Archive for the ‘Endorsements’ Category

Travel notes: Glendale, AZ.

Thursday, June 29th, 2023

So where was I last week?

Glendale, Arizona, for the annual Smith and Wesson Collectors Association Symposium.

This ordinarily would have been a flying situation, but when Mike the Musicologist heard where the Symposium was, he offered to drive. He’s not a S&WCA member, but he is a gun guy, and I bought him a guest pass so he could look around. Plus he wanted to see Taliesin West, which he has been hosed out of seeing in the past. Plus driving allowed us to take guns more easily than flying.

MtM did see Taliesin West (finally) but they don’t offer guided tours during the summer. Which is odd to me, because I took a guided tour when the S&WCA Convention (it wasn’t a symposium back then) was in Tuscon in the summer of 2010. (I had a rental car and drove from Tuscon to Scottsdale on one of the off days.) MtM did get to take the audio tour, and had a good time as far as I can tell.

I can’t talk a lot about what goes on at the Symposium, since it is a private meeting. I don’t feel like I’m giving too much away by saying Smith and Wesson actually sent a factory rep (for the second year in a row!) to talk with us and hang out at the convention. The gentleman in question even sat at our table during the Saturday night banquet that closed the show, and both MtM and I were able to chat him up about some…things, which I will keep secret but expect to be announced soon.

(Full disclosure: I own some stock in Smith and Wesson Brands, the holding company for the gun business, and American Outdoor Brands, the holding company for the non-gun business.)

The Symposiums are always like old home week to me. I get to meet up with friends that I only see once a year, though some of those folks were missing this year for various reasons. I get to talk shop with my people. And I get to relax for a few days, or in this case an entire week.

The question people always ask me: “Did you buy any guns?” The short answer: no, just paper and trinkets. The long answer: I came very close to purchasing one, and even had a handshake deal with the seller. But we mutually called the deal off for reasons that I don’t think I need to go into here. MtM and I traveled about 2,700 miles round trip…and I did end up buying a gun, not at the Symposium, but about five miles from my house. (Photos to come after part 2 of Day of the .45.)

It was a two-day drive both ways. We decided to take a scenic route going out to Arizona and went down to Del Rio and along the Rio Grande, paralleling the river and stopping overnight in Marathon at the Gage Hotel (and eating at the 12 Gage Restaurant). We did drive through Marfa (and past the Prada Store, but we missed the world’s smallest Buc-ees by just a few days). We also drove through Alpine and past Sul Ross State University, which gave me both an excuse and a captive audience to talk about Jack O’Connor (who, as you know, Bob, taught English at Sul Ross for a while). The second day we drove through Hatch, New Mexico, and up into the national forests before reaching Glendale late in the afternoon.

For the curious: we were stopped by the Border Patrol three times, twice out and once back, though the third time they just waved us through the checkpoint. The longest exchange we had: “Are you both US citizens?” “Yes.” “Anybody else in the car?” “No.” “Okay, go ahead.”

I don’t think we had a bad meal on the trip, though we did eat catered hotel food two nights. (There’s a “cocktail party”, which is really more like a buffet dinner, on Thursday night of the Symposium, and a sit-down banquet to close things out on Saturday night. The hotel food was somewhat better than decent.) Mike and I ate at The Wild Thaiger on Tuesday night after we got in, and I thought that was very good (I had the Mi Dang and we split an order of Dragon Eggz). Wednesday night we took a couple of my friends to the Barrio Cafe, which was another solid choice that everyone loved. Friday night we took a larger group to Giuseppe’s on 28th, which was also universally beloved by everyone who went.

(MtM picked all the restaurants. His secret: he picks places that have been on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives”.)

I heartily endorse all three of these restaurants, and The Old German Bakery and Restaurant in Fredericksburg.

