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In this post the other day, I brought up two topics for future discussion. Lifeboat Rules was the topic yesterday, and I really do urge people to share it and think about it. If we have a major disaster, not just a nuclear war, we will have a new and different form of “lost generation.”
Today, I want to talk briefly about the difference between cover and concealment. I want to do this because many of the posts of late have been aimed at those late to the concepts of preparedness and nuclear war. Many such have no connection to, or participation in, old Scouting (my thoughts on modern Scouting another day) or the military. While this discussion is only partially germane to immediate nuclear survival, it’s some useful information to have both in general and for later.
Concealment is simply avoiding observation. It can be as simple as putting objects between you and potential observers, or as complex as camouflage. When I say objects, I mean everything from ridges and buildings to trees and shrubs. When I say camouflage, I mean anything from a ghillie suits and/or face paint to large camouflage nets or more.
Now then, there are good reasons to use concealment, if possible, after a nuclear strike. First, you may want to hide that your home or other shelter is both useable and in use. It’s the quick and clean way to avoid those not-nice folks as well as others that even if nice will push your shelter over capacity. When and if you go out, you may want to use it to both avoid any not-nice people in the area and to avoid advertising where you are located. Depending on where you are located, it may be a moot point — or it may make the difference between staying relatively peaceful and secure or having to defend yourself.
Cover is something that protects you from incoming fire. It may also conceal you, but the main point of cover is the protection. Cover is everything from piling dirt or sandbags in front of basement windows before the blast, to putting solid objects in place to bar unauthorized entry to your shelter. Putting up items to block radiation is also technically cover.
Thing is, you want and need both. Concealment means you can be overlooked or missed by the not-nice no matter the disaster. Cover can help protect you from the disaster itself, as well as give you a secure position after. For a quick example, sandbags can help prevent flooding in floods or damage in a nuclear blast, and then help protect you and yours, as well as the structure involved, after.
It’s never too late to start thinking about such, and about what you have around you that you can use to improvise cover and concealment inside and out. Just one idea: books can and do act as cover from radiation and a variety of small arms rounds. Of course, if you shoot my books be happy if just shoot you and make it quick.
Further discussions are the advanced courses, though I will note that for individuals, between clothing and paint, the idea is to break up your outline so that the brain doesn’t recognize it as human. Again, advanced discussion for another day, but a bit of knowledge that may prove useful.
BTW, don’t know who did the meme above originally, but my hat is off to them. It’s been used in this context, for political memes, and probably more. It’s also true. Race really may have been the first to teach me that. 🙂
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Those new to the realm of firearms should know that anything made of cinder blocks is temporary cover at best. Also – you don’t have to be kissing something to use it as cover – so long as it is between you and them. Also also – remember that people can shoot under vehicles. I really messed up another team in paintball once in a fight around a T55 ( a real one, great prop on a paintball field ) by shooting under it and using a road wheel to hide behind. but I got greedy and after about 7 ankle shots to the other team a friend of mine on that team purchased a clue and was waiting and domed me. which brings up the point, dont get lazy in your positions.
Sorry, meant to reply to this earlier. YES! Cinder blocks are concealment, not cover. Even a small round, from an air rifle even, can make an impact and because of how they are constructed the hits send out lots of spalling that is nasty. Even those filled with concrete are not good cover IMO. The rollover prone position is good for shooting under cars and the like, and shoot and move can be the difference between life and death. Thanks!
A couple inches of 3/16″ – 1/4″ pea gravel (washed to get the fines out, dried and vibration-compacted) will stop handgun rounds, and most 55 grain 5.56 projectiles; a 4′ X 4′ panel of 1/2″ plywood screwed to 2X2s as a perimeter frame will do it for handguns. Use a pair of 1/4-20 coupling nuts in the center of the panel to prevent bulging, FYI, the 2X2s are the weak spot, rounds that the pea gravel will stop will go right through the 2X2s. A 4X4 panel so constructed weighs, IIRC, ~ 190 lbs lbs so somewhat portable. A 3.5″ thick (2X4 perimeter frame) will stop 7.62 X 51 but weighs almost 450 lbs. (cleaned and dry pea gravel is, IIRC, about 90-100 lbs/cu ft). Wood 2X4s are, like the 2X2s, the weak spot, but galvanized steel U-shaped metal wall studs can get around that at the cost of a little more weight for the pea gravel that fills the channel (get the studs that are not pre-cut for wiring, hard to find but available). Self-sealing roof membrane – used “up north” to prevent water intrusion from gutter and roof ice dams – on the inside of the panels will assist somewhat in controlling gravel drain-out from projectile holes.
Pro Tip: measure the back of a couch or chair and build the panel that size to keep weight down and be aware that the area where 2 panels meet is the hazard zone because of the 2X2 or 2X4 frame. A 32-40″ tall X 32″ wide panel will protect your back when seated and provide bullet resistant cover when you repel boarders.
For those who doubt this method of Projectile Protection, it’s right from the NRA Range Construction Manual in the Indoor Range Section. It has been tested and it works.
And, there is always fiberglas bullet resistant panels; a Level 8 panel (IIRC, 1.50″ – 1.625″ thick depending on manufacturer) will stop 7.62 FMJ and weighs about 18 lbs/sq ft. Level 2 (0.375″ thick) will stop 357 Mag FMJ and weighs about 4.5 lbs/sq ft. Much more spendy than pea gravel, though.
When it comes to radiation, cover can be concealed. As LW mentioned in previous entries, all you need to protect you from alpha and beta radiation is to not get it inside you. So, sealing up your doors, windows, etc. with plastic will do the trick. For gamma, you need the big guns: 1″ of solid lead, or 1′ of dense concrete, or 3′ of packed earth, or even 8′ of water. However, this shielding doesn’t have to be visible from the outside. You only have to deal with fallout for ~2 weeks after the war (See: Rule of 7s). You can create a “pillow fort” in the middle of your house, which can be hard or even impossible to see, even looking in through your windows. It can be small, low to the ground, even just big enough for you to crawl inside and lay down. It doesn’t even have to meet the full amount of shielding (something is better than nothing). If you’re in a contaminated area, you need to spend the first 48 hours in it pretty much solid; it’ll get pretty miserable, but it beats radiation sickness. After 48 hours, radiation levels should have dropped to <1% of where they began; unless your area picked up a truly massive dose of fallout, it should now be safe to leave your pillow fort for a few hours a day (but stay inside the house if you can). After two weeks, radiation should have dropped to <0.1%, at which point it should be safe to go outside without major precautions (again, unless your area received an extraordinary amount of fallout; if you're nearby and downwind of DC or a missile field, consider having dosimeters around just to be safe).
They key point is, nobody has to know that your house is any different from the others. And, of course, this just gets you past the first two weeks, when fallout is still dangerous. After that, the real effort begins.