I came milliseconds from my hammer falling....

Lotta good responses here. I wasn't really looking for a "pat on the back", or recognition for having the balls to do something. Out here, when a suspicious vehicle starts creeping around out back, the time to intervein is NOW, before god knows how many goblins creep into the darkness. If they're eyeballing your barn or house, it's common practice to let off a lookout/backup before the crime is engaged. You're already flanked if you hesitate.

The reason I placed this post is thus:
I've learned a LOT from other people's experiences. I have a brother & sister 5&4 years older than me. Bro was a constant, habitual, repetitive mistake maker, sis never learned the difference between right & wrong. They set a LOT of examples for me, I didn't have to make those mistakes for myself to learn from them. (Goes back to child psychology. Some are "sight learners" some are "touch learners". Unfortunately, some NEVER learn.) At any rate, I DID make some mistakes last night. If I HAD to do it again, would I do anything different? You bet. If I knew THEN what I know NOW, would I have even went? Not on yer life. The sheriff could have been on them just as fast as I was, and would have had the situation under much more control. These guys were stupid enough to confront an unknown advisary on his own turf. (sound kinda like me?) If they'd lacked another point or two on their combined IQ's, I very easily could have been forced to shoot at least two of them. If the guy on my right had taken ONE more step, he could have disappeared into darkeness, probably producing a weapon at that instant. Anyone wanna step into my shoes right about then?

I wasn't buffing my fingernails when I placed this post, I was hoping some would learn from my example what I damn near learned the hard way. My signature still applies, just a little more causiously now.

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The Bible is my lawbook. I turn the other cheek when applicable, and spend the rest of my days resisting evil at every front, until I have breathed my last breath.
 
Fast...

I'm glad you're ok, and everything worked out! I've got no criticisms... for better or worse, I'd have probably done the same thing (but with a USP45). I just wanted to put a bug in your ear. If those guys know which house your land belongs to, with attitudes like theirs, I don't think you've seen the last of 'em. You hurt their pride, ticked 'em off, injured their manhood etc. Since you didn't scare 'em with your Sig (I shudder with you on that one friend!) I'd be REAL surprised if they didn't at least do SOMETHING to get back at you for it!

Could be something relatively harmless, like slashing tires, egging cars, breaking windows etc... Could be worse! Remember,they know you own at least one gun, so if they do come back, they won't bring ball bats!
Also, if I was a BG, and wanted to steal a gun, I'd watch a house that I KNEW had 'em, and wait till all were gone, then I'd go snoopin! (That's why I'm careful with the blinds before I pull any of my toys from the gunsafe.)

Again, take care, thanks for sharing your experience! I know I learned a thing or three! ;)
 
What a great story. I'm sure you heart was beating a tad bit faster than while your reading thefiringline. It sounds as if you ran into some fellows who have been introduced the criminal justice system somewhere along the way. You are lucky this didn't escalate real fast. You must be one cool headed citizen. I'm afraid as soon as one of these trespassing turkey's had gotten within 10 feet of me I would have been double tapping. I agree that one fully loaded eight round mag is just not enough when TSHTF. Either have an extra mag, two self defense handguns or a high capacity shotgun. I do support you in wanting to investigate those who had trespassed. Of course calling 911 before you head out the door is prudent, but defending your private property is just. Here in Texas we are fortunate to have laws that allow us to carry concealed handguns and defend our property, ourselves and other citizens. I'm glad you got thru this incident and were able to share your story. :)
 
We had a little incident sorta similar to this when out doing some training....

Our local enthusiast unit(militia if you will...), was out on private land doing a 2 day exercise(capture objectives, move while being hunted, etc). Its mostly play, but it's good training too. Anyway, we were out there the first night, and there were bright lights out in the field near our tents and a lot of gunfire. We weren't doing any live fire exercises at the time, because we have very clear rules about making sure everyone in the whole valley knows when they are going on. So we threw on our vests and helmets and grabbed our rifles and investigated.

