think I will vow not to respond to "him" in his postings and only provide my 2 cents on the subject matter.