We took advantage of one of the slower days to go visit some bookstores and some gun stores. The one bookstore we visited (Bookmans) I didn’t buy anything at, though I did think it was a good store. Tombstone Tactical was more of a modern firearms store. They had good prices on new guns, but I didn’t find anything I wanted. Legendary Guns, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of funky mixed gun shop I love. And I bought some books there.

We took I-10 coming back, and stopped for dinner at the Cattleman’s Steakhouse in Fabens (also heartily endorsed), staying overnight at the Hotel El Capitan before the final push back to Austin the following day.

Thanks to MtM for driving, and to everyone who attended the Symposium. Next year: back to Tulsa (which is not that far).

Random gun crankery, some filler.

Saturday, April 22nd, 2023

I thought I’d throw up a post real quick, since I’ve been in Waco at the TGCA show the past few days and radio silent.

I thought this was rather neat, and it gave me a chance to tweak the Saturday Movie Group. If you can’t read the tag, this is an original Winchester Model of 1873 “One of One Thousand”. Like you might have seen in “Winchester ’73”. You don’t see many of these in the wild, for a good reason: Winchester didn’t make a whole bunch of them.

(This is a really neat book on the subject. I was lucky to get my copy before prices went out of control, and I absolutely would not recommend paying that price.)

Mauser Model of 1918 Tankgewehr anti-tank single shot rifle chambered in 13X92SR. The photos are with the bolt in and out.

Ammo pouch that comes with the gun, along with about 22 rounds of ammo.

This is what one of the rounds looks like. I should have included something for scale, but I didn’t have anything handy and didn’t want to impose on the seller.

If you’re interested, this is going to be in an upcoming Poulin Auction: the pre-sale estimate is $12,000 to $18,000.

And it is classified by BATFE as a “curio and relic”, so it is exempt from registration (and the tax stamp) as a “destructive device”.

I’ve been holding off on book posting until I get other stuff done, but I did want to post this for two reasons:

Vintage catalog from holster maker S.D. Myres Saddle Company, Inc. Judging by the postmark and price list inside, I believe this dates from around 1966.

The first reason for posting this is for great and good FotB (and El Paso native) RoadRich. Apple Maps seems to show 5018 Alameda as being a Family Dollar store, but I can’t tell what (if anything) is at 5030 Alameda. One of these days, I’d like to go back to El Paso and spend a few days there…

The second reason for posting this is: this was actually a kind and generous gift from my good friend David Carroll, purveyor of fine firearms to a grateful nation. If you are so inclined, why not wander over to his website, or check out his auctions on GunBroker?

The struggle continues.

Saturday, September 10th, 2022

For those of you who are people of the gun, and especially those interested in holsters:

My fellow book collecting friend in the Association just tipped me off to the fact that there’s a second edition of Holstory. I wrote about the fist edition here: according to the website, the second edition adds three new chapters.

I really enjoyed the first edition (which I read cover to cover as soon as I could after that post), and have no qualms about recommending that you order the second edition if you didn’t order the first. I’ve already ordered my personal copy. (And no, I do not get any kickbacks or free books from the authors: I just happen to think this is a swell book.)

Personal indulgence (possibly noteworthy for others).

Thursday, September 8th, 2022

I’ve been listening to the Hornady Podcast.

They cover a wide variety of topics. They’ve talked about various hunting opportunities (including Africa). They do interviews with prominent individuals in the industry like Jerry Miculek. (And, on a side note, I really enjoyed their interview with Kristy Titus. Not in the “oooh, a girl in the gun industry”, or the “I want to marry this woman” sense, but: here’s a person who seems to have their head screwed on straight, knows what they know and what they don’t know, and is actively working to fill in the gaps on what they don’t know. I find that admirable. I hadn’t heard of Ms. Titus before this: now I’m a fan.)

And they’ve done several podcasts on interior (what happens to the bullet inside the gun) and exterior (what happens to the bullet in flight) ballistics. Those podcasts are really deep dives into the way things work. If you’re a gun person with a techy bent at all, I encourage you to listen.

