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Fith Ops™ Perimeter Camp Safe™ Trip Alarm - 12 Gauge OD Green 6061 Aluminum USA-Made

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FithOps™ Camp Safe™ 12 Gauge Perimeter Trip Alarm*

Our newest, updated version of our 12 gauge perimeter trip alarm. Made of 6061 Aluminum, this unit utilizes a spring-loaded firing mechanism and a trip trigger. When the trigger pin is disturbed while loaded with a 12 gauge Flash Bang/Training Blank, the unit will discharge. This device is compatible with blanks, adapters, flares and pepper gas depending on situation and requirement.

UPC : 861209002659

WARNING: For outdoor use only. Keep away from flammable materials. NEVER USE LIVE AMMO.

• PLEASE NOTE: We are not able to ship Internationally. Your order will be automatically deleted and refunded.  

* Flash Bang Not Included

Customer reviews.

The product is good to go. Works as supposed to. What did suck, is on the day of delivery of the perimeter trip alarm. I received a promotional email about buying 2 perimeter trip alarms, and they’ll give 1 for free. I bought four, and tried to contact the company to no response. Now I am being asked to do a review.

I recently purchased a few of these for use around camp. I have set up and practiced using them with shotshell 209 primers only. They fire each and every time the trip cord is pulled. These are very nice to have. I chose not to purchase the shotshell primer adapters due to being 19.99 each. I would have to buy 4 of them for use in the 4 I purchased. I made my own adapters with spent shotshells that work very well. These campsafe perimeter alarms are a great product.

The trip alarm is well made and easy to use. I like the way the attachment options are designed into the housing. I'm very impressed with the product.

Keeps the deer away. That’s its main purpose on the farm.

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7 Kickass Booby Traps That Keep Intruders On Their Toes

If you want to protect your home from threats, you can’t just rely on security cameras and all those fancy-schmancy security systems.

What if the grid goes down?

They’ll be nothing more than decorations.

So to defend your fortress and your survival supplies when things go south, one thing you need to do is put together some booby traps.

Here’s what you need to know about them:

Important Things to Consider Before Rigging Your Booby Traps

Booby traps are devices designed to catch animals or people by surprise. Some can seriously injure or even kill a victim, while others are way tamer.

You can’t just make them for the heck of it. There are a couple of things you need to ask yourself first before you go and set traps all over your backyard:

Is It Legal?

Booby traps have a reputation for being vicious devices used in wars. With the injuries they can inflict, it’s no surprise that it’s illegal to make most of them.

Don’t try building punji stakes or toe poppers or any of those dangerous traps.

You’ll get into major trouble with the law and probably land in the slammer, and that’s the last thing you want when you’re prepping for SHTF.

Is It Safe to Set Up?

While something may be legal, that still doesn’t mean it’s safe. Setting up booby traps may put you in a sticky situation. There’s nothing worse than being taken out by the very things that were meant to protect you.

Think about your family, too. Will you be able to live with yourself if your significant other or kids get harmed?

If you have younger kids, then maybe it’s better for you to go with non-lethal self-defense weapons instead. You can keep these out of their reach but you can’t exactly do the same with tripwires.

Is It Easy to Spot?

Your booby traps should blend in with their environment . If not, it won’t take long for an intruder to discover and bypass them.

You’ll need to learn how to camouflage your traps well. That includes using certain wires instead of others and figuring out what colors to use to trick even the most seasoned thieves.

Also, it will be harder to trick enemies if your traps involve too many bells and whistles. Keep them small and simple.

Now that you know what to keep in mind, here are some booby traps you can make:

What Are the Perfect DIY Booby Traps for Home Defense?

Booby traps don’t need to be deadly to be effective.

All the projects listed below will surprise intruders more than harm them, but they make great deterrents. And if you’re really careful, they’re safe to construct.

Check them out:

A tripwire is a classic booby trap. It involves a wire that extends tautly across a pathway, like in between trees or a doorframe.

Folks usually use braided fishing lines for tripwires because they’re thin enough to be nearly invisible to the naked eye and they also won’t split when a person walks through them.

The line or wire is connected to an alarm that goes off as soon as someone activates the tripwire. There are several types of tripwires that use different alarm systems.

Here are some that you can make at home:

Mousetrap Tripwire

Believe it or not, mousetraps don’t only help you catch the mice that have been stealing your food.

With a mousetrap, a few ring caps, and a fishing line, you can make an effective tripwire alarm. This article shows you how.

Just watch your fingers when you’re working on it —  the mousetrap might snap on them. A sturdy pair of gloves should provide you with the protection you need.

Tin Can Alarm

Who says you need a high-tech perimeter alarm to safeguard your territory?

With a few tin cans, paracord/fishing line, and some sticks, you can create one that’s loud enough to surprise intruders and alert you to their presence.

What you need to do is tie at least three tin cans together using a paracord or fishing line. Then, look for two trees that are close enough to one another. Use the paracord to secure a loop around their trunks.

There should be a space in between the trunks. This is where you should hang your cans. After that, you have to make a loose loop under the cans.

That’s all you need to create the alarm.

The next things to do include making the trigger using 3 different-sized sticks, determining your perimeter, and then setting up the trap. These steps are explained in further detail here .

Keychain Alarm Tripwire

If your DIY skills aren’t the greatest, this trap is for you. There are only two things you need: a keychain alarm (which you can easily find online ) and a fishing line.

The keychain you pick should have a hole on the reverse side. This is where you tie the line that will attach it to a tree, a door, or a table leg.

Air Horn Tripwire

Hate how obnoxious an air horn sounds?

Well, so will intruders when it disrupts their sneaky infiltration into your property.

To whip up this trap, you’ll need to build a deadfall trap above your air horn.

Choose a flat rock and prop it up on some sticks. Let the trigger stick stay on top of the horn. The trigger stick should be attached to the line. Secure the other end of the line to a nearby tree.

When a trespasser’s leg gets caught on the tripwire, a domino effect happens…

The trigger stick will give out from beneath the rock.

The rock will fall on the horn.

The horn will make a deafening sound that wakes even the deepest sleepers.

The enemy will crap their pants in shock and try to make a run for it.

There’s probably no booby trap more straightforward than a pit trap. It’s really just a big hole in the ground.

Before you dig the pit, look for a strategic location. Once you secure a spot, use an entrenching tool to do the digging. Keep shoveling until it’s deep enough to prevent an average-sized person from climbing their way out.

When you’re through making the pit, put a net on top of it and disguise it with leaves, rocks, and other debris.

Also, remember the exact place you excavated the trap. You don’t want to faceplant into a hole while you’re in the middle of trimming and pruning your plants .

In a bank robbery, you know how robbers give bank tellers their demands? They normally command them to shove hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bag.

The tellers may seem like they’re giving in to the robbers’ whims, but they actually have a trick up their sleeves — the dye pack. This nifty gizmo stains the cash a bright color, letting everyone know that it’s stolen.

You can take inspiration from the dye pack and apply it to your home defense.

Just fill an automatic spray bottle with semi-permanent dye. You can set this up as soon as you see folks trespassing on your property.

They won’t just get surprised; they’ll be so doused in dye that they’ll look like cheap knockoffs of the creatures from the Avatar movie.

Talking Booby Trap

Most thieves are on edge when they turn up at a mark’s home. They don’t wanna get caught.

So in the unlikely scenario that they breach past your defenses and enter your home, a talking booby trap can scare the living daylights out of them.

This little device involves recording a special message or sound effect meant for home invaders. You’re supposed to hide it somewhere clever, where the bad guys can activate it unknowingly.

Once the gizmo is triggered, they’ll hear the present you left for them loud and clear — they messed with the wrong home.

For complete instructions on how to make a talking booby trap, take a look at this article .

Final Thoughts

Booby traps make a perfect addition to a home defense plan — when you take the law, your family’s safety, and common sense into consideration.

Along with learning self-defense and making key security upgrades to your home, the booby traps we featured will help you win against the bad guys and keep your precious stockpile safe.

Just don’t be too obvious when you build these traps to avoid getting unwanted attention from the neighbors.

We hope you learned something from this! But if you wanna learn even more about home defense or making a foolproof SHTF plan , you should check out our other articles.

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Lethal Surprises Hidden in the Grass: Russia’s Trip Wires and Land Mines

As Moscow’s troops set booby traps in forests, houses and backyards, finding them has become a dangerous art for Ukrainian soldiers.

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By Andrew E. Kramer

Reporting from Lyman, Ukraine

With a practiced calm, a Ukrainian de-mining expert gingerly pushed aside stalks of dry grass, revealing a lethal surprise — a hand grenade rigged to a trip wire, waiting for someone to heedlessly step on it.

The discovery, near the Ukrainian town of Lyman, was just one small development in a wider cat-and-mouse struggle between mining and de-mining teams that is becoming a pivotal element in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Mines, trip wires and booby traps are go-to defensive tools for Russia’s military, inflicting grievous wounds on infantry or stalling armored vehicles. Easy to rig, bury in dirt or cover with debris by the side of a village road, they are devilishly hard to find.

