Matter of Facts: Gear Maintenance

Welcome back to the Matter of Facts podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping, guns, politics every week on iTunes, Ditcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at mwfpodcast dot com. On Facebook or Instagram. You can support us be a Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host, Phil Raveley Andrew Nickar on the other side of the mic, and here's your show. Welcome back to the Matter of Facts podcast. It's seven thirty nine. I have already sholwady gotten in my pj's. I is freaking tired, but I'm here and soys pjs. Bruh. Usually I try to like look like a semi professional and like, you know, at least throw on a shirt or something, not be here in my pajamas. But I told my wife I spent the last hour of my work day running up and down flights of stairs and I forty three year old chubby man. My heart rate was doing that number out of buck ten. Hey man, stare Clemban's fantastic exercise. It's great card. Yeah. Well, what my facility has done is finally somebody got religious about physical security and they activated the badge readers in the elevators. So now you have to badge to go. You have to badge to go any like from the first four you have to badge to go anywhere, okay, and then you have to badge to go between floors. And the only thing you don't have to use your badge for is to go from any floor down to the first floor to exit. Okay. I can understand that, yes, but this now means that with the number of my coworkers that are having difficulty figuring out how this new process. Works, people are trapped on floors, aren't they filed? Well, it's making say I don't usually take the elevators to begin with, because it's a little bit of a bonus exercise, but also because I'm impatient as hell. So in an effort to not like, you know, curse out a coworker about why are you taking some freaking long waver your badge and let's get it hit on with the show, I just, you know, say, hey, I'm gonna take the stairs and get some exiles. I'll meet you there. Really it's for my sanity, but sensibly it's for my health, which is also my sanity is also my health. But anyway, So we're in the process of moving people around on a couple of different floors because we have to do some building maintenance and build out on two of the floors and I have people on both of those floors who now have to move right, So that started today. And that was like up and down, up the floor down for up the floor down for And we took the elevator sometimes, but like sometimes it was just faster fringing goat stairs. But anyway, no one, no one came to hear about all that nonsense. Point is, it's been it's been a day. It has Oh, we had an interesting day of work today too, really you that. No, we're a single story facility. No, we had a. We had to do some repair work on a customer's tool that they gave us a model. The model did not represent the steel in any way. Shape or form. No, don't tell me the customers screwed up, Nick. Oh, no, no, no, the customer didn't screw up. So this this is one of our This is from another mold shop. We're a mold shop, from another mold shop. Your competitors they were doing they were doing a repair that well, yeah, one of our competitors somewhere somewhere in the world. We're doing a repair for them because they don't have a wire machine, and it required a wire machine to do it. So, you know, all the mold shops kind of trade trade little favors to each other because everybody's got their little specialty tool that not everybody's gonna buy. For us. It's jig grinder's and a wire machine that we have and cut it the day before, sent it out no problems. Customers calling angry at the end of the day wanting to know why the block doesn't fit. In the hole. I'm like, well, you didn't give me the block to put in the hole, so I had to go off your cab model. Turns out everything was made wrong out from the beginning, which is why the mold got damaged and why I was working on it in the first place. But my god, So what I'm hearing is that learning has taken place. Yeah, it turns out when you go to the lowest bidder in a foreign country, you have very little quality control. So I don't feel like that's a lesson that we had to learn a second time. You'd be shocked how often large multimillion dollar companies have. To learn that lesson. No, No, I really wouldn't, because I've worked for large, multimillion dollar companies and I worked for a very large bureaucratic one now, and they have to learn that lesson weekly. It seems. It's shocking how quickly people forgets. It's been more than a few times where we've had a mold that was built overseas. You guys know where I'm talking about, never even touches the customer's floor, comes directly to one of our shops and tear it down and it's fucked. Yeah, like to. The point where it's going to cost more than the initial cost of the tooling to fix it before they can get part one out of it. But look on the bright side, if it wasn't for people farming out all that crap to foreign horn foreign subsidiaries that do horrible jobs, you'd be so drowned in work from doing it right the first time you would know to do with yourself. I'm okay with that. I would accept that. Hey man, I'm all for creating American jobs. And if we had to drown and work to create a bunch of American jobs, I'm all about that. That's fine with me. I'll train a bunch more apprentices. That's what we call in the business sarcasm. Oh, I know, but I actually do want to be drowning in work. I like work so much. I brought work home. Yeah that, I'm pretty sure that's diagnosable, but we'll leave it alone. It is anyway edman work. And then we have to talk somebody into a firearm purchase. And then which is a couple listener questions, and we'll get to the topic and we're going to cover all of it today, and we're not going to go over an hour and a half. Best of luck, Nick, I'm looking at you. We're not going to go over an hour and a half. I will try. Just give me the head nod. Go with it anyway. Patrons make the world go around. They keep the show solving, to keep the show funded. They keep me, I would say, out of trouble, but mostly y'all get me into trouble. And you'll definitely haven't been helping me get Nick into trouble. So I'm starting to feel picked on. I'm more resistant to peer pressure until it's coming from my wife, until yeah, you just wait once I get her on my side, You're done. Yep, they're like Rachel his in hers PPS fourteen's. It's exactly what y'all need. I'm saying. I've been trying to talk her into it. It's yeah, you're gonna have to get a bathroom and maybe a bedroom remodel under your belt before I can lay that on her. I finished one bathroom, there's only two more in the house. Chop, pitter, patter. Get at her side. Oh, I know I'm starting in a couple months here when it's no longer like negative fifteen. Yeah, you have the opposite problem you do about the weather. Like down here, it's like I just wait for fall or spring so I don't have to die from heat stroke. While doing things outside. Unfortunately, my brief window of beautiful weather went entirely too fast while I had other things going on, and I missed my window to get things done outside. And now it's like forty degrees outside, which you probably find adorable, but for us down here, it's on solo. Weather forty degrees. I would love that. No, we had a fifth degree day yesterday and today it was like negative doen no Magosta anyway, Code mof a disaster coffee, if you like hot coffee, if you like cold coffee, if you like day old coffee or a brand new fresh coffee code mof And if you don't use the promo code, I will find out about it. And if I recognize your name, you should prepare yourself for abuse, because I love capitalism and I hate money, and i'd much rather y'all save a couple percent using that promo code than throw a few more bucks into me in my business partner's pockets and merge at the Southern gals. You can do capitalism and give them all the money you want. We don't take a cut out of that. That is purely a promotional activity for us and for them, And quite frankly, if you'll want to throw a couple of bucks at a small business that supports a mom and pop and an adorable child, then that's where you should look. Plus, they're bomb T shirts. Man, they're fantastic. Yeah, I'm not a funny man, but we really did try to inject some humor into those things. Oh, I meant the quality of the T shirt real. That's different than BOM. Yes, yeah, they're they're top notch. I do have to two mow Horn. That was like the one thing I hit the Brandon's with when we went into business together. I told him like, look, you can price the shirts whatever you think is appropriate. I will give you. Like the first I forget how many shirts we agreed to that they could sell profit all in their pocket. We didn't want to dime of it, like, you know, to offset their startup costs and everything. Absolutely, but the one thing I was adamant about was you cannot use cheap, scratchy, itchy Chinese shirts. It's got to be something that feels nice to be worn. Because if I don't want to wear the damn thing, I'm not going to put my name on it. It's just it's not kosher. Okay. Now, some poor sociopath crawled into our comments and said he needs us to talk him out of buying a sig to eleven and I don't think we can do that, Nick, I think that, Viole. It's the terms and the terms and agreements. I do have a single question. This is not the sig. This is not the sig that blows up when. No I know, I know. This is not the sick that shoots