From Norseman: “When I was a young man and I was graduating from 8th grade, my Grandfather took me aside and gave me three gifts and some advice that I have headed ever since. He told me that a man always kept three things on him. A knife, a watch, and silver in his pocket. As he said this to me he gave me one of his own small pen knives, my first “nice” watch ( a Timex I was only starting high-school at the time ) and Silver Barber 1906 .50 cent piece. The watch is long gone but the pen knife is still kept safe in my dresser caddy and the coin is in my wallet to this day.”
A Smith & Wesson 642 Airweight in .38 Special is Norseman’s firearms addition to his grandfather’s advice. I have the same revolver and have found it to be reliable and accurate at close ranges.
Any of you guys receive advice from your grandfathers regarding daily carry?
Yes, pretty much the same as above with the addition of a handkerchief, but he was an impeccable dresser who always had a jacket of some sort.
Gramps reminded me that, “Those who live by the sword, die by the sword.” But I say that only applies to open carry.
I’ll take my chances with Papa Mattis, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
Yeah Hankerchief and pocket knife for our family as well.
Of course we called “dew rags”. We did not blow our noses with them.
Guess we were too poor for silver. Ha
Nice gear.
Sounds like Gramps had some good practicle advice and common sense…hope you paid attention to him as much as you could growing up!
Pappy’s advice on the currently hip 9mm:
“Calibers are like women. If they are too easy to handle, you get bored and want to trade them off.”
Haha.
Why not 6 rounds in the speed strip? Why not max it out? Handcuff key?
Cant speak for the EDC dumper but i found even if I had more rounds in the strip, i still dropped it after a reload. Too slow to stow it.
Funny what you learn when you go through a few speed drills with a reload.
I now use an 8 rounder with 5 loaded to have more to hold onto when loading.
Some say leaving the last round out gives you extra room to grip the strip and twist for your reload, but I wouldn’t know from experience.
I find that the having the 6th round on the strip gets in the way for some reason when I am loading quickly. As for the cuff key…. well you never know when you might need it.
When I carried a J-frame, my speed strip had 5 rounds for 6 spots. But it was arranged with 2 rounds next to each other, then a gap, then another 3. I would start my reload with the 2. The reason being that I could load two at a time more easily if a 3rd round wasn’t in the way.
Grandpa’s plane was shot down over Germany during wwII. He was a POW for 18 months. He told us his story every 4th of July and always gave this advice: “the venire of civilization is very thin”.
He had a food storage room because he never wanted to go hungry again.
Wow I’d like to hear/ heard some of his stories.
My grandfather was an OG prepper. Had a garden until the year he died, basement always had canned goods and long stored food stuffs. Had alternative heat and what not.Thing was he was the calmest guy most people had ever met. He wasn’t planning for the world to end he was going off experience, he had to provide for his family during the Great Depression because he was the oldest son. Life was hard for a 13 yo son of a polish migrant, but he busted his tail and made sure his family had a roof, food and clothes.
Pretty much the same.
I added a small Tru Nord compass to the pile though after living on the other side of the earth and flying a lot of freight hauls between the northern and southern hemispheres and noticing that was a bit disorienting on arrival. It was never a problem in the air, just once on the ground everything seemed backwards…
I have the the smallest swiss army knife they make on my key ring, gotta have have scissors. My benchmade mini griptillion, best knife I’ve ever owned. And a silver dollar in my gun safe, would want to loose it. To many carry guns in rotation to list.
I still wear a Timex. And a J frame. Always have a little cash on you. Plastic works great until the power goes out.
Yup.
I always carry at leas a hundred bucks in all denominations.
Plastic is fine, until it isn’t.
“Plastic works great until the power goes out.”
In my experience this is only half of the story. Cash doesn’t work well either because without electricity to run a register and tell them the answer most cashiers, regardless of age, can’t do the necessary arithmetic to make change. I can’t count the number of times I’ve handed someone cash and then had to tell them what change to give me. I’ve even seen places, bars and restaurants included, close due to a power outage because the people working there couldn’t do the arithmetic and had no idea how to work a carbon slider credit card machine. Cash?! Too much work! We’ll just close until the power comes back.
It’s also true that Mr. Murphy is an asshole. What are you going to need when the power goes out? Probably fuel in a form that has to be moved by an electric pump.
2 of my favorite local eatery’s won’t take plastic. It’s rare in this day and age but there are still places where cash is king.
I also live in an area were the stores and shops are largely owned by Asian and Indian families. Power outages do not stop them. Cash is king. And real silver lights them up.
And even when plastic is working right there are purchases I’d rather not leave a trail on.
And there’s always the fraud issue. The more you use your plastic the more risk there is. Ask me how I know.
