EDC Contest Entry #5 J in Dallas

 Hey Folks, I am pleased to bring the first entry for our EDC Contest. First we will quickly recap what is going on. The broad strokes are this. I want to share and discuss the stuff we carry around every day AKA EDC. Taking pictures of our stuff and talking about it is my goal.

The prizes will be as follows:
1st Place: 3 Sport Berkey Water Bottles donated by LPC Survival ($69 value)
2nd Place: 1 Blackhawk Holster donated by LuckyGunner.com ($50 value)
3rd Place:  1 Snare-Vival-Trap cough garote cough donated by Camping Survival ($17 value)

Wildcard: This one goes to whoever I want to give it to for whatever reason I feel like. It will be a grab bag donated by yours truly. The exact makeup is TBD depending on what I have lying around  and may include books, gear, medical stuff or even a couple silver dimes. ($30+  value)

Check out the details and my example post here. 

 Onto Entry #5

Hey Ryan,

Here is my EDC load out entry.

·         GEN 4 GLOCK 26 9mm

·         SPARE G26 10-ROUND MAG

·         BLACKHAWK BE WHARNED FOLDER

·         STREAMLIGHT MICROSTREAM FLASHLIGHT

·         SAMSUNG GALAXY III

·         DPD BADGE AND CREDENTIALS

·         BURTS BEESWAX

·         BIANCHI 100 & DESANTIS CARGO NEMESIS HOLSTERS  

-J FROM DALLAS

Ryan here: First of all I would like to thank J for his entry. It takes some guts to put yourself out there in front of others and some motivation to put an entry together. [Remember that before flaming anybody, lets keep the dialog constructive.] I will share my thoughts on this entry down the road.

As always everybody is welcome to leave their thoughts in the comments section.

Also check out previous entries: EDC Contest entry #1 by Jacob and EDC Contest entry #2 by Max and EDC Contest entry #3 Mike in Wisconsin and EDC Contest entry #4 Thomas.

Red Dawn 2012 and Random Thoughts Theiron

I saw the new Red Dawn this weekend and had some random thoughts that didn't quite fit into the review format. In no particular order:

1) However unlikely a Chinese North Korean invasion might be getting out of town before travel was restricted would be a matter of a minutes not hours. Grabbing your family (if they are home), some bug out bags, weapons and go boxes then getting on the road would be about the best case you could hope for. There is no way you could load up a dozen guns, 20 ammo cans full of 9mm, .38 special , .223, .308, a years supply of food, boxes of camping gear and clothes even if that stuff was organized and ready to go, let alone if it is strewn all over the place. This is a compelling reason for people worried about the Chinese North Koreans invading or who for whatever other reason have a concern that is best suited to bugging out (lets not argue this point here) should probably have a large percentage of their stuff already at that location.

2) For me personally it was a harsh reminder to always wear functional clothes outside of the home. Footwear more specifically wearing sturdy serviceable shoes instead of beach wear on my feet when away from home is the right answer. I just plain need to suck it up and do better.

3) This was a reminder to think about the stuff I carry around every day. In general I am pretty happy with my current plan. I always have a knife and a lighter and have a pistol, reload and light whenever possible. The light could be addressed as my LED Lenser just sucks batteries without even really being used. They are going dead after 5-7 days and if the light is used for more than 10 minutes over that time it would surprise me. I think there has to be some sort of a draw keeping the juice flowing. Probably going to replace it with a Streamlight or Surefire whenever my crazy (my 'crazy fund' not talking about our overall finances) fund builds back up a bit. My EDC bag also has a bunch of goodies and it is either on my back, sitting next to me or in the car.

4) Going along with #1 having a plan with family and close friends is important. If I think we are meeting at the cabin and they think we are going to deer camp there could be a problem.

Well those are my thoughts on that.