Observation Techniques?

[Scythe13]

There has been a lot of talk on the forum about forward observation and the alike. Whether it's watching a group coming close, or watching your home from a BOL.

I'm just curious what thoughts people have put into this, and what their plans are to deal with this kind of thing. Also, what equipment are you planning to use, what kind of distances, and the alike?

[Midnitemo]

i will be looking to view from natural concealment bearing in mind the approach so as not to be compromised/skylined entering/leaving the op...possibly moving in before first light and leaving after the target has bedded down(or even staying put for longer,24h/48h) camo gear scrim nets and face veils , hard routine(no smoking/cooking/fires/no2's or smelly/noisy food) maybe dig a scrape or a narrow pit to allow movement and kit to be stowed out of line of sight.some reasonably good bino's/spotting scope or both,keep kit to the minimum and stowed as much as possible incase you get bumped and you have to bug out.

[CharlesHarris]

This information is fairly basic, but is a good foundation for those without military experience:

http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/ar...coka.shtml

[Mortblanc]

There is also a difference between looking for someone ambling down the road or across the fields and someone that knows what they are doing making a stealth approach while using the principles referenced by Charles Harris against you.

You must know those principles not only for your own use but to realize that they are being used against you.

One of my men once shot a sapper in the wire outside our compound. The man had stripped naked and coated his body with oil, then rolled in sand to match the ground. He had already crawled across 150 meters of bare ground in broad daylight and was 15 meters into our wire. The man that shot him was not even sure what he was shooting at, other than that it moved and it was not supposed to be there.

You have to realize that sometimes what you are looking for might not look exactly as you would expect or where you would expect it to be.

The needed gear does not have to be complex but EVERYONE should have a good pair of binoculars just for general use. I also own a 20-60x spotting scope and even that old astronomical telescope your kid stuffed into the attic can be pressed into good use. And remember that you are not always using them to see what is 1/2 mile down the lane. You might need to study the reason what the leaves on the bush 50 meters out the back door look funny this morning.

Strangely enough, your local toy store has some very sophisticated night vision gear aimed at the younger set for night time play on warm summer evenings. For 50 pounds you can buy a unit that is good out to 100m and operates on AA batteries. It makes "hide and go seek" in the dark a new experience. Not military quality but good enough to let you know a bad guy is out there in the dark.

[CharlesHarris]

The toy night vision are lighter than, and perform about the same as the early GEN1 Litton VARO tube devices issued in the mid-1960s. Good civilian NVGs of the type commonly used for night flying in general aviation is as good as the GEN3 gear we were issued in the early 1990s during Desert Storm.

[Tartar Horde]

For day use I carry a 16x52 Monocular, as it is more compact than a pair of comparable Binoculars and can be easily carried without taking up much room, I don't like being weighed down by too much gear. As for counter measures like Mort says, those people who are openly walking during daylight hours are not your main concern, it's the ones who have hunting and military training and know how to use it. Ask yourself where would you observe your location from if you wanted to "recce" without being seen? I would check those areas regularly looking for "sign", "has the soil under that Hollow Hawthorn bush been disturbed"? memorise how the ground and foliage looks in all those areas so you can tell quickly if it someone has been there. In particular examine those areas where it would be the hardest for people to approach, like along ditches, manure heaps and those places that for "normal" people would be too much trouble. If they have been trained well enough a 100 yd waist deep wade in a ditch, coming up near that smelly manure heap is not a hinderence, it would be the most logical, as it would be the one least expected. As Sun Tzu said "All warfare is based on deception". I would also in a SHTF scenario put a few rounds etc into those bushes and areas that look "iffy".

[Mortblanc]

The real key is to eliminate those "iffy looking" bushes and areas. You will probably not have the ammo stores to "put a few rounds out there".

If you are in a fixed and developed BOL clear the area to bare ground or engineer clear vision for 50-100 (or as far as possible) meters outside the enclosure/building/wire.

1. you are depriving aggressors of cover/concealment

2. you are eliminating a fire hazard, either natural or man made.

As TH pointed out, those avenues of approach are critical. Just because you don't think an aggressor would dare come at you from a specific area is exactly why he will come that way! Those things are exactly what we were taught to look for and exploit in our training. (create a diversion where they expect attack and throw your main effort where it is not expected.)

Also keep in mind that post event these things will become more important as time passes, because only the people that already had this training, or learned it rapidly, will be left, among both attackers and defenders.

The longer you live the better you have to get.