De-mining is expected to play a pivotal role in Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive this spring, as Kyiv seeks to push back Russian forces and shift the momentum in the war. Its army will be advancing into dense networks of trenches, tank traps and minefields.

Ukrainian land is covered in thousands of Russian mines, trip wires and booby traps. An area four times as large as Switzerland is unsafe because of land mines, the United Nations has estimated.

They kill or maim hundreds of civilians each month. In March, land mines killed 226 civilians and wounded 724 others. Throughout Ukraine, about 350 de-mining teams work continually.

The Ukrainian government has divided mined zones into priority areas for clearance. It is encouraging technological innovation for de-mining tools, and it intends to create a for-profit market for demining services.

The World Bank has estimated clearing Ukraine of mines will cost $37 billion.

Russia has a vast arsenal of land mines, and its soldiers a rich repertoire of tricks for setting booby traps. Russia is among a few countries, along with the United States, that have not ratified a treaty banning land mines in war.

Finding them has become a well-practiced art for Ukrainian soldiers. Areas dense with trip wires, for example, will often have a dead animal nearby, as animals set them off while roaming in the forest.

In fact, Ukrainian forces were alerted by a dead dog and a dead goat to the presence of booby traps in a thicket of brush and dry grass near a former Russian position, said the commander of a de-mining team sent to clear them. He asked to be identified only by his name and rank, Lieutenant Oleh, in keeping with Ukrainian military rules.

“There were lots of tricks here,” Lieutenant Oleh said of the minefield.

The soldiers probed the ground with fiberglass rods — lest a metal instrument trip an electrically triggered mine intended to kill de-miners. The hand grenade rigged to a trip wire had been found earlier by colleagues before soldiers returned to detonate it safely, as it was too dangerous to defuse.

The team, operating outside Lyman, which was liberated from Russian forces last fall, found one booby trap with a trick to fool de-mining teams, a common occurrence. In this instance, it was a claymore mine — an explosive that sprays shrapnel toward its targets — that had a trip wire.

The Russians had stretched an electrical cable nearby, hinting it could also be set off remotely by a spotter. But the wire ended nearby in the grass, unconnected to any detonator. It was just a ruse to slow the de-mining work by forcing them to trace the cable.

The thicket near the position on the outskirts of a village was also rigged with jumping mines, what American soldiers in World War II called Bouncing Betties. When triggered by a footfall or trip wire, they burst a few feet into the air, then detonate in a spray of shrapnel.

“Everybody within 25 meters is guaranteed to die,” Lieutenant Oleh said.

One such device, a Russian OZM-72 jumping mine, had killed the dog and goat.

Two distinct tasks face the Ukrainian de-mining teams. Some clear reclaimed areas so that they become safe for civilians to return. Another, more perilous, type of de-mining is carried out by military engineers, who move at the tip of the spear in assaults — walking ahead of assaulting soldiers to find paths through minefields.

Mine-clearing equipment and techniques have drawn less attention than sophisticated Western weapons like Abrams tanks, though Ukrainian officers say much hinges on these operations.

The process of mine clearing can be done manually. A de-mining expert in another small squad of engineers, Private Ivan, said he did this by taking a step and pausing to peer at a yard or so of ground in front of him. He then kneels, as the sunlight might glint off an all-but-invisible trip wire made from slender thread resembling fishing line if viewed from a different angle.

Maintaining calm is essential, he said, even if infantry commanders are clamoring for speed. In one assault last fall, he said, he safely detonated four tripwire booby traps to clear a path for assaulting troops.

Specialized mine-clearing machinery can also do the job. The chunky, lumbering Soviet-era military vehicle nicknamed the Dragon in the Ukrainian Army has flimsy armor and only one weapon: a rocket that tows a line of explosives a few hundred yards forward. Placing the explosives over a minefield and then detonating them clear a path for infantry or tanks to move forward.

“You focus on your work without being distracted by the sounds” of artillery and small-arms fire during the assault, Private Ivan said.

The unit of about a dozen men has had soldiers killed or gravely maimed by mines, but military rules prohibit specifying how many.

The United States has been providing military aid in the form of a similar tracked vehicle system called a Mine Clearing Line Charge, or MICLIC, seen as preparation for the spring offensive.

Both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries use anti-handling devices on anti-tank mines, which trigger the explosives if somebody moves the mine and are intended to kill de-mining teams.

The Russian military has set a type of seismically triggered anti-personnel mine, called POM-3, which detonate from the vibrations of footsteps before a de-mining expert can even walk close enough to defuse the device. The POM-3s, small green cylinders that can be spotted by an attentive soldier, have to be destroyed by shooting them from a distance.

Detonating mines or booby traps in place is a common practice. It can be done by placing a small slab of explosives nearby that the de-mining soldiers then detonate together with the mine.

For the trip wire discovered in Lyman in the thicket on a recent, rainy morning, the soldiers chose a simpler method. One positioned, ever so gently, a long rope and grappling hook to snare the trip wire, then backed off and pulled.

A boom sounded. Black smoke wafted up. A soldier then casually coiled the rope and walked out of the thicket.

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a Russian mine. It is OZM-72, not OMZ-52.

How we handle corrections

Andrew E. Kramer is the Times bureau chief in Kyiv. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for a series on Russia’s covert projection of power. More about Andrew E. Kramer

Perimeter Alarm, Trip Wire, Booby Trap

Introduction: Perimeter Alarm, Trip Wire, Booby Trap

I have a building about 300 feet from my residence. This building is a shed that houses lawn equipment, snow removal equipment, a pickup truck and misc. tools and fuel. The shed was built for storage and is not easy to secure (there is a 1 foot gap between the side and the ground). It has no electrical power and is not visible from the residence. I needed a low cost alarm that would alert when the equipment is being disturbed. I have two dogs that alter when they hear loud noises such as a gun shot.

After doing some research I found that a 12 gauge shotgun shell fits in a 3/4 inch black pipe to make a make shift barrel. (the pipe is welded and the inter seam may have to be filed for the shell to completely enter he pipe) I also learned that the pipe is not strong enough for repeated shotgun blasts, so I decided to use just the primer as a noise maker and not use a complete shell with powder. I wanted to make an alarm not a pipe bomb.

I wanted a simple device to make, so I went to the home center and picked up the following items.

4 inch long 3/4 inch black pipe nipple

PVC 3/4 inch threaded female coupler to 3/4 inch glue fitting

PVC 3/4 inch to 1/2 bushing glue fitting

3 inch long 1/2 PVC pipe

PVC 1/2 inch glue fitting to 1/2 female threaded fitting

PVC 1/2 threaded plug

4 inch 1/4-20 bolt and nut

Spring .035 wire 6 turns per inch 3/8 diameter 3.25 inches long (this was just cut off a 12 inch length of spring)

8 penny nail (end blunted to reduce piercing the primer)

1/2 inch dowel 1 inch long wrapped with masking tape to make a slip fit in 1/2 pipe.

Pop rivet pin to secure firing pin.

All these items were purchased for less than $10, (researching the internet I have got the price to just under $5 each)

Step 1: Machining (hole Drilling)

There are 3 holes to be drilled

Drill an 1/4 inch hole through the center of the plug

Drill an 9/64 hole through the 1/4-20 bolt to secure the striker, the location is found by assembling the spring on the bolt and inserting it into the plug and then while holding in a vise with the spring fully compressed mark the bolt on the bottom of the plug. Grind a flat on the bolt where the hole will be drill. Using a vise on the drill press, align the bolt to the drill bit, a small ruler between the drill bit and the bolt will locate the center of the bolt by acting like a seesaw and when it is centered the ruler will be horizontal. Remove the ruler and drill the hole.

The last hole is a clearance hole in the dowel for the 8 penny nail.

Drill and 1/8 hole in the center of the dowel for the firing pin (nail)

Step 2: Glue Plastic Pipe

Now glue the female coupling, bushing, 1/2 pipe, and female coupling together.

Step 3: Preparing the Empty Shotgun Shell

Get a spent 12 gauge shotgun shell and remove the used primer.

Purchase a box of new primers, (available at sporting goods, gun shops, Bass Pro, Cabela, Midway USA, even some Walmart carry them with the black powder firearms ammunition)

Insert the new primer in the shell and press in place (an assist from a dowel and a mallet or a reloading press may be needed)

DO NOT USE A COMPLETE SHELL ! ! ! !

Primer only.

Step 4: Assemble Firing Pin, Striker, and Release Pin

Insert firing pin into 1/2 pipe.