yourself. That's fine, I mean you know, unless you're into that sort of thing. But what does this sig do that any other gun in your safe doesn't. I think it's I think it's something that you know, anybody that's looking to. Buy a new gun needs to think about. Yeah, I've got a big say how to mute Nick because he's asking questions that don't need to be answered. It's just it's just another gun. I mean, if what you want it just because you collect guns, go for it. I'm not going to tell you not to. I have. I have a very large safe that is very full of guns. In fact, I have run out of room in the safe again. But you know, Heaven forbid I tell anybody not to buy a gun. But all I'm saying is, if you are going to buy a new gun and the rest of your preps have not been addressed, that gun better adds something of value performance wise to your to your safe. So that's if you don't have. If you don't have like a bolt action hunting rifle, and you're gonna get one, I get it different, different weapons system, different purpose. If you don't own a shotgun, yeah, probably should regardless of whatever else you own. If you don't have a semi auto rifle, and your state's not gay, you probably should have one. Now, if you don't have a pistol, you should probably have one, because look, if you're out doing farm chores, doing around the house chores, you can keep a pistol with you pretty much all the time. It's a lot easier than a full sized long arm. But if you have half a dozen handguns in the safe, the seventh one is probably not adding anything that you don't already have performance wise. Yeah, Jeff Jags, as with the two eleven takes three twenty mags, I don't think so, dude. I mean, I'm I'm not super up on like six hour, but I think the two eleven is like nineteen eighties nineties design. Like, let's see, they take p two fifty magazines, okay, and three twenty magazines. They do take three twenty magazines. Only the twenty three round extended magazines. Oh, okay, they only take the full big stick magazines. Okay. Looks like I do need a bigger safe. Yeah. With the recent acquisition of one of my father in law's handguns and two of his rifles, I am also out of safe space. Now I listen, I had made the room for that that BARRETTA. I was happy there. There was nothing else going in there unless I lost my dag of mine and got a Barrett or some other associated fifty caliber or maybe three thirty eight, but that's neither here nor there. But anyway, and then this this happens, and now I've got a pistol in two more rifles that have got to go someplace. I'm I don't know, I'll figure it out. You know what, you should take a look at, Phil. I don't know how much space you've got for more safes in your house. But man, I really like the snap safe that I've got. That thing. I've got the. Tightened EXL snap safe. There's not a single part of that safe that I cannot pick up and carry down a flight of stairs. It was awesome for moving. It beats the hell out of the last couple of safes. I had to move. Yeah, I'm out there yet. I gotta figure it out. I mean, on the one hand, I did, I did briefly consider like just get like an old school like a I call them ornamental like gun cabinets, you know, nice window, fast, pretty thing. But now your daughter's old enough and seems responsible enough that wouldn't be a problem problem. Yeah, And I mean the truth matter is I have I have a full of firearms that I would think are pretty enough for like display, and that would free up space in the say in the existing say for like all business business and front party in the back type of firearms. You know what I'm saying, Like the things that you use when doors get kicked in that kind of thing. Okay, Wraggle, Fraggle, did you hear the here psa backpedal and releasing their budget fifty col rifle? I would rather them do that than have rifles explode. I'm going to tell you that if you google what the chamber pressure of fifty BMG is, I am a okay with anybody. Oh if you can't, okay, time out. If you Raggle is saying that the AMMO for the test and test and evaluation is too expensive, I'm going to tell you that if you're developing a fifty cow and you can't afford the AMMO to test and evaluate one, you can't afford to develop a fifty col correct period in discussion, like I. Mean, you should be you should probably be handloading those rounds anyway. For your TN Yeah, because. You're gonna want to find You're gonna want to find the failure points for the weapon. Yeah. But for for that though, you need standardized proof rounds which are a percentage over existing and it. Oh no, I was thinking of like underloading, loading odd grain weights stuff like that. Yeah. Ray was saying their excuse, not mine. I hear you. But I'm just saying that, like, I don't know, uh, if they put it out into the wild, I'm sure people will buy it. I wonder if it's gonna wind it be in like a lot of Palmetto State Armies farms where they're they're bought, shot a little, and then stuffed away in the back of a closet after that. I think there's two kinds of people that buy that buy from Palmetto, especially like their budget gun there. They're guys that are just getting into it. And they beat the ever loving. Piss out of that weapon system and then build a better one and put that PSA one in the safe as their backup gun. Yeah, because that's that was mine. My first AR was a PSA build and I beat the Bajusus side of that thing. Yeah, and it was just fantastic. And see I went the total other direction, and nothing I bought was top shelf for my guns. But I put them to gear from a bucket of parts, and I expect every last part that went into both of them. So, of the two rifles I built, one was a I think a three hundred dollars PSA rifle and the other one was like a twenty eight hundred dollars rifle. Didn't I tell the two extremes? Didn't I tell you what I wound up figuring out that I had into my ar my car being that's rigged up for night vision? You did, and it was upsetting. I was upset. I don't all night vision is expensive? Man, Well, in the minute you start, okay, So in the name full disclosure, like the minute you have to throw like a two hundred and something dollars switch and a four hundred dollars flashlight and an eight hundred dollars laser box onto even a four hundred dollars ar. All of a sudden, things get expensive very quickly. It's like when you buy a PDS fourteen and like, oh great, now I need a helmet. Now I need a mount, Now I need this and that and that, and before you know it, the the three and a half four stacks you have in just your night vision optic just got another twenty five percent laid on top of it in the shit you need to bolting onto your nogget. It's just ridiculous. I've got something interesting from Joe here. He's saying that PSA bought Panther and DPMs and now he can't get parts. It's interesting. I never had a problem with with PSA's customer service. Try to reach out to them on the social media platforms, because you get a different person than when you're reaching out to like customer service customer service. I don't know if you're on Reddit, Joe, but PSA is fairly fairly active on the gun subs. If you tag their username in your post, they will reply, and typically that's much quicker responses than a lot of customer service numbers. Yeah, and Jim saying, all my daughters put to get put learn to put together ars with PSA parts. I look at PSA like I do the modern day liberar hit or pistols from World War Two. It puts a thing in your hands that you can use to defend yourself. And ostensibly get a much better quality firearm if necessary. Should things go ever, go to eleven. So you know, I look at it like that. If it arms, if it arms the populace for a reasonable amount of money, and even better, if it gets you into an AR and gets you out to the range and gets you out to the training circle, when if you had spend three times that much on AR you never would invest in it, then that by its up it's like the high point. It's the high point argument. If if a two hundred and fifty dollars handgun and a couple boxes of AMMO gets you into the r the realm of the arm citizen, but a five hundred dollars block is something you just mentally can't put the money towards, then the high point has value to me. It does. I think. I do think though that PSA is is higher quality than a lot of people give them credit for for their price point. I think I've I have. Worked on a lot of my buddies guns that have been PSA build kits, and I've not found problems with them, and maybe that's good luck on my part. They've all been what I would call a rack grade AR. I'll give you that. I think. I think. What what I have trouble with with that statement, though, is like I don't come into the argument with the preceived notion that PSA's just the biggest piece junk on earth, Like you know, like it. It has met my expectations, and I feel like my expectations of them were fairly reasonable. If functional, and I would say combat. Accuate if if anything, the only the only ar I've ever had my hands on that I legitimately had concerns with how it was put together. It was it was a gun shop special it was. It was one of these where it's like a gunshop and there's a dude. The dude in the back puts together ars with cute paint jobs and antiitized parts to sell on the rack. It was one of those I was put together by god knows what, and I couldn't. I never got a chance, like put gauges into it or measure things. But it just it didn't Something about it didn't feel right put it that way, that's possible something I mean, something about