Episode 35 is a listener Q&A session. If you listen to the first few minutes of it, you might hear a name you recognize. You can listen to the whole thing if you’d like (I’d encourage that) but the “relevant” (for some value of “relevant”) part comes early.

A couple of quick points:

  • Remember this post? Yeah, this is what I was talking about. Preston from Hornady had told me they were doing a Q&A at some point, and asked if he could use my questions on the show. Of course I said yes.
  • There’s a bit more to the questions I asked than what made it on to the show. What’s on the show is a very good summary of one of the questions I asked. Preston and I had a long conversation about both of my questions. I’m not kidding: Preston actually called me on the phone and we talked through this stuff. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with their support for some random murder hobo. (I don’t think anybody at Hornady even knows I blog.)
  • They didn’t really go into my second question on this podcast, but that’s okay. They did kind of briefly touch on it, and, from what they said, they plan a much deeper dive into that question in some future podcast. Which is awesome.
  • Never read the YouTube comments. Seriously. I know I’m taking this personal-like, but Preston and the rest of the gang was so nice to me, I can’t imagine how people could treat them like crap in the YouTube comments. I guess a lot of people have trouble remembering there are real people behind the screen.

And, actually, some other things are coming together. My project for the Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association came to fruition and is active now. I’ve even received some nice feedback. (You can’t access it unless you’re a member. Which you should be if you’re interested in Smith and Wessons.)

The government finally mailed my tax refund. I haven’t gotten official word yet, but I’ve gotten “unofficial” word on my corporate bonus and pay for the next two quarters (at least) and been reassured there won’t be any layoffs on my team.

And I’ve been talking to a fellow collector, and there’s some more hoplobibilophilia coming soon-ish.

In the meantime, as we often say, look for the smiling face of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on every bottle!

I’ve been in a mood.

Thursday, August 11th, 2022

So here are two swell stories, about things I’m not even particularly a fan of.

1. American Girl dolls.

2. J-pop.

Edited to add: And from the Department of It Never Fails, shortly after I posted this, something else happened that put me in a better mood. I can’t talk about it now (I hope to be able to in the future), but: go buy stuff from Hornady. Yes, this is an endorsement. No, they haven’t given me anything for this endorsement.

NRA Annual Meeting day 3: show’s over, back on your heads.

Sunday, May 29th, 2022

The lens pen was from Trijicon. Yeah, like they need an endorsement from me, but consider this one anyway.

At the weird intersection of SF geekery and gun geekery:

The other thing I wanted from Speer/Federal/CCI, which I did go back and get:

Not that much new to report, really. As I mentioned yesterday, we used today to go back and re-visit various targets of opportunity.

I had a good conversation with the folks at XS Sights: I have ghost ring sights on my Marlin lever gun, and I want to set up my social shotgun the same way.

We also had a nice conversation with the husband and wife who run Gru-Bee scopes. Gru-Bee sells (among other things) a modern version of the old 4X “baby” Redfield scope. These look great on a Browning SA-22, and the eye relief is enough so I can actually get a good sight picture. I sense an order in the near future, good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

The folks at Elite Tactical Systems are very nice, but I am a little frustrated with them. They make 7, 9, and 12 round magazines for the Glock 42. I thought the 9 and 12 rounders might be worth trying out: they had the 9, but did not have the 12 at the show. They did give me a card with a 20% discount code so I could order one online though. Except: the 7 and 12 round mags are out of stock online. The 9 is the only one that’s available. And the code expires June 1st, and there’s no backorder option. Sigh.

I see that I haven’t said much about food, other than the $14 bagels, coffee, and juice in the lobby. Breakfast has been pretty much catch as catch can. Lunch has been “what’s lunch?”.

We have had very good dinners, though, at all of the following places:

Tonight, since it is traditional as part of these affairs to have a good dinner on Sunday night: Rainbow Lodge.

