Get Over a Barbed Wire Fence

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I'm back!

(Technically, I never left. I just entered a long period of sluggish inactivity and ebbed creativity. To read more about me doing nothing ... err, I mean what I have been up to since the end of the summer check out my forum post.)

In celebration of my unholy resurrection I have decided to do a few things. Other than putting up that long forum post, I ditched the "In loving memory" from the giant match video because I'm no longer in your memories - I'm in your face (Oh snap!). Apart from that, I have also decided to post this Instructable on getting over barbed wire fences. What better way to emphasize my reunion with Instructables than by metaphorically and physically (and also metaphysically, check out my strong chi in step 2) breaking into their headquarters.

But enough with this pointless digression, on with the show!

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Barbed wire fences are everywhere. They are used to keep people (and animals) both in and out of certain areas. Barbed wire has a long and interesting history, but instead of describing it here I will take the lazy man approach and direct you to the Wikipedia article.

Besides, I am more interested in barbed wire as a symbolic oppressive force on society than as something to keep cows in place (insert comparison between society and mindless cows here). Oppressive barbed wire is found mostly in bad neighborhoods, around prisons, and surrounding "official" off-limit government areas.

Step 1: Reasons to get over a barbed wire fence

There are many reasons why someone would want to get over a barbed wire fence, but the only reason you need, after reading this, is BECAUSE YOU CAN!

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Other popular reasons include:

Urban Exploration - the ability to get around or over a barbed wire fence is invaluable in this noble pastime.

Breaking out of prison - Minor drug offenders fill your prisons, You don't even flinch, All our taxes paying for your wars, Against the new non-rich

Breaking into prison - Throw the guards a curve ball. The look on the their faces is priceless, and definitely worth the subsequent beatings / tazerings.

Stealing Fat - more on this in the last step

Comments

[stock_market]

EXCELLENT!!
Although I would never want to try Constantine Wire, which is nothing but razor blade material, which is what all prisons use now. Also, in prisons they have these other easier to climb over wires before the Constantine that sets off alarms, probably a row of 3, that have to be climbed over.
The only way is like in 'Prison Break' with Michael Scofield, who tattooed the Prison Blueprints on his back. Or do what the majority of prison idiots do, and hop out of a laundry truck in the laundry.

[ArcticNemo]

Concertina wire may be barbed or razor-type. The name comes from the coiled configuration, after the musical instrument. The loose coils offer far less support than a tensioned line, but you need more wire to cover a given distance.
When placed two or three rows deep on the ground, it becomes an effective barrier to foot traffic...and yes, ninjas and Marines aren't bothered by it.

[stock_market]

Everyone calls it Constantine, and I will always know and love it as Constantine.

[Roflolommo]

concertina wire is sometimes mistakenly called, sometimes by soldiers and marines constantino wire. "Constantino" probably came from a corruption/misunderstanding of "Concertina" and led to confusion with the Roman Emperor Constantine. thats from the wikipedia article so sorry man but your wrong anyway you should be mistakenly calling it "constantino" wire not "constantine" wire

[sephiroth9393]

don't listen to wikipedia about everything

[Roflolommo]

0.0 you take that back

[sephiroth9393]

wikisucks

[Tobita]

FF7 sucked. 2 (US 1991) was perfect though XD.

[sephiroth9393]

you like living with mom and dad?

[Tobita]

I'm f14, i don't really have a choice other than maybe living with cousins and uncles or go to foster care. It's not too shabby either!

[tebben]

Check out Rangerfan's post with the wikipedia article. There is no such thing as constantine wire. It's concertina wire.

[rangerfan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concertina_wire

[drumdude]

HAHAHA!
You made me crack up so hard at the "slipping and lacerations"!

[splazem]

Thanks, I needed to know how to do this...

[sk7]

I'd have to say this was a very hilarious and educative Instructable :3

[BatmanProject777]

One additional little detail, which may help set your mind at ease, if crossing a razor wire fence still seems hazardous, even with a carpet......get on youtube, and watch bears fight. Consider that super dense fur they've got....one would think they also have such amazing strength, and terrifying claws, and should cleaver right through each other, sending chunks of flesh flying everywhere....but you mostly see little cuts emerge (little, all things considered) and some bits of fur getting ripped off. Summary; against knives and claws, fur is great armor !

