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twa
Senior MemberPosts: 2,245 Senior Member
Late Night Wake Up.......

This happened last night.......4:23 A.M., there is a very LOUD knocking at the door, I jumped out of bed grabbed the mag light on the side of the bed and my Smith and Wesson 1911 .45 - I quickly cocked and locked and proceeded to the door of our bedroom which we always keep closed at night. I open the door and shine the light down the hall way as I get to the over hang (we are a 2 level house) I shine the light down to the door and through the windows of the front of the house. I go down the stairs and turn the outside lights on and scan through the windows.....nothing. I check the front door, still locked, I go the back door still locked. Whoever was pounding on the door was gone, I suspect my flashlight shining through the small window in the door and the front windows scared them off. I turned the alarm on (which we never turn on at night) and went back to bed. Of course I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards.......why didn't I grab the 12 gauge with buckshot? Why did I grab the single stack .45 when I have an XD with twice the capacity close by? Why don't we have the alarm on at night? (we will from now on) Was I right to not turn the inside lights on and proceed with the flashlight? How and the heck do you carry an extra mag in your underwear? :jester: Why didn't I hand the phone to the wife to call 911 if needed? All of these things and many more were rushing through my head for several hours afterwards. Kind of scary....and I am tired as crap and a little grumpy due to lack of sleep this morning at work..........:cuss:
Replies
Sounds OK to me, hope that you sleep well tonight.
I have to wonder for myself because the wife can only hear when I mess up or open my wallet. If she hears it, Godzirra is probably on the front porch. I cannot use her as a yardstick.
Shining the light may have scared away the knocker. This is, as I see it, a good thing. Majority of the time this is some drunk thinking he's at the right place but wrong. In the real world, chasing off the potential trouble without any overt actions on your part was the better thing.
I recommend maybe a series of small LED nightlights thru the house. They're cheap and you can see where you're going without a flashlight. That's helpful in ordinary night stuff, not just emergencies.
Choosing the right gun? A .45 1911 is fine. Realize that in a real world confrontation with a home invasion, if you have to stop to reload you're likely dead anyway -- the bad guys won't stop and wait. But in that real world, 3-5 shots are all that's usually fired anyway, so your 1911 is just fine. I might wonder why it's not kept cocked & locked all the time?
And as you correctly say, having your home alarm on at nights is the right idea. Just for knowledge, why did you shut off the alarm at night in the first place?
had a ring and run a while back that ended up with the alarm going off and the police visiting
to check on things. Better that than real trouble.
- George Orwell
Layered defenses. The absolute LAST layer is you in your underwear with a gun. Arm your alarm, have outside motion detector lights, outdoor cameras, trim shrubs away from door/ windows, , etc...
Sounds like you did pretty well. As for carrying a reload, I know people that have a quick release belt near the bed that has holster, spare magus, flashlight, and pouch for cell phone that they can quickly clip on if there is a bump in the night. Might be worth looking into
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
True. Uncomfortable, but true. :yikes:
George Carlin
Oh well- - - -there's always next year!
Jerry
Recoil is how you know primer ignition is complete.
FWIW, I agree. I don't want to fumble with loading in a situation like that; having it ready saves time and gives me more brain cells to put towards figuring out why I'm suddenly awake.
Agree with a layered defense, our friends call us paranoid but I sleep well at night. We have an alarm system we use religiously, a 5 foot fence around the perimeter, remote controlled gates, motion sensor lights 360' around the house as well as night vision cameras. Just inside are the dogs, not very big but loud as heck. If you get through all that then you will find the cranky gun toting owner that most likely won't talk to you very much!
AKA: Former Founding Member
Exactly. Good sum up there Diver. Now get some sleep TWA, that's life. We don't do it perfectly the first time. It's called experience. But I really think for a rookie at this you did fine.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.