Building an Attic Sniper’s Nest
by Samuel Taylor
Some early versions of sniper nests have been in existence since the Civil War. In the picture you can see an early sniper nest from the battle of Gettysburg!
When people are forced into a survival situation, the neighbor you had been very chummy with will be looking to get his hands on your supplies one way or the other!
One of the things that you can do is building a sniper nest with the great vantage point on the roof. It may sound extreme but the reality is that given a life and death situation people will be forced to do the most extreme things imaginable.
If your home has a natural obstruction or something of the sort, then use this to your advantage. For example like a ravine or thick tree cover on one side of your home. This can be used of course to reduce the area of direct attack on your home and therefore will make it easier to pick where the nest should be looking towards.
You can either have a sliding hatch or an outwards opening window in order to create the main opening of the sniper nest. This can be built with minimal effort and minimal handy-man skills. Make sure that the elevation of the hatch is in line with the shooting position that you wish to employ. Whether it is a seating position, a lying position or a standing position. Ensure that the hatches are in line with your height or you could choose more than one hatch that corresponds to different heights.
Another thing: make sure you place some sandbags in the space between your weapon and the floor … and all around you, just like a bird’s nest.
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Preferably your nest should also be on the side off the house that has bricks all the way up through the attic.
You can also place a steel guard at the bottom of your hatch. One that covers the whole bottom half of the window would be great, so as to allow you to add slightly more protection as well as being able to ensure that you have a stable shooting platform panoramically. There should be the occasional notch in the metal plate so as to rest your riffle in it and in order to give you stability and protection to fire at your targets.
Around the hatch opening you need a rubber protection to ensure that the elements are kept out of your home.
Now how do you camouflage all of this? I feel that this is a necessary step to conceal all of the things that you have built. Use leaves, branches, and anything else that would not look out of place on a roof. You may even wish to use some of the excess roof asphalt or similar material that will be able to hide the hatch opening well.
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Creativity is the key in this situation of camouflage. Placement of the camouflage to where it can work for you!
You can use the sniper nest as a great observation point if you were ever to need to leave the house. You should be aware enough to check from your new nest possible dangers and intruders that may be hiding in vantage points of their own.
The problem with the sniper nest is that is works very well for long distances, but once the intruders are close to your walls the attic becomes your trap.
That’s why you need a back-up plan, either leaving the house on a secret route, or moving to a ground shooting point, or hiding in a safe room.
Should you ever need to escape from your house or from your snipers nest, it could be just as important as possibly installing a fireman’s pole.
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I thought snipers only fired one or two shots from a position and then moved to a new firing position. I would hate to be trapped in a house after OPFOR figured out which house the shots were coming from.
True…moving IS a priority, in ‘Snipping’, but not necessarily meaning a lot of it…you would be wise to have several SMALL sniper portals for BOTH view AND fire…AND, at various points, or locations, in your structure. Also, staying back from the portal is significant…(watch BOTH “Enemy within the Gates” and “American sniper”)…lots of good samples there.
Also, for learning the “HOW TOO” of making a “diy ‘suppressor’ read Tom Clancy’s “Without Remorse,[Pgs.199 – 202]. A suppressor is almost a “given NEED” if you intend to use your home as a fortress, or a “hidey-hole”…{while reading the Clancy description, note Kelly’s attitude and practice habits, and his “prep” for the “hits”…Appearances will be EXTREMELY important in a SHTF scenario…You’ve got to APPEAR as ‘God forsaken’ as your neighbors, and others, during the collapse…people won’t be cutting their grass, as they’ll be using their ENTIRE supply of petrol for either their Generator, or car, of motorbike…Let your property “go to hell”…
Frankly, there’s A LOT of careful but specific work to be done, in PREPPING your domain to APPEAR run down, and less valuable. Just use common sense, (AND! BEGIN PREPPING, in your mind, NOW…so that, when it comes time, you’re MENTALLY PRepared).
I totally agree. The idea is to keep moving from one position to another to keep the enemy from being able to trap you. Getting trapped in a house is not good.
I’m very interested in your information shared in you website. I’m a single survivalist/x US Military. I’m prepping for the future and I read everything I can that will contribute to my survivability when the time presents itself. Thanks for the info and will be looking forward to more articles.
Ghost, what was your MOS? Mine was 11B with a few letters added, operational 12 years. The above pics are from some military manuals. Ask your questions.
Although not directly mentioned in the article, the use of a supressor is highly recommended to prevent irreversible hearing damage. It’s use may change point of impact, as will resting the end of your barrel on something. Better to support the stock for end on a sandbag or similar.. If not available, regular hearing protection muffs (not earplugs, not enough protection), or preferably, the electronic versions that will allow you to hear if someone is breaking in, or if an armored vehicle is nearby (time to scoot!).
Another tip is to shoot from far enough inside that any muzzle flash/blast will be concealed. Don’t stick the barrel out through the hole unless you want your location targeted. Don’t make the hole any larger than necessary to shoot through, but it needs to be large enough to avoid bullet strikes by your own fire. It’s not recommended to fire more than two or three shots from the same location if facing trained attackers. They will locate your hide and either return fire or assault your position. Best to have another team member, if available, do overwatch to avoid getting trapped.