Patrol Kit 1/6/2024
Property Patrol with The Prepared Wanderer
Property patrol
I firmly believe in laying out possible scenarios (utilizing METT-TC as a guideline) and then acting on them to help facilitate planning, training, gear usage, expose short comings, comms usage, calling variables in the field, and so on and so forth. My Bushcamp is an ideal place for running such scenarios and gives us a base to work out of. You can almost look at it as an FOB of sorts.
One such likely scenario is in the case of suspected poachers. In hard times (current and post SHTF) folks may end up trying to source food (wild game, fish, gardens, and homes themselves) that is not theirs nor on their own property. So poaching would become a big issue here. So the following is a rough outline of what this patrol will entail.
-Mission: There has always been suspected poaching on Eastern edge of property. Send 2-man patrol element to scout the area looking for signs of recent kill sites, use of bait, tree stands, hunting blinds, trash, spent shell casings, foot/motorized traffic, and anything else that would suggest recent human activity. Mark locations on map of any evidence found, place trail cams/warning signs near spots of activity, report back to HQ any findings, including pictures.
-Enemy: Possible poachers from outside of the area. Consider armed. May be on foot or using ATV’s to enter/exit area.
-Terrain/Weather: Wooded deciduous forest with marshy areas intersected by 2 old railroad lines running north/south with a Jeep trail running east/west. Bordered by active farmland with 2 nearby homesteads. Weather forecast is cloudy with highs of 35/lows of 25 with 40% chance of snow with light winds. Rain has been on/off the last several days leading to wet/muddy conditions.
-Troops/Support Available: 2-man QRF will be available during operation window as well as local county Sheriff if contact is made.
-Time Available: Mission window is 36 hours. Actual mission time on the ground from start to finish should be no longer than 6 hours.
-Civilian Considerations: 2 nearby homesteads within ½ mile of patrol area.
One of the things with mission planning is deciding what equipment is needed for giving you the best chances at succeeding at the mission. So below is my Patrol Kit I put together to best serve the above mission requirements…
Patrol Kit 360 degree view:
So let’s break down the Patrol kit…
Chest Rig:
Rifle:
Fanny Pack:
Rucksack:
Clothing Worn:
Below is a quick video showing us working off-trail but paralleling a game trail.
But, as with any mission, nothing goes as planned when you make first contact… Now I say this in jest as we didn’t make contact, per say, but I was contacted by the property owner at first light telling me that he was out hunting a 1/4 mile due east of my camp (our self assigned area to patrol) and that he would be there for a couple of hours. So initially we pushed back our time to step out of camp but within an hour a shot rang out and he had successfully hit his target. But now knowing that he had been back there I decided that we would move our focus a bit to more tracking (fresh snow on the ground would help facilitate this) and we would slow things down to have teachable moments for dealing with LDA’s (Linear Danger Areas), walking parallel to game trails, conducting security halts, SLLS (stop, look, listen, smell), identification of recent activity, and more.
Navigation was another topic and while we initially started off by laying out our map and getting ourselves oriented we never once took it out to reference. Instead we relied on dead reckoning and terrain familiarization for navigating. On the second half of the "patrol" we simply followed the path of the deer and letting their natural paths lead us to wear the one was shot earlier that day. This was used as another lesson on natural funnels and choke points. We started off on the deer trail but after pointing out the dangers of such movement we then moved off the game trail to parallel it instead, always keeping it in view but always at a comfortable distance away. We found where the deer had bedded down the night before and then where it was caught in my buddies shooting lane where he sat and waited.
In the middle of our patrol we stopped for lunch and it gave us a chance to discuss what we had done so far, gear we brought along, layering for the cold, and more…
At the end of the day, our patrol lasted for about 6 hours and we covered approx 2 miles. I think it was a great experience for my friend The Prepared Wanderer and it gave him a good introduction to moving in patrol kit and understanding some basic philosophies to use while out in the field. Going slow and taking the opportunities presented will pay dividends for him down the road.
There will be a video coming soon from the patrol highlighting, in more depth, a couple of the things we went over. Stay tune!
For more detailed information on patrolling, check out The Professional Citizen Projects book CM-2 on Reconnaissance. This is a great guide for the beginner or the seasoned folks amongst us!
Links to some of the gear seen and/or used: