shotgun alarm

[ppkheat]

How about having one of these to use on some vulnerable side of your BOL? This is designed to only fire blanks, so it is an early warning reporter, surely it would be effective in noise and fright to the intruder.

I'd say that if you ran out of blanks, you could cut the crimp open, empty the pellets out and have another blank, just watch where you'd point that wadding/blast.



http://www.defensedevices.com/shotgun-alarm-signal1.html

[Patti]

Definitely on my list of things to get. Also need different colors of trip wire.

[Bumper]

Cool, I think I will get a few of those.... :yup:

[WhatisMu]

How about having one of these to use on some vulnerable side of your BOL? This is designed to only fire blanks, so it is an early warning reporter, surely it would be effective in noise and fright to the intruder.

I'd say that if you ran out of blanks, you could cut the crimp open, empty the pellets out and have another blank, just watch where you'd point that wadding/blast.



http://www.defensedevices.com/shotgun-alarm-signal1.html

I adore this.

[Patti]

I adore this.

I'm curious.

Do you own any firearms?

You you support RKBA?

[WhatisMu]

I'm curious.

Do you own any firearms?

You you support RKBA?

Why do you care, Patti? What possible difference will it make to you to know that I own several guns and have been an NRA member most of my life? Will you suddenly like me better? Will you like me less than you did before? Will you tell me that in your opinion I cannot be both a (insert label here) and a person who believes in the right to bear arms?

[Patti]

Why do you care, Patti? What possible difference will it make to you to know that I own several guns and have been an NRA member most of my life? Will you suddenly like me better? Will you like me less than you did before? Will you tell me that in your opinion I cannot be both a (insert label here) and a person who believes in the right to bear arms?

Like I said, I was "just curious".

No reason to get hostile over a simple question.

Do Buddhists believe in taking another person's life?

[WhatisMu]

Like I said, I was "just curious".

No reason to get hostile over a simple question.

Do Buddhists believe in taking another person's life?

If you want to discuss this please post something in the religion area and I might come participate. This thread is about preparedness and I dont want to go down the road of religion or other topics here.

This device is cool, that is all I am saying.

[ppkheat]

My order has come in, I haven't tried one with a blank shell, but I have sat here and "dry fired" it, and noticed something I am concerned about.

Of course this is armed by pulling back the spring-loaded firing pin, then inserting a metal piece that has a notch cut out, that notch lines up with a groove on the firing pin which keeps the firing pin cocked. We'll call that piece the trigger. One would attach the trip wire to the trigger and if it gets pulled out, the firing pin is allowed to strike the primer. I have two thoughts on this alarm. NOTE: I THINK IT WOULD TAKE PRETTY CONSIDERABLE FORCE TO PULL THE TRIGGER OUT. IOW if you had it set up behind your house and someone was cautiously, slowly easing through your trip wire they may notice the resistance of the wire before they've put enough pressure on it to pull it out. Secondly, I think that nylon string would probably work, the main thing you don't want your trip wire from a stretchable material. Poly string is strechable, nylon less so.

As an aside, I believe I have a more effective and reliable way for this to fire and it would be more forgiving regarding the trip wire you use. You are supposed to attach this alarm to a solid object like a tree or post. I'd attach it as if the trigger would need to be pulled straight down. I'd attach a short piece of stout cord to the firing pin and I'd attach the other end to a weight of some sort, let's say a five pound barbell weight. I'd set the barbell weight precariously balanced on a "shelf" so when it fell it'd snatch the trigger loose from the device and fire. I'd attach my trip wire to the barbell, so if it were moved ever so slightly it would cause the barbell to fall off of the shelf.

I know this sounds a bit like a Rube Goldberg device, though it only adds one step and lessens the criteria of the trip wife. With this I think you could use fishing line as your trip wire, or whatever you'd think that could provide just enough tug to throw your barbell weight off-balance and fall.

[Bumper]

Set the thing up, put on your muffs and intentionally trip it. I'm really curious about how well it works but it sounds like your concerns are legit....

[ppkheat]

I might just try it this afternoon. I'll do two tests, the first one will be a normal set up as the instructions indicate, and I'll see how well it works just walking across the trip wire and pulling against that heavy trigger. The second test, I'll use my barbell weight idea.

[Bumper]

I might just try it this afternoon. I'll do two tests, the first one will be a normal set up as the instructions indicate, and I'll see how well it works just walking across the trip wire and pulling against that heavy trigger. The second test, I'll use my barbell weight idea.

You have the perfect place to set it up for a live trial. You ever find the bad boys that was visiting your barn?

[ppkheat]

Nothing going on with the BG's at the barn, either they're laying low, or got what they wanted. I'll remain diligent

SHOTGUN SHELL ALARM RANGE REPORT

I first wanted to hear how loud these 12 gauge blanks would be. My answer is that they are very low power, much much less than a low brass dove shell. I'd say they were somewhere sounding like a firecracker.

Previously I mentioned that I thought the trigger mechanism would be very hard to trip (pull) though I wanted to test my theory in real life. I took the device and hooked it up as the instructions suggested. Stretched a nylon string about 30 feet and walked into it. It was sort of ridiculous how far I had to walk and resistance to put against the string to make it pull the trigger out and fire. Sad to say, I guessed right about that.......ugh.

As I mentioned in a previous post I thought that balancing a barbell weight, that would fall from the trip wire, would be the best bet to pull the trigger. I rigged that up, though I didn't have a barbell weight, though I did have a old gooseneck hitch that I used. Of course whatever the weight is immaterial, but the device worked much better having that trigger snatched out by the falling weight.

In conclusion I think the alarm, used right out of the package isn't so good, but I think it's a good device that can be modified with a couple of improvements. First, I think it would be better to have a much louder bang. Second, I would rig up, and mount this alarm device and falling weight on a board or something else portable. Build a good design for the falling weight scenario so it is very dependable.

Here are a couple of pictures. The first is how it looked hooked up per the instructions, that didn't work so good. The second is how it looked with the falling weight idea, that actually worked pretty darned good. To put this into actual use, I'd assemble the alarm and falling weight together as one portable unit, but the photo here at least gives the gist of what needs to happen.

[Bumper]

That weight should work to yank the "trigger" out of there. Or, maybe you could just open up that slot up just a little bit and make it easier to pull out. That would really be an easy thing to fabricate yourself....

[ppkheat]

That thing has a pretty heavy spring and it puts quite a bit of pressure against the trigger release. You are right, I have thought about doing a "trigger job" on the whole thing and smoothing it out some. I'm sure that would help.