A) Range Poll
B) 9mm
C) Machete
D) Shovel
E) Your wit
I did swat a mad hornet with the skinny end of a Schonstedt once. It was a lucky shot. He scared me. I dropped back and swung what was in my hand. The other guy on the crew said he heard it hit the side of a house about 75' away.
It was truly a home run. I felt like Babe Ruth the rest of the day.
I've also seen a scared-to-death rodman make sushi out of a snake with a machete...screamin' like a little girl the whole time while doing the "snake dance".
> A) Range Poll
> B) 9mm
> C) Machete
> D) Shovel
> E) Your wit
A. Yes, I've used it before on a dog and rally of hogs (although the hogs pretty well rendered it useless.
B. While I have a 9mm, I either have the .380 for "in town" work and the .40 or .45 for "out of town" work, but yes, it's there.
C. Yes, I cut a pit bull one time and several hogs that ran over us in the Sabine River bottom. Also, a large machete on "in town" jobs in questionable neighborhoods is always a great deterrent. I had a client ask me if my machete was for "crowd control". I answered, not really, then I produced the Kimber .45 I had hid and indicated that was it's intended use.
D. I can't ever recall using a Shovel as a protection item. I think I killed a snake with one once, but who knows.
E. All of the above are useless without wit and situational awareness, so I'll have to say that yes, I do try to remember to bring it along with me. It tends to kick in the "spidey sense" when things get really quiet, either in the woods or town.
You forgot a few. I was once run up on a X-Tie fence corner by a large Charolais bull. A 3# sledge hammer to the nose brought that big SOB to his knees and allowed my escape before he got his wits back to him. Also, a jersey cow that wan't polled kept throwing it's head at me. I took a 1"x1" lath and broke it across it's nose and also brought it to it's knees. It found another place to be. Switch cane (bamboo) is great in the woods for weapons on coiled water moccasins as it allows me to get beyond the "strike zone" and skewer that SOB up really nicely. Radio. As I'm on the fire department in my town, my personal radio has the sheriffs office and police programmed into it. I leave it on "scan" while working in downtown areas. It picks up local chatter and people think you're a cop.
Machete in the left hand
32 ounce waffle head framing hammer in my right
gets me in and out of most anything
I'm just glad that..
chihuahuas don't weigh anymore than a pound or two. Fiercest animal God ever
created. I've slipped over a fence only to be mauled (from the jean's cuff down) by many of the little critters. It's life or death for them..they don't care.
If they were any bigger they'd be outlawed.
Paden
I've always said that if those dogs had a body to match their attitude, they would be hell on earth. 🙂
> A) Range Poll
> B) 9mm
> C) Machete
> D) Shovel
> E) Your wit
F) Level Rod
Once while cross sectioning a silted up pond in a posh neighborhood, my rod man had a close encounter with the resident black swans. They wanted no part of him in their pond, and started charging him with necks down and wings a flapping. My I man & we were just cracking up on shore, all the while his feet were stuck in the mud (about 10 ft off shore) as he was flailing away at the swans with the rod. The flailing made him even more stuck.
Then it dawned on me that those imported Austrailian Black Swans likely cost more than our combined salaries, and one whack would be bad news for all of us - so I charged at them waving my arms & yelling as they retreated and he could get then out of the mud. But we all had a good laugh at that one
I did use my rod one day to get a giant king snake out the way. Actually, he was just sunning himself in the road but school had just let out and traffic was picking up so I thought I'd do him a favor by getting him out the road. He did NOT like that idea at all and struck at the rod with full force. I had no idea he could hit that hard. At least he got off the road. Then the PC, watching the action throuhg the gun, hollers at me on radio saying "when you two are done playing, there should be a pin just off the road". So I ease over to where he said it should be and right there is was in plain sight.... along with my new friend all curled right by it. So there we go again. Man was he pissed this time. The PC was watching us again and I could him laughing from a couple hundred yards away.
