Andy Stumpf (4:34)
Okay, copy west of the smoke. I'm looking at danger closer now. Come on with it, baby. Give it to me. I mean it. Cleared hot. All right, let's dive into this thing. I got a bunch of questions picked out in front of me. They're all pretty diverse and different. We'll just see how far I get into this. Question 1 Good morning. I thoroughly enjoyed or enjoy the Fallout of Fridays. I want to ask you this. In the last few years of your life, have you gained some level of celebrity or notoriety? You have a busy coffee shop, a podcast with a large amount of listeners, been on Joe Rogan, one of the biggest shows in the world, if not the biggest. Many more things to list. Has this had a positive or negative effect on your life? Slash, privacy concerns. As a follow up, they say you should never meet your heroes. Have you since become have you since becoming more well known, met any celebrities that either really impressed you or really surprised you? I will say that I was at the opening of your coffee shop and you were truly gracious with your time meeting and welcoming people. I appreciate your podcast all the best. Interesting question. I. I'm not a celebrity. I'm not rich and famous. I'm neither of those things. Trust me. I don't think I'm a celebrity of any kind. I don't think of myself that way. I might be slightly more recognizable because of this awkward platform that I have. Not awkward, meaning that it feels awkward to do. It's just a really weird job. I still struggle to wrap my head around that because I don't think of it as a job. I feel very lucky that I get to do this. I enjoy it. It's enriching for me. I talk about that all the time. Do I get recognized from time to time? I absolutely do. And here's what I'll say. Especially at the coffee shop. I see people sometimes who have traveled from all over the world to visit the coffee shop and I pass through there. I'm not there all the time and sometimes I'm there to go do a meeting, so I have to kind of zip in and get out of there. If I'm at the coffee shop and you see me there and you want to say hello, please do. I enjoy meeting people who are fans of the podcast or have found the podcast or have had a good experience in their life because of the podcast. What I will say though is this, and this answers a part of the question here when it comes to well known celebrities that either really impressed you or really surprised you. I have met some pretty famous people and I didn't get really surprised or really let down because I view them as normal people, regardless of how well known you may be in the world. I'm yet to meet somebody, regardless of their station in life, that doesn't suffer the same problems that other people are suffering now. They might suffer different type of economic problems and they may. The problems may be totally different, but I think the overall volume of problems that people are going to encounter. And maybe problems isn't the best word. Let's say challenges to stay a little bit more positive. The challenges that people are going to face if you make more money, you're going to have a higher level of income challenges. If you make less money, you're going to have a lower level of income challenges. They're two very different on the economic scale. But everybody's got a family, everybody has relationships, wants, desires, needs. Money can solve some of those things. I think money makes some of those things more difficult as well. The reason I don't feel like I've ever been really overly impressed or let down is I don't go into the situations, meeting people like that with a high level of expectation other than at some core level. They're just a human being. Why do I feel that way? Because that's all I am as well. Yes, I have a bizarre platform that I have the ability and I'm thankful that people reach out for my advice even though I don't feel qualified to give it. And I will give you my advice if directly asked on a particular subject. And I'll tell you exactly where I am an expert on things which is almost nowhere, or where my opinion comes from. And I'll always say that I'm open to having my mind being changed and my opinion counts for only my opinion. I don't speak for other communities or organizations. I'm just a normal person. I have as many up days as I have down days. Sometimes I have more down days than I have updates. I have the same struggles. I have three children, I'm in the trenches of parenting just like everybody else is. And yeah, occasionally people will recognize me and I just do my best to be myself. It's the same thing that I try to do every time I have a guest on the show or every time I'm answering a question. I'm not trying to think in my head, what does the audience want to hear? What should I portray so I could gain more followers or listeners? That is not how my brain works. I will give you an honest answer and do the best that I can. Sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I say really stupid shit. People who know me in real life will be able to tell you I'm a smart ass and it's something that I actually have been working with. And on most of my life, sometimes my mouth outstrips my brain a little bit. Is there ill intent behind it? Most times not. When you call somebody a dusty old cunt, is there ill intent behind that? Yes. And I will add this, having now a few weeks between that incident of calling that nearly 80 year old woman that and now still very proud of that particular moment. A plus effort for me on that one. Hasn't always been the case. Shouldn't always be the case. But in that instance, fuck yeah, I'd do it again. I realize that everybody's human. So just because most people on earth might recognize their face, the sound of their voice, them on a screen of some size, whether it's iPhone to IMAX, I try to treat them exactly the same. I'm not a starstruck type person. I've never been starstruck by anybody that I've met. I'm not saying that that couldn't be the case. Because when I meet somebody, I shake their hand, I look them in the eye and I remind myself, you know what, Maybe they're having a bad day too. Maybe they're having a good day. Maybe they're in between an update and a down day. Maybe because that's where I am on that day as well. And I leave it at that. I can respect whatever it is that they're famous for. I can have appreciation for that, for their success. But it doesn't change at the end of the day that they are a baseline person. Somehow I got off of this at the coffee shop, right? So again, I am a completely an utterly normal person. Please stop me and say hello. If I have time to spend with you, I'll spend as much time as I can chatting with you about whatever you want. I'LL show you around the store, talk with you about why we designed it the way that we