Getting Old Sux

[Old Dude]

Age equals wisdom--not always!

Cslinger, I have noticed that age and wisdom are not the same thing. I know quite a few older folks who make me wonder what they've been doing their whole lives. All age does is make you fall apart. It's up to you whether you have wisdom or not!

There are a lot of folks half my age or less who forget more about guns in an afternoon than I will every know.

 

[A45acp1911]

Light sport coat or shirt over a Miami Classis or other shoulder holster. It's a comfortable way to carry a full size 1911 and two extra magazines.


Good luck,
PJH

 

[citizen]

Call me reckless or whatever, but I still like SOB....

 

[Kentucky Rifle]

Gunmeister--welcome to THR

I went to my ENT doctor last week to see if something could be done about this tinnitus. After he (once again) told me "NO", I asked him a question. Me: "Doc, we're about the same age. Do your joints & stuff hurt when you get up in the morning"? Him: "Yeah--it sucks, doesn't it"? Then we laughed a little. Then we went shooting. What are you gonna do? Getting old hurts...that's all there is to it. I've (mostly) stopped carrying my .40 caliber Glock 27 in favor of a Kahr PM9. It's lighter, thinner, and fairly easy to carry without making my hip hurt.
Good luck.

KR

 

[Gunmeister]

Hi KENTUCKY, I too have tinnitus as a result of not having any ear protection available years ago. Standing next to the barrel old Dad's 12 Gauge when it went off while Turkey or Deer hunting brought it on. A lifetime of shooting sports finished it off. My Doc says there's no cure for it, my ears ring loudly 24/7. I'm hearing it right now, loud and clear.

 

[sm]

Gunmeister

Old Dude

Welcome To THR!


More CWG's ( curmudgeon's with guns)

Well I'm almost 49 , so I share many values and ideals you fellows do. Got a fella about 14 years senoir to me, going through the same deal with back, knees, and circulation.

I reminded him he has outlived one doctor and he thought it was gonna be tough to "train" a new one. I introduced him to a doctor whom is a shooter. Years ago I set him up with a Eye Doc that is a shooter. Docs that shoot are better at helping shooters IMO.

So the Doc told him / concurred with my idea. Galco Bellyband, and carry that LT Wt Commander. He does. He can also use it for the J Frame ( model 36) for those other times. He likes the fact he can see this new doctor, and it is no biggie if when he removes his shirt, the doc has a safe place to lock his gun when running tests. Lots of the docs/nurses carry guns in the clinic.

...mopars...we got bored always blowing their doors off, they got tired of eating our dust...some stuff ain't changed...

 

[bubbygator]

Hello, Gunmeister, I'm also a retiree in Sarasota. You should have been at the Bradenton Gun Show yesterday - I traded my S&W 637 (15 oz) with Crimson Trace grips for a Colt Compact, but would have preferred to work a trade for your Kahr. My carry gun is a S&W 442 (15 oz) that goes easily in my front pocket. I find pocket carry to be much easier than IWB if the gun is light enough.

I also recommend trying the SmartCarry. It has elastic in it's strap, but the key thing is that the weight is carried directly on the hips, not around the stomach. I would bet you could carry your Kahr in a SmartCarry without medical problem. Of course, some people don't like SmartCarry for a variety of reasons - I like it fine.

Shoot em up safely.... (at the Take Aim range & Knights Trail range).

 

[happyguy]

May I suggest that you upgrade from the Keltec P32 to the 3AT, or P11, or a Kahr P9?

Regards,
Happyguy

 

[RUT]

Glad to see there's some other old faahts here 'sides me!! I wuz beginning to think they were all 21!!

 

[MrChicken]

How about a "guayabera"? A loose fitting one should easily cover a gun in a slide or good owb.

I'm thinking that a PM9 in a good holster with offset loops to spread the load, like a MS VM2.

How about wearing suspenders under a shirt to ease the load on the belt?
An "an old REDNECK fart" shouldnt have any issues with suspenders on his bare chest.

 

[antediluvianist]

it ain't all bad

I'm 58 and one of the good things about getting old is that .......ah.....I forgot.

Seriously, consider a Glock. They're fairly light.

 

[LynnKCircle]

Old Age Sux

Well, I'm eight years behind you, so I guess that means I'm still in the "young punk" category, right?

However, whenever I bwitch to myself about growing older, the one thought which keeps coming back to me is, "It sure beats the only alternative!"