the way the bolt and everything went into battery. Like I I advised my friend, I'm like, you really want to like be careful shooting this thing, or you really want to go get like a go no go gauge set or borrow one from somebody because I'm like it just it doesn't just doesn't feel right. I mean, most most quality gunsmith's out there will throw a gauge set through your gun without really charging you hardly anything. In fact, the one that I go to on occasion, he won't. He'll just he'll just drop the gauge in there and tell you you're good or it's fucked. Yeah, Stewart has actually grasped me on multiple occasions that I need to invest in go no go gauges for a couple of things, at least for five five six. And. Yeah, fortunately I know I have a buddy that has all those gauges for five five, six, thirty out six and three hundred win mag and I've just been able to kind of ride on that, not not having picked them up myself. They're not they're not that expensive. They're really not. And if you only get one, the field gauge is probably the most important in my opinion. I think I think it is because that's if the field gauge shows you an issue, you must stop, do not pass go, do not collect anything. Put that weapon in the rack and get it inspected by someone. That knows better. Yeah, and if you don't know what a field gauge is, just take my word on it. There are three gauges. There's go, no go, and what they call field gauge. And I've always been told, like you know, the go gage tells you that what is it again? It's the what you're looking for is like the chamber should swallow the go gage. It should not swallow the no Go gauge, and it definitely shouldn't swallow the field gauge. So if ever, if ever you drop a field gauge into a weapon, and it will like that bolt will close all the way you take the firing pin out of it, and if you put it on the rack until you faire out what the problem is. M But anyway the problem is that the go and the no go gauge by themselves or don't give you a whole like all the information you need. The field gauge is there to tell you is this thing safe to shoot? Not? Is it put together right? Is not? Does the barrel need to be pushed in or pulled out a little bit? Before it gets pinned. That field gauge is just there to tell you you're about to blow this gun up. Yeah, this weapon has become dangerous. Yeah, So twenty three minutes we haven't talked about the topic. This is turning into a pattern of behavior. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so last time we were talking about field gear, cleaning, maintenance, sowing, webbing, replacing parts, all these kinds of things. And I thought it would be a little instructive because like we've talked about this over the years, a little here and there, because like I don't know about you, but like I'm constantly working on little projects and it's just it's rare for me to have like all that stuff sitting right here by my feet so I can pick it up and show it to y'all. But so I thought I would start with this. I actually was no wrong one. All the chicom gear looks the same. Yeah, So in the name of full disclosure, you're going to see a bit of chaiicom gear and a bit of like old army surplus stuff. And I actually didn't bring my pistol belt because I'm in the middle of ripping it apart and redoing it, but you no, Yeah, me too. So for those of you uninitiated, this is an very old actually according to the stamp on the back of this nineteen seventy six production. But I needed, like I was telling Nick, I need, I actually have a really nice stamp on the back of this. I need to do some research on trying to figure out what the origin of this thing is. But it might have actually been issued at one point, which is pretty cool. Yeah, it looks it looks in surprisingly a good condition for issued gear, but it's you never know. Yeah, But any case, so this is a completely unmolested, untied which what they call type fifty six chest rig. And the annoying part is that the Chinese called the sks and the AK type fifty six weapons, and therefore they called this thing and the AK chest rig or bandalier type fifty six as well, so it makes things a little confusing. Thank you China. But the reason the reason I pull this out is because I have one of these that's now loaded with stripper clips for the sks that I now have. Because if you have an old MILLSERP sks, why wouldn't you spend a couple of bucks and get a nice old chest rig to hold your stripper clips in, because if you're going to be a nerd, be a nerd. Embrace the nerdy basically. But the reason I pull this out is because you know, this uses these little wooden toggles and these little loops up here on the top to secure all these flaps down. This is literally just two pieces of webbing adhered at each side, so that it kind of works like an ex harness, you know, if you turn, if you wear this over your neck and everything. Like a chest rig. It's not really comfortable. It's definitely not twenty first century. It's not tactical at all. But if you need a cheap way to carry magazines and stuff, this is not a bad place to start. Neither is the AK version because the AK version it is deeper than your standard like thirty round ar meg, so you just stitch or block the bottom. Yeah, so here's kind of what I was talking about the other day with me and Nick. So what I've done with this also tie fifty six, But this is an AK chest rig. Is I removed all the wooden toggles. All these flaps are now secured with velcrow very twenty first century and you can't. I might actually be able to wiggle one of these things out. Y'all can call this Bubba Engineer if you want. I don't care it works I do. This is medium density fiber war because at the time I did this, I was building subwa for boxes as a side business out of the house, so I had cutoffs and cutoffs and cutoffs of this stuff. If I had to do this again, I'd probably make it out of like a one buy or some thick ply with something that's a little more weather resistant than this, because if you get this wet, it's going to turn to a mess really fast. You know what you should try. Phil McMaster car sells high density polyethylene sheets that you can heat form with a hot with a hot gun, with a heat gun, or with your oven. Don't use your wife's seven hair dryer will work sometimes too. It's a white plastic sheet that you can that you can fold and form, and you could make a hollow insert for that. I've actually got several sheets of kaijags in the garage. Oh, that'll work. I've got it from. Nice thing about the The nice thing about the high density polyethylene is you can use acetone to permanently weld it together. Oh, I'll just take that can consideration. But yeah, I've got all the kayaks and everything lying around from building, knife sheets and everything. You're gonna have to watch the comments because I can only multitask so much and I need both my hands from I got you. Right, doctor, scare guy says starting He started to say that the thing was super old, but realized we would have been in school together. My back hurts. I feel you, bud. Look when I was when I was thirty six ups talking to a buddy of mine that I served with, and I was like, so, did it occur to you that we were when we were in base training there were kids that weren't even born yet that are now old enough to go to base train themselves. I thought he was gonna slug me, but yeah, both of both of us kind of mow in back pain at that moment. Yeah. One of my coworkers was telling me that the first Shrek movie came out almost twenty years ago. Oh yeah, So, in the name of full disclosure, I have this weird thing with my relationship with my wife where like I always have to think to myself how long we've been together. How long since we've been married? Like, I know what year was, I just have to count and then in math ye yeah. And then today was the day that I realized that in a couple of months, my wife and I will have been married eighteen years. That's fantastic. Yeah, But I until I got asked that today, I didn't realize it was eighteen years. I was just like, I mean, we've been married for a while. And then I was like, holy shit, that's when you added when you add it up, that's a lot longer than I thought it was. I mean, amazing, how fast that happens. I mean, it's cool. I love being married to my wife. I just didn't realize it been eighteen years. That means I. Got two years to really figure out something cool. Yep, cool is going to be expensive, I'm sure. Yeah, anyway, we're not gonna get isn't her squad nods? I'm sure that's what I thought. I'm sure she vacation much more than quad nods, Nick, thank you well quad nods on the beach. Yeah, she couldn't care less. I'm sure. Anyway, that's fair. So, like I said, little space around the bottom of this replace all the. Top of the velcrow. I actually took what was the original grenade pouch just so to loop down the middle and made this into a twin pistol magazine pouch. And then the other is still like grenade size. But I usually use this for like, you know, a turn a kit or some you know, field dressings or whatever. But what I did was take a very cheap still very cheap. But at the time, I want to say, these were like ten to twelve bucks to your doorstep. Yeah, at one point they were shipping. Them in little the little bubble mailers because they were so cheap. Yeah, but like I said, like a lot of this old surplus chicom stuff is still dirt cheap. And an afternoon with some velcrow and a very very well been little made needles because this this is campus. So you ain't just gonna