How to Make Booby Traps

This guide will teach you how to make booby traps and a perimeter alarm. Perimeter alarms are extremely affective at alerting your encampment to hostile forces, and can be made with almost anything. I remember when I was a kid and saw Predator for the first time. Unlike my spastic counterparts who could barely overcome their alien idolatry, I was more amazed by the ingenuity of the Special Forces Team led by Major Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) towards the closing scenes. Insert my initial fascination with SF here. Dutch’s SF unit made a series of perimeter alarms, booby traps, and etc. using nothing more than their surroundings and load outs.

You should incorporate the use of booby traps into your war game exercising to better familiarize yourself with their construction and use. Don’t expect shit to go down, you being able to grab your nifty survival guide, and decimating all enemy combatants. Dutch’s unit, like all Special Forces units were trained to improvise using booby traps and unconventional means to gain the strategic advantage over the enemy. Militia members can use these devices to defend their positions, defend and FOB, or to gain the strategic advantage.

How to Make a Claymore Mine

The primary (or preferred) explosive used to make a claymore mine is C4. Using a substitute explosive will produce less that optimal performance. I highly doubt you have any C4 lying around, so when you get a chance you can download this guide on producing C4. If you’re too skittish to make C4, you can also use black powder. In addition to explosives you will need; wooden sticks (or tent stakes), tin or metal (020 gauge), cloth, duct tape, improvised electric blasting cap. You will follow these steps to make a claymore mine;

  1. Shape your tin or metal to be convex
  2. Attach shrapnel to convex side of metal base representing ¾ of the weight to the explosive
  3. Cover shrapnel with cloth or duct tape
  4. Place layer of explosive on the concave side of metal base
  5. Attach legs to the concave side of metal base
  6. Place the electric blasting cap at the rear center
  7. Attach firing device to firing wires at proper distance i.e. tripwires

How to Make a Directional Shrapnel Trap

A DST (directional shrapnel trap) is a less than elegant method to make a booby trap, but uses all the same principles of the match gun. A DST booby trap can be made in a pinch and is apropos for compound security. To make a DST you will need; 3’x3” iron pipe, threaded cap to fit, light bulb squib, black powder (approx. 200 grams), 1 lb. shrapnel (nails, screws, scrap metal), wadding rags, paper, and a 9V battery with wire. To make a directional shrapnel trap you will follow these steps;

  1. Screwed cap onto pipe
  2. Place packaged propellant and igniter into pipe until it rests against the threaded cap with firing leads extending the open end
  3. Roll rag until into 6” x 3” wads
  4. Insert wadding against propellant while packing it lightly
  5. Carefully insert the shrapnel
  6. Insert another 6” x 3” wag and pack lightly
  7. Bury pipe with open end facing expected target path
  8. Cover with brush to camouflage
  9. Connect firing leads to battery and switch
  10. Attach trip device

How to Make a Panji Foot Trap

This is a very simply booby trap where you dig a small pit in the expected line of travel for your target, or around your encampment. You dig your whole approximately 2’ x 1’ x 1’. You then sharpen 10 or so sticks and interest them vertically into the ground. You then make a small lattice out of twigs, leaves, and brush to cover the hole. Pretty simple right? Sure, but very effective. Another more less time consuming derivative of the Panji Foot Trap is to take a 2”x4” wood board, hammer 4” nails all the way through, and scatter nail side up outside your encampment. Easy peasy.

How to Make a Perimeter Alarm

You can make a perimeter alarm with damn near anything. For instance, you can take a piece of string or paracord and attach cans, bottles, and pretty much anything that makes a sound. Place each on the string every 6 inches or so. These should be spaced far and close enough to make a clamber when disturbed. You then tie the string every 6 feet or so to the bottoms of trees, and about a foot off the deck. You then surround your encampment with this string and wait for someone to cross the line. There are several improvised ways of achieving this method, essential it just needs to alert you to an intruder’s presence.

Another method that takes less time and is much more concealable requires; an air horn, a large flat rock (approx. 50 lbs) a stick or stake, and some fishing line. You’ll need to bury the air horn in an inconspicuous location outside your encampment. You’ll need the horn side or the air horn exposed, and you’ll need to prop the flat rock over the air horn with a 10 inch stake. Tie the fishing line to the bottom of the stake (or stick) and thread the line throughout you’re the perimeter of your camp, and tie to a terminating location to create tension. When someone cross the trip line, it pulls the stake, the stone slab falls onto the air horn and alerts you the intruder’s presence.

In closing…

There are several types of booby traps that anyone with a basic and rudimentary understanding in physics will be able to manufacture. For more examples of booby traps you can see the US Army FM 5 31, which is an in-depth explanation of improvised booby traps that can deployed when the shit hits the fan. Now, go make Arnold proud…