Finding Cover in the Home

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David Armstrong

Moderator
In another thread, justinucus asked, "How can one reasonably harden one's sanctuary? Assuming that pouring concrete and installing a couple tons of steel is beyond our means, any suggestions...?" I thought that was worthy of thread all by itself. So how about it, folks, let's hear some creative ways to provide some cover inside of the home. Here are some I have used or seen used.
A good bookshelf, with a fairly small number of books, will stop virtually any handgun round, many rifle rounds, and all shotgun rounds except slugs. Large planters, filled with dirt, will soak up lots of rounds. Use the plastic/fiberglass types, not the actual clay and ceramic things. A cedar chest (hope chest/foot locker style) packed with blankets will stop a lot, and slow most others down to where they aren't much of a threat. Don't know about the new LCD TVs, but the old models are pretty good, depending on the size. If it is your own house, get rid of those silly hollow-core doors, and get a solid wood/metal sandwiched door.
Pax added a dresser with a pile of clothes in the drawers.
Any other good ideas?
 
Filing cabinets (full)

Decorative brick or stone interior half walls

Heavy furniture

National Geographic magazines on your bookshelves, packed tightly. Calendared (coated) paper is amazing.

Bomb blankets (you didn't say 'cheap')

lpl
 
I don't disagree with any of your ideas and they all make perfect sense. I would suppose though in my mind I am counting almost as much on the element of surprise to help me get the intruder before he or she gets me. If I am hunkered down in my bedroom, on the floor behind the bed, with a clear line of sight of the door and the door opens I have the benefit of having a clear target while the BG is searching for one. I figure I should be able to have 2 or more shots off before my position is identified. If I am a half way decent shot I should be able to hit the BG standing clearly in the doorway.
 
FyredUp said:
If I am hunkered down in my bedroom, on the floor behind the bed, with a clear line of sight of the door and the door opens I have the benefit of having a clear target while the BG is searching for one. I figure I should be able to have 2 or more shots off before my position is identified. If I am a half way decent shot I should be able to hit the BG standing clearly in the doorway.
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This is my plan, too -- I'd assume that one shot will identify my position, more or less, but I'd expect to get off more than one... It's about 12 feet to the doorway, so my chances of hitting a silhouetted BG with a shotgun are fairly good, I think. And there are boxes of books under the bed, so it's not bad cover. My other choice, in the bedroom, is to hunker down behind a combination of a bookcase and a chimney that projects into the room, but that would require me to shoot left-handed, which isn't what I'm most comfortable with, so I think I'll be behind the bed.
 
You can get NIJ IIIA ballistic wall panels. While not cheap (I think they run just under $400 for a 50"x24" panel) you can get a few for a couple grand and use them to armor key defensive points in your house. For instance, you could armor the wall to one side of the bedroom door.
 
I, too, have thought about this on numerous occasions. In short, me and my family have NO adequate cover in our home. We have lots of concealment options, but nothing that I would put my children or wife behind and consider them safe. All the plush sofas, chairs, etc will do me no good. I have no solid wood furniture that is not against a wall. I do have metal exterior doors and redundant locks, but the best me and my family can do is retreat to one of the further removed rooms in the house, protect the hallway and entry to the room, and wait for help.
 
If you live in the fantasy world of Hollywood, you could always just hide behind a couch. They are impenetrable to bullets. :rolleyes:

Fly
 
I figure I should be able to have 2 or more shots off before my position is identified. If I am a half way decent shot I should be able to hit the BG standing clearly in the doorway.
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As I'm not sure your bed will provide much cover for you, what do you do when/if you don't stop the BG or there are multiple BGs?
 
If i need cover i am hosed. That means i missed with my 12ga. If that happens i deserve to get shot. When i was in the Marines in a combat zone i thought this way but i dont think i need to in my home. I have seen what a 12ga does from inside of 20ft and it aint pretty. My 870 will so just fine so why worry about barricades and such. 99.5% of scumbags will flee after hearing a shot. the others will die of thier wounds before they can flee.
 
my buddy at work told me that he turned his closet into a kind of safe room. invested in a steel door + frame. Then on the wall to living room there are built cabinets (people can't kick in at least plus give some protection.) The other walls have extra wood added to them and then sheet rocked again.

so kicking in is tough. I dunno about bullet resistance though.
 
For those that managed to misunderstand the thread, it isn't a "how will you defend yourself." Plenty of other threads for that. What we were trying for here is ideas on how to improve the "I'm gonna shoot it out and probably win because I'm so good and sneaky" basics to "if I'm not good and sneaky enough what are some ideas to improve the long-term prospects of a gunfight".
 
There a plenty of ways to add bullet resistance to walls in a home....BUT... Most of those ways are out of the question if you are not building the house yourself from the ground up...

This MIGHT be somewhat easy to do...

This is what is protecting you currently... Sheetrock, a few studs, wires & possibly a few pipes + another layer of Sheetrock.
On the interior of w/e bedroom you choose, add a big sheet of 1/8 3/16 or even 1/4 of steel plate + another layer of Sheetrock? Depending on the thickness of steel you use, I think that would stop most handgun rounds....

Thoughts?
 
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My mattress is of the foam variety. I'm not positive but I should think that it would be fairly effective at stopping most rounds, especially since they would be coming at an angle and need to penetrate at least a couple of feet of pretty stiff, resilient foam.


I think the assumption here is that we are past the attack-cat layer...
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NEVER underestimate the distracting capability of a cat that INSISTS on being petted.;):D
 
A wall of sand 5.5" thick sandwiched between .5" sheetrock seems to be pretty effective.
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That would be interesting. You could build select interior walls from 2X6s and fill the wall with sand. Heavy and a pain to do but I bet it would work.
 
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