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What's the best caliber / ammo for looters post-Florence?

StevieP

StevieP

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We're getting about as ready as we can be for Hurricane Florence here in coastal North Carolina. Please keep us in your thoughts as you see it come ashore. As you're watching the TV coverage, look for Morehead City, Atlantic Beach, and other towns on the southern end of the outer banks. I'm in MHC / Carteret County.

There's a barrier island and two-mile wide sound, then another half-mile of mainland between me and 'ocean'. I'm primarily concerned with wind and heavy rains.

Generator is full, plus six 5-gallon jugs, plus what's in the truck, suv, and boat. We have lots of food, water, propane, charcoal, etc. Candles. Flashlights. Tarps, rope, fresh chainsaw blade. sandbags. prescriptions are filled and we have good 1st aid kits.

Anyway... I'm thinking a dot-sighted (w/ BUIS) AR carbine with standard 5.56 'hunting' loads (spire point, etc.) would be a good standoff weapon and suitable ammo for any two-legged scavengers. I'll keep the .308 handy, as well as the 870 shotgun loaded with 00-buck, as well as the .357 and .45 handy if they breach the perimeter.
 
I would check out the usability of your red dot in heavy soaking relentless rain. I loved my EoTech until I had an event in heavy rain. The lenses got all wet, and I couldn't see squat.
 
Hetzer said:
Put the long guns away for now, anyone walking over to your house after the storm is more likely to be offering or asking for help than anything else.
Click to expand...

B-but, this is a gun forum and that's boring.

lol I get it. We've been talking to all our neighbors and making sure they've got plans. We've got a 92 year-old lady next door who's planning to get to a nearby (brick) hotel. Some bugging out. Some I don't think would ever leave. We're playing it by ear, mostly intending to stay but prepped to go if we have to.
 
StevieP said:
We're getting about as ready as we can be for Hurricane Florence here in coastal North Carolina. Please keep us in your thoughts as you see it come ashore. As you're watching the TV coverage, look for Morehead City, Atlantic Beach, and other towns on the southern end of the outer banks. I'm in MHC / Carteret County.

There's a barrier island and two-mile wide sound, then another half-mile of mainland between me and 'ocean'. I'm primarily concerned with wind and heavy rains.

Generator is full, plus six 5-gallon jugs, plus what's in the truck, suv, and boat. We have lots of food, water, propane, charcoal, etc. Candles. Flashlights. Tarps, rope, fresh chainsaw blade. sandbags. prescriptions are filled and we have good 1st aid kits.

Anyway... I'm thinking a dot-sighted (w/ BUIS) AR carbine with standard 5.56 'hunting' loads (spire point, etc.) would be a good standoff weapon and suitable ammo for any two-legged scavengers. I'll keep the .308 handy, as well as the 870 shotgun loaded with 00-buck, as well as the .357 and .45 handy if they breach the perimeter.
Click to expand...

Don't store your stuff on the ground. The chances of 'flooding' aren't as high as 'getting some water' in the house.

People laugh, but locals keep axes in the attic for a reason down here.
 
StevieP said:
B-but, this is a gun forum and that's boring.

lol I get it. We've been talking to all our neighbors and making sure they've got plans. We've got a 92 year-old lady next door who's planning to get to a nearby (brick) hotel. Some bugging out. Some I don't think would ever leave. We're playing it by ear, mostly intending to stay but prepped to go if we have to.
Click to expand...

I should have said this in my first post but good luck!
 
weekendracer said:
Don't store your stuff on the ground. The chances of 'flooding' aren't as high as 'getting some water' in the house.

People laugh, but locals keep axes in the attic for a reason down here.
Click to expand...