Noted.

Friday, April 8th, 2022

I have written before about my fondness for the old Texas Monthly, and my disdain for most of what’s in the current version.

This is an exception, for obvious reasons.

At One of the Last Classical Music Stores, CDs Still Rock“.

(Archive.is version, because TM can sometimes be skirty if you don’t have a subscription.)

Classical Music of Spring, as it’s now called, is a time warp and a survival tale. It’s a physical shop in historic downtown Spring, a block from CorkScrew BBQ, that stocks a selection of mostly new classical CDs, with a few used albums, Broadway and movie soundtracks, and DVDs and Blu-rays of opera and ballet productions. It doesn’t sell instruments, sheet music, or guitar strings. Just recordings.

…The store was never really about shopping; it was more of a community center or musical salon, where classical buffs gathered to argue about their favorite artists, discuss new releases, and listen to albums on the store’s speakers.
“It’s a hangout,” Sumbera mused. “People don’t just come in and flip through the stacks, pick up a couple of recordings, buy them, and leave. People stick around and chat.”

…the logistics of setting up an online storefront for classical music are darn near terrifying.
Think about searching Amazon for a pop album you want to download. You can probably type in “Adele 30” and be done. But the classical world, with composers, soloists, conductors, ensembles, and hundreds of compositions with identical names like “Piano Sonata,” is a database programmer’s nightmare. And then there’s the sheer volume of classical recordings being released. Presto Music, for example, stocks 614 recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
“I don’t think people realize how many classical titles are out there in print right now,” Sumbera pointed out, before offering a ballpark guess: 150,000. Naxos, America’s biggest classical distributor, lists 297 brand-new albums arriving in the month of March alone. Sumbera can’t load all of those into an online store by himself, or even fit the inventory into his building.

Classical Music of Spring is linked on the sidebar, but to save searching

Rules of the Gunfight.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

I did some training this past weekend at the KR Training facility. (KR Training, official firearms trainer of Whipped Cream Difficulties.)

Before I talk about this, I feel like I need to address an elephant in the room. It seems like there are two schools of thought in the gun blogging community:

  1. “Why aren’t you running out every weekend and traveling 500 miles, and then 500 more, to attend tactical operator fantasy camp where you learn how to operate tactically in operations using tactics? Aren’t you serious about this stuff? Don’t you have a job that lets you travel and pay thousands of dollars multiple times a month to take training courses?”
  2. “Fark you, I don’t have the time or the money to travel every weekend and play pretend ninja with my gun writer buddies. I have a job that doesn’t involve shooting guns or people, a family to take care of, and I don’t get free training classes because I’m a gunwriter.”

I hate to be lukewarm, but I totally get both sides of this issue. Training is good. Training is fun. I should do more of it. But I don’t have time or money to train every weekend, so I pick my opportunities carefully.

I’m lucky in that KR Training’s facilities are just a little over an hour away from my house (an hour and a half if I stop at Buc-ee’s on the way). I’m also lucky in that KR Training concentrates almost entirely on practical training for private citizens. (I do not get free training from KR Training, even though they are the official trainer of WCD. I would not accept free training if it was offered: I insist on paying real American money for their services. They do not accept Bitcoin or Dogecoin yet, as far as I know.)

In this case, KR Training was offering two classes from John Hearne. Yes, they were a little expensive. But I decided to treat this as a personal indulgence. I’ve heard Karl talk about Mr. Hearne’s presentations at the Rangemaster conferences, and figured this was worth taking a flyer on.

(These two classes were the second and third I have taken in roughly a month, so you can throw stones at me now. However, the first class was Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED certification: also through KR Training because that was convenient, but you can pretty much do that anywhere these days. And you should, in my ever so humble opinion.)

tl,dr: If John Hearne is teaching near you, go if you can. He’s worth it.

I’m putting in a jump here because this is going to run long. I can feel it.