[BatmanProject777]

NOW, HOW TO CROSS RAZOR WIRE ? I'd think it's not a whole lot different. I'm not sure just how sharp the stuff is, but I do own a handful of knives. In my humble experience, knives almost never cut anything until the object placed against the blade is moved, allowing the micro serrations to do their work....those serrations are exactly like saw teeth....you've gotta move a saw to cut with it. The exception is a razor blade....however, with using a carpet, the thick material on underside is usually just like hemp rope or twine. Raise your hand if you've ever tried cutting a thick rope with a razor blade...it can be done, right ?.....still, works much better when the blade is moved. Now imaging placing a blade against two layers of carpet.....you've got that tough underside layer, then a thick dense stack of fibers (the carpet fibers). Yeah sure, the razor wire will probably end up having cut a little of it once your done and loooking over it to see, but cutting through it while climbing over.....not real likely.

[lukeyj15]

What is Fence-AIDS??

[carpe_noctem]

aids from a fence. don't take it too literally

[Tobita]

Tetanus me thinks.

[mikeybo2]

I like the "Prison Song" referance lol

[UFT]

why don't you just get 2 large sized car floor mats and drape it over the wires and climb over ?

[REA]

 or a regular rug from TJ Max?

[four_eyes954]

this isnt a real barbed wire fence. i mean it has barbed wire but a barbed wire fence is the kind you see actually holding animals in the kind that have 7 strands of barbed wire going around

[jongscx]

If you're going to get technical, "Barbed wire" is just that, Wire with barbs (the sharp things that poke out). But yeah, I think the carpet method would work just as well.

[four_eyes954]

what i meant was this isnt a true barbed wire fences i own cows they use barbed wire fences its usually seven rows of the barbed thats it none of the other kind of fence

[blingity]

they only make the top barbed wire is to stop people from climbing over the top, assuming it's really hard to climb under it, it's cheaper that way.. and climbing an electrified fence is not the subject matter of this instructable.

[vanbo]

Plus, in most places at least, it is considered inhumane and cruel treatment to electrify barbed wire, and therefore illegal in most places with some agriculture-culture because local or governmental laws ban it.

[harley_rly]

not in oklahoma! haha...i know a couple guys who actually grabbed onto one before

[vanbo]

 Damn. Ouch

[harley_rly]

i know right! they said the initial jolt was all that was bad and that the holding on wasnt too hard

[blingity]

They held on? were they having a contest? should the darwin awards be notified?

[harley_rly]

yeah(to all questions)

[SnuffyDaPenguin]

That's easier to climb, because you can usually just push it down with one hand and jump over.

[four_eyes954]

not when theres electricity running through it

[jongscx]

at which point it would be an "electric fence" or "electrified fence"... for which getting over is a whole other instructible...

[emuman4evr]

Use two sticks to pry the wire down to the top of the fence so it creates a section of wire where there is no electricity... or use an EMP grenade.

[SnuffyDaPenguin]

They normally won't run electricity just to keep cows in.

[four_eyes954]

for the dairy cows the wont but for bulls the either use steel vars or electrified barbed wire fences

[davidemil55]

first is do not talk about fight club second rule is you DO NOT TALK about fight club Love that movie

[mash4077]

those are good methods and great pic keep up the great work!!

[vanbo]

Awesome! Just a hint if you aren't as good as this guy: wear jeans, gloves, a jacket and if possible, lumberjack's chaps

[volquete]

great ible! fight club-good movie...

[The Red Button]

just stick a cup of thermite on a fence pole thingy and melt it away. like nobody will notice that

[Imptheshrimp]

awesome instructable ;). This will really come in handy for urban exploration as i recently moved to a neighbourhood with a few curious areas that are barbed. And nice, with the implication of IT'S OVER 9,000!

[nibbler125]

you need to be careful you could lose youre manhood real quick with a slip on a barbwire fence

[btop]

*Cringe*

[Udon]

Yeah. Wearing a nut-case would be a good way to protect your grandchildren.

[IX Smith XI]

that is cool

[11010010110]

Big A shape ladder thats it !

[quasarmeister]

I love the 'zook!

[realcelestialphoenix]

(removed by author or community request)

[dougwtt779]

you can just use a crap t-shirt

[realcelestialphoenix]

(removed by author or community request)

[=SMART=]

lol

[tfellad]

Nice

[Legadon]

OMG! I have that knife!

[thepaul1993]

swiss army knife

[michaelbak]

I said weird things to myself when i watched you go over the un even part of the fence. lol

[blingity]

What's his thetan Level? IT'S OVER NINE THOOOOOUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNND!!!! nice input, congratulations.