There have been two neighborhoods near the GA Dome where I wish I had been packing some more than a machete. I told Taso I wasn't going back unless he'd let me pack. He thought I was over-reacting and asked PC Chris about it. He backed me up all the way. A few months later, Taso had to go back there solo and finally understood what we were talking about. That would be in Vine City area due west of the dome for those familiar with the area.
> A) Range Poll
> B) 9mm
> C) Machete
> D) Shovel
> E) Your wit
(E) seems to work best for me working on the white stripe in 35 MPH traffic.
Chihuahuas
> I've always said that if those dogs had a body to match their attitude, they would be hell on earth. 🙂
Absolutely. lol I bought my daughter one last year. It gets offended even when I hug my daughter. If it was any bigger, I believe I might be scared of it.
I'm just glad that..
Absolutely. Two of my bites came from Chihuahuas. They watched quietly while I passed by then came around and bit my heel. Nasty little things.
Some of the friendliest dogs I've met were pit bulls. Go figure.
Uppercut a German Sheppard with a 200' steel tape, back in the early 90's.
Doing a small lot survey with an existing home, and a GS in the house. She could see us through the glass sliding door and was not happy we were there.
We were measuring across the back fence when I thought I heard the gate shut, which I knew I had left open.
Then I heard the back door open and close.
I let out a yell hoping to alert the homeowner we were in the yard, but all that did was alert the dog to my location.
I quickly tried to take the aggressive stance, with a loud growl/yell, but, well, that just pissed her off more, and, if anything, just made her run faster towards me.
She had her front paws off the ground, jumping towards my upper body, when I took the swing and hit her in the face, with enough force to stop her forward progression, and send her into retreat.
The homeowner's brain kicked in, and the lady realized they had come home to find a work truck in front of their house, their gate wide open, and heard a yell when they let their dog out.
The lady homeowner saw the whole thing go down, and said she was sorry. I said I was sorry I had to hit her dog, and never heard any more about it.
As for the pistol, well several snakes have found their end facing rat shot in a .38 revolver, 50 year old plus, police style .38 S&W.
Speed clips let me change from rat shot to hollow points in seconds and under 10 feet it is deadly. I can't see me needing anything more then that while working.
I know exactly where you're talking about. We were doing a lot survey in that area about 10 years ago, around 4:00 in the afternoon, heard automatic gunfire just around the corner. I was glad to get out of there. We also had an instrument stole from that area around the same time period. We were surveying a vacant lot, no trees or anything, just a large pile of dirt in the middle of the lot about 8-10 feet high. We walked back behind the dirt pile to find the only corner that was off the road (this was a corner lot, about 75' X 150'). Out of sight maybe 3-4 minutes. That was all it took.
Bush axe
F) all of the above.
Now that we have discussed personal protection while in the office,
how about personal protection while in the field?
I'm just glad that..
> Absolutely. Two of my bites came from Chihuahuas. They watched quietly while I passed by then came around and bit my heel. Nasty little things.
>
> Some of the friendliest dogs I've met were pit bulls. Go figure.
Agreed Bruce, I love pit bull puppies and also I have known a few for 10+ years that are really awesome. I feel for their situation in this world, they don't fit in too well and often get a raw deal. That being said, unlike a chihuahua a pit can and would kill a human under the right circumstances and that is why I won't ever own one myself.
I'm just glad that..
> Absolutely. Two of my bites came from Chihuahuas. They watched quietly while I passed by then came around and bit my heel. Nasty little things.
>
> Some of the friendliest dogs I've met were pit bulls. Go figure.
A bit off topic of the thread, but I couldn't agree more. They are just doing their job, just as we want to, and once they realize you are not a threat they just watch and go about their business. But....I'm not fond of Chows or Dobermans. Stupid cross bred idiots IMHO with a very short memory and attention span.
As they say - there are no bad dogs, just bad dog owners. Just like guns don't kill people.... (off topic)
> Bush axe
Because an "Obama" axe just won't get the job done!! 😀
:good: