Comforting.

[Scout24]

I've been travelling in a southern state with a reciprocal CCW policy for the last week. Brought my Airweight 642 and my .22 Magnum Mini. The airweight has been mainly the "house gun" while here, and the Mini hasn't left my pocket yet. Cargo shorts and a good pocket holster make it disappear, and after appendix carrying the Airweight once, I've decided I need to drop 20 pounds before trying that again.

[grayelky]

If you like your 642, check out the 351 (22 mag 7 shot, 11 OZ). Much easier to carry, no recoil to mention. Still, it does not beat the Mini family for carry!

[Scout24]

Grayelky- i looked long and hard at the 351 before  buying my 642. May end up with one someday.    I like that it's lighter than the 642 with the same manual of arms.

[grayelky]

I have a video showing it only has about 1" of muzzle rise. You could star at center mass, fire 4 rounds without trying to recover from recoil, and still be in upper portion of center mass. That is one of the things I love about it. If you factor in recovery time, you could fire 3, maybe 4 rounds of 22 mag in the same amount of time it takes to double tap with .38 +P. I think it is great for lesser trained people or those who are otherwise fearful of recoil. I bought it for my wife. She has never gotten around to shooting it, so it now lives on my ankle.

[redhawk4]

It's nice when you travel to a state where you can take your carry gun(s) with you. I recently flew to Florida and reluctantly had to admit that trying to get a gun there wasn't practical. Fortunately, the area we were in felt very safe and appeared free of many of the undesirable types that I so often see, even in my own neighborhood casing the area during the day.

However, I was in Walmart when we first arrived and they were selling off these Bowie knives for $9, so I bought one for the night stand.  I was a little concerned about it not being the Magnum version and therefore if it would provide adequate penetration, but any knife is better than no knife and I could get quick follow ups with no muzzle flip 

[David Culp]

Looks like a pretty decent $9 knife

[redhawk4]

I have a video showing it only has about 1" of muzzle rise. You could star at center mass, fire 4 rounds without trying to recover from recoil, and still be in upper portion of center mass. That is one of the things I love about it. If you factor in recovery time, you could fire 3, maybe 4 rounds of 22 mag in the same amount of time it takes to double tap with .38 +P. I think it is great for lesser trained people or those who are otherwise fearful of recoil. I bought it for my wife. She has never gotten around to shooting it, so it now lives on my ankle.

I made a comment in a similar vein when there was a caliber discussion in another thread, at close range with little time to fire a small caliber gun could have advantages over a much larger one in terms of how many shots you can get off on target in the available time. I can fire 9 rounds of 25 acp very quickly from my Beretta 950, all on target, and considerably quicker that I can from any other handgun I own, but I'd still rather have 380 or 9mm, but there's definitely a tipping point depending on your ability to handle recoil, where bigger isn't always going to be better, IMO.

[redhawk4]

Looks like a pretty decent $9 knife

It seriously isn't too bad, it's an Ozark trail brand and while it won't win any prizes at a knife show, it's solidly made and I'm sure would be as effective as any similar sized knife for the purpose I purchased it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now I'm home, but it looks quite good sitting next to a lever action or Coach gun. I did manage to control the urge to buy more than one, they looked such a deal, I thought about it The thing even comes with a long storage  can/tin, like one you'd get Christmas cookies in. I wondered if the airport X ray stuff could even see what was inside, the irony was that my wifes case was searched inside, probably because of the water bottle she filled with white sand to bring home, I told her they'd think it was cocaine

[Gog]

However, I was in Walmart when we first arrived and they were selling off these Bowie knives for $9, so I bought one for the night stand.  I was a little concerned about it not being the Magnum version and therefore if it would provide adequate penetration, but any knife is better than no knife and I could get quick follow ups with no muzzle flip 

Dammit. I just spit water all over my screen!!
Nicely done.

[redhawk4]

However, I was in Walmart when we first arrived and they were selling off these Bowie knives for $9, so I bought one for the night stand.  I was a little concerned about it not being the Magnum version and therefore if it would provide adequate penetration, but any knife is better than no knife and I could get quick follow ups with no muzzle flip 

Dammit. I just spit water all over my screen!!
Nicely done.

I guess I owe you a drink then

[zburkett]

I asked a friend recently back from Nam what he thought the best knife was.  I'll never forget his answer, "If you are just going to use it to stab someone, one piece of sharpened steel works about as well as any other.  It is the other uses that you select a knife for."

[cbl51]

I asked a friend recently back from Nam what he thought the best knife was.  I'll never forget his answer, "If you are just going to use it to stab someone, one piece of sharpened steel works about as well as any other.  It is the other uses that you select a knife for."

This plus about a zillion!

I spent some time on a few knife sites, and like most obsessed with cult worship objects, they loose all perspective. They think they 'need' the super steel of the month on the knife magazine tactical knife of the month to just go down and get a quart of milk at the store. Meanwhile some guys in prison shank other guys in prison with a pice of license plate metal sharpened up on the cement floor of their cell. A good sharp paring knife with a milk jug plastic sheath wrapped in duct tape will kill someone just fine. No crying when you toss it.

Guns are a little more intricate, and need some technical finesse to pull off. A Raven .25 or Davis .380 will do just fine. As will a mini.

