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Pistol and Blades

Guns and knives

barryin said:
I got a Ruger PC9 carbine this weekend. It should fit nicely in one of my saddlebags.
Click to expand...

___________________________________________________________________

First let me say that PC9 is a sweet breakdown gun and Kudos to Ruger for making it possible to use multiple Ruger 9mm pistol mags including Glock mags. Don't know of any other Maker who would have made that possible.

I grew up on a farm; guns and knives were a big part of my childhood. First thing my brother and I learned was gun safety from our Father. I was a hunter in those days; got my first bb gun at 5 and no bird or grasshopper was safe on the farm until I was 9 yo. That's when my brother gave me his old 22 single shot which I shot many rabbits, bull frogs and squirrel for my mother to fry up. After that it was a M14 which I shot the second highest score ( just under 250) in my battalion in basic training. I think I owe that to my bb gun days. I got beat out by a mountain boy from Rogers Ark.; he probably grew up with a bb gun too. I also qualified on the m60 and 50cal. once in country, VN.

In my adult years I hunted deer and shot clays but both have become too expensive for me.
In Texas I am licensed to carry and usually a vintage Walthers ppks is my personal choice for close in work. My long gun is a 12ga. Rem 870 Mariner, loaded with hi explosives which decorates my old truck. Having guns in one thing but knowing how to use them is another. I would suggest all who have guns to practice shooting them a lot and of course gun safety for you and your family.

Knives: My EDC's are a Boye folder lockback/pocket clip with cobalt blade. Best in the world for cutting cord/rope/line/webbing. Also a Cobalt fixed blade 4" Boye Bacis3 with a cord wrapped handle in a belt sheath. It's good for dicing, slicing and cutting rope. I have numerous knives but these two are the ones I use the most. I sail a lot and these two are the most useful to me.

No guns here in Taiwan for peaceful people; only the bad guys have them and they do. Mostly it's the Mafia fighting each other, kind of like Mexico. Many pocket knives here are illegal to carry also, but a not a butcher knife, so I carry what is legal.
 
22600 said:
___________________________________________________________________

First let me say that PC9 is a sweet breakdown gun and Kudos to Ruger for making it possible to use multiple Ruger 9mm pistol mags including Glock mags. Don't know of any other Maker who would have made that possible.
Click to expand...
Ruger is a good company IMO. If you need something fixed, it isn't gone for months. They have turned "investment casting" into an art form.

I grew up on a farm; guns and knives were a big part of my childhood. First thing my brother and I learned was gun safety from our Father. I was a hunter in those days; got my first bb gun at 5 and no bird or grasshopper was safe on the farm until I was 9 yo. That's when my brother gave me his old 22 single shot which I shot many rabbits, bull frogs and squirrel for my mother to fry up. After that it was a M14 which I shot the second highest score ( just under 250) in my battalion in basic training. I think I owe that to my bb gun days. I got beat out by a mountain boy from Rogers Ark.; he probably grew up with a bb gun too. I also qualified on the m60 and 50cal. once in country, VN.
Click to expand...

Part of a well rounded growing up :)

In my adult years I hunted deer and shot clays but both have become too expensive for me.
In Texas I am licensed to carry and usually a vintage Walthers ppks is my personal choice for close in work. My long gun is a 12ga. Rem 870 Mariner, loaded with hi explosives which decorates my old truck. Having guns in one thing but knowing how to use them is another. I would suggest all who have guns to practice shooting them a lot and of course gun safety for you and your family.

Knives: My EDC's are a Boye folder lockback/pocket clip with cobalt blade. Best in the world for cutting cord/rope/line/webbing. Also a Cobalt fixed blade 4" Boye Bacis3 with a cord wrapped handle in a belt sheath. It's good for dicing, slicing and cutting rope. I have numerous knives but these two are the ones I use the most. I sail a lot and these two are the most useful to me.

No guns here in Taiwan for peaceful people; only the bad guys have them and they do. Mostly it's the Mafia fighting each other, kind of like Mexico. Many pocket knives here are illegal to carry also, but a not a butcher knife, so I carry what is legal.
Click to expand...
Interesting story :thumb
OM
 
Last edited:
I've been shooting since I was around 12, grandfather started me with simple single shot .22lr around camp empty teaching me gun safety, then graduated to shooting rats at the dump. The following year my mother enrolled me in the local rod and gun club Jr. NRA shooting program. We met once or twice a week, all volunteers, local law enforcement guys and couple of gun shop owners. We were learning indoor rifle shooting, different positions, 50 foot, for NRA certification, I did this until I was 17, loved the challenge. 40 years later still shooting when I can, have an S&W 9mm MP Pro 5" barrel, sweet shooter. I also shoot clay's with a Mossberg 930, 28", cheap but efficient, nice turkey gun as well. My goto rifle is a simple 30-30 from Henry with a 1x4 leupold scope, nice for hunting and plinking out to 100 yards. I reload my own ammo for the 9mm and .30 cal, as well as casting my own bullets for the .30. It's an interesting hobby which makes things more affordable and I like the learning. Someday I'd really like to get into longer range 200 plus yard shooting, maybe after retirement.
 
Sporting clays

sal said:
I’m a shotgunner. Sporting clays. It keeps me honest so my pointer doesn’t have an issue if I miss. The look you get. If you have a birder you know what I’m talking about.
Also I like smoke poles. Flinters to be precise
Click to expand...

Started shooting sporting clays a couple years ago. After a year of a 870, I bought a Versa-max tactical. Super smooth and doesn't hurt after shooting it all day. Took some grief from some guys for bringing a tactical shotgun on a sporting clays course, then one tried it. Now there are more Versa-max's. Some field guns, some tactical. Otherwise not much difference between the models. Like the other guy said, it's like golf with a shotgun.

Used to shoot some long range, thinking about getting back into that. Sold that gun so I'll have to start all over...

Jerry
 
Just thinking out loud....
Well, digitally...

Since I returned to motorcycling a few years ago, I’ve seen that whenever two or more riders meet, one subject always comes up. That’s the current lack of younger riders.
I think I’ve been seeing a parallel there with the shooting sports.

I teach Rifle and Pistol in 4-H Shooting Sports and we do pretty well getting kids in that. This year was a bust due to Covid, but we will usually have between 100 and 150 each year in our county. I help with Archery some, and they usually get even more, with numbers topping 200 a couple of times in recent years.
So the initial interest is there.

The problem seems to be setting the hook after that nibble. The 4-H program mostly teaches safety, and is meant to give a taste of the sport(s). State programs vary, but we aren’t really supposed to get too far into competition, aren’t supposed to promote hunting, and definitely can’t touch self defense aspects. Basic gunhandling only. Still, due to the nature of things, matches and hunting are hard to avoid.

Most of the Archery instructors shoot in competition or hunt. They formed a youth team at a local archery club and they get around 20 kids. That’s quite a few, but from the numbers they have to draw from, it’s a relative handful.

That number falls, though, partly because of the expense involved. Besides the initial cost of equipment and club dues, most of their matches have them traveling around the state, which gets costly fast. As their season goes on, their numbers drop off quickly.
When I was a kid, I would’ve loved to participate in something like that, but there was nothing around me. I couldn’t have done it very long anyway due to the cost.

We can get them going in rifle competition at the local conservation club for a much smaller investment. No investment actually. Through educational grants from the Friends of the NRA for the club’s Junior Program, we have all the gear they need. One of the things we’ve been doing this summer was to run a “Fun Match” with .22 rifles. We put steel swinging targets or reactive targets (for example, giant 1” Smarties candy) at various ranges and add complications like having them shoot from crossed sticks, or make them shoot targets in a specific order. It’s like an old shooting gallery but at a longer distance.

These shoots are open to everyone, but we make it very welcoming to kids. Anyone under age 18 shoots for free. If they don’t have a rifle, no problem- we provide rifles and the ammo.
We do practically everything but shoot the rifle for them. All they have to do is show up for two hours.

Yet, we have only had five kids participate. And not five at the same time either. The most we’ve had in a single match was three. We have just over 200 members in this conservation club, and can only scrape up three kids? The other two came from me reaching into the 4-H pool.

I think it’s going the same with motorcycles. Few kids want to ride. Well...they may want to ride SOME, but not get very serious about it.
I bet if a motorcycle club held a free mini bike ride, plenty of kids would show up.
BUT, I bet if you put on a free MSF class for 16-21 year olds, you will have more helpers than participants.

I don’t know why this is. I don’t really have a point, either.
It’s just an observation I’ve been making.
 
I don't have any guns at the moment, all lost in a tragic boating accident! ;)

But I used to own a Colt 1911, built in 1918. A Springfield XDS .45ACP, a Springfield 911 .380, my purse pistol. A Springfield XDM .40, A Ruger MKII .22, and just picked up a S&W M&P 15, an AR 15 clone. I had the M&P out at a rural gun range the other day. Nobody around so I was able to walk the range and plink at various pieces garbage laying around. It was fun.