Insert spring onto bolt and insert through hole in pipe plug attach nut to keep assembly together

Screw pipe plug into pipe assembly

Secure in vise and cock striker, insert pop rivet Release Pin

Attach cord or string to release pin

Insert primed shell into black pipe and screw onto plastic pipe

Mount to a fixed object near to the monitoring point with conduit straps

Run trip wire (string) using eye hook to change direction

Then wait for the alarm to be activated

DO NOT FORGET TO DEACTIVE ALARM BEFORE YOU MOVE THE TRIP WIRE

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6 Practical Homemade Booby Traps for Burglars and Thieves

When crap hits the fan, you'll want to take every precaution to protect your home, your family, and your resources . But, how do you do this without using a lot of energy patrolling? Using booby traps is a great way to secure your home from intruders, looters, bandits, and thieves.

But, buying booby traps can be expensive, and some are even hazardous to your home, and family. However, there are some alternatives that are not only safer, but less expensive too.

Here are some practical, DIY booby traps for your home defense to help you make your home more secure in a massive emergency situation.

Pit traps are a great, less lethal approach to home defense. And, with a little elbow grease they cost next to nothing.The hardest part about digging a pit trap is deciding where to dig your hole.

Choose a location that is on a route to your main building that is least defended by guns , or other traps. You'll want your hole to be deep enough that a grown man could not climb out without help.

But, how does one conceal a pit trap?

Simply purchase, or make a net that is just wide enough to stretch over the hole. Loosely stake it into the ground and cover it with leaves, dirt, and sticks to look like it matches the surrounding area.

These are great ways to trap intruders without killing them. Once you've got them, you can loot 'em, shoot 'em, or send them off with a warning.

Motion Activated Flash-Bang

Sudden, ultra bright light can be extremely disorienting for an intruder. Combine that with sudden loud noise and you'll have one messed up jerk.

1 thought on “6 Practical Homemade Booby Traps for Burglars and Thieves”

You would need a seriously strong tree to lift a grown man off the ground with a snare trap. I think that’s more for small animals. Some sort of pulley system with weights would probably work though.

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Booby Traps: 7 Nonlethal Defenses For Home Invaders

Warning: Booby traps are illegal in some states and jurisdictions and can result in real legal ramifications. This article is just a guide on some possibilities, and it is best to determine the legality of these types of traps before considering making or using any yourself.

What do John Rambo, Kevin McCallister from Home Alone and the bare-butt survivalists from Naked and Afraid all have in common? They have all used some form of booby trap for defense and survival. Whether you’re trying to harness that inner Rambo or you are a bit more Wile E. Coyote, building a nonlethal booby trap can provide some real-life additional security for your property or just make for a fun afternoon of constructing something unusual. 

In an age of social media and insta-info searches, many Americans leave themselves exposed to criminal elements. It is no secret that crooks now use social media to find potential victims. In 2019, a group of burglars used social media to target upscale Houston-area homes. They stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in property, including a painting by Monet. (Side note: Don’t post on Facebook or Twitter that you are going on vacation .) Stalkers and violent ex-spouses are also a concern in the modern world of information technology, and innocently and casually posting about your life and whereabouts can be used by those who want to do you harm.

That said, no one needs self-defense until they actually do need it. Therefore, nonlethal booby traps may offer a way to deter crime and to avoid a possible confrontation. Here is a look at a few to consider.

1. Tripping Them Up

What happens when that expensive alarm system craps out? Skynet hasn’t taken over as foreseen in The Terminator franchise, and technology isn’t foolproof. A simple wire with some kind of alarm or signal (either electronic or a physical noise-making device) can offer homeowners some extra time and awareness when someone unwelcome trespasses on their property.

The signal from a tripped wire allows time for further investigation, the opportunity to head to a safe space or to call the police, or you may be able to take other legitimate defensive measures, if needed. A quick YouTube or Amazon search offers numerous sources for information on making your own tripwire warning mechanism, which can range from high-tech sensors to confetti blasts. It may not be a First Blood -caliber attack, but this simple booby trap certainly works well if effectively implemented.

“Setting up a tripwire requires only simple common sense and safety procedures,” author Rick Canton writes in his book Prepping: Booby Traps Prepping and Fortifying Your Home With Booby Traps . “Take care to set the trap along a route that an intruder is likely to take if attempting to enter your property.” 

2. Play Some Pitfall

This is a nonlethal way to really send an intruder six feet under—as in down an actual hole. The setup is simple; dig a deep pit in a location camouflaged to conceal the cavity. A bad guy creeps along, takes a wrong step and boom! The potential criminal now remains stuck in a deep pit.

These types of booby traps are ideal for property with land and foliage, especially where intruders may enter through a certain direction or path. Pit traps date back to the Stone Age and invented for catching deer and other large prey. In this case, the goal is to catch an invading human. Unlike building a tripwire deterrent, constructing a pit trap may not be so easy. Get ready to dig and dig and dig some more.

3. Preventative Plants 

Put that green thumb to good use. Perfectly placed plants can make breaking into a home a more difficult proposition. Areas that may not get as much light at night might be a nice place for thorny bushes or trees. A potential break-in might just be too much of a pain in the ass for a crook looking for an easily accessible window to climb into.

Some conveniently placed and potentially painful plants—like cactuses, rosebushes or blackberry hedges—can be successful, low-tech deterrence measures. These types of plants can also be strategically placed inside the home on window sills or ledges to act as internal deterrents as well, making an intruder think twice about breaking in. And that is the goal; you do not necessarily want to hurt or capture an intruder, but instead, you want to send him on his way to somewhere else. (Important note: Venus flytraps won’t do the trick here.)

4. Nailed It

Simple, visible nails and spikes can also serve as an excellent means of protection. Drive nails into boards and place around possible entrances to your home, including all windows and doors. A would-be intruder might get an unwelcome surprise by stepping onto one of these and may instead decide to flee to tend to an injury rather than risk more injury by sticking around to take some of your stuff.

While this booby trap can certainly be a painful surprise, the mere presence of a spike strip may have a burglar thinking twice about making an entry at all. Seeing such a painful-looking barrier shows that this homeowner is serious about self-defense. It will not be lost on the criminal that something even worse can be waiting inside. However, as with most booby traps listed here, be sure to communicate with friends and family about their existence and location to avoid unintentional injuries.

5. No Jumping The Fence

It’s important to remember that most burglars are looking for something easy, such as a window left open or an unlocked door. Anything that makes their “job” more difficult usually means seeking another place to hit. A few barriers may just be too much of an annoyance to deal with.

Something as simple as fencing can act as an effective deterrent. Any kind of fence can make an intruder’s entrance and exit from a property more time consuming and difficult. A high wooden fence works, provided the gate stays locked, but even just its existence as a barrier adds a level of protection. Other options include chain-link fence, barbed wire, and even an electrical fence is a possibility. Just adding a visual deterrent sends a message to criminals that your house isn’t easy pickings.

6. Sharp Surprise

Like spike strips and nail boards, caltrops can cause some damage but should otherwise leave an intruder in at least one piece. These metal devices make use of four sharp prongs to keep unwanted guests out. No matter which direction a caltrop lands on the ground, one sharp prong always projects upward.

Among other uses, caltrops have been used for centuries to stop advancing armies and chariots and to puncture auto and airplane tires. These gadgets were used extensively in World War I and World War II. One advantage of using caltrops is that they can be spread easily over a wider area, offering better odds of ensnaring an intruder. They are also difficult to see, which is another advantage, but be careful that you don’t caltrop yourself. No one wants to be the boob caught in their own booby trap! 

7. Blank Blast

A quick online search for a shotgun blank trap will yield numerous results. These devices use a tripwire to trigger a shotgun shell blank, which results in an extremely loud blast. This can certainly serve as both a warning and a deterrent, and prowlers will most likely think the homeowner has already broken out their handy 12-gauge shotgun.

This device can be screwed into place or attached with a wire tie in case you want to relocate it later easily. These are nonlethal, and some survivalists have even mixed in chili powder, glitter, paintballs and other interesting combinations for even greater effect. One YouTube reviewer even noted, “They’re nonlethal and even legal in California, believe it or not.” These can also be used around a campsite to scare off bears and other predators. No word, however, on if they work on sasquatches or zombies.

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Prepping 101: $20 Tripwire Booby Traps/Perimeter Alarms Fire .22 Cal Blanks & 209 Primers – Video Review

Steel .22 Blank Alarm Mines $20-$25 Alarmmines.com Aluminum 209 Primer Alarms – $20-$25 Ebay

In many ways I wish the collapse would just get here, but most of me hope it never arrives at all. I’ve been doing this column for 3 years now, and I never thought we’d make it this far. I am praying that this whole Trump thing isn’t a Trojan horse, and that he is going to gradually change the power structure, and the end game for whatever clan of oligarchs ends up running things. We have been on a collision course with reality for decades, and it is all coming to a head now.

This idea I first covered in October of 2014 , and as I explain in the video, that was the start of a healthy business for the guy who came up with it originally to sell on Ebay. He is still making them exactly the same way, and for the same price. But since then some copycat products have come along, using 209 primers instead of .22 cal blanks. I don’t have a great loyalty to one or the other, so I went through both of them to show you how they compare. Either of them are a great buy.