 

[Battlespace]

My FIL is 90 and finally has gotten too frail to pull the slide back on his M1911A1 he kept by the bed at night. He does have a Winchester autoloader 12 ga that requires a whole lot less effort. Concealed is not an issue for him as he no longer drives so any trips are with his daughter (my wife), who also carries or with me.

 

[Kentucky Rifle]

Gunmeister..

Yeah~I'm hearing mine right now too. Sounds kinda like a jet engine running today. Other times, it sounds like a loud "squeeeeek".
Man, I'm gonna be one disappointed dude if this PM9 doesn't hold up as well as my Glock. It's SO thin and light, I'm loving it more every time I shoot. Which, by the way, is NOT all that much. My wife has us on the list for a VERY neat gun club. Key club, pic-nic area, fishing lake, bow range. Sometimes I think if we ever got to actually join, I'd be there every day. However, the charter says "200 members", and we're WAY down on THAT list .
Kahr makes a nice pistol. When my gun shop owner whispered (as he watched me drool ), "Hey Will? If you want that PM9, I'll sell it to you for my cost provided you don't tell anybody". I got my pen & checkbook out so fast that I dropped them on the floor. He laughed.
I laughed. ~But for a different reason though. Because I knew that in about 15 minutes...I'd be walking out with a new PM9 under my arm. I actually purchased an MK9 first, but it's been relegated to a "hideout spot" in my house. It probably weighs nearly twice as much as the PM9.

KR

 

[silent one]

Gunmeister,
Welcome aboard. You're gonna find a lot of info, as well as a lot of very good people on THR.
I carry a Colt mustang series 80 in a Milt Sparks belt loop open holster with no problem. I also carry a spare mag in a Safariland metal clip on holder. I think what helps me is the belt width. Mine is a 2'' wide one. this helps in keeping the pistol from sagging, and I don't feel it at all. Also I don't have to cinch it up tight to hold the pistol in place. You might want to give it a try.
I even carry a full size Springfield.45 that way once in awhile. Believe me it's all in the belt.
BTW I'll be 60 on friday, and I have pain like the rest of us in our age group. I just keep on truckin, and I refuse to give into it. I guess it's the die hard Marine in me.
Once again, welcome aboard.
good luck, and be safe.


SILENT ONE

 

[gulogulo1970]

Welcome!

I would buy the polymer Kahr. I have heard nothing but good things from people at the range shooting them.

Maybe, if you like ugly, buy the sub compact Glock 26 9mm. Its a little thicker, but it works. It just looks like it should be in the bottom of a tool box.

 

[Gordon]

12 years your junior BUT I'm smart enough to have a Colt Cobra (15oz-6 shots) in a Chick Gaylord speed scabard for when I get REAL OLD.!! A little smith model 37 with some good .38splload(and IMHO 148grain wadcutter full charge loads are a "good .38 Snub load) carries light enough to not drag you down. .38specials are friggin deadly I don't care what ANYBODY says CONTRARY.

 

[High Sierra]

At 50 years now Ive decided that Im finished with IWB carry and all the hassle (for me) that goes with it, so now I carry a Kahr P9 covert in my pocket.Its so easy to carry and I feel well armed with 6+1 corbon powerballs.

 

[Gunmeister]

I sincerely appreciate everyone's comments and a lot of good advice.
There is one thing that puzzles me tho, MR CHICKEN, whats a guayabera?
Thanks again to everyone. Let's keep the "Curmudgeons With Guns" alive and well, I love it.

 

[antediluvianist]

guayavera

Gunmeister wrote : "There is one thing that puzzles me tho, MR CHICKEN, whats a guayabera?"

Well, Gunmeister, you live in West Central Florida, not Southern Florida, so that might explain why you are not familiar with guayaveras.

A guayavera is a type of Cuban shirt . You don't tuck it in , it generally has pockets, and it can be worn loosely and comfortably , although some are formal and fancy. Looks something like the "barong tagalog" worn in my country, the Philippines ; must be the same Spanish influence .

A guayavera would be a gun-friendly garment.

 

[Gunmeister]

Strangely enough, I knew what a Barong Tagalog was, having spent some time in Alongapo P.I. many years ago. Just didn't recognize guayaveras. Thank you very much. They are really nice looking shirts but might look a bit strange with the bib-overalls us redneck crackers wear Y'all. Just joking, it was a valid suggestion and as mentioned, they are not only a good looking shirt, they are gun friendly. Thanks again.