My favorite hotdog place operates his business out of a fishing tackle box, no cash register, no credit cards, and he adds up your purchases and adds the sales tax in his head, just like his dad did before him.
My grandfather said “pistols are handy, rifles are better”. He also said, never trust the banks.
Gramps never mentioned a pocket knife, he knew we always carried at least two, a medium stockman and a large, two bladed trapper. His trinity was a white handkerchief, foldin’ money and ” ‘car fare to get home”, pocket change. All of us were carrying a little something extra by the time we were thirteen. Gramps, among other things, had been a town constable for quite a few years and held a rather grim (and realistic) view of what behaviors could be expected from strangers after the lights went down. -30-
My grandfather was more worried about post holes then pistols.
Neither of my grandfathers lived long enough to give me any such advice so I had to rely on my father.
He never mentioned “silver”, instead suggesting that while cash was a useful thing to have on hand Traveler’s Checks were better since they could be replaced.
…Of course that information came in like 1994 when Traveler’s Checks were still pretty common. Today the idiot behind the counter at a 7-11 would probably call the cops saying you were trying to pass counterfeit money.
My grandpa was a night watchman in the 1950’s and 60’s. He amassed a rather interesting collection of saps and nightsticks by the time he retired in the 1970s. I still have his best blackjack.
The only firearm he had at the time of his death, though, was an RG .25. (not sure which model, not that it probably matters with an RG). Grandma kept it for a number of years.
I’m livin’ in a free state, (as long as it lasts), I’ve got my Gramps’ Bucheimer Denver, with a fresh coat of black shoe polish, sittin’ right next to me. Think of him often, he taught me…well. -30-
A .22lr single shot savage a box of ammo and “have fun”.
PS Morning Tom in ore. Hope you are doing well.
Doing great Dave. Thanks!
“Always carry a fifty dollar bill.”
That was nearly fourty years ago, so adjust for inflation.
My grandfather lost his farm in the 30’s, bought a pen and went to sell insurance. Kept a one acre plot full of vegetables and carried a folding knife with him every day. My father did too and I have carried a knife of various form for almost 40 years now. My dad was a salesman and always carried cash back in the day. I do too. Cash in the safe, cash in the back and front of my wallet. The wife? Carries less than $20 in her wallet….That just confounds me but then she always did.
My grandfather lost his farm in the 30’s, bought a pen and went to sell insurance. Kept a one acre plot full of vegetables and carried a folding knife with him every day. My father did too and I have carried a knife of various form for almost 40 years now. My dad was a salesman and always carried cash back in the day. I do too. Cash in the safe, cash in the back and front of my wallet. The wife? Carries less than $20 in her wallet….That just confounded me, but then she always did.
A knife, a pen, a handkerchief, and enough cash to get you home. I’ve frequently dropped the ball on the handkerchief part.
And a watch. Can’t believe I forgot to include that.
My grandpa used to say “testicles, spectacles, vatch and vallet” with a grin. I have his watch and wear it on rare occasion. He had a pen knife, useful only to clean one’s nails it’s so dull. He liked scots tartan ties and probably had over 50 of them. The man wore a shirt until it was as shear as a neglige, with an undershirt of course. He always tucked important documents and cash inside his shirt. Never let anything go to waste, and as near as I can tell never had a line of credit. Cash and travelers checks only.
My paternal grandpa died of a massive heart attack before I was born, right after eating a box of doughnuts. So I guess the advice from his example was….don’t eat too many doughnuts at once!
My maternal grandpa lived a bit longer and didn’t pass away until I was in junior high school. He was a very intelligent, resourceful, and good humored fellow…but was not the least bit interested in weapons of any sort and never gave me any related advice or presents.
I started carrying a pocket knife at a very early age, though, when my mum presented both my brother and myself with a military issue folding utility knife that had a 2 1/2” blade and a locking flat head screwdriver.
I carry a pocket knife of some kind to this day – now it is a Leatherman – at least a little cash, and of course, my carry gun. I’m one of only a very few in my extended family who shoots or carries, but that’s how I am.
My grandfather was a very, very tough old bird who was too old to be in WW2. During the great depression when most people were lucky to even have one job, he had a full time job at the power company, a 20-30 hour a week job at an automobile dealership and on Sundays after services went to a garage in back of our house and worked on neighbors cars. One time when I was very young he told me about just how easy the generation after him had it. Took me a while to realize he was talking about the “greatest generation” that fought in WW2. After seeing with my own eyes how many 18 hour days he worked in his 70’s any one else I would have blown off the comment as bragging but to him, he wasn’t bragging, it was fact.
a fucking stripper clip, that you can’t even strip??? LOL
I had the same revolver and have found it to be reliable and accurate.
But also unpleasant to shoot meaning I rarely practiced with it.
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