A word to the wise, for those of you who don’t watch the video all the way through. Booby traps are illegal in the United States, and any explosive trapped within a confined space is considered by BATFE to be a pipe bomb, and it is a Federal offense.

I personally would buy the .22 blank mines. The 209 primer is not made to be out in the weather, and those nail gun blanks are made to withstand job sites, where they could be left in a building without a roof and get rained on. You could seal the 209s with wax or even paint maybe, but why bother?

Getting someone to walk through your trip line is a whole other story, and I touch upon this subject in the video. If you are building an early warning system with these mines, you really will only have one shot at catching your intruder. If he sees one wire it’ll tip him off to be careful, so plan your trip wires well, and don’t use monofiliment like I suggested in the first article. The green military wire is nearly invisible.

Be patient if either of these guys have some delay in your order. Nobody gives away free publicity to the degree that I do on this column, so even when I warn an Ebay seller, they seldom understand just how much stuff you guys are capable of buying. You’ll get your stuff. The important thing is to get the order in, because we could see the large cracks any day now. Trump has been quietly firing US attorneys and arresting some of the organizers of the brownstone pedophile operations. From what I’ve read more than a 1/3 of the US congress could be arrested, as well as Obama himself. There is a war going on behind the scenes for the future of our world, and we’re all in the crosshairs. I wouldn’t head to the bugout location yet, but I’d make sure you have a tank of gas.

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12 Gauge Perimeter Defense Trip Wire Alarm Device Gen 2.5 (Black)

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Our Patent pending design trip wire alarms are used by customers to protect themselves while camping, protect their homes, farms and property. Anywhere you desire to be alerted of a breech.
• Unlike competetors, our devices are 100% rust proof and will never rust. All components are 100% rust proof steel, brass and 6061 Aluminum and can be reused time and time again. With a super loud alarm.
• Use 12 Gauge Blanks, Poppers, or Pepper Gas. NO LIVE ROUNDS can be used in these alarms.
• We at Trip Alarm Co offer adapters that will utilize 209 Primers and or .22 ramset blanks

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The most unique perimeter alarm on the market made by Trip Alarm Co. We are the Only available alarm that can be used in 4 different directions! No other trip alarm compares. We are also the only alarm to hold a patent on our design. This 12 gauge perimeter alarm allows for a variety of alarm uses, blanks, poppers, pepper, or attach our adapter and use 209 primers or .22 blank adapter. "NO LIVE AMMO CAN BE USED IN THIS UNIT. Whether you are looking to have an alert for intruders or scare off animals - our perimeter trip alarm is perfect for you! Our new quad design allows you to run 4 separate lines covering 4 separate areas with ONE ALARM! Our High quality aircraft grade aluminum ensures this product is meant to last and NEVER Rust! Perfect for defense for your home, office, farm, barn, campsite and more. Also works great for fun in paintball games. This alarm uses 12 gauge blanks (NOT INCLUDED)

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6 DIY Trip Wire Alarms for Off-Grid Security

By Steve Nubie 2 Comments

Estimated reading time: 28 minutes

A lot of folks have never put together a trip wire alarm, and there’s a good reason. There are just not a lot of occasions where a trip wire is necessary. However, when those occasions do emerge, it’s at least worth understanding the concept of what works and what doesn’t.

What Exactly is a Trip Wire?

But who needs them now, do it yourself versus buy it yourself, trip wire 101, electrical wire, monofilament fishing line, bungee cord, lasers, infrared, and motion detectors, rocks in cans, firecracker poppers, .22-caliber blanks, air horns, sirens, and other noise makers, what about light, this is not about the use of lethal force, location, location, location, 1. bungee marbles, 2. monofilament on the rocks, 3. paracord pull-string fireworks, 4. thin wire .22-caliber blank, 5. winter white trip wire, 6. back gate avalanche, is this a good idea.

A trip wire is a long length of thin wire, monofilament fishing line, or any other type of cordage that is usually connected to something that makes noise. The idea is that when an intruder either human or animal steps into the wire, the alarm is sprung, alerting you to an intrusion.

The trip wire concept was developed in wartime as a way to alert troops of an enemy incursion. This was particularly needed at night and was often used in the dense island jungles during the war in the Pacific in World War II.

The usual configuration was a thin length of rope suspended low to the ground between trees with empty C-ration cans filled with stones to rattle the alarm whenever the wire was “tripped.” And while booby traps were sometimes used to maim or kill, there was always the concern that an innocent civilian or friendly soldier wandering off to go relieve himself would trip the wire.

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The usual reason someone considers a trip wire is when they are in an area with the potential for any number of unknown threats. The idea is usually to make noise to signal an intruder .

• The threat could be from wild animals like bears or wolves approaching a camp in a remote area.
• In countries ravaged by civil wars and civil unrest, no night is safe and trip wires are sometimes used to at least alert the local population if a covert threat is approaching.
• Following a disaster , many people find themselves isolated and alone with the potential for looters or worse. That’s when a trip wire may at least scare them off, if not serve as a warning of an unwelcome approach.
• In times requiring a bug-out to a distant but safer location, there are occasions where a night must be spent on the road in unknown territory where the threat is equally mysterious. Trip wires would serve as a perimeter defense to at least alert anyone spending an unplanned night on the road of any approach.
• And yes, they’re still used in war zones, although the technology of trip wires in those areas is usually defined by lasers, electronic signals, or infrared beams connected to electronic alerts through cameras or video or in extreme cases: explosives.
• In fact, the concept of contemporary home security systems connected to motion-detector technology to turn on lights; sound an alarm, record video, or alert the local police are the 21 st century versions of the trip wire concept.

It may seem unnecessary to build your own trip wires when so many options appear on the Internet , but if a situation makes the Internet undependable or unavailable, or deliveries or the purchase of many things is difficult or impossible, that might be a good time to know how to improvise a trip wire.

There’s also the fact that in some instances, the electricity is out or unavailable, and most modern security solutions require at least some level of power. In a worst case scenario with a total grid failure, technology will quickly diminish and old-school, analog solutions will offer the most dependable options. Those are the types of trip wire concepts we’ll cover.

We might as well start with the wire. There are a variety of options . Usually, the wire or cord is low-profile and hard to see. It also needs to be relatively strong. If someone or something walks through the wire or cord and it easily breaks, little is accomplished except alerting the intruder to the fact that you’ve setup some trip wires.

Here are options to consider:

Electrical wire comes in a variety of gauges, but the smallest (and most inexpensive) gauges are referred to as 14 and 16 gauge. They’re more than strong enough to serve as a trip wire.

They’re all coated with a flexible plastic coating that comes in a range of colors. White, black, red, and green are the most common, and those colors present camouflaged, stealth characteristics, depending on the time of year, time of day, and natural surroundings. Floral wire is another option and also comes in a variety of colors.

Fishing line is thin, strong, and also hard to see. Buy one of the heavier weight tests of at least 50 pounds or more. Avoid any of the brightly colored lines. Go with a neutral, plain monofilament.

Paracord is another surprisingly strong option, but you have to think about the color of the cord. During winter, a white Paracord might makes sense if the ground is snow covered. A green or camo cord could work well in a forest or field. Black is an obvious choice for night.

You don’t see bungee cord mentioned in a lot of the write-ups about trip wires, but it has a characteristic that could make sense if you think about it. If the idea of your trip wire is to rattle a bell, cans, or other noise maker, a bungee cord will certainly make that happen.

In fact, a bungee cord may cause more noise to occur than any of the other options we’ve mentioned due to its flexibility and springiness. A black bungee makes sense. Green if you’re in the woods.

If your trip wire is designed to trigger a mechanism, bungee is not the best choice, but if you’re rattling cans the old-fashioned way, it’s a good option.

You can buy these things and improvise a trip wire yourself, but make sure they’re battery or solar powered or have a way to recharge the batteries . These are complicated solutions, so we’ll mention them but we’re not going to spend a lot of time covering ways to make technology work in a primitive environment.

Some websites offer tips and solutions to improvising trip wires with technology, but it’s a lot of work and you have to consider how and when you’ll need any trip wire, and for how long.

The idea of most trip wires is to make a lot of noise when someone trips over the wire. Noise makers vary depending on what you have available or may have bought in advance. We’re going to assume your situation caught you a bit by surprise and that you have to improvise from available materials.

It’s believable that a lot of us would have wire, cords, and fishing line lying, around but things that make noise require a bit of creativity or at least some pre-planning , especially if you require a very loud alarm.

How loud your alarm needs to be depends on your distance from the trip wire and whether you are inside or outside. Someone camping in a tent will be more likely to hear a rattle of rocks in a can than someone sleeping in their home or cabin.

If you are at a distance from your trip wire or indoors, you may need to plan and buy ahead to acquire louder alarms like blank cartridge firing mechanisms, firecracker poppers, air horns, or anything else that will be heard under most circumstances.