punch this with your grandma and sew a needle. But a little bit of ingenuity, a little bit of time, and you can turn one of these into something that's actually like much easier to use, much nicer to use, and much more relevant to today's kind of SOPs and way of doing things. And if you didn't want to go this route, your local army surplus store probably has a ton of molly step not a ton of molly, a ton of alice stuff in the back. The old school think like post Vietnam pre gy, like Desert Storm vintage, that the old pistol belt and the ahe horns or the white harness to spenders and you get the canteens with the canteen covers and the magazine pouches that hold three each, plus the little pockets on the sides for grenades. You can outfit yourself for not a ton of money. And if you don't want to used surplus stuff, Rothke actually makes pretty decent retro clones of that stuff. Believe it or not. Yeah, I mean it's getting stuff surplus is always going to be kind of a like a a crapshoot on whether you're gonna get really nice stuff or you're gonna get fleeced. But you're right if you just want to like buy it for the vibes and run it. I mean, Rothko stuff is not bad. I've bought some of it. It's it is nothing to get upset about. No, No, it's definitely not. I mean I used I used an old alice rig for a duck hunter or not duck hunting, pheasant hunting rig for myself because I had I had the high vis vest from something else, but I didn't have anything for pouches or anything for shotgun shells or stuff like that. So I used a butt pack to. Hold the birds, and I used one of the U the old M sixteen mag pouches that a box of shotgun shells just drops right down inside perfectly. And I was all set to go for a last minute pheasant. Hunt I got invited to. It was pretty great, worked out really good. Yeah, But like I said, I mean that that's kind of my perspective is like you can you can take a lot of this old surplus stuff and with fairly minimal inventiveness and modifications like you can you can even make it work with more modern stuff. Like I said, I didn't bring my I didn't bring my old Alice pistol belt out, but I have Like so I've got a bla tech holster that's actually made for just two much gun belt fits on there wonderfully. For Abby's reasons. Yeah, But then I've got like stuff that's meant to be on Molly. And I mean, if you just wrap the straps around on the the you know, around the pistol belt. Of course it flops around a whole lot, but you'd be surprised. But you could do zip ties. Yeah, you can do a pretty good job with that. I mean, I just finally replaced my old alice, ah harness with that's on my belt with the one we got from Rebel. That's for the uh the med the medpouch. I've got to get a couple of more pieces of one inch webbing to lash the front of it together, and then I'm gonna be all set. And that's a nice lower profile option for that war belt over the old alice, which I just had. I think my war belt had a couple of little plastic like d rings. I just clipped the old alice, the old alice snap clips right through. That worked out great for many years. I've been running that belt since. Two thoy ten. Yeah, I mean, with that age harness. I hate to quote the old the old generic statement, but like if a bunch of idiot privates couldn't screw it up, it's at least tough enough for you to take out to the range or to the you know, the middlesem a couple of times, like, yeah, a lot of I mean, there's a reason why for all these years I was stuck with old millsherp stuff. It just it works. I mean, it wasn't until recently where I finally unloaded the old condor and got into Rebels kit, which is right here on the floor behind me, yet another of the projects I'm eventually going to. Get to one day when I'm not drowning another crap. So, Phil, yes, have you ever taken a class with all that kid on? No? All right, I know you spent time in the field in kit in the military. Yes, for those of you that haven't, those of you that have not yet taken the class with all your kid on there, you're gonna get sweaty. That shit is hot, it's uncomfortable, it's gonna get packed full of dirt and random other crap. Phil, what is your after class or let's say, after field exercise. How do you take care of that? Nyline? Heear So. The last time I was in an operational theater, really and truly, there was like, especially back then, there was no like taking and throat in the wash or anything crazy like that. It was a lot of damp rag spot cleaning, and you had to be careful because these were like old, the old ceramic plates that didn't tolerate a lot of bull crap or getting wet or anything. But really it was a lot of like get rid of the dirt as much as humanly possible, and not for any sense of like, not for any sense of vanity, but purely just because I don't think most people understand, like how much dirt and sand will abraid nylon if you let it sit in there. And we haven't gotten clothing yet. But this applies to boots. Does the first thing I do every time I get done with a camping trip or a hike or anything, is I take I go home. I take my boots. I'd like, you know, clump them together really hard to get all the dirt and everything out of the soles and everything, and I let I usually i'll leave them, especially if it's been wet, I'll leave them for a day to let the let the soil and everything dry out. And then I will clean the treads, I will clean the leather, I will pull the tongues out, I'll pull the laces out if I have to. I get all of the dirt and the sand and the crap out of those boots, because it will upbraid the boots and wear them out premature And I can't speak for the rest of you all, but a two hundred and twenty two hundred and thirty dollars pair of solomons ain't something I'm willing to burn up prematurely just because I'm too lazy to clean them. So what I tend to do is first thing I do when I get back from a class, I lay out all my gear on a folding table, all of it, and it sits out. Obviously, take the magazines out, take the guns out of it. No, it lays out until it dries. Well, you know, if I'm not going to be home, I don't want to leave a gun just sitting loaded in a holester on my table in my basement when I'm not home. You live in Illinois, Fit's I'm surprised you to have just guns like lying on the side of the road out there. Well, we do, but those are usually attached to a body. Sorry, five or fifteen. No, you're you're You're not wrong, though. The number of people I know that have found a gun laying alongside the highway in Illinois is not a small number considering our laws. But you know, what do you do with a. Gun after it's created a body? People just chuck them, you know, I don't know, they just do. But I lay my gear out so it can dry out. I'm a big guy, sweaty guy. You're gonna get hot and sweaty wearing the armor. So what I like to do is I like to pull my plates out and pull the I've got the trauma pads behind the plates just for comfort, because those phone pads they actually make it quite a lot more comfortable. Pull all that stuff out so it can all dry out. And then I will take just usually like a broom and just scrub all of the dirt and mud and crap off of that stuff, just so you can get a good inspection in on everything. And what what are you inspecting? Stitching? First off, stitching number one. Look for anywhere that you're stitching could be coming loose. Look for any attachment points that could be wearing out. So like on rebels gear, it's a lot of velcrow, right. Belcrow does degrade over time with use. It does. My old plate carrier had cobra buckles on bungies. Those bunges would start to fray from where they were cut and heat sealed, and as they started to fray and move up close to that cobra buckle, at a certain point you had to replace those bungies. And then usually after that, I'm looking for anywhere that is aware point to see how the nylon's holding up bottom of your magazine pouches in the corners, especially on an ARMG or an AK mag that's the point that's going to start wearing out first. And if you don't care that there's a small hole in it, fine, nylon will technically rip stop, but it will eventually wear into a larger hole. And so if you can a couple of stitches in that to close that up before it does start really getting away from you, you can extend the lifespan of those mag pouches and a lot of your other kit. Yeah, and for me, it's always a good opportunity to like practice that craft because like I am eternally and repeatedly shocked at how small a percentage of the US population knows how to do things for themselves, like knows how to sew, knows how to fix it, knows how to diagnose mechanical problems, knows how to cook, for God's sakes, And I will be the first to admit, literally, anyone watching this you're stitching probably looks prettier than mine does. I'll give you that. I sew like a blind meth head. It's awful. It does the stitch hold, it usually holds. It's usually but ugly, but it works. But like I'll be the first to admit when I call somebody out for not knowing how to sew, I am telling you that I only know how to sew in the most technical amditional word. But it's a great skill to learn and to maintain and practice, And for me a lot of times it's it's it's learning how to mess with different materials. Like, Yeah, there's a huge difference between learning learning to sew a pillow case or something decorative and learning how to sew this freaking canvas that these chicon chest rigs are made of. Or the first time I ever tried to sew one inch nylon webbing Bubba, that stuff is freaking