I often laugh at myself over my belt kibble…
I’m constantly fiddling with it. Sometimes there’s a flashlight, sometimes I leave the light in my pocket, sometimes (until I get caught without one) I forgo the flash entirely. Do I really need extra ammo? The whole loadout amounts to quite a lot of weight, after all.
And I get to feeling like such a damn mall ninja, carrying all this shit around. But you know, it comes in two varieties: You WILL need this sometime today (knife, multitool) and you won’t need it often but you might need it bad (phone, gun, spare ammo). And I keep trying to pare the weight down, but it keeps coming back. No time has gone by that I haven’t needed – or at least wanted – every single one of these things no matter how silly they might seem.
I compare myself with my neighbors, none of whom seem to burden themselves like this. D and J are never without their phone, multitool and folding knife. D has a single-action .45 on a separate belt, very old-school, that he puts on when he leaves his yard which is seldom. At home he’s got a lever-action 30-30. Yeah, he was raised cowboy. J’s got a Ruger LCR in his truck and an AR behind his porch door. So I guess that isn’t so very different, after all…
Yeah, y’know, now that I think about it, maybe it isn’t so silly after all. I mean, those guys never leave their yards unless they’re driving somewhere. I range all through here, if not as often as I used to.
And we’re not the only ones. Two summers ago when there was that big wildfire south of here and we had all those wildlife issues and one of our further neighbors had a bear come right into his house through a glass door, he engaged the damned thing with a pocket 9mm because he didn’t think there was time to go for his rifle – in his own living room. So I guess it isn’t all that silly.
What got me thinking about all this: Last week I started a project where I had to move a whole bunch of heavy straw bales. And to facilitate that, I stripped all the kibble off my belt and put it in my possibles bag, which I left in the Jeep. And over the course of the next few days most of it just sort of naturally migrated out of the bag and back onto my belt, where it was more useful. So this morning when I was getting dressed for Monday shit-shoveling, there it all was again. And I felt kind of silly.
But now that I’ve thought it over, I don’t feel so bad about it. Thanks for letting me think out loud.
Sometimes it seems excessive to carry a gun all day every day. That only lasts until the first time you truly need that gun and use it, or desperately need one and not have it.
Every time you post photos of your rifles I get envious. I’ve been working through your archives, about 60 pages in so far. A 1911 was on your belt back then, haven’t made it to when you switched.
Gotta say, the post where you described LB biting Magnus in the balls made me laugh until it hurt. Probably not as much as it hurt him.
I never understood people who worry about how much weight is on their belt- when you wear it everyday you get used to it and it isn’t “heavy” anymore. If circumstances require a lightened load, you can always take it off temporarily. You oughta see my belt- maybe I will blog that someday.
I add suspenders to help carry the load and my .357 is in a pocket holster. We ocasionally have a grizzley bear on the porch. The .444 rifle is next to the door. The other stuff saves walking back to the shop lots of times.
Howard
Silly or not, if its needed, it may as well be right there, rather than putting on mileage going to fetch it. Especially when it comes to repairs on water systems – nothing like water spraying everywhere to make the brain go ‘Ohcrapohcrapohcrap . . . ‘, not the time to go hunting down that wrench. :^)
If its just small stuff, a pair of ignition pliers (about 6″ overall length), slip jointed are handy little mothers, they even fit inside your pants pocket. I keep a pair in that sleeve alongside the Leatherman synthetic tool holster, a handle tucked inside it. Learned that trick from an apartment maintenance worker.
Oh, so you’re that guy! 🙂 I’d wondered.
Yeah, I finally switched to the .44 last October, after fiddling with it for over a year. I wanted it because the .45 was having performance problems that seem to stem from the fact that it was always a piece of junk, and I had a couple of through-and-throughs on rattlesnakes with the round-nose bullets I had to use, that didn’t sufficiently impress the snakes. So I traded some tractor work for the Taurus but it needed some parts, and then it needed serious cleaning in places where autos don’t have places so it took me a while to figure it out, and then it needed…it went on for over a year before I was happy with it, but since then it’s been fine. We got a suicidally indiscreet coyote in February, making a run on the chickens. That pretty much confirmed it as my new everyday gun.
I figured you would have noticed someone going through the back catalog, paranoid recluse and all.
Makes sense after reading that post about a shovel being more effective than your 1911 against a rattler. Good to know about Taurus, a vendor at the local flea market usually has one or two for sale at reasonable prices. Must have missed that post about the kamikaze coyote, I do remember the one you shot in the ass who you suspected of killing Zoe though.
Y’know,I always think of you as a kind of modern day mountain man,and those guys carried ALL their stuff with them everywhere they went.You have a home,so you don’t carry pots and pans,but the way you travel,and pick up odd jobs,and have to fix things as you come upon them,you need tools at the ready.(Boy Scout motto:Be Prepared)
Billf
I had the same problem until I caved in an got myself a pair of suspenders.
Best thing i’ve done.
You may want to look at getting a pair of leather suspenders to keep the paints up with all the gear on the belt. Leather works a lot better than the elastic kind.
http://www.bostonleather.com/content/firefighters-leather-suspenders
After all, like Jaynes hat, a man wears suspenders shows he ain’t afraid of anything…