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And if you can, paint your alarms to match the environment. If you don’t have paint, you can rub some mud or clay on the bell/can/noisemaker so it is somewhat camouflaged. Black is good at night, camo combos for any natural forest or field, and snow white for winter.

If you’re trying to keep animals at bay, the colors are less of an issue. Animals only see in black and white, but keep an eye on the contrast. They can still notice highly contrasting shades.

A lot of us have bells around for various reasons including cowbells, Christmas bells, antique bells, and collectible bells. And then some of us don’t. If you have any assortment of bells, you’re off to a good start with a trip wire.

Even if you’re not a bell collector, there’s a good chance you have access to tin cans and rocks. No rocks? Anything that makes noise in a can will do from bolts to nuts or better yet, marbles— although marbles may jostle around in your can in the wind, so maybe stick with the pebbles.

You only want a few in the can but enough to make noise when the can is jostled. Smooth, rounded stones and marbles are best. Look for rounded stones in river and creek beds.

Drop a few in and give the can a shake. Adjust until you think you have the most and best noise for a shake. And if you don’t think a rattling can is going to work, then you’ll need to think about stocking some very loud alarms like the next few items.

There’s a type of firework that has two stings emerging from either end of a firecracker. When you pull the stings, the firecracker pops. They’re loud, and you can tie them onto a number of trip wires around your area.

Some of them are made out of paper and will get wet due to rain, snow, or morning dew, so wrap them in plastic cut from a black or neutral garbage bag. They’ll most likely scare off a wild animal and might scare off an intruder. Either way you’ll certainly hear it.

This isn’t about setting up a full loaded .22 caliber round on a trip wire. That’s a really bad idea. Trip wires are indiscriminate and when tripped, the wire fires. Most .22-caliber blanks are used for nail hammers to drive nails and pins into concrete.

The firing mechanism for trip wires and .22 blanks can be bought online , although the blanks are available at most hardware stores next to the nail guns . There are also 12-gauge blank variations on this concept.

As a trip wire, they’re mostly designed to deter wild animals, but the people who sell them offer all sorts of reasons to use them . You’ll certainly hear it, and it will scare most anyone and anything away.

However, it may cause a response you don’t necessarily want. If someone is approaching and they are armed, they may perceive the detonation of a .22-caliber blank round as actual gunfire and return fire. Up to you.

If it makes noise, it’ll work on a trip wire. The only challenge is figuring out how to trigger the noise. Things like sirens need power, but if you’re handy with a little wiring, you can make a trip-switch to set off the siren.

There are also solar powered options available . There’s some advice out there about setting up a rock over an a ir horn that will fall on the air horn button when tripped. That requires some precise setup and once that rock is on the air horn, it’s going to make a lot of noise until you lift the rock.

You’ll also probably use up all the air in the horn by the time you get out of bed or your sleeping bag to lift the rock.

There are solar powered motion detectors that will illuminate an area. These are best hung high in a tree out of sight and out of reach. It’s a variation on the trip wire concept, and it’s usually used to dissuade animals. It could also deter an intruder, but if you’re using something to trip an alarm that will notify you of an intrusion, a light in the night will do little good if you don’t see it while you’re sleeping or otherwise occupied.

Most trip wire concepts are designed to make noise to let you know that someone or something is approaching, and improvising a light to a trip wire can get a little complicated unless you have some good skills with wiring and trip switches. We’re going to skip the lights and stick with noise.

Booby traps have often been used in times of war and they are designed to kill. That’s a really bad idea. The whole idea is to either scare something or someone away with sound or to at least be alerted to the presence of something approaching.

Even a blank .22-caliber cartridge should be pointed towards the ground. Otherwise, the blast could send shrapnel from a tree trunk or branch in someone’s direction, and you don’t want it to be one of your children or an innocent wanderer lost in the night. This is about making noise, not war .

Where you place any trip wire is as important as the design of the trip wire itself. You want it far enough away to give yourself some time to observe the direction of the alarm and see what’s coming plus prepare to respond. But you also want it close enough so you can hear it.

Another location factor is the height of the trip wire from the ground. If you’re concerned about human intruders or large animals like a bear , you’ll want your trip wire about a foot above the ground. 6-inches above the ground is about the minimum or someone or something could step on the wire without tripping it.

Also, if it’s any lower than 6 inches, every random squirrel, raccoon, possum or most any other rodent could trip your wire repeatedly. If that happens enough, you may take to ignoring the trip wire noise while assuming it’s just another passing rabbit when it’s the intruder you were so worried about in the first place.

Support for attaching a trip wire is something else to think about. A lot depends on what’s available at the location and what kind of trip wire you’re using. Two tree trunks could work, but they will create a very taut trip wire that may not ring any bells for long. They could also cause an intruder to literally trip which may be an effective deterrent–or not.

The branches of two trees or two saplings give some flexibility to any trip wire and could result in a sway in the wire, causing the noise to persist a little longer.

Two stakes in the ground are another solution, but if you’re trying to raise your trip wire to a foot of height, you’ll need long and large stakes deeply imbedded in the ground.

The number of trip wires you set up is another location consideration. Think in terms of avenues of approach. Around a home or dwelling, any open area like a gap in a fence, a gate, an open back or front yard, approaches to doors or windows, or approaches to outbuildings are worth thinking about.

A lot depends on what you’re worried about, the location, and the immediate threat level.

A remote survival camp or any campsite for that matter might require a number of trip wire setups, but even then –animals prefer open paths and clear terrain. A human intruder may do otherwise and stick to the cover of scrub, brush, and trees, so you just have to do your best to estimate what could be coming and from where.

Check your trip wires if you have them in place for any length of time. Improvising an alarm with some rocks in a can is a good idea, at least until it rains or freezes and the water or frozen rocks in the can fail to rattle.

It’s also possible one of your trips has worked loose; been tripped without you knowing it, and loose on the ground, or something as simple as a knot that has worked loose. It’s actually somewhat of a “set it and forget it” approach, but it’s worth checking them from time to time if you need them for any duration.

Remove your trip wires when you don’t need them anymore or when you move on. They will cause you or anyone else to trip, including family members, as long as they’re in place. You also may need them again.

The DIY Trip wires

The advantage of a bungee cord as a trip wire is its springiness. Think of it as a rubber band on steroids. In fact, the interior of a bungee cord is just that. Long strands of rubber encased in a flexible fabric braid.

You can attach anything that makes noise to a bungee cord. The advantage is that a bungee will rattle and shake longer while making more noise.

• Bungee cord of sufficient length for your trip wire area. You can buy coiled bungee cord in various colors and cut them to length. If you only have packaged bungee cords of varying lengths with hooks, you can connect them together, although the hooks will be somewhat visible during the day.
• Various soup cans painted to match the terrain or time of day. They should also have holes punched towards the top of the can on either side.

• (You can substitute bells for the cans.)
• Choose a bungee cord color that you think will blend in the best with the surrounding areas.
• Wrap the one end of the bungee around a tree trunk, branch, sapling or stake. Tie it off with two half-hitches and pull tight.
• Thread your can or cans onto the bungee.
• Stretch it tight to another tree trunk, branch, sapling or stake and wrap and knot with two half hitches until tightened.

• Add marbles to the can and test it with a few pulls on the bungee. Add or remove marbles depending on the sound.
• Test your bungee trip wire again with someone in camp or in the house and ask them if they can hear the cans? If not, move the trip wire closer or add some more cans.

Monofilament is an excellent trip wire source. It’s hard to see during the day and totally invisible at night. The key is to have a strong enough weight test to activate the noise without breaking. It can be used in most any trip wire setup in any location.

• Monofilament fishing line.  50 pound test or higher is best, but any weight test will do if it’s all you have on hand. You could even double or triple up the monofilament if you’re worried it will break or snap.
• Empty tin cans. Soup cans are a good size. Peel off any colorful labels and either paint them or coat them in a thin film of mud so they are less reflective. Paint the cans black or do a camo pattern depending on the surrounding area.
• Smooth, round rocks, nuts, bolts, marbles —anything hard that can easily move around and rattle in the can.
• Cordage or wire to attach the cans to the monofilament.
• Wrap the one end of the monofilament around a tree trunk, branch, sapling or stake. Tie it off with an improved clinch knot (a fishing knot perfectly suited to monofilament) and pull tight.
• Punch 4 holes in each can.

The holes should be punched in pairs towards the top of the can about a ½ inch apart and opposite each other at the rim of the can. This is so the can is bound tight to the monofilament as it is threaded through the holes to ensure a good shake.

• Thread the monofilament through the holes.