[qballcat]

nice from southpark right?

[kiss my donkey]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[orangeontoast]

how about razor wire fences next?

[_soapy_]

Exactly the same tricks.

[KBHELLSPAWN]

the bodies of comrades. LOL

[mrpages]

I'd like to see examples of the things you left out, like climbing the angled barbed wire fence. You describe using your upper body, but then don't say anything about how. You also don't demonstrate climbing the wire against the angles, which will likely be the most common way. Demonstrate the difficult ones, not the easy ones. That's what people want to learn.

[NFI]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but here's my input. You guys have the right idea, and I like where you're going, but you need to be a little more practical. You can't go around carrying something that's completely ridiculous, just so you can throw it over some barbed wire. Be a little more subtle, and intelligent. Act like you've done this sort of thing before. Assuming that you're old enough to drive, the proper procedure for entry over barbed wire topped fencing (or razor wire) is to throw the floormat, or floormats of the car over the barbed wire. Many floormats are carpet, lined with thick rubber underneath, so as to prevent spills from leaking through and damaging the actual carpet beneath the floormat. I used to keep floormats in my car that were particularly well suited to this method, precisely for that reason. Choose a darker color, such as brown or black. Leave the floormat or floormats, depending on the size of the entry point you're trying to create, on the fence, until you're ready to come back over. This will make for a reasonably quick exit or escape. However; take note that in some areas, there are roaming patrols which will undoubtedly notice something like this, and take undesirable action against you. In cases such as these, simply take the floormats down, after comfortably over the barbed wire portion of the fence, and, if they are darker in color, as I suggested earlier, lay them flat, somewhere in high grass, or in the shadows. They can also be rolled up into a tube, and secured with your belt, etc. if they need to be concealed in a smaller space, instead of being lain flat. Also keep in mind that they can be slid under things, and retrieved later. It is also worth noting that being caught carrying some floormats for your car while on foot will draw considerably less suspicion than carrying a spare piece of carpet around. Tell the police or security guards that you were beating the floormats against the wall of the building to get the dirt, etc. out of them, or, if you were caught closer to the chain link, tell them that you were attempting to scrub the carpet fibers against the chain link fence to get the smaller debris out. This has actually worked for me before. I was told to keep away from the fence after hours, because it "looked suspicious", and I was let go at that. Whatever you do, please be responsible. If you're not smart enough to make up things like that on the spot, you may want to think twice about putting yourself in any situation where you might have to.

[mattface]

ARGH my eyes! Seriously dude, you need to format

[damidget88]

just step on the barbed wire

[firefletcher]

did any body else see the huge naval cannons on the other side of the fence!!! no wonder theres barbed wire up! now you can go shoot at stuff !!!! are they really guns??

[xylo0]

Hey, dude. I just escaped from prison. Now I can go burninating the country side.

[Derin]

do they have computers there

[ferdilouw]

I've just erected razor wire around my house and our small community to keep the unwanted nightly visitors (a.k.a. robbers/murderers/rapists) out. In South Africa palisade fencing topped by devils fork is not effective anymore. Now we are adding electrical and razor wire on top of the existing fences. All of us erecting the razor wire shed some blood in the process, but we can still see ways to breach our security. The big question is to identify the weakest links and decide how much money and effort to throw at it.

[Velotrash Industries]

if you want to find weak links, look yourself in and release 10 or so wild dogs. trust me, you'll find the breaks very quickly.

[Hawaii00000]

So basically you saying you climb it ( if your smart you use protection if your not, well... you don't)

[SnuffyDaPenguin]

Sounds like another common practice ;-) Use protection, lower your chances of getting "fence" AIDS lol

[joejoerowley]

I want to see an instructable on burrowing under the fence now. Nice instructable!

[smithy813]

get a shovel... and hope you have time

[lighterkid19]

Hah, two good references there.

[autonomousoperations]

ill vote for this when you add the section on razor ribbon

[Uniquenikasy]

If you were gonna juz use the old carpet technique, what was the use of the ones before it??? Anyways, the old carpets the best, leaves no trace, but id suggest making something to conceal it... say sew the old carpet to an oversized jacket or something. Your tutorial only shows how to get over the fence, not what happens next. Good one though, but we all, even in Malaysia, knew how to do that since we were 7. From my experience, getting through the fence is much easier than getting over it

[Tetranitrate]

"From my experience, getting through the fence is much easier than getting over it" That is why I included step 2 ...