(more…)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Sunday, December 5th, 2021

…and I’m getting into the spirit.

Again this year, Daddy didn’t drink all the Xmas money, or have to spend it on car repairs. Daddy got his car inspected (they didn’t even want to replace the windshield washers) and has renewed his registration online.

I don’t want it to sound like everything is coming up Millhouse. A close family member has been in the hospital since before Thanksgiving. I’m hoping that, if the doctors can get them up and walking, we might be able to get them out on bond the later part of this week. Which will be welcomed by me. And their little dog, which we will call “Toto” to protect the innocent.

(On the slightly positive side, this gives me a chance to make onion dip. Or hot buttered rum. Or real eggnog.)

And work is still giving me tsuris. The good news is, after December 17th, I will be officially out of the office and on leave until January 10th. I probably will check my emails from time to time, mostly for the “fiddling while Rome burns” feeling of it all.

But I got to go to a Christmas party/appreciation dinner last week. And today I got to meet up with the members of what Lawrence likes to call my “shadowy criminal conspiracy” for the first time in a while. I missed the last meeting because of Tulsa, then we took two weeks off for Thanksgiving…

…and then after I finished running errands, I went by Sportsman’s Finest. They’ve decided to open on Sundays for the month of December. Which makes sense, right?

Turns out, the gun I had bought in Tulsa and had to have shipped to a transfer dealer had come in. (There were some issues that delayed the process. Nothing criminal or anything, just a shipping foulup and a couple of other little things.)

I don’t know if my readers who are not People Of the Gun understand this, but: when you get a gun transferred to a dealer for you to pick up, the dealer has to open the package and log the gun onto their own record books. So they know what you’re getting when it arrives. Which is significant in this case because…

…the owners of Sportsman’s Finest happened to have a bunch of stuff lying around the shop for this particular gun, and gave me over $100 worth of stuff to go along with it. Free. Gratis. No charge. Seriously. (I’m being kind of coy about the gun here because I’ve actually been working on a post about this specific gun: I just had to wait until it arrived so I could take photos. If I’m lucky and the weevils don’t get into the eggnog, I might be able to post that this week. I will say, it is a really old gun that isn’t made any longer, but is still held in high regard.)

(Not a Garand, Borepatch. Sorry. But you got me thinking about that as a possible next purchase. I believe I meet all of the CMP qualifications, and they aren’t getting any cheaper.)

And they also didn’t charge me for the transfer.

None of this was stuff that I was expecting. I was fully prepared to pay the transfer fee, and thought about arm wresting one of the owners over it. But I decided to do something else instead. The spare parts were just an unexpected, surprising, and honestly quite moving bonus. I wouldn’t expect them to do this for just any random murder hobo. I guess it just happens that I’m one of the murder hobos that they like for some reason.

Made my heart grow five sizes, it did. Not three, because fark the Grinch, stealing the roast beast like that and tormenting that poor dog, but five sizes.

(Mike the Musicologist: “You should see a doctor about that.”)

Anyway, if you need guns or ammo or fishing gear or other outdoorsy type stuff during the holiday season, please consider shopping at:

Sportman’s Finest
12434 Bee Cave Road
Austin, TX 78738
(512) 263-1888
9:00 AM – 7:00 PN Monday-Friday
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Saturday
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sunday during December

Don’t expect free stuff until you get to know them, but they’re really nice people, even if you’ve never been in before.

Travel notes.

Friday, November 19th, 2021

As you might have picked up from previous posts, Mike the Musicologist, myself, and some other friends who shall remain anonymous went up to Tulsa this past weekend for Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show. We generally try to go to every third one, but what with the Wuhan Flu et al, this is the first one we’ve been to since November of 2018.

I’m working on a longer post about some of the things I picked up during the show and around Tulsa, but I have to wait until one item arrives at my FFL. (On a related note, I am thinking more seriously about getting a C&R license. The problem is: I am already supposed to get one colonoscopy a year. I don’t need BATFE giving me a second one.)