• Add the can or cans along the monofilament, but try to place them in spots that are obscured by brush, tall grass, or other natural camouflage. It makes no difference at night, but take a look when it’s dark to be sure.
• Stretch it tight to another tree trunk, branch, sapling, or stake and wrap and knot with another improved clinch knot and pull light.
• Try to locate the cans in a location that is hard to see during the day.
• Drop a few rocks in the can and shake the fishing line wire to see if the cans rattle. Add more or less rocks until the cans make a racket. Continue to add cans where you can. Tighten the cans to the monofilament if you need to.
• Test your monofilament trip wire and have someone in camp listen and ask them if they can hear the cans. If not, move the trip wire closer or add more cans.
• Thin paracord . A type I or type II is thin enough to be obscure but strong enough to function as a trip wire. Choose the color that best matches the terrain and time of day.
• Pull-string fireworks. They’re legal to buy in most states and can also be purchased online. You’ll need to have them on hand because they’re very difficult to improvise.
• Choose a paracord color that will blend in with the surrounding area.
• Wrap the one end of the paracord around a tree trunk, branch, sapling, or stake.
• Find a location that is hard to see along the paracord and tie one end of the pull-string firecracker to the cord.
• Tie the other end of the paracord to another tree trunk, branch, sapling, or stake and wrap and knot with two half hitches until tightened.
• Carefully tie the paracord to the other end of the pull-string using a square knot or any knot you can improvise. You have to do this delicately. You want the paracord tight, but you don’t want to accidentally detonate the firecracker. If you want to get the best tight line, you could tie the final end of the paracord to the tree or stake with a trucker’s hitch . This will give you a little more control over the slack, but be gentle.
• You don’t want to test your popper trip wire or you’ll have to retie another one. If you want to test the distance and whether or not you’ll hear it, have someone in camp or in the house listen while you pull a spare popper. If they don’t hear it, move the trip wire closer. Don’t be tempted to add multiple poppers to the same trip wire. What will most likely happen is that one popper will trip, leaving any others unexploded.
• Unlike bells and tin cans, you have to rearm your firecracker trip wire whenever it goes off. That’s not a bad idea to at least see if there are any footprints or paw prints to tell you if your intruder was human or a stray dog.

• Floral wire . Black is the default color, but if you have a green or white color that can match the terrain or time of year (snow), that’s a good idea.
• A .22-gauge firing capsule. You can buy these online. They’re hard to find in stores.
• Blank .22-gauge loads. Buy these online where you bought your firing capsule or at a hardware store in the nail bun aisle.
• Wrap the one end of the wire around a tree trunk, branch, sapling or stake. Choose a color that matches best with the surroundings.
• Attach an unloaded .22-gauge capsule in an obscure spot.
• Attach the other end of the wire to the .22-gauge firing capsule.
• Stretch it to another tree trunk, branch, sapling or stake and pull until you have tension on the .22-gauge firing mechanism.
• Test the unloaded .22-gauge capsule by pushing on the trip wire to see if the pin fires. If not, adjust the tension. If the pin fires, rearm the firing mechanism and carefully add a blank .22-gauge cartridge.
• If appropriate to the situation, do a test. It will be loud and attract a lot of attention. If the firing pin is firing when unloaded, you should be good to go if a test causes local problems or concerns. Anything that sounds like a gun shot in the neighborhood may attract some unwanted attention.

This setup uses a white length of electrical wire attached with overlapping loops through two holes in the top of a can painted white. Obviously, it’s a winter trip wire and it uses marbles or pebbles to create the alarm. The overlap of the wires causes the can to shake and rattle more than a conventional wire or line passing through the holes.

• White electrical wire
• A can or cans painted white
• Marbles or pebbles

Directions:

• Attach one end of the wire to a tree branch.
• Run the wire through the can in a discreet location, but overlap the wires so the can shakes when the wire is tripped.

• Attach the other end of the wire to a branch and test.

If trouble is close to home and you need to come up with a trip wire fast, this is one option. This is a trip wire connected to a gate, causing an avalanche of large rocks to fall onto a large piece of sheet metal or even a metal garbage can. It makes a lot of noise and can also be staged so the rocks fall onto the metal when the gate is pushed rather than pulled open.

You can improvise this kind of setup anywhere someone may enter uninvited, from a barn door to a back door to a door on a wood shed. This is not a stealthy trip wire. It assumes that a gate or other barrier is obstructing any view of the setup.

• Bucket to hold the ro cks.
• About two dozen large rocks from 1 to 2-inches in diameter.
• A large metal surface or object that will make a lot of noise when rocks land on it. Sheet metal, metal garbage cans, metal ductwork, any type of metal that’s relatively thin and will create noise.
• A wood platform 12” square to support the bucket
• Three wooden dowels about 3 feet long. (You can use old broom handles or even 1×2’s can work).
• Cordage . Any type and any color. The trip wire will also be obscured by the gate or barrier.
• Fill your bucket with your rocks and dump them on your metal sheet, can or whatever else your using to assess the noise. Ask someone inside your home or camp to determine if they can hear it.
• If you’re satisfied with the noise level, fill the bucket with your rocks.
• Pound the 3 support sticks into the ground in a triangle that will support the 12” square platform.
• Set the 12” platform on top of the support sticks. You don’t want to drive the support sticks too deep into the ground. You want this to be a precarious balancing act.
• You have two options. If your gate pulls open towards you, attach your trip wire to the gate and to the front support stick or your three sticks setup far enough away to allow the rocks to fall on the metal. Place the metal in the best location for the rocks to fall. You might want to put some rocks under the metal to lift it off the ground to increase the noise and hold it in place to some degree. When the gate is opened, the trip wire will pull out the support and the bucket will fall forward onto the metal.
• If your gate opens away from you, set up the support sticks and the platform right next to the gate. When someone pushes the gate open, it will topple the bucket with the rocks onto your metal plate or can.
• Test either option to see where the rocks fall and place your metal sheet or container in that location.
• Test again and ask someone inside the house to assess the noise level.
• If satisfied, set the trip or add more rocks or adjust the metal location or type of metal. It’s an easy set up and will create enough noise to cause most intruders to jump out of their boots.

Are There Other Approaches?

No doubt . Trip wires have been around a long time, and what you choose to improvise is only limited by your imagination and materials on hand . What we tried to do here was explore the concept so anyone could take the basic idea and adapt it to their needs, available supplies , and their location. It’s all a question of finding stuff that will make a lot of noise when someone trips over your wire.

In an emergency, it’s good to know how to do this stuff. In an ideal scenario, you would have sophisticated electronic devices that are solar powered and connected to motion detectors and all manner of alerts and alarms. Complicating things further is that any device with any level of electronics will also need to be weatherproof.

But this isn’t about an ideal scenario with a house surrounded by lasers . It’s about a sudden and surprising time when things rapidly become dangerous or threatening. Anyone in that situation would have plenty to think about and the ability to quickly improvise something as basic as perimeter alarms with trip wires not only makes sense but simply seems like a good idea. Just don’t throw way any old bells.

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How to Make Booby Traps: Brutal Security Devices in Modern and Ancient History

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Why Are Booby Traps So Effective?

The effectiveness of a booby trap does not strictly come from its lethality alone. In fact, booby traps that burst with sounds or rotten smells can be as effective for personal safety as one that can injure or kill. Those that do inflict major physical damage, however, can cause just as much psychological damage. And not just to the victim only, but to all who witness the incident as well. What do booby traps do to their victims?

Unlike someone wielding a spear, a sword, or a gun, booby traps are indiscriminate about their targets. This means that anyone, be they enemy, ally, or civilian, can fall prey to their effects.

To trap a single enemy soldier is to demoralize every single soldier in the group and make them cautious and even paranoid that other booby traps may lie in wait.

Traps, especially those set in dense foliage or in narrow corridors can signal the start of an ambush, which can lead to further paranoia when a trap is encountered. 

When one or more traps are tripped, squads must move more slowly to sweep for further traps and pitfalls. Mines are a common form of booby trap bombs, and fairly straightforward: when downward pressure is applied to the mine, a firing pin is pressed, triggering an explosion. Without someone familiar with these explosive devices (or equipped to find them when buried), pressing forwards is impossible without casualties.

Even if only a single trap is encountered in a given area, the whole area may be avoided entirely by the enemy, offering a safe zone from those who fear more booby traps.

If a trap manages to injure an enemy, it will cause the enemy to have to slow down trying to stabilize or evacuate their wounded.

Booby traps offer a great defense, especially when you have few defenders. Need to secure a cave entrance? There isn’t much need for an armed guard if you have a proper trap (or traps) in place.

The best method for employing a booby trap is to rely on predictable human nature. We are creatures of curiosity and habit. If we see something of convenience, such as a tool or a container that looks like it may hold something useful, our instinct is to reach for it and investigate. Flashlight bombs, for instance, are particularly vicious booby traps that set off an munition like a small internal grenade if the flashlight is turned on. Uncertainty and misdirection make for the most devious of traps.

