James:
I learned this very important lesson from a building contractor. On his hunting trips to Alaska he would send his supplies ahead of him in small (20′) shipping containers. After the first shipment of containers were raided by thieves he decided to add security to his supplies with a sheet of plywood over [the center of] the doors. Here is the trick that he used: the plywood was well-secured at close intervals with a variety of Phillips screws, Reed & Prince screws, square drive screws, Torx head screws, and long 5/16″ self- tapping [flathead] screws. Thieves might be armed with a battery powered drill and a #2 Phillips bit, but none of them ever carried a wide selection of bits and so they left his containers untouched and went in search of easier prey.
It also appears that none ever carried saws, or at least didn’t want to attract the attention that comes with sawing the plywood covering.
The result was that he had no more thefts after using a variety of fasteners.
Thieves are opportunists, and usually lazy enough to search for easy targets. – R.B.
JWR:
Approximately 25 years ago I built a simple swinging target to use for target practice. This target consists of two 1/4″ thick 8″ x 8″ mild steel plates. These plates have been used predominately for handguns and .22 caliber rifle bullets. On two occasions I fired two high power rifle shots at each of these plates. The first two rounds were 5.56 Ball ammo fired from a Mini-14 at 100 yards, resulting a 1/4 inch hole in each plate. Next two rounds were 30.06, 165 grain boat tail soft point fired from a Winchester Model 70 from 200 yards, same results another slightly bigger hole in each plate. I still have and use this target with two holes in each plate. And since that day I absolutely know the penetrating ability of my standard loads.
I would hope you pass on this tidbit to your readers. Test any and all materials for bullet resistance, if that will be it’s primary function.
Just a thought- might be interesting to see how many field expedient types of bulletproof materials readers have come up with. – Mike H.