Run what you brung
No tool is ever any better than user of said tool.
One cannot buy any tool and instantly become a master in whatever task that tool is designed for; just because they bought one.
Buying a Indy Race car, will not turn you into Mario Andretti.
Buying a AR, will not turn you into Pat Rogers.
Buying a 1897 shotgun will not turn you into Awerbuck
Buying a Colt 1911 will turn you into Chip McCormick or Michael J. Plaxco.
Buying a Nikon camera will not turn you into Oleg.
So you cannot afford a Indy race car, AR, '97, Colt, or Nikon.
Fine, Run what you brung.
Here is where learning the correct basic fundamentals really comes into play.
First thing one learns, it is not the physical item itself, instead mindset, and how to use various tools that allow one to use a tool effectively.
Using a hammer, one learns what hammering is about for various tasks.
Framing hammer is for framing a house, ball peen is for "peening" with the rounded end.
If a nail is protruding in the laundry room ,and all you have is a ball peen hammer, having learned the correct basic fundamentals - run what you brung - that ball peen- and hammer the nail in so you, or someone else does not snag clothes in the laundry room walking by where nail protruded.
Oh sure, a proper hammer, perhaps using a nail punch would be best, still the task is done, nobody snags clothing. Heck use another nail as a nail punch with the ball peen.
Bent nail, no claw on the ball peen, use a pair of pliers, and leverage off the wood handle of ball peen.
Think.
Become one with the tools you do have.
Quality practice of skill sets and continue to be receptive in learning new skills sets.
Back in the day, we did "set ups" and "lessons".
No known gun schools, no training except for Police or Military.
Way before IDPA/IPSC, 3 Gun come to be.
Homes and folks had what they had. Money was tight, no credit cards.
Folks saved up, or sometimes did lay-a-way. Credit was the ledger you paid off on payday, and this often was used as kids were sent to the store to get milk, break and eggs.
One bought something after learning, trying various samples of guns, knives , whatever, other folks had, or what the hardware store had to offer.
Investigation and Verification.
It depended on where one lived, as to game to be hunted, household budgets dictated what a home could afford.
Single shot shotguns kept handy behind the back door, or over mantle, felled deer, ducks, geese, small game, pests and varmints on the property and protected the home from escaped criminals from jails, prisons, or chain-gangs that were in the area.
Everyone grew up knowing how to use one, from kids to elderly could use one.
.22 Rifles, often kids sized, were kept handy, not only for teaching and assisting kids, also for food, game, pests , defense. Kids were parented and mentored, and an adult can shoot a kid's or youth sized gun.
It was not uncommon for the house single shot to be a youth model, in 20 bore, as it fit the smallest person in the home, be this grandma, the kid, petite mom, or even the male in the household.
A bigger person can effectively use a smaller gun, where a smaller person cannot always effectively use a bigger gun.
Fella shows up in a jump suit, chain, and off from a chain gang, grandma is 4'11" and 80 pounds sopping wet and that youth 20 bore she knows how to use.
Eight year old is even smaller and his/her .22 rifle assists grandma until the Sheriff Deputy and Correction folks show up.
No 911, just cut into the "party line" tell the Operator what the problem is, and do so with the .22 or 20 bore in total control in hand dialing a rotary phone.
This was practiced in "set ups" and "lessons". Folks showed up and Run What They Brung.
Hardware store .32 pistol, .22 pistol, double barrel Stevens 311, H&R Topper, Winchester 94 in 30-30, S&W .32 cal in J frame , .38spl and Model 10, Colt Detective Specials, 1911, BHPs, Model 70 in '06...
It did not matter, run what you brung, be as one with it.
Preventative measures about the property, being out and about, going to town, big city, that road trip to see kinfolks...camping and hunting trips...
10pm and everyone has gone to bed, and there is the crunch of tires coming down the dirt road, driveway, lights, then the knock on the door, everyone had practiced lessons and knew what to do.
It did not matter if that home only had a Iver Johnson top break .32, single shot 20 bore, Old Hickory knife in the kitchen, the slip-joint Pa kept in his britches pocket and Ma's imitation slip-joint she kept in apron and purse- this situation was handled .
Knives:
Again, folks learned correct basic fundamentals and knew how to use a tool.
Ma, tried various Old Hickory's at the hardware store and maybe chose one that fit her best. She had tried one at another house and she had a legit need for a bigger , or smaller knife.
Paring knife of 3" fit her hands for various tasks better than the Butcher knife used for food prep, hog killing time, butchering the deer Pa shot, and cutting that watermelon....
Paring knife not only did food prep, also took care of small game, garden chores, tossed sparks like the butcher knife did using spine on a magnesium starter to start a fire out back to roast hot dog and marshmallows with the brush fire, trimmed the wick on the oil lamp - so not mess up them good scissors she got out of lay-a-way making clothes on a Singer push-peddle sewing machine...
Slip-Joint was always on person.
One was not dressed with out a slip-joint, kids, boy and girls, adults, elderly, everyone carried a pocket knife.
In a pocket, it is there.
One might walk off from a fixed knife [Old Hickory] on property - or even out in the woods get separated from a pack, like in a fall and need a knife.
That slip-joint, being on person, was always with you.
Slip-joints , small ones, were sharp! Pivots kept oiled and everyone just touched up with cardboard, as most folks remove too much metal, as the knife does not need sharpening, just touched up.
Cardboard, old belt with no dressing, bottom of a cereal bowl, coffee cup, the window of the truck...
The good stone stayed in the house. Pocket sized kept in the truck, and Ma's vehicle if'n one was well off to have two vehicles.
Used dry, sometime just a good old wad of spit, and stone in weak hand, knife in the other and touch up a blade.
Be this out hunting and fishing, down on the edge of the property, sitting on the benches out front of the courthouse whittling, or the ladies doing that pot-luck and just over there touching up a blade after food prep, and making that fort out of cardboard for kids to play in.
Doctors and Veterinarians kept a small slip joint on person always - as they too were not dressed without a knife.
They also had one in the Doc's bag.
Oh they had "doctoring stuff" still many a time a small, sharp, pen blade did an emergency tracheotomy or some such.
True.
Oklahoma City Bombing that April 19, a Ortho Surgeon snagged his kit to get a trapped lady found in the rubble. Her leg was under rubble, First responders had summoned him, and the only way to extract her, and save her life was to amputate her leg they accessed.
Time was critical, as the area she was in was still crumbling...
He had his special tools, and in he went, his special tools would not fit in the small area he had to work in.
First responders, more than once, almost aborted this rescue, it was that dangerous for him, and the rest of the first responders.
Case Peanut this Ortho Surgeon always keep in his pocket and always sharp, amputated her leg at the knee, she was extracted.
The area crumbled in shortly after.
He run what he brung, and he had to get down to correct basic fundamentals with a small slip-joint, kept sharp, to do this task.
Pull up a chair...