brutal, Like. Especially if you buy the good nylon webbing, the dense woven stuff. Yeah, at the crap they have at Walmart. Have you ever pushed the backside of a needle through the tip of your thumb? Yes? Yeah? Did? It is not enjoyable. Did that once? Learn my lesson? That's when I got the little the little thimble and then I sheared the back of a needle off like broke broke the eye. And yeah, yeah, you really need to buy quality either canvas needles for this stuff, or believe it or not, leather needles. That is what I wound up doing that eventually, like that did the trick was needles that are meant for leather working needles that specifically say they're for heavy duty use like heavy canvas. Heavy leather needles made for denim actually seem to do okay, but like the heavier duty the better, because this stuff doesn't play around. What do you use for thread for stitching up your your gear when it's when it's damaged? So I couldn't tell you that it's anything special. I have several spools of just you call it kind of camo colors, the black, black, od green brown. Frankly, if I have to use anything stronger than that, I used to go straight to like very very fine fishing line. A lot of what I use. And Jeff brings up a good point here, sail maker's needles fantastic for sewing heavy canvas. I use, believe it or not, four piles and spider wire stealth. I bet it works like you be resistant. It's you resistant. It's braided, it's a it's a some kind of synthetic polyester, so it lasts forever. Is it dacron by chance? I have no idea what it's made of. It's like a matt green color that almost disappears when it's in the water. Something to do with the with the way the light works. But it's a very abrasion resistant fishing line and it's really really fine. And I have like three or four partial spools from from loading up fishing fishing rods and reels, so I just use the leftovers of that of those spools to repair my gear. I keep a bunch of it in my in my kit bag, and heck, if I ever need fishing line for whatever kind of survival needs, it's there. It's fishing line. It's one less thing that I have to keep. In my bag. Yeah, And while we're on the while we're on the discussion, like the other things I think are really really good for you to stock in your tactical toolbag or your tactical tailoring toolbag is webbing. At least one inch webbing. Yeah, one inch webbing is pretty universal. It's not everything. You could argue that like other sizes are helpful. I have honestly never found enough of a reason to buy like more than the one roll of one inch webbing I have, and I use that for almost everything. Buckles doesn't matter, doesn't matter if they fit your gear. You have a male and a female, you can unstitch whatever's on the damn thing and put your own on there. Like that's how that works. So ITW makes pretty much all of the US military gear. Buckles, just about all of them. If you buy an ITW one inch buckle, an ITW two inch buckle, and ITW one inch and two inch I think they're called turnbuckles, the ones where you lash the stuff back through. Those will fit on pretty much any modern Western gear. And we'll interface with the buckle that's already on your pack. Yep, because those are the buckles that are already on your pack. And you can get ten or fifteen of my Amazon really really. Cheap yep, I have. I've just bought bullpacks of just male female buckles stuck together over the years because I use them for a lot of the stuff that I homebrew. It the like my battle belt. I use that old Alice pistol belt. But one of the things that started to irk my freaking nerves was that the the old blade tech holster that I use was made in a time when it wasn't really in vogue to have like a thigh strap. Sure, so the holster tends to like it depending on how you draw. If you don't draw this thing just right, the whole st yeah, the holster tends to gimble away from your leg instead of just drawing smooth thigh strap stops at not not the strap that goes around your knee, because the holster hangs halfway down your thigh. It's a mid ride hole, but just a strap to kind of like, you know, tuck the boys up a little bit and make sure the holster stays up against your thigh. One inch webbing and a male and female buckle being babe boom done. And it's the kind of thing that if you look at like certain parts of the internet, like somebody will happily sell you one for like twenty or twenty five bucks that does the exact same thing mine does. Mine's just the stitchings a lot uglier. Yep, and it costs me. You can see it. Yeah, and it costs me like that much. One inch webbing and a buckle. Who cares? You know. That's one thing I like to harvest off of gear when I'm getting rid of it, because some part of it is failing. I will snag the buckles and turn buckles, and sometimes the webbing. If the webbing is still good. Usually, if I'm trashing a piece of gear, like I'm probably going to. Just throw away my old Ari's Derma. Because the only thing still good on it is the three inch extra wide cobra buckles. That's the only thing on it that's not rotting apart. Yeah, so you might've got your money's worth out of that one. Oh dude, I ran that thing in hundreds of hours of classes, and that's not even coming close to including all the fucking around in the woods I did with people. Yeah, I'm trying to think, like, what what else goes in this bucket? I mean, I guess that should go without saying like think long and hard before you throw something out, because I've still got like mag shingles for ak mags and vary. I mean, I okay, I just got through going through all my crap and I actually parted with some of it. Like, don't ask me why I actually had an old Blackhawks Serpa holster. Don't even remember when I bought it. I get it, don't remember when I bought it. God knows how long it's been hiding out in the back of my my gun closet. At the time, it was a good option. Yeah, but I pitched that. I pitched a couple of things that I just legitimately do not need anymore. But like, you know, the truth matter is is like I'm very hesitant to throw a lot of this stuff away because a lot of it can just be repurchased. Like I've been telling people everywhere, everybody I talked to since I got into comms, I'm like, you know, an average ar mag shingle is like the perfect size. It's a little deep, but it's the perfect size for a for a Baio fang radio. If you get something, if you get an. Extended battery on it, it's exactly the right size. Or if you get a shingle for like a DMR, like for a three awake Hey caliber twenty round magazine, bio fang drops in his pockets perfectly, with plenty of space on the sides for your comm setup, your colm cables and everything. But it's that kind of thing though, It's like, I hate to throw that stuff out because I know it can be repurposed for something. I mean, at this point, I've got a whole spare plate carrier and probably enough crap lying around to build an entire other set for somebody. If I had to, you probably should. I mean, if you have it, why wait to put it together? How do I smooth talk missus matter of facts into taking pictures wearing body armor? There was mention of a beach trip earlier I have. It's gonna take a little more bribery than that. I think. The last time I smoothed talked her into trying on a plate carrier she made she made mention of the fact that it was obviously designed by men that had never seen boobs before. That is accurate, though they do make body armor that fits women better. Ragle's got a good question, Phil, how much of a pack rat are you guys, So why are you so a lot? Well, look, it's a fair question because we do say, you know, be mindful about what you about what you throw away. Yes, but what Phil and I have. Both said before, and Andrew has echoed this back in the day too, if if it gets to a point where it is interfering with your. Day to day life, it needs to go. Yeah, where it is making. A negative impact on your life. It needs to go. I threw I throw shit away. I go through phases where I will just start ripping into boxes that are in my basement, like, haven't touched this in ten years, pitch it out? It goes unless I know someone that does need that thing. Except for tools, I will never throw away tools unless they are wildly beyond repair. Yeah, I mean, I think for me it really comes down to, like, I don't consider myself a pack brad. I keep a lot of stuff like lying around, and I keep it filed away as much as possible. My wife is gonna buzz my ass if she happens to hear this right now, because she would call me a pack rat. And split second, but like, I'm very I would like to think I'm very good about not bringing more shit into the house unless I can genuinely think of a reason to bring it in, Like, you know, if I'm all for it, something I'm not just like, oh yeah, free stuff, I'll take It's like, no, no, no thanks, I don't need that. Yeah. And especially like you know, helping my in laws down size and having recently helped my sister and my brother in law pack, I have had a lot of crap offered me for free ninety nine if I just put it on my truck and take it home. And pretty much all I took home was like a couple of things, a couple of rolls of like garage like shot paper towels, an unopen juggle laundry tersion those exact same brand we use, But like why would you not You're gonna use it. Yeah, But like most of the stuff I was off, I was like, no, no thanks, Like we've got plenty, I don't need anymore. I don't need that. I'm very good about not bringing extra stuff into the house. I'm very hesitant about getting rid of stuff unless I can like go through my process and say, Okay, the original purpose for having brought this in doesn't exist anymore. So it's okay to get rid of it. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah. Jeff's got a good idea though, to get your wife in body armor pictures armored group photo for the camping trip. That definitely won't look weird at where we're going. Nick, you do know that I worked really hard to convince everybody's spouse is to come to the camping trip under the auspice that we weren't going to be weird. Right, body armor and cigars, buddy, that's gonna be called the climatization training. That'd be great if it's all boys, but I don't think we need a lot of our ladies to join in that. They're pretty much gonna sit in there lawn chairs and be like you bunch of nerds. Yeah, but they say that about us anyway. It'll have a different connotation this time. That's fine. I'm okay with it being that being the weird guy before we get well, we already kind of start talking at boots and clothing, but go for this was the other project. So this is what Stewart has lovingly called my man purse because he's an asshole. He's also not wrong. It looks like a purse. Okay, but this is actually an old surplus messenger bag. Literally this was made for like carrying maps and documents and stuff. But anyway, so this has been sitting around in my house for a long time. I think I originally bought this with the under the auspice of this being like the shoulder bag of carrying for like prepper camp, and it just never ended up againting pressed into that role. But it has a nice solid fiber backing, very spacious, and now it is also turned into the companion for when I'm taking a trip in the truck, and the scorpion is the truck gun, and I'd be carrying my concealed carry guns. So the idea here is that in this one pack that you can just throw over your shoulder and run nice and low profile and it doesn't look like a chest rig or anything. You got three scorpions, three thirty round scorpion bags, two pistol mags for my daily carry gun, and an entire fact worth of stuff just shove down in here. So I have right here basically the contents of what you would keep in a chest rig, and it just hangs. It hangs off my shoulder. It's quick to throw over my neck. I can grab what I need and run and it doesn't look like a chest rig or body armor, which is important if it's sitting on the. Backseat of my truck. That is very true, but there are a lot of benefits to having things discreete. But the reason I bring this up is because this isn't just a bunch of stuff thrown into a bag. This is how you make those that big mag shingle for those scorpion bags sit in here and not move around and act like a part of the bag. As you cut holes through the fiberboard the exact spacing of molly and snap this in place. And then you take your pistol magazine shingle and you stitch it into this pocket so that it will never come out and being bang boom afternoon, and work one broken needle because this was very thick canvas, some very creative profanity while I cut through while I cut through this fiberboard, which was surprisingly sturdy. Oh yeah, very But I was able, with a little bit of planning, to take two magazine shingles and integrate them in that bag in such a way that they're not going to easily come out. They're not going to come loose, they're not going to move around or shift, and they very secure. I mean, even the bungees are still holding those magazines in place, which is super important, by the way, because with the flap shut and button the scorpion mags actually can't pull high enough to get out of the magazine shinkle. But those two pistol magazines can one hundred and ten percent come out of those shingles if those bunges aren't in place. Yeah, I know, because I literally spent I had a day to myself when the girls weren't here to call me a weirdo, and I literally did nothing but run dry fire drills around the house with that bag to just to see like, what's gonna shake loose, what's gonna work? It's gonna work. Yeah. What I determined very quickly was this very thin, unpadded strap perfect for like a very quick engagement, not in all the kind of thing you're gonna want to wear all day. True, especially seeing how this bag fully loaded with all the mags. Now it's five and a half pounds. That's a lot. You're gonna notice that's sitting on your shoulder. That's a lot on a three quarter inch nylon strap. Mm hmm. But you know what you could do, Phil, You could always remove that strap and put like a two inch piece of webbing on it. Yes, raggle, it's a satchel. What does a satchel but a purse by a different name, buzz off. No, you're right, I mean I could. It's one of those like ever reward kind of things. Because for the intended purpose, Puhtich this way, I place much more of a poority on the comfort, the long term comfort of like my hiking pack, because when I throw it on my shoulder, it's going to be on my shoulder, it's going to be cross body for several miles, and I don't want to have to constantly like pull and tug at it, and I definitely don't want to have to carry it. This thing, in its intended use is literally I need to get out of my truck and do hood rat stuff for a few minutes, and I need extra magazines, and I need things in case I get hurt and then hopefully I'm going to get back in my truck and leave. That would be ideal. So long term comfort is not really baked into the pie because it's not really one of the mission requirements. That's fair, That's very fair. I mean you need to choose your gear based on what you are going to be doing, what you intend to do with it anyway, with a little leeway for margin of error. Yeah, I mean all that, That is all perfectly fair. It just comes down to, like, you know, if you can't purchase exactly what you need, and you have a little bit of smarts about you, you can usually make it, which is actually what I want. I don't know how much I want to get into it right now, because it's it could turn into a rabbit hole really quickly. But I have a new project to deal with, Like I didn't didn't already have enough lined up behind me. It occurs to me I normally keep about an IPAC worth of stuff in my work backpack. Sure, it occurs to me that in the event that I had to like quickly unask my desk, I don't want to have to drag the entire backpack worth of work crap. I really just want to be want to be able to grab my stuff, which is the medical stuff, an emergency ration and like a quantity of water. Sure, and I want to be able to grab that stuff and bolt. So I'm kind of in the mode of thinking right now about do I have a small pack or could I purchase a small that's about the right size to carry all that to fit inside the work bag so that if I have to, you know, pumping, pump and dump, I can literally just reach them a bag, grab that bag, pull, and then just jet. So what I use for my hiking bag for a medical bag is actually a little condor like four by six. It's not the size of my back Yeah, that opens completely up. I think it is their old eye Fact pouch. I don't know if they make that exact model anymore, and I think I've seen it on your hiking bag, and I would just leave that loose in my backpack in a specific spot the way I could just un zip, reach in, pull out, and there's my med stuff all in there. That might actually work. I actually have that exact same I Fact pack on the back of that old play carriers. That's my old hike that's my hiking pack. It's actually too big to fit into my work bag with all my other crap, but the little condor will probably be just about perfect. I've had a good idea for you, Phil, the velcrow on shoulder pads that wrap around like the main strap for your body armor sport. You could just throw one of those on that satchel. Yeah, I could. It'd be pretty easy. Yeah, if I cared enough. Yeah, if you cared enough, I mean, if it's if it's not a priority for you, it's not a priority. No, it does. It does exactly what it's supposed to good and it and it irks Stewart because I refuse to call it a man purse. Gotta get some fun at it. Oh, he has plenty of fune with me, trust mate. But yeah, that's really about all I can think of as far as like maintaining your gear. I mean, it's one part cleaning and one part fixing the stuff. And I really just think, like, at the end of the day, the one thing you kind of breezed over, even though we've talked about it more in the past, you talked about like how when you get your equipment sweaty, the first thing you have to do is like really dry it out, do not let moisture build up in it. That is boosts, that is clothing, that is field gear, that is everything that by the way is tense and sleeping bags. It's there's nothing harder to get out than mold once it gets in. And even before mold, literally no piece of fabric likes staying wet. Yeah, nine, very first that your very first priority at all times has got to be to keep your gear dry or dry it out to the degree possible. I mean, obviously, like if we're down here in Swampland and it's the wrong kind of season, you're gonna get wet and stay wet for days on end. But the first chance you get you have to dry and clean your gear off, you absolutely do so. Ragle has a good question for you, Can you maintain rain gear or is it done once it's punctured. It's gonna heavily depend on what rain gear. I will say, it depends on what you mean by maintain, because if you're if you're willing for it to look the tiniest little bit ghetto and not to be like a factory authorized fix, there's absolutely