Perimeter Alarms – A Force Multiplier – Watch Your Six With the Mentality of a Trapper

Audible Electronic Motion Sensor Alarm – on Star & Bullock Hardware
209 Primer Perimeter Alarm (UNTESTED BY ME) – On Amazon

You know I almost called this article “You Snooze You Lose!” because the product I had hoped to feature is now gone and not available anymore. It fired a .22 caliber nailgun blank as it’s warning shot. And for those of you who subscribe to GunsAmerica Digest, I have linked to this product regularly in Prepping 101. If you didn’t buy one, you missed it. I even sent it out in December as part of my xmas list for the apocalypse.

This was a huge disappointment for me, as I assumed that they would still be there for all of the new people who have come into Grid Down and had never been subscribers for Prepping 101. I had even shot video of firing the thing, but apparently the guy is not longer making them. He probably got the clot shot and is dead.

As a replacement I at least went out and found a 209 primer device that works on the same concept. Buy at your own risk. I’m not buying one as I have plenty of the 22 cal. one already, and my tests with the original 209 version in 2014 were not great. It worked, but 209 primers were not meant to be outdoors for long periods of time and die. If you use this device, I would dip the end of the primer in was before inserting it into the trap. But I did not test this method. Back then there was also a trap that used a cut off shotgun shell, and that worked great, but it could be used with a live shell, and that is highly illegal. Even with a cutoff shell it probably was questionable.

Perimeter alarms, pure and simple, are force multipliers. You will not have enough people to cover your perimeter, and the further out you go, the larger the perimeter gets. An audible alarm, or alarms, exponentially expand your observable area. And unlike a security camera system, my focus has always been towards off-grid solutions.

The electric alarm I feature in the video is a simple device that runs on three AAA batteries. You can use rechargeables to extend its usefullness to totally off-grid applications. Even a small solar panel could be hooked directly to an 8 battery holder and charge the batteries indefinitely. With a charge controller you would be able to do so without risking overcharge.

The unit is very sensitive, out to at least 50 yards. That is where I tested it, and it tripped as soon as I entered the cone. The cone is only about 20 degrees outward from the unit, maybe even tighter at a long distance. So for a large perimeter, you would have to consider your placement carefully, and think like a trapper.

I grew up with a lifetime trapper, and he explained to me the way you get an animal to go into your trap. Close off or make difficult other paths that might miss your trap, so the only one left is the path that gets them caught.

The trapper mentality is absolutely crucial when protecting a perimeter. Bad guys are like electricity. They seek the path of least resistance. And you can almost always count on people to be lazy and take the easiest path through an obstacle. You don’t have to guard the whole mountain range. Just guard the paths through them.

Fell a tree across an open area, or cut a bunch of brush and create connected piles that look like they were getting ready to be burned.

In an urban environment, if you don’t have chains, use wire or even rope to tie up gates that you can’t cover. Fill up spaces with junk that looks like someone would trip on trying to walk through. You aren’t guarding against zombies (well until the shots really kick in), so assume the person is going to take the path of least resistance, because they will.

Honey traps are another trick that good trappers use. A raccoon trap is usually a honey trap. Drill a hole in a log in and drop a shiny piece of metal in there, then hammer nails in the sides of the hole to create a spike sleep of sorts. The raccoon will reach in and grab the shiny thing, and does not have the sense to let go to get his hand out. He’s caught.

The same thing with bad guys. They can’t help but go check out an apparently abandoned full backpack, or an apparent campsite. Point your perimeter alarm at that, and you are sure to catch them.

I didn’t intend this story to be a disappointing lesson in what you probably need but can no longer get, and I hate to say it, a lot of those lessons are yet to come.

With diesel at $6 a gallon and a huge shortage of “def,” which diesel trucks cannot run without these days, everything is going to grind to a halt soon. The Chinese just assassinated the ruler with the largest competing navy in the South Pacific, and they will be invading Taiwan and most likely South Korea by years end. If you are still treating all of this as infotainment, you are sadly mistaken.

But it is not too late from what I have seen so far. You can’t have a .22 caliber perimeter alarm right now, but you can get close to it, and ten pounds of flour at Walmart is up almost 30% in the last month, but still under four bucks. Protecting your stuff is irrelevant if you have no stuff. So get some stuff. You can’t eat bullets, cash, junk silver, gold, or any of the other protections you think you have against what’s coming. Money is not going to matter for a long, long time after we take some major steps down. And it’s coming.