[THeff]

seams pretty good i had never heard of the carpet though, and if it angles towards you on both sides what should i do?

[poeticoddity]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you posted both photographs and videos of you trespassing into a naval base, didn't you? You might want to cover your face for these sorts of things, or at least blur it in the photos. Still a nice tutorial, though.

[Trent The Thief]

He's already on the base. The fence he climbed is next to the tower. It's a so-so instructable. Most kids I grew up with already knew how to do that by 4th grade, though. It's a little trickier when the wire is tilted out on one side or both sides.

[totally_screwed]

One would be best advised NOT to try this. Unless you want a Darwin Award! Or free board and lodging in a Federal Prison. This is a VERY BAD idea! Especially if there are signs posted like: 'Use of LETHAL force Authorized'

[DeLorean4905]

lmao @ stealing fat! make soap out of the liposuctioned fat it and sell it at beauty salons.... selling the women their own fat butts back to them!

[DeusXMachina]

Once again, coming through with more absolutely awesome bad ideas. Bravo. XD

[kamathln]

Excellent article.. Unless the fence builders thought some electrifying experience will make your life more thrilling. ;-)

[bowmaster]

How does one get back over the fence?

[Tetranitrate]

... On the off chance that your not kidding I will answer you. The exact same way.

[saltoricco]

With all due respect, that won't be possible since you are now on the other side.

[Tetranitrate]

Why would it not be possible?

[joelparks]

heh - not possible because you'd have to be starting on the side you're not on. He thinks you should have said, "the exact same way except in the opposite direction." Semantics but he's gotta point

[Tetranitrate]

Well, since you want to argue about semantics...

Since bowmaster was asking "How does one get back over the fence?", any reasonable person would understand that when I responded with "the exact same way", by "way" I was referring to the method used to bypass the fence, and not the direction in which one was going. Therefore, my original response was completely valid.

[saltoricco]

Well now... you climb over grabbing the pole with the right hand. Standing on the other side you're trying to do the exact same thing, but now it's the other hand, so darnit, its all different now! Oh the joy of writing technical documentation.

[saltoricco]

Yeah, I was just being silly.

[Kayjay]

lol nice prison song/S.O.A.D refrence lol

[wingman246]

i'll stick with just kicking em down.

[tobyduck]

thanks NerdyBirdy :D

[samphex]

excellent tutorial. I will now be able to continue my run away from the secret society of skull bones!

[tobyduck]

what is that movie in step 4??

[FjerrFjerrson]

Fight Club

[BigAl67]

So I was watching Columbo, and in this one episode this near sighted girl who wasn't wearing her glasses(they used to wear glasses back then) saw a big black dog climbing the electric fence but it wasn't getting zapped. Well Inspector Columbo figured out that it was a guy in a wet suit and to get over the barbed wire he used a big black welcome mat. Anyway ever since then I have always trusted Columbo and doing my enter into secret Nazi or Commi base (or whoever the evildoers are this week) I use the tried and true welcome mat trick. Way faster than wire cutters, Thank you Peter Faulk, I still enjoy driving past your old house in Deal NJ.

[Gneekman]

Nice use of humor; I appreciated it!

[lackofmotive]

I like your incorporation of "prison song" into your "breaking out of prison" portion. Nice, I love SOAD.

[Zero_FactiX]

Yes i agree with the it's not so bright to break into a naval base comment maybe somewhere a little less Goverment regulated might have been a better idea haha.

[jakee117]

sweet sweet good to have you back I practice psi & psychokinesis too & I do urban exploration (old concrete factory and various abandoned houses in my town.) +1 (as always)

[thematthatter]

how about triple stranded concertina wire used for "detaining" people

[AuntTetra]

So glad u r back! Yours were always the best instructables. You r so incredibly smart and wonderful and adorable. And I'm not just saying that 'cause I'm your aunt :-)

[Weissensteinburg]

Thank you for referencing fight club =]

[Weissensteinburg]

And for reference....there is a book, too.

[Tetranitrate]

Of course, of course

Anyone who hasn't read the book is not a true fan of Fight Flub, and the genius of Chuck Palahniuk. Although as far as movies based on books go, David Fincher did a damn good job of staying true to the text.

[Weissensteinburg]

Definitely, it's one of the few movies that actually video tapes what the book describes. Except for the ending, of course, which Chuck actually liked more in the movie than the book.