[redhawk4]

I'm confident my $9 Bowie Knife will get the job done, should the worst ever happen, despite everyone telling me I should have bought the $45 one, or that the $22 one would be easier to conceal. As with guns, there's a lot of bias against the 9

Barring a knife being so flimsy it breaks, I really can't see any benefits one could have over another for SD. I also think mine has a big intimidation factor too for $9, I don't think many people would want to see if it would really hurt less than the $45 one, even though some claim the $9 one will just make an attacker more angry I'm glad I didn't get the $25 one, I've heard that won't even scratch the skin and that a sheet of paper is more lethal

[cbl51]

I'm confident my $9 Bowie Knife will get the job done, should the worst ever happen, despite everyone telling me I should have bought the $45 one, or that the $22 one would be easier to conceal. As with guns, there's a lot of bias against the 9

Barring a knife being so flimsy it breaks, I really can't see any benefits one could have over another for SD. I also think mine has a big intimidation factor too for $9, I don't think many people would want to see if it would really hurt less than the $45 one, even though some claim the $9 one will just make an attacker more angry I'm glad I didn't get the $25 one, I've heard that won't even scratch the skin and that a sheet of paper is more lethal

Don't quote me, but I've heard the 9 dollar one is little better than a sharp stick!


As for the 25 dollar one, if you stab someone with it and they find out about it, they may be very angry at you! Be veeeery  careful!

[redhawk4]

What are your thoughts on the $22 one, short, long, or magnum?   

I forgot to mention they also had a Special on the $38 one

To get back on topic all can be carried in your suitcase when you travel.

[zburkett]

I wrote about knives for several decades and learned a little about them.  The most interesting fact is that with all the modern steels and all the great modern designs, it is not possible to buy a knife that cuts better than a knife a fifteenth century Samurai could have bought.  The only actual improvement has been in corrosion resistance.

[redhawk4]

I wrote about knives for several decades and learned a little about them.  The most interesting fact is that with all the modern steels and all the great modern designs, it is not possible to buy a knife that cuts better than a knife a fifteenth century Samurai could have bought.  The only actual improvement has been in corrosion resistance.

I know when stainless knives first started to appear you couldn't get a decent edge on them. My mother insisted to the day she died that the old plain steel carving knife that had belonged to her Grandfather and come down through the generations and was seriously worn down from all the sharpening, was the only knife worth anything. In fact when I first got married we got some knives that were not stainless as a present, we didn't like them because they corroded, my mother thought they were wonderful, stainless knives had improved by that stage so we were happy with the replacements.

I watched a documentary about how they made the Samurai blades and why they cut so well because of the way the edge is hardened.  It makes them like a serrated edge on a microscopic scale. I'm sure that could be replicated, or perhaps improved on in the modern day, but it would be too "hands on" and require too much skill for it to fit today's world of mass production.

For stabbing though I don't think the "victim" could tell the difference between, stainless, good old fashioned steel or that used by the Samurai's.

[Canoeal]

I'm confident my $9 Bowie Knife will get the job done, should the worst ever happen, despite everyone telling me I should have bought the $45 one, or that the $22 one would be easier to conceal. As with guns, there's a lot of bias against the 9

Barring a knife being so flimsy it breaks, I really can't see any benefits one could have over another for SD. I also think mine has a big intimidation factor too for $9, I don't think many people would want to see if it would really hurt less than the $45 one, even though some claim the $9 one will just make an attacker more angry I'm glad I didn't get the $25 one, I've heard that won't even scratch the skin and that a sheet of paper is more lethal

ROFL!

[redhawk4]

ROFL!

Just a little satire on the never ending caliber debate

[redhawk4]

As for the 25 dollar one, if you stab someone with it and they find out about it, they may be very angry at you! Be veeeery  careful!

That's why I like the $9 one, unlike the $25 one, it's cheap enough that you wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of having to ask if you can have your knife back as your attacker walks away with it sticking in them "Please Sir, can I have my knife back?"

[glenn]

And for $9 .. you could be carrying a "New York Reload" .. & not had to ask for the first one back !



.

[redhawk4]

Even if they still have them on sale in Florida, with the flight it's not going to be cheap - I should have listened to the small voice telling me to buy all three as they were such a bargain - I didn't think about a New York reload

Also if the Police come looking for me, because they've heard I own a knife like that, I'd be able to say, well here it is, so that one can't be mine

[Canoeal]

Magnum or short?

[redhawk4]

Magnum or short?

is the $64,000 question . . . mmmm

[zburkett]

In one way a knife is like a gun.  The one with you is always better than the one left at home.

[redhawk4]

In one way a knife is like a gun.  The one with you is always better than the one left at home.

It's good to always have any knife on you, if only, so when you buy a better new one, you will be able to get that one out of the packaging

Seriously, if I hadn't taken a pocket knife with me, I don't know how I would ever have got my $9 Bowie out of it's packaging.

[redhawk4]

In another long ago life (1076-77), I packaged plumbing parts in the blister packs. Keystone Packaging Ft. Washington, PA. You think it is hard to open, try handling 4x4 sheets of that stuff. Hated that it was a union job.

Often the bubble packaging material is sharper than the knife inside.

[RogueTS1]

1076? I did not think you were that old Canoeal. 

[redhawk4]

1076? I did not think you were that old Canoeal. 

Just after the Battle of Hastings in 1066

[LHB]

That thing of the one with you being of more use than the one at home.  In the basement I have an 8 inch Randall # 1 fighting knife that I ordered from Bo the last time the Marines were going to send me to Nam in 68, and an issue Camilus K-Bar.  I was discharged before the Randall was made and shipped to me.  That Randall is pretty, and nice to look at, but I have never carried it.  Now when I see what they sell for, I'm scared I would loose it, but it and the K-Bar, which has been carried and used, are just too big.  The smaller Buck's get taken deer hunting, and the old Case medium Stockman is always in my pocket

[WECSOG]

Here's a knife I like pretty well. It was thrown in as boot on a gun trade.