For instance, say there appears to only be a single entrance into a building. Just inside is a tripwire that will pull the pin on a grenade, or fire off a mounted shotgun. But you don’t know that. You suspect it, but you will not know until you take valuable time to check. What if there are no other entrances? Even if you know for a fact the door is booby trapped, do you have the tools and the know-how to disarm it or trigger it in such a way that it will not harm your fellows or innocent bystanders? And even with the ability to find and disarm traps, in a city full of doorways and alleyways, or a forest dotted with caves and dense forest growth, it is likely you won’t catch every single one. This kind of psychological torment is what servicemen and women from all over the world face on a regular basis, especially in the wars of the last seventy-five years.

Ancient Traps

Booby traps of antiquity developed as a means of necessity. Tripwires and hunting lures made of twisted twine and gut string helped ancient man trap small and medium-sized game. Some traps have been found large enough to be deployed against huge animals, tactics that were unproven and thought impossible for prehistoric man to achieve. Later, traps would be developed to combat thieves of precious treasures and enemies of the state, many of which are so simple they continue to be used to this day.

Hunting Lures and the Tripwire

The idea is a very simple one: tie a knot in a rope and place the loop on the ground. Towards the direction of the loop, place a piece of bait. When your target steps through the loop, the knot will tighten around their foot, holding them in place until you can come along to collect. Hunting lures can be tricky to use properly, as positioning, materials, bait placement, and a bit of luck are all required. But multiple hunting lures increased the chances that an ancient hunter would feed their family. A hunting trap can be made with a simple string or twine, but another design is made using tension as you can see in this video.

A fishing trap may look like this , a cage designed to let fish in but not back out. Trapping, hunting, and fishing have been integral parts of each other for hundreds of thousands of years. From these lures and others, the idea of the trip wire was born. A tripwire is exactly what it sounds like: stretched taut between a trap and an anchor point, a wire, a string, or a cord will pull or activate the device attached to it. 

Punji Sticks and Pitfalls

Imagine a soldier charging with his unit into a frenzied battle in the deep jungle. The terrain is rough and unfamiliar, littered with roots, rocks, and dense foliage so thick that it is difficult to see where his next step will take him. Then, without warning, his foot gives way as if falling into a hole. This, hole, unfortunately, is not natural. Filled with sharpened sticks, the soldier’s foot and calf are immediately lacerated, incapacitating him. His fellow soldier next to him also falls into a similar pit, and suddenly the enemy has taken out two brave fighters without having to fire a shot. Worse, the sticks have been covered in poison or other unmentionable materials. This spike trap filled with sharpened sticks called punji sticks ensures that the soldier will not only suffer grave injuries in the fall, but their extremities will likely become infected from the wounds. There is a reason these traps are banned from use according to the updated 1980 Geneva Convention accords. They are brutal, often undetectable, and deadly in multiple ways. 

Pitfalls are such an effective booby trap that man has been using them for thousands of years. It was discovered in Tultepec, Mexico, that ancient man once hunted wooly mammoths directly, leading entire herds into dugout enclosures or pits where they could be clubbed or speared. Before this, it was assumed man did not attack mammoths on their own, instead leading them to locations such as swamps where they would mire themselves and die of starvation. But this proves that these booby traps are effective against even the largest of beasts.

Needless to say, if you dig a pitfall filled with sharpened sticks in your backyard or around your home, and someone falls in, you can expect swift action by police enforcement. Even enemies of war do not deserve the effects of such a booby trap, and neither do trespassers. There are less lethal ways of dealing with burglars!

Feather Spear Trap

Perhaps one of the earliest trip wire traps, feather spear traps are a unique kind of booby trap meant to injure larger prey such as boars or deer. Consequently, they are also fairly effective against humans as well.

Feather spears are named after the shape of the sticks used to pierce and maim the animal or person that passes through the tripwire. To illustrate the simple design, think of a comb with large bristles facing downwards towards a tripwire stretched taut along the ground between two trees. When something passes through the tripwire, the whole “comb” shoots towards the tripwire, with the bristles puncturing the legs or body of the creature within its path. Consequently, this type of trap is fairly effective against anything traveling at high speed, as the force and tearing power of the feather spears are increased.

While the video below shows a trap that would not fool any hunter-gatherer on the move, it would certainly cause a larger animal to maim themselves should they be ensnared in the tripwire and punctured by the sharpened wood.

Pharaohs and Their Tombs

When you think of booby traps inside of ancient tombs, you may immediately think of Indiana Jones or Laura Croft gallantly disarming dart traps, pressure plates, and giant rolling boulders! Unfortunately, these kinds of elegant traps are mostly movie fiction. In general, the truth is much more mundane... with a few exceptions. In their day, the bright white stone and glittering capstone of gold captivated the Egyptian skyline as one of the largest pyramids in the ancient world. Built to literally immortalize the dead pharaohs, these massive constructs featured very specifically designed chambers and hallways meant to house the pharaoh’s mummified body, his sarcophagus, gold and silver, precious gems and urns, and even the buried remains of loyal subjects and servants. The pharaohs believed that once they passed into death, they could carry all of the treasures that were buried with them into the afterlife, even their families and servants, becoming deities that would live as rulers for all eternity.

Whether or not their beliefs ended up as true, one thing was certain: the call of a king’s worth of riches and wealth could not be resisted.

While some tombs relied on very claustrophobic passages and blocked off rooms to guard their treasures, a few were guarded by confusing layouts and sheer vertical drops designed to keep determined grave robbers at bay. For the most part, unfortunately, these traps did not stand the test of time, and many tombs have been stripped of their treasures long before modern archeologists could document and save them for future generations. This is why the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt was such a historic find, as such a pristine and untouched burial had never been found before.

As shared by this article from the Vintage News about Egyptian booby traps, one devious trap ended up being a very effective deterrent even to the present day: the floors of some tombs were covered in thick layers of hematite powder. This dust, when inhaled, would shred the inside of the lungs, causing a slow and painful death. In this way, even if treasures were stolen from the pharaohs, revenge would be theirs, even from the realm of the dead. Archeologists needed to wear full hazmat suits to even enter.

The Chinese Emperor’s Rivers of Mercury

Some tombs become booby trapped for different reasons. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, changed the Eastern world in a way very few Westerners understand. Conquering the six warring kingdoms in 210 B.C., he united the entirety of China for the first time under his rule. He was responsible for the construction of the Great Wall, a structure that has lasted for well over 2,000 years. But that wasn’t the only monumental structure he oversaw.

In 1974, a group of farmers digging a well stumbled upon the sculpture of a Chinese soldier made of terracotta clay. Chinese archeologists were called, and they found another. And another. And another! After building a massive museum complex around what they had discovered, they realized that they had stumbled upon the beginnings of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. Even today, the work continues, as archeologists have not yet entered the tomb’s center. 

Based on writings from the period, however, they do know of an intriguing detail that would certainly stop any trespasser. Qin Shi Huang believed he could gain immortality by ingesting liquid mercury, which he did daily as emperor. This was probably the reason he died, in fact. His tomb is said to contain “rivers” of liquid mercury, a deadly kind of trap that will undoubtedly serve as a deterrent to scientists (or anyone foolish enough) that eventually venture into Qin Shi Huang’s burial chamber.

Modern Warfare and Deadly Force

With technological developments have come ingenious ways to build booby traps, some more deadly than others. Tripwires, grenades, mines, and motion-activated bombs serve to kill, incapacitate, and terrorize our armed forces, not to mention the civilian populations of the countries we fight to defend. The Geneva Conventions have outlawed many types of booby traps, but those without rules rarely follow them. Regardless, here are just a few of the booby traps that have played a role in our modern conflicts around the world.

World War II

The Nazi regime in Germany dedicated much of their resources into crafting lethal booby traps and bombs, using disguised spies to slip aboard Allied ships in an attempt to sabotage supply lines bound for Great Britain. These bombs came in many different designs, many disguised as everyday objects. Mess kits would come filled with typical rations, but underneath was a bomb filled with thermite that would erupt seconds after the lid was pulled. A simple can of motor oil with a false bottom would explode when someone unscrewed the cap. Unbelievably, they even developed a booby trapped chocolate bar; when the bar was broken on one end, a thin steel canvas would activate a small explosive charge. This was but one of many attempts to assassinate Winston Churchill that were discovered. You can see some amazing illustrations of these devices here, all drawn by a designer named Lawrence Fish.

When the Germans were in retreat after the Allied invasion at Normandy, Allied troopers soon discovered something terrible about the abandoned equipment. Every so often, they would find discarded German soldier helmets on the ground. When disturbed (or kicked, which happened more than once), a bomb hidden beneath would detonate, likely maiming the lower extremities of the soldier. Discarded rifles would also be booby trapped if lifted, many of which were tied to the pin of grenades. The horrifying truth was that German troops booby trapped almost anything they could find in an effort to slow the progression of the Allied advance. As for landmines, metal detectors could discover localized minefields, but the process was slow and incredibly dangerous. It became much worse when the Nazis developed plastic landmines that could not be detected at all. Because of the horrifying effectiveness of these munitions, updated Geneva Conventions have banned plastic landmine production by participating nations.