[Weissensteinburg]

The last frame of the movie is supposedly a close up of a peni...ahem...phallus.

[Tetranitrate]

Yeah, and I paid homage to that in the Egg Timer Detonator with the Pixies song and the last few frames of the video. Unfortunately, only a handful of people got the reference, and the rest were just like "lol ... penis" and "stop subliminalizing me dood".

::sigh:: Sometimes I don't know why I bother.

[kfrantz54]

What movie is that?

[Pyrowuzzup]

fight club. you are not your clever instructable.

[J_SCAP]

hahaha but always remember you arent your bowel cancer you arent your chachies :)

[glinion]

wow you've cramed one hell of a lot of information into a fairly simple instructable! Cool

[GorillazMiko]

Awesome, you're back! Now I know a way to get into Instructables...

*cough*
_{You didn't hear that}
*cough*

[1up]

Very informative, and the funny bits along the way kept me reading. Wonderful Instructable. :)

[madhops0620]

haha thats from fightclub ..... lol good movie

[J_SCAP]

ha i love that movie

[wowuser3894]

omg fence aids lol

[darkmuskrat]

The fatal flaw in the gate of oppression, lol!!!

[meddler]

If you can avoid messing with razor wire please avoid it. In my first unit in Germany we were in the field (any veteran will know what that means) and one of our guys stumbled into some of it at night. He was smart enough not to move as soon as he fell into it and called for help. I don't know how they got him out of it but he had some interesting scars after that.

[lordofthedonuts]

Yay Tetranitrate is back! I remember when I discovered Instructables, stuff like "How to make black Powder", Flash Powder, it was almost always Tetranitrate who made them. Ah the good old days :P

[cowscankill]

yeah...

[fstedie]

(removed by author or community request)

[Tetranitrate]

Since always. Besides, as other people have already stated, there are many legal reasons why someone would need to get over a barbed wire fence.

[CyberBill]

Jumping a barbed wire fence is NOT against the law. Trespassing IS, but this isn't an instructable on how to trespass. There are a lot of situations where jumping a barbed wire fence would not be trespassing. For example, if its your fence.

[canida]

For example, if its your fence.

As the fence in this Instructable does happen to be. ;)
Jumping your own fence is just good exercise.

[fstedie]

(removed by author or community request)

[CyberBill]

Heres another example... Im an amateur astronomer and my local astronomy group has a fenced in observatory area with barbed wire. Occassionally the lock on the gate will malfunction do to the large amounts of dust in the area. I don't have a bolt cutter with me in the car, but there is one in the shed that I could get to... If only I knew how to maneuver around the fence without hurting myself! Would you think its a good idea to make bolt cutters illegal? Most people use them at some time to cut a lock. Guns can be used to shoot innocent people. Kitchen knives can be used to stab babies. Providing information on how to do something, even if it is illegal, is not illegal. Pretty much the only thing you can be arrested for "attempting" or planning and not actually succeeding (in the United States, at least) is murder. Also, I have forgotten to express how much I like this instructable. Its well written and should really come in handy some day! I live next to a marine base and they have a barbed-wire fence all the way around. I've always wanted to break in and steal some shit, and now I can! (Please note that this comment will be used in my upcoming instructable on sarcasm)

[BigAl67]

Hey CyberBill, you forgot to mention that besides guns, knives, cars and other common objects that can be used to commit crime, there are Vagina's, the tool that a prostitute uses to commit a "crime". Now just because someone has one of these Vagina's does not mean that they will commit a crime, (although someone with one of those did steal my heart).

[saites2001]

Uh, look around. There are A LOT of instructables whose only real purpose would be for breaking some law. Even if the real intent of this instructable is to break some law, that doesn't make it inherently evil. People do lose keys, by the way.

[whatsisface]

Now that's just something that everyone needs to know.

[Ninjabeatster]

I'd like to inquire about your mudkips.

[jonathanrice78]

Leather jacket works well also. I don't know where I know that from.

[technodude92]

"wait, where are we?" "a liposuction clinic" Lol. great instructable(+)

[Labot2001]

Cool, useful, and humorous, as always ;] Great to have you back! +1

[grenades_and_ham]

hmm that alameda tower in the background seems rather familiar. is that the site where they filmed the mythbusters episode about plywood parachutes. thats still pretty neat that you get to have the fun and explore such places

[thinkahead]

Forget barbed wire, what about razor wire? That stuff can kill!

[theRIAA]

this instructable is awesome, really good job and very thorough.