no There's absolutely a reason why I keep a whole roll of Gorillic brand duct tape in my camping gear. I have fixed that. I have fixed rain flies, I have fixed tarps. You can fix a raincoat or a poncho in a pinch. I'm not saying it's gonna hold forever, but I am saying that it will keep a ruin in your weekend. If you have a hole in the roof of your ten and you need to make it stop raining on you inside. Now I will say you can stitch gore tax rain gear. Yes you can. However you must thou shalt respray that with new DWR Durable Water Resistant coating. Yep, as soon as you're on stitching that, because all those little stitch holes that you poke through there are are going to be a path that water can then get back in if you reseal it with the DWR as you're supposed to, then yes, you can repair that. Vinyl raincoats you can patch. There are manufacturer made like hot and cold patches you can use for those that you can fix that frog dogs you cannot stitch. I do not know if they make patches that will stick to that, but I'd be willing to bet that one or another of those vinyl repair patches that they make, either for your inflatable sleeping pads or the old, the old heavy rubber raincoats probably work. Yeah, rubber sments patch you go a long way they do. I'll say this much is for and this you could get away with this on a really small hole. But this just comes in handy for all kinds of stuff you have. You and I talked about the single use super glue tubes. Don't use that on nyline, no, no, no, not on nylon, but on a variety of other things. The only trouble is super clue gets too brittle, it'll crack off. True, but shugu works very well for that sort of thing. For a somewhat more permanent repair. Yeah, That's why I said earlier. It really depends on how you define repair, because when I went when the way I approach a lot of this is is that like you're out in the field, you need something to get the thing fixed and get back in action, and you'll you'll do a proper repair on it when you get home. Yeah, which why I lean towards stuff like duct tape super glue patch. Yeah, because you can patch it and you can roll it and you can get back in action. But now they do those they do make those quick patches that are they're like a sticker and they've got the adhesive built onto them for backpackers and stuff for like your inflatable sleeping pen. That works pretty well on most as long as you're not on a point where it's gonna be constantly pulling on it and creating. Like a ripping action. Yeah. And I know we've talked in the past about like, especially if you're gonna be out for several days, a spare pair of boot laces. Can go a long way. But in a again, in a pinch in a field repair, unlace your boots, tie the two broken ends back together, and then lace them back. Up and go. Yeah, before I remembered to tell my wife that I was out of extra bootlaces, I had three different spots on one boot that the lace was tied together. They were getting real short. But again, if you're if you're in the field and you need this stupid thing to work for like another half a day to get you home, that's that's that's the way I approach things, because nine times out of ten, like if I get home, I'm going to make an assessment of whether or not the thing can be fixed or it just needs to get chucked and bought new. I mean, like it it's an interest balancing equation at the end of the day. Yeah, about how permanent is this How permanent is this fix going to be? How much does it cost to buy a brand new one? And then I know the next time I go out, I'm not gonna have to worry about this fix leaking or failure or giving me trouble. I have a brand new thing and I know it's going to work. That's the equation I go through. But in the moment to fix it and get back on the road, that's what I asked myself, is how do you fix it and just move on? It makes sense. But this is also why I always go back to those single use super glue tubes, because you'd be shocked the number of things you just I mean, even in an office setting. I've had to hand one those out to a coworker. I don't even remember what it was that broke. It might have been like. I think they did that thing. Where like their shoes started like talking to you because the soul delaminated. On the front of the back. Yeah, and just single use super gluetubes squirted in there and she put some weight on it for about thirty seconds. Then she was done. But those things are just they're too useful and they're too I mean, they're not cheap, but they're they're too affordable. And I actually keep a whole like six of them in a little old pill bottle in my work bag. Yeah, they're they're great. Actually keep in my hiking pack too, and they work, really, they work okay if you really should need a stitch, but getting a stitch isn't an option. So yeah, I use super glue a fair bit at work to glue small cuts shut because it's better than getting the coolant oil and chip steel chips in the wound. If you're say, out backpacking or whatever, and you happen to get a cut, that's bad enough that you should probably get stitches. Unless you can really be sure you've got that wound cleaned out, you probably shouldn't glue it shut. I mean, unless you're gonna bleed out. Because an infected wound is better better than bleeding to death, because we can fix infected wounds. It's awful hard to fix blood to death already. Yeah, just because you can create a pocket for infection and create an abscess inside that wound and make it worse. This is also the reason why. And if Tommy were here, he might cringe at this advice because this is probably very old advice. But what I had always been taught back in the day was basically, let the damn thing bleed for a little while the. Blood rushing a little bit. Yeah, the blood rushing out is going to carry most infection out and wash the wound out all by itself. Yeah. Yeah, that is true. And you can use most pottable water if it would be safe. For you to drink, you can usually use it to clean a wound. Yeah, but it may not be perfect. It's not sterile saline, but it beats having dirt or something else in there that will cause an infection. We started this, we started this conversation off by talking about supergoing your wound shut. So I don't think thet I don't think saline sterile saline is part of this equation. Yeah, I mean, well, I mean some people do keep uh disposable single use saline bottles in their first aid kits. Those same people will also carry liquid stitch. They do, unless you're you're a moron like me and you carry super glue. But it works. Yeah, hey, you know it it I have found that the little satchets of super glue last longer than the little vials of the medical nu skin and stuff. Like that in your backpack. For whatever reason, they don't seem to harden or go bad as fast. I'm sure it's all part of the medical industries plot to make you spend more money. Well, or it could just be that it's a different chemical composition. It's the medical industries plotting. Okay, nigs like whatever. Film, that's fine, that's fine. If you want to throw a conspiracy, that's cool. Don't threaten you with a good time, right right? I mean I like a nice conspiracy, all right, So is there anything else to toss in here? About boots or clothing? We started talking about this earlier because you know, the rabbit started running and we both just said squirrel and started chasing it. Do you use any permanent insect repellents in your clothes? Fil No, Have you ever tried it? Have not? I own stock in. Mostly off. I have applied pyrethrinth coding I think several pairs of clothes, and I have to say it seems to work. When I was deer hunting on the edge of a swamp, it worked great. I might have to give that a whirl. I was going to say, since we started talking about bug spray, just a dove bat dovetail very quickly back towards maintaining your stuff. Durable waterproof coatings do not like det Nope. So that's one of the reasons why I put pyreth on my base layers for hunting. Yeah, so let's see here. If you use like a deep woods off or anything like that and you spray it around your tents, your cortex, if you have cortex boots or anything with a durable waterproof coating, you're going to discover you're going to have a really really unfortunate experience very quickly afterwards. Yeah, the uh what is it? The the alcohol or the acetone it that they used to to keep the deep in uh in solution does all the dw R right off? Yep, Yeah, yep, seeing it done it. Everybody's heard that story. My wife still hasn't lived it down. But you also need to be careful about that's stuff for me. Thank you, Jeff. Isn't that what you said? I feel like it's what you said. I think I said. Pyriethrum, Oh, that's a different thing. Permethron is correct. Yes, it is. Probably shouldn't spread that on your clothes if that was not the chemical. Anyway, I mean, anybody that's ever hunted nosed that you should probably use like scentless detergent everything and clean your clothing and everything so you're not take bring that out into the woods. But don't know how much that matters. I don't know that it matters a ton. I would just say that, Like me personally, I've always made a point of like a mild a mild detergent, not a lot of extra crap and everything in it. Like literally just wash the clothes, and especially for things like especially for things like sleeping bags. It's like delicate cycle, cold water, hang dry. Sure, Yeah, that makes sense. You have some of the some of this stuff, I mean coming from the guy that used to just chuck a whole whole duffel