No blades unless you want to count a Leatherman!
 
BarryinIN said:
Just thinking out loud....
Well, digitally...

Since I returned to motorcycling a few years ago, I’ve seen that whenever two or more riders meet, one subject always comes up. That’s the current lack of younger riders.
I think I’ve been seeing a parallel there with the shooting sports.

I teach Rifle and Pistol in 4-H Shooting Sports and we do pretty well getting kids in that. This year was a bust due to Covid, but we will usually have between 100 and 150 each year in our county. I help with Archery some, and they usually get even more, with numbers topping 200 a couple of times in recent years.
So the initial interest is there.

The problem seems to be setting the hook after that nibble. The 4-H program mostly teaches safety, and is meant to give a taste of the sport(s). State programs vary, but we aren’t really supposed to get too far into competition, aren’t supposed to promote hunting, and definitely can’t touch self defense aspects. Basic gunhandling only. Still, due to the nature of things, matches and hunting are hard to avoid.

Most of the Archery instructors shoot in competition or hunt. They formed a youth team at a local archery club and they get around 20 kids. That’s quite a few, but from the numbers they have to draw from, it’s a relative handful.

That number falls, though, partly because of the expense involved. Besides the initial cost of equipment and club dues, most of their matches have them traveling around the state, which gets costly fast. As their season goes on, their numbers drop off quickly.
When I was a kid, I would’ve loved to participate in something like that, but there was nothing around me. I couldn’t have done it very long anyway due to the cost.

We can get them going in rifle competition at the local conservation club for a much smaller investment. No investment actually. Through educational grants from the Friends of the NRA for the club’s Junior Program, we have all the gear they need. One of the things we’ve been doing this summer was to run a “Fun Match” with .22 rifles. We put steel swinging targets or reactive targets (for example, giant 1” Smarties candy) at various ranges and add complications like having them shoot from crossed sticks, or make them shoot targets in a specific order. It’s like an old shooting gallery but at a longer distance.

These shoots are open to everyone, but we make it very welcoming to kids. Anyone under age 18 shoots for free. If they don’t have a rifle, no problem- we provide rifles and the ammo.
We do practically everything but shoot the rifle for them. All they have to do is show up for two hours.

Yet, we have only had five kids participate. And not five at the same time either. The most we’ve had in a single match was three. We have just over 200 members in this conservation club, and can only scrape up three kids? The other two came from me reaching into the 4-H pool.

I think it’s going the same with motorcycles. Few kids want to ride. Well...they may want to ride SOME, but not get very serious about it.
I bet if a motorcycle club held a free mini bike ride, plenty of kids would show up.
BUT, I bet if you put on a free MSF class for 16-21 year olds, you will have more helpers than participants.

I don’t know why this is. I don’t really have a point, either.
It’s just an observation I’ve been making.
Click to expand...

Listening to my Father recall how he and his friends built the local sportsman's club (50-ft Indoor range and club house, 2-skeet ranges, 2-trap ranges and 100-yds outdoor range) in the early 50's, it was really a group of young adults coming of age in a world their fathers never knew. It wasn't until the 40's that conservation policies finally yielded healthy deer herds in PA and the post-war era introduced a whole new class of shotguns and long rifles. My grandfather's shooting needs were filled by a Remington 22 and a octagon barrel Winchester 94. My older brother, a '61 HS grad, did competitive shooting with Dad and the NG. I only recall a few (2~3) other orignal member offspring competing in the matches. No clue why.

By the mid-60's, the primary focus of the club became financial survival. The members bulked at increased dues and the competitive shooters bulked higher range fees. The Women's Auxillary tried to fill the gap with monthly dinners and such, but wasn't enough. Dad and a sub-group of members proposed openning RV spaces on the grounds and building a shower/bath facility. The RV camping was listed in Woodalls, AAA and Good Sam. The various RV gropus would book for a weekend and have an indoor hall (the 50-ft range) for dances or meals. That worked, providing stable income to pay the mortgage and utilities. During the week, the indoor range was available for matches and the weekend Trap & Skeet shoots were part of the ambiance. That's really what I knew of the club, a place to sweep floors, do maintenance work and cook for fund raising meals. Oh yes, as a member, I would sight-in my deer rifle at the outdoor range.


I don’t know why it was and I don't have a point, just the experience.
 
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