We moved towards the commotion and were a little dismayed when we ran across a deer corpse, fresh kill, and not very humane by the looks of it. Hearing more gunfire and some yelling we moved in closer, and surrounded them. Turns out there were about 5 very drunk college kids out in the field blowing away deer. I thought they were gonna die of friend when we spotlighted them and yelled for them to drop their weapons. One of the guys screamed "aliens!" and tried to run, lol. Anyway, we tied them up and one of our members(a sheriff's deputy)carted them off to jail. We were quite ticked off to find 17 dead deer strewn over a path starting a 1/4 mile away and leading right towards our camp. If we hadn't stopped them, those little creeps probably would have ended up shooting our tents full of holes, or mistaking our gaurds for deer and hitting them(armor or not, that's no fun). We recovered their weapons from the ground. No serial numbers, no indentifiable brand(looks Remington-ish). They never did disclose exactly where they got the gun, but I suspect from a dealer, though I find it odd someone would buy an illegal pump shotgun when those aren't exactly a challenge to find....

While the typical guy here doesn't go on manuevers in the countryside and then surround drunk maniacs, it is a good lesson about the unpredictable nature of life. You really never know what you're bound to run into. We didn't expect them, or they us, but we were ready for them, and they weren't for us. We stopped them from depopulating our area of deer, and possibly killing someone by accident, and they learned a lesson about poaching on private property, and about getting drunk. Preparation and training is the bane of stupidity...

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me

Compromising the right position only makes you more wrong.
 
Shotgun or AR?

I would have just stayed at the other end of the road and barked out commands on a bullhorn behind my 50 cal. :D

Actually.. no one was harmed and lesson(s) were learned. Ya'll take care now.

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WARNING: This post may be another "self-aggrandizing attempt to cause needless controversy, argument, distraction"
-*-
Keepin' the FUD Legacy Alive! Check us out @ FUD's Fan Club!
 
As I said in the original, I'm glad you're okay.

I think my course of action would be to grab my cell phone, body armor, and .45-70 on the way out. (Well, okay- I'd grab my SureFire 6P and Tac-7 too.) Call 911 immediately, then try to maintain distance. You're way lucky. A good friend of one of my best friends (Spartacus) disarmed two pistol-wielding punks at the ranges you're describing.

For me, I think I'd give one verbal, then open up.
 
fastforty:

Regardless of any hindsight by you or anyone else, I can relate to your experience in several respects. As one who also lives out in "the sticks", I think apparently we simply look at this type of incident somewhat differently than a lot of folks in town. It doesn't seem "nosey" or "agressive" to us to check out strangers in the neighborhood, whether they're on our property or our neighbors, especially if we know our neighbors aren't aware of them.

Years ago, we'd had some break-ins in the area. One afternoon, I spotted a car pulling into a neighbors drive, wearing New Jersey plates (don't see those much in Kansas) and I knew my neighbor was out of town. The driver got out and walked around the place which looked a little suspicious to me. My 30-30 with 6x scope was handy, so I used it to "scope out" the stranger and his car (about 1/4 mile away). As he backed out of the drive and got closer to me, he spotted me AND the 30-30. He got REAL nervous REAL quick. Finally, he drove down the road toward me and pulled into my drive. By this time, I had dropped the gun from my shoulder and was just holding it at my side. It was still "at the ready" when he got out of his car. He was nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Turned out he was selling aerial photos of the farms in the area. I felt bad enough for "throwing down" on him that I bought a set, but he never came back to our neighborhood.

"Ya jist cain't never tell." ;)

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If "the people" in the 1st, 4th, 9th & 10th amendments, means "the people", why do some folks think "the people" in the 2nd amendment means "the state"?
 
Guys, I really live in a rural area too! I live in Eastern Colorado, in fact. The fact that I won't "actively" investigate someone on my road is jut that I'm trying to leave folks alone. As I said, on my land, it's a different story. If I see somebody's house being broken into, I'll do something, but just a "suspicious" vehicle? I'll leave that one alone. There are too many city folk coming out here looking for their friend's house that get lost to worry about every car that drives slowly down the road. Shots fired from a vehicle down the road? Refer to my first post.
 
I support the idea of a long gun such as an AR, or Remington 870 backed-up with a handgun. If you are going to go out seeking trouble, then you had better be armed for anything.
 
Depending on who you are facing, shotgun is always a good choice. Pump of course...

These guys you ran into seemed like hardened criminals, they probably knew pretty well how much a shotgun could do, but the average thug would see an AK or AR as being a much bigger threat. So for kicks why not have both handy? :)

The other thing is.... talk to your neighbors. Form a response team. Our neighborhood watch has one and they prevented a burglary and chased off a few other potential problems all because we have a very rapid response time and guys that know what to do when they get there. More neighborhoods can do this....

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me

Compromising the right position only makes you more wrong.
 
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