bag full of crap into a laundering machine and hit the button and didn't give a damn big gout room for the best. Yeah, privates or privates for a reason. But like some of this stuff, especially once you get out of the StarPlus world and you get into like specialty camping hiking stuff, some of this stuff has very specific laundering instructions, and you would be it would behoove you to pay attention to them and make sure that in the process of cleaning your stuff you don't f it up royally. Yeah, I mean, that's that's part of any maintaining anything is knowing how is following what the manufacturer tells you to do for how to maintain it. They all come with that little instruction book like that everybody throws away without reading it most of the time, and that usually has your care instructions in there and pretty pretty good detail. Oh speaking, which I don't remember if I wore it to summer camp. I probably had it with me my old black Polar Tech fleece jacket. I don't remember if I had it in Michigan or not. It was pretty I remember you wearing a quite heavy jacket while we were up while we were up in Mackinaw City when it was blowing sideways. I don't remember if that's what I brought or not. But anyway, so I was issued that in two thousand and three while we were spooling up to go to Iraq. I just had to retire it a couple of months ago. That's a good jacket. Ten years. No, it's not bad. No, no, no, I'm sorry Nick. It's twenty twenty six. Now I'm old, twenty years old. Oh yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Uh finally uh one of the zip, one of the two zippers fell off, just kind of ran off the bottom of the track and disappeared. But yeah, had holes in the pockets. It was it was time to go. It was time to let it go. I just had my mom. Uh, she's a much better seamstress than me or my wife. I just had to put a new zipper on one of my one of my jackets because I like it so much. I went ahead and let this one go, just because like I replaced the zipper the p in twenty years. Yeah, the nylon's probably gone. This was a zipper that from the factory was never quite right. Yeah, but I replaced it with an olive drab version of it, because you know, the Army doesn't change anything, and they basically continue to issue some version of this thing all the way uptil current times. So is that that. Fleece that I see pretty much every guy that's ever served where that's a quality fleece, I know, exactly what you're talking about now. Oh hell yeah, it's quality. I think it lasted through twenty years of hell on Earth with me, It's been all over the world. But if finally it finally. Said, that'll be the that'll be the fleece that I see every kind of close to g WAT that wearing. My buddy. My buddy's got two of them. I'm I'm certain I know exactly what police are talking about. Yeah, check the tag on the inside, Betti, says polar Tech. I he is such a cheap ass. I guarantee you it's the one he was issued in basic. One of these days we're gonna have to do like a study of g WAT vets. I swear to god, there's got to be so much weird shit only us do and every one of us does it. I mean, you already called me out because it's like, okay, Phil, dude, you own a coffee company, you do a podcast, you have a beer, and you have tattoos. You're the gyat. I'm saying, man. You wrote a book, you promote coffee, you got yourself a podcast full sleeve, and then you're there. You know what, Just for that, I'm not getting a full sleep. Ever, just at a spite, that's fair. Oh, I really can't think of anything else throw in here, though, man, I mean I think I. Think that's good. Do we want to tease next week? Uh? We should? We should? So. I don't know whose idea this was. I'm gonna give it to Nick, though I think it was Nick's idea. I thought it was your idea. Well, if it turns out poorly, I'm definitely gonna blame it on you. Oh that's fine. I will accept the blame, and if it turns out good, I'm gonna steal the credit. Good. Yes, anyway, like a proper boss, exactly, like a proper politician. The ouch. Anyway, Nick and I are going to dream up a nickname for his wife unless we want to rename Unless we want to rename her missus matter of fact, and my wife would become missus the patron seem to call her mom. Yeah, she does kind of have mom vibes. Well she did momm incorrectly, mof mom. Could Anyway, we're gonna invite my wife and Nick's wife onto the show. And I think at some point we were talking about having a topic. But the more I think about it, I think we just I don't know, the four of us just sit down and bowl crap and see what comes out, talk about like do that? Well we you and I kind of start out like doing like I'm giving this in air quotes dad advice because I'm a dad, but not a dad who must be watching the show. But like you know, given just I don't know life advice, talking about relationships, talking about how the two of us met our spouses and what the hell possessed those two to tolerate us? For God's sakes, I mean, my wife. Works lack of decision making at a critical moment. Well, my wife works with special special needs children, so I'm just assuming she loves idiots. Mine also works with young children, so it makes sense. Didn't you and I have this conversation though about like we did? So you got you? Me, Eddie and Chris. All four of us are married to teachers. Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a type there. They're used to dealing with children and irrational behavior. Oh good God, But yeah, that's what we're gonna do next week. It's gonna the two man show is gonna turn into a foursome show. And Christ Almighty only knows what's gonna come out of that. It'll be fun, It'll be fun. We should get our wives texting each other because they'll figure something out, they'll organize it their planners. Hmm. I mean, I'm pretty sure our wives already have you probably do, But I don't know if they currently are texting each other. They might be, now that I've said it, but yet, Yes, Ragle, I am. I am also sensing a trend. Yeah, although Nick and I came to that conclusion when we started talking about our various hobbies and I'm like, oh, great, so two two nerdy guys I both grew up playing Mansion the Gathering tabletop RPGs who are borderline on the autism spectrum. Almost certainly. Yeah, probably. My wife starts told me she thought I was the other day a while back. Whatever, Well, I told her. It's a good excuse for me to make a writeable miniature train in the backyard. Yeah. We've been watching. Big Bang Theory a lot lately, and it's a great show. Yeah, it is a point. It's a great it's a great show. But every now and then Sheldon'll do or say something, I'll be like, shit, the have you ever watched all right, you need to go. There's a YouTube channel that did Big Bang Theory, but without the laugh track. It's weird. Well, Rachel, I think what it says about the husbands is that we had the good sense to marry women who were used to dealing with children. Yes, yes, kinder, smarter people than us, and y'all get the best of both worlds. Y'all get fully grown adults capable of making money who are young at heart. Yes, that's a nice way of saying, you know, young at heart acts like a child. Sometimes young at heart old in the joints. Oh, that's the best of both word, that's the worst of both worlds. It is. It's like my brain says I'm twelve, my body says you're eighty. It's not my fault. They didn't come with grease arts. I would have used them, all right. But yeah, Rachel, you and my wife can talk. And whether or not we have a topic or it just winds up being a melee between spouses, god only knows. But that'll be fun either way. It will be fun either way. But that's matter of facts for the night. It's almost nine o'clock. It's actually not my bedtime yet. But I'm very old, and I climbed upstairs, and I'm frankly tired, and I've got at least three hours tomorrow of climbing stairs again. Well, you know what, Phil, you did want to work on your fitness. I knew you were going to say that and take this. Hey, dude, today was a cardio day. I didn't want to do it either, but I did. Nick. You know, I love you to death, right, but sometimes it's a really good thing that I can't strangle you through this computer screen. I know, right, And I'm really quick over short distances too. I'm telling you, though, if I ever get Rachel on my side, you're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, that'll be a problem. It's like there's only two people I really can't say no to. Yeah, well her and my grandma. Grandma. No, I can't say no to grandma. M M all right, matter of facts. Going out the door, anight, everybody, Thanks you all for hanging out with us. I saw doctor scary guy in here for a little bit. You're on my list to try to get back in touch with He actually reached out to me through Facebook and because Meta's notifications are freaking stupid. He reached out to me a week ago and I got it today. So it took me a minute to figure out that this person was doctor Scary Guy because different logging names in different places. But anyway, I gotta connect it and see if he wants to join the the Masochism in the Signal group. It's fun and informative and no raggle. I sure haven't. I'll talk to you offline. I've been. There's been personal things, not like world chattering, just personal things horning in all my time life and family. Shit gets complicated sometimes, no frickin' shit. All right, going out the door, good night, talked to you'a another week and we'll bring the spouses with us to keep us in line. Bye everybody, Night, Inger, Inger,