 

[LynnKCircle]

Tropical Shirts

One of the things I miss most about living in Malaysia is that the same style shirt in Malaysian batik is considered the national garment. With dress slacks and a nice pair of shoes you are formally dressed in a shirt work outside the pants, and also having four pockets so you can carry anything.

Sitting here in a Houston, Texas office with a require shirt and tie, I can only look back on the great experience of being able to attend a formal event at government house wearing a comfortable batik shirt. I really wish some enterprising Malaysian would begin exporting them to the Southern US ...

 

[antediluvianist]

loose shirts

Ah, Lynn K. Circle, you must have worked with Petronas in Malaysia, or at least had some dealings with it if you are in energy/oil.

I've done work for Pertamina in Indonesia, and as you know there also the national dress is batik. Nice, cool, cotton batik, outside-of-the-pants, with pockets, not tight. Gun-friendly buy nobody can carry or even possess.

As you know, in Malaysia and Indonesia (or Singapore), man if you are caught with a gun and/or ammunition you're in deep trouble. It used to be a capital offense in Malaysia some years ago, don't know if they stopped hanging people for unauthorized possession of guns/ammunition (well of course they had a communist insurgency to fight down, but it 's more than that.) Those former European colonies are really tough on firearm-possession. Here in the Philippines, as Gunmeister will remember from his days in that Wild West-type town of Olongapo (used to be a humongous U.S. Navy and Marine base), well our former ruler was the U.S.A. of course, so our laws are more like American laws - firearms are permitted, and in fact firearms - registered or underground - are all over the place. We have less restrictive gunlaws than those in California, Massachusetts, etc.

 

[LynnKCircle]

Batik Shirts

Actually I was with Brown and Root, at first in Malaysia on Labuan and then in Indonesia on the Sunda Straits -- WAY back when, in 1975 just before Brown and Root nearly went bankrupt, the then-president of the company committed suicide, and we were all abruptly sent home with the comment "We'll call you if we need you again."

Before going to Labuan (having lived as a starving grad student) the only gun I owned was a .22LR SA revolver with a .22WMR conversion cylinder -- not a Ruger, but a not-bad German imitation. I sold it before leaving because we knew what the laws were, and I think they're still about the same. As things happened, it was about 22 years before I owned another firearm.

But ... going off the original topic ...

By the Spring of 1994 the nice neighborhood into which I and my new wife had moved in 1982 had deteriorated into one of the worst drug areas of Houston. I kept wondering about having a gun in the house but she didn't like the idea. Anyhow, sometime in April someone began pounding on our door at 2:00 in the morning. As we went downstairs, my wife stupidly (or not) called out, "Who's there?" and whomever it was left. But there had been some home invasions in our neighborhood, so I turned and asked her, "If he'd kicked down the door, what should I have done? Whipped out my "gun" and urinated on him?" She got the message.

Funny thing about guns. First I got a pistol for home defense. Then I realized my shooting was so rusty I need a lot more practice. That led to a .22 because at the time I was a public school teacher and CF ammo had to be rationed. Guns are like rabbits; they tend to multiply. There's always a reason for another, especially after I got my Texas CHL and the housegun was too big to carry. When the CMP announced in American Rifleman that they were selling a nice batch of M1 Garands, my darling wife agreed that since I'd always wanted one I could load up our credit card and get one. That led to a C&R license, and entry into the world of truly cheap milsurp rifles and ammo. Now I've reached the stage where I have to figure out where I'm going to store the next one.

But it IS fun. Thanks for writing and letting me spout off. Good shooting to all of you.

 

[Johnny Guest]

That comfortable garment - -

I recently went to the closet and checked. Guyabera is the way it is spelled in South Texas and Northern Mexico. A couple I had as gifts were becoming a bit threadbare, so several years ago, I bought three more in Matamoros, across from Brownsville. It took me a while to find them in all-cotton.

Invitations to barbecues on both sides of the river used to note, moda guyabera, indicating that nice slacks and this type shirt were formal enough. And, yes, I've seen a LOT of pistolas concealed thereby.

A great many of 'em used to be worn at meetings and training classes, by men of all ages. But a stiffly starched, properly embroidered or pleated (or both) guyabera is a style entirely different from a normal shirt with the tails out. Oh, yes - - They are ALWAYS worn completely buttoned, except for the top collar.

I will note that most of my experience on the lower border is ten years or more in the past. I think the increased prevalence of air conditioning along the border encourages more formal dress by men uon proper occasions. In recent years, I've been hanging out more "upriver," where formal is wearing something other than T-shirt and shorts or jeans.

Best,
Johnny