A few things I noticed:

  • It didn’t take us as long to go through the show as it usually did. I felt like I had seen all the tables by about 2 PM on Sunday.
  • The reason is that it seemed there were fewer vendors. I think Wannemacher’s still sells all their tables, but it seemed like a lot of vendors may have purchased tables and then backed out for this round. Additionally, it seemed like a lot of vendors who were there decided to pack up their tables and close early: either they sold everything they’d brought, or just wanted to get on the road.
  • There were a lot of people selling AR pattern rifles and parts at the show. But as usual, almost all the ones I saw were not mass-production platforms (Bushmaster, S&W, etc.) but were from small builders. I really didn’t pay much attention to prices, because I wasn’t looking for a new AR pattern rifle. (I am kind of looking for a cheapish AR upper for my own personal Behind Every Blade of Grass gun (hattip: McThag), but it wasn’t a priority for me at this show.) Someone Who Isn’t Me did purchase an upper in .224 Valkyrie, but I didn’t note the price.
  • There were, as always, a lot of ammo vendors at the show. Which means ammo prices were competitive. I didn’t buy any ammo at the show. (I did pick up a box of .221 Fireball from Sports World and a box of 10mm Hornady Critical Duty from Dong’s Guns while we were roaming the city.) My Friends Who Are Not Me keep close track of ammo prices and did pick up some at the show for what they thought were good prices: 280 rounds of M-1 Garand specific .30-06 ammo for $1.25 a round (with ammo can and enbloc clips), 1000 rounds of .45 Auto for $.44 a round, 1000 rounds of 9mm for $.34 a round, and 1000 rounds of .380 for $.37 a round.
  • I saw a lot (relatively speaking) of older Smith and Wesson Model 48 revolvers for sale. It wasn’t like every other table had one, but I saw far more than I expected to see, even given the size of the show. The Model 48 is a K-frame revolver chambered in .22 Magnum. They are nice guns, especially the older ones. I was just surprised at how many I saw for sale. (No, I didn’t buy one: I already have one in 6″. It’s very nice.)
  • Pretty much all of our meals were good. We had the traditional German food at Siegi’s Sausage Factory, Thai food at Lanna Thai (“Lana!“), pretty good barbecue at Oklahoma Joe’s, excellent bulgogi at a hole in the wall called Gogi Gui Korean Grill, and a nice higher-end meal at Smoke Woodfire Grill. (Our usual higher end Sunday night meal place, The Chalkboard, is now only serving Sunday brunch.) We also had an excellent breakfast Monday morning at Bramble Breakfast and Bar in the Pearl District. (I recommend the Monte Carlo Benedict.) Also an excellent breakfast: Toast and Franklin’s on Main in Broken Arrow.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 368

Saturday, April 3rd, 2021

I thought I’d dabble in some real history again today. These are also long, but it is a Saturday. Also, this is advertising to some extent: I am not getting any compensation for this, but I like the idea, and heartily endorse this product and/or event.

When war broke out in Sudan towards the end of the 19th century, Winston Churchill wanted to be there. He managed to get himself attached to the 21st Lancers: he also managed to get himself a contract to write articles about the war for one of the newspapers.

In 1899, Churchill published The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan, his second book. The original edition was an elaborately put together and illustrated two-volume set.

The first edition was reviewed by The Times, which described it as containing material sufficient for two good books and one bad one, with the bad one being the more interesting.

After becoming a member of Parliament, Churchill edited it down to one volume (and removed much of his criticism of senior officers, especially General Kitchener), and subsequent reprints have pretty much been based on the one volume abridged edition. The original two-volume edition is very rare.

“Lessons from Churchill’s ‘The River War'”, a lecture at Hillsdale College by Dr. James W. Muller .