Explosives would become a standard tool of destruction in both land and sea. An underwater mine, for example, was designed in a spherical shape and came covered in dozens of detonating pins that reacted to touch by approaching ships. Each mine would contain up to five hundred pounds of explosives. Hundreds of these would be deposited in the middle of shipping lanes by U-boats hidden beneath the waves. According to Britannica.com, between the Axis and the Allies, over 550,000 of these floating terrors were dropped into the ocean, sinking over 2,400 ships and damaging hundreds more.

Vietnam War

One of the strongest factors that made the Vietnam War so psychologically and physically crippling to the men who slogged through those jungles were the lethal booby traps laid by Viet Cong guerillas. We previously talked about the effectiveness of punji traps, but Viet Cong traps got much worse than this. The Viet Cong relied on tight underground tunnels to hide, prepare for firefights, and ambush US fighters. When clearing out these tunnels, you can imagine the fear in a soldier’s mind at the thought of claustrophobic passages of dirt and stone. But imagine at the entrance of a cave is a small pitfall. The soldier’s leg breaks, and he immediately feels a sharp pain shoot through his ankle. He struggles and makes it a few steps towards the exit before collapsing to the ground, Dying quickly afterward.

What got him? A snake. One of the most venomous snakes in the world, in fact: a bamboo pit viper. Guerillas often carried these dangerous creatures in their sacks to create these terrible traps. There’s a reason they were called “three-step snakes” by US servicemen: you could only take three steps before the venom of the snake would take your life.

Another booby trap unique to the war was the flag bomb. In war, it is only natural that a soldier would want a trophy of some sort to commemorate their victory over their enemies. Taking down flags and raising the US flag was a customary act when important locations were taken. The flagpoles holding the flags, however, were often booby trapped; enemy guerillas knew the custom, and took advantage of it whenever they could. When a location was about to be captured, the communist conscripts would booby trap anything a US soldier would consider a war trophy with an explosive charge.

Middle Eastern Conflicts

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put the US and coalition forces in some of the harshest conditions in the world. Besides the fact that it can be difficult to identify enemy fighters, you never know when you will come across an armed booby trap. The most common and deadly from these conflicts have been IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Created from an artillery shell, a mortar shell, or just regular TNT, these traps are usually planted by terrorists in the middle of busy roads or military advance routes. These have been so effective, it is sadly common for US army men to return from a tour with missing legs or arms. Technology with artificial limbs have enabled these men and women to return to somewhat normal lives (and even return to service), but the psychological effects of the horrifying event never truly goes away.

To combat IEDs and enemy fire, damage-resistant vehicles have been rolled out, designed to keep the fighters inside safe from underground explosions. One fascinating vehicle that has been used by Israeli and coalition forces in recent conflicts is the armored D9 bulldozer. Plated on all sized with reinforced steel and bulletproof glass, these bulldozers tread right through minefields, purposefully detonating any traps to make way for advancing combat lines. These have been used in major offenses, capable of withstanding small arms fire, multiple rocket propelled grenades, and even an underground explosive device of more than half a ton of TNT.

In Conclusion

Now that you know the terrible effects of booby traps on anyone that trips into them, you should understand that booby trapping your home or your business with a homemade booby trap is probably a bad idea. If you're concerned about your personal security, it would probably be better to invest in a personal safety device. Pepper spray or a stun gun should do plenty to keep you safe and are easily found self defense products. You do have options for home security that will help secure your property from trespassing and invasion, however. In a way, home security devices are silent forms of booby traps just waiting for someone to sound the alarm.

For a complete DIY security system that is affordable and easy to install. Our devices are safer than camouflage pits, and much more effective than tripwires; you won’t even have to bend down to arm your alarm!

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

• 20th Century

8 of the Most Dangerous Viet Cong Booby Traps

29 Oct 2020

The Vietnam War (1955-1975) effectively became a proxy Cold War battle over communism, with North Vietnam supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies, and the South supported by America and anti-communist allies.

The Viet Cong were the guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam and its allies. Despite the superior firepower of the American military, the determination of the Viet Cong was exceptional, and they were experts in utilising their surroundings to create booby traps to hamper America’s ability to pursue them in a retreat .

Booby traps were cheap and relatively simple to make, and the Viet Cong used them to devastating effect. Unlike mines, many of the booby traps laid were made from bamboo which could be hidden from mine detectors, and often worked on their own, meaning traps could be set ahead of time without the need for monitoring.

Many were designed to maim instead of kill – not only did this mean other soldiers were required to remove their wounded colleagues which hampered operations, but it also meant the traps were a psychological weapon as word about them spread. It’s estimated that approximately 11% of deaths and 15% of wounds to American soldiers were caused by booby traps and mines in the Vietnam War.

Here are eight of the most dangerous traps:

1. Punji sticks

Punji sticks were the most infamous of the booby traps used, said to account for 2% of wounds to American soldiers. They were mostly made out of bamboo (though sometimes metal) in varying lengths and width, and had a simple sharpened spike on one end to impale its victim. Sometimes the sticks were smeared with urine, feces or plant poison to also cause infection.

The sticks were often jammed into camouflaged pits dug in areas likely to be passed through by American troops, which soldiers would then fall in to and become impaled. The point of penetration was usually in the lower leg area, with the sticks not necessarily meant to kill but rather designed to would or slow down a unit whilst victims were evacuated.

Punji stick booby trap with bamboo spikes – Cu Chi tunnels. (Image Credit: Jorge Láscar / CC).

Sometimes the sticks pointed downwards at an angle, with soldiers stepping into a pit unable to remove their leg without causing further damage. Occasionally the Viet Cong would dig pits beside each other, so when a soldier fell in and needed help, his colleague would then get trapped in the pit next door.

Punji sticks were also used in conjunction with barbed wire, in tunnels and sometimes deployed in preparation for an ambush in areas where soldiers might be expected to take cover, thus impaling themselves in the process.

2. Grenade Traps

These were usually placed along tunnel bases or in a stream. One side of a string was attached to a stake rising up from the floor, with the other side attached to the safety pin in the grenade. When a soldier tripped the wire, the grenade would detonate.

Alternatively, grenades were used inside cans – these were fastened low to the ground or tied to trees either side of a path and connected by a wire. The grenade’s pins had already been pulled before being inserted into a can, with the safety lever held down. When the tripwire was triggered by a soldier’s foot, the grenades were pulled from the cans, releasing the safety levers and igniting the grenade.

3. Cartridge Traps

Sometimes known as ‘Toe-poppers’ these were small arms cartridges such as bullets that were placed within a bamboo tube and over a nail, and then camouflaged in the ground with the tip protruding. When stepped on, the pressure placed on the bullet would force it down onto the nail, igniting the primer and exploding.

This created an opportunity for the Viet Cong to ambush whilst  the wounded  solider was treated.  The traps usually wounded, but could be fatal depending on the shell ’s size.

4. Snake Pits

Snakes were commonly used in traps inside tunnels. Tripwires would trigger the release of snakes hidden inside bamboo sticks. Often poisonous snakes were used, and were known as ‘three-step snakes’ as that’s how far a soldier could make it after being bitten by one, due to the snakes’ venom. American “tunnel rats” had to be specially trained to navigate and disarm these traps.

Snakes were also hidden by the Viet Cong in soldier’s packs, and sometimes tied into the branches of trees by their tails at face height.

5. The Mace

Possibly one of the worst booby traps US soldiers faced was the mace. Based on a tripwire, once the wire was triggered, a large metal or wooden ball with spikes would swing down from a tree.

Viet Cong Flying Mace Booby Trap (Image Credit: manhhai, Flickr / CC).

6. Tiger Traps

Similar to the mace, the tiger trap consisted of a weighted, spike-studded board. A tripwire would undo the catch on a rope, releasing a plank weighted with barbed metal spikes.

7. Pressure Release Traps

The Viet Cong quickly learned to booby trap not only items that were of military importance but also items such as flags and other war trophies. The NVA and Viet Cong loved to fly flags and knew US troops liked to capture them – when forced to leave a location, they often rigged the flags with an explosive, so when US troops started to take down the flag, the booby trap would go off.

The Viet Cong also frequently used secondary booby traps, so as soldiers rushed in to help injured colleagues, a delayed secondary charge would go off.

A Korean soldier of the 26th Regiment, ROK Tiger Division, lifts a Viet Cong booby-trap from the ground during a demonstration near HQ, Song Cau. (Image Credit: NARA / Public Domain).

8. Bamboo Whip

Spikes were placed over a long bamboo pole, which was pulled back into an arc using a catch attached to a tripwire. When the wire was tripped, the bamboo pole whipped back into the straight position, impaling the soldier who had triggered the tripwire.

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What is a trip wire and what is its purpose.

A trip wire is a thin, low-visibility wire or cord typically stretched across a path, area, or location to serve as a trigger or alarm mechanism. Its primary purpose is to detect or trigger a response when someone or something crosses its path.

How long can a trip wire be?

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