Ack. I'm able to get my boat in the garage, and have put all the generator fuel and a lot of other things up & in the boat, off the garage floor. No basements here. Just a crawl space, so the whole house is ~3 feet off the ground. My neighborhood *seems* to be well set up for drainage. Everyone's lot slopes toward the street, and there are drainage ditches across the front of everyone's yard. The ditches drain into culverts, which lead to a retention pond, which overflows to the Bogue Sound. So hopefully all the rain has a place to go that doesn't include flooding under my house.
 
weekendracer said:
Don't store your stuff on the ground. The chances of 'flooding' aren't as high as 'getting some water' in the house.

People laugh, but locals keep axes in the attic for a reason down here.
Click to expand...

Swampzombies????

I can't imagine living in an area where I'd have to worry about looters. They had the NG on the street during the flood at the lake 8 years ago. No one even THOUGHT to go down a loot.
 
Dennis in MA said:
Swampzombies????

I can't imagine living in an area where I'd have to worry about looters. They had the NG on the street during the flood at the lake 8 years ago. No one even THOUGHT to go down a loot.
Click to expand...

I actually think my town of Morehead City won't have any looting. There are some "poorer, urban" towns like Kinston and Goldsboro where I think people might not be preparing as well to be self-sufficient, and might be more inclined to be scumbags....
 
Good luck.

We've been on the phone the last day or two with our son. We're up north right now, he's in our house in Georgia. Questions like "Hey Dad - where are the tie-downs for the gazebo?" (Answer - In the 5 gallon bucket next to the generator).

It looks like South Carolina's going to get hit pretty hard. The other thing you need, especially if you have kids - is something to do when the power goes out. A deck of cards goes a long way, Monopoly is a nice way to kill a couple of hours. If it gets bad, you'll probably lose wifi and power, and you won't be telling the kids to go outside and play.
 
fill the bathtubs and store as much rain water as you can collect. I know it sounds counter intuitive with torrential rains coming but if city water pumps are without power for a week or two it is very handy to have buckets of water to flush the toilets.

In my experience looters are cowards for the most part. They will go for the easily identified vacant homes and bypass anything where it looks like they will be challenged.
 
weekendracer said:
Don't store your stuff on the ground. The chances of 'flooding' aren't as high as 'getting some water' in the house.

People laugh, but locals keep axes in the attic for a reason down here.
Click to expand...
Right, what’s your elevation?

Your best bet may be to keep the boat launchable .
 
Choctaw said:
fill the bathtubs and store as much rain water as you can collect. I know it sounds counter intuitive with torrential rains coming but if city water pumps are without power for a week or two it is very handy to have buckets of water to flush the toilets.

In my experience looters are cowards for the most part. They will go for the easily identified vacant homes and bypass anything where it looks like they will be challenged.
Click to expand...

Ack. we're planning to fill the tubs and all the five-gallon buckets we have, with water for the toilets. We also have a 21' round swimming pool, which if it doesn't get destroyed, will be another source of toilet water. we're on well & septic, not town water, so we're on our own. My generator's a portable one with no transfer switch, so if we lose power, we lose running water.
 
StevieP said:
We're supposedly a dozen feet or more above sealevel. The water would have to come up A LOT to float my boat off the trailer.
Click to expand...

If the wind doesn't get it first.

A dozen feet? How close to the shore?

Good luck, its a big one!
 
on big storms like this the eye can be pretty wide. When you are in the eye it feels like the storm is over, very little wind and rain. Don't be fooled, the other half of the storm still needs to pass over. But you may have a window of opportunity to check your outside situation before it starts up again.
 
Uzi2 said:
If the wind doesn't get it first.

A dozen feet? How close to the shore?

Good luck, its a big one!
Click to expand...

just checked a topo map that says 22 feet above sealevel. that actually seems high to me. If you look up Morehead City on a map, there's a barrier island (Bogue Banks, which is home to the towns of Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, Emerald Island, etc.). Then there's a two-mile wide Bogue Sound, then my house is another half-mile in-land. So I'm about three miles as the crow files to "ocean."
 
Wow, good luck man! I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya. Didn't you just move down there recently? Yikes.
 

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