Longer bonus: this is only a few days old, too. Dr. Muller at America’s National Churchill Museum. “Churchill This Day #7: The River War: Churchill at War on the Nile”.

The advertising portion of this: Dr. Muller has been working on a new, two volume, unabridged and annotated edition of The River War. It is currently available for pre-order from Chartwell Booksellers, the Churchill specialty bookstore (who are very nice folks), with an estimated shipping date of early to mid-June.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 364

Tuesday, March 30th, 2021

One of the reasons this past weekend was so busy is that I got up brutally early Saturday morning and drove out to the KR Training facility (KR Training, official firearms trainer for WCD) to attend a “Stop the Bleed” class taught by Levi Nathan.

I know there are many gun bloggers who feel like: if you carry a gun, you should carry a tourniquet, too. I haven’t been doing that because:

  • I didn’t have the training.
  • I have heard a lot of horror stories about low quality knockoff tourniquets made of Chinesium. I wanted to make sure I knew what suppliers were reliable, and how to tell a counterfeit tourniquet from a real one, before I started spending money on putting together an emergency kit (or what people in the biz call an IFAK).
  • I also wanted to know what I should – and should not – put in my emergency kit.

Summarizing: I got exactly what I wanted out of Mr. Nathan and the course, and I heartily endorse this event and/or product.

And even though this was at KR Training, this isn’t just a gun thing, for all my foreign readers. People hurt themselves badly and suffer life threatening bleeding in all kinds of ways: car accidents, construction accidents, kitchen accidents…

I also heartily endorse the idea of taking an official “Stop the Bleed” course from someone, anyone. You’ll get hands-on practice with stuff, and hands-on practice is good.

That being said, today’s videos are all StB related. Some of this is for my own personal bookmarks, and some of this is for the benefit of my loyal readers who want the knowledge, but may not yet be able to step out and take a StB course.

Remember: Have gloves. Wear gloves. Nitrile is recommended.

This is a compressed (slightly over 15 minutes) version of the “Stop the Bleed” presentation.

Here’s a longer version (a little over an hour) with demos.

Again, these are not substitutes for taking a for real actual course from someone who knows what they are doing. But I know a lot of people still don’t feel like it is safe to go out and mingle in public, so this is better than a poke in the neck with a sharp stick.

And from North American Rescue, makers of the Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T), here’s how to apply one:

NAR has a content rich YouTube channel. Here’s another video on the use of the emergency trauma dressing.

And from ITS Tactical, here’s a video on using the Israeli bandage:

Finally, by way of SkinnyMedic, “How to use your IFAK”.

Note that some of these channels talk about stuff other than trauma dressing, gauze (for packing) and the C-A-T: for example, chest seals.

The advice we got in class for using chest seals (and even more emphatically, chest decompression needles) was: don’t. Chest seals seem to show up in a lot of pre-packaged IFAKs, but as Mr. Nathan put it, this is not within your scope having taken just a “Stop the Bleed” course. This is the kind of thing that EMTs with higher level certifications do, not random hobos such as myself.

Also, if you get someone else’s blood on you: tell the responding medical people. We all know about HIPAA, right? Well, there’s a limited exception in the law: if you get someone’s blood on you, and it is documented, and it turns out that person has a blood-borne pathogen, you have a right to be informed of that as long as it is documented. You don’t have a right to know how and where they got it, just that they had it.

Now all I need to do is get my (stuff) together. I’m actually kind of surprised at how many of the companies selling IFAK pouches don’t make them in red. Condor is the only one I’ve found: 5.11 doesn’t, for sure.

The pouch should be the cheapest part of your kit, as long as it holds everything in place. But in a high stress emergency situation, I’m personally thinking “red = first aid”, and I want to be able to tell people “grab the red pouch”, not “grab the black pouch, no, the small black pouch, no, the other small black pouch, no, that’s the dark purple one, grab the black one…” Know what I mean, Vern?