did, whatever it is. I saw somebody in the airport today and I was with my kids. They got an absolute kick out of it. Specifically my daughter. Dad, that's so what was the term she used? Oh, I'll tell you exactly what she dad, that's so gay. That's what she said. To which I said, what is gay about that? A guy was walking by, he said, holy shit, it's Andy Stumpf. And I stuck on my hand and I said, very nice to meet you. And he said, nice to meet you too. I'm a fan of the podcast. And we went on our day. I think my daughter just likes to make fun of me. So what it comes down to, both of my sons, completely oblivious to what was going on around them, were like, huh, what just happened? And we continued on and went to our flight. So, pros and cons, though, another part of the question. I am careful the way I protect the potential negative aspect of crazy people wanting to interact with you, which has happened to me a few times. That's a subject for another podcast because there are crazy people out there and crazy people do crazy things, which you should expect them to do. So how do you protect yourself from that? Be careful about what information you present. Example, I just got back from Costa Rica. I made one post from there of a sunset the day before we left and didn't exactly label where we were. Very nondescript. So I'm very broad. I oftentimes will post about things after I have already left the location that I'm at. I'm very careful with privacy. I will talk about my children to a degree, but I leave out the vast majority of any identifying details. Same thing with my personal life. I mean, obviously people know that Leah and myself are married. I don't talk about where I live, the living condition that we have. You know, the Internet is a real thing. People have tried to sleuth and figure stuff out and they forget that a lot of information on the Internet is historic. But so good luck with that. I do a good job trying to protect my Internet footprint as well when it comes to identifiable information. But more than anything, I just am cautious about oversharing personal details of my life. Now sometimes I'll talk about places that I'm going to be because either a brand, an individual, or an organization will ask me to do so. I have no problem doing that. But other than that, I keep it pretty casual. As my daughter would say casual. I try not to get too specific, protect the details. That helps protect my family because at the end of the day I care about them more than anything else and it's not that hard to do. I think a lot of people overshare on social media and I don't think that they're. They're doing it maliciously. I think it's just an attempt at volume and they're probably not thinking about the negative consequences or potential negative consequences of getting on the radar for people who are crazy because they are out there and they will do crazy. And all I'll say about that is for the crazy people out there, pick your target wisely. If I land on your radar and you want to play the around and find out game, I will leave that one up to you. I treat threats as exactly that threats, and I act accordingly. So other than that, nothing but net positive from any level of notoriety. I try to do nothing with it other than be the best version of myself on whatever size platform that I have access to. I think that's the best that I can do. And a lot of that comes with just being able to be honest about the variety of mistakes that I have made in my life and will continue to make. I do not think I am capable of stopping, try not to repeat mistakes. But yeah, yeah, they're coming for sure. Most likely in business because I'm not real good at it. But I'm doing my best. So hopefully that answered your question. Question number two I've talked about this before. I try to batch questions thematically. This is one that has shown up for about the past 10 days. Versions of this question I am between the ages of 15 to 18. That is the sweet spot of the emails I've received. I, more than anything in my life, want to go down the path. And there's a couple versions being in the military, special operations, police, fire, or an obscure occupation. Everybody around me in my life tells me that I'm crazy. My parents are telling me that I should take a more traditional path. Go to college first, get a stable job first. What should I do? Versions of that question I'm young, I have an idea of something that is lighting a fire underneath me. But I am being told I'm not being smart, that I'm being unreasonable, I'm being irrational, I'm being unwise, and I need to take the traditional or conventional path. What should I do? Here is my the simplest answer that I can give you to that question. If you want to have a conventional life, stay on A conventional path. If you want to have an ordinary life, stay on an ordinary path. If you want to have things in your life that are extraordinary, if you want to become extraordinary, extraordinary if you will, you're gonna have to get to a place at some point in time in your life, multiple point in time in your life where you slide all your chips in and you say to yourself, let's fucking go now. Risk tolerance seems to change for most people as they get older. And this makes sense. When you're young, your concept of basic time and how long a day, a week, a month, a year is, is really different than when you're in your late 40s and you. It's like how in the hell is the calendar whipping by as if there is a tornado force winds just flipping through the pages. You seem to have more things, you're a little bit generally more established in your path and the idea of pushing all the chips in can seem overwhelming and overbearing when you're younger. What I mean, it seems as if there is less to lose and I guess in the sense of things or collections, length of relationship, duration of things that you might have been involved in, sure there is less. And you guys notice, hopefully. Excuse me, I'm talking about everything other than risk to life because I'll put that as a separate category. I'm talking about to the things that you have, whether it's a risk to a relationship, a risk to failing, a risk to losing your job, a risk to losing all of your money. Fill in the blank. When you get older, it seems like you have. Well, it doesn't seem like you have. You have less time when you have less time, man. Getting people comfortable, pushing their chips in, it's very difficult for some people. It's impossible and they're never going to do it. And that is okay. Let me actually add this too. There's actually nothing wrong with living what people would be, would consider or call a traditional or conventional life. If you're happy, if you're fulfilled down that path, good on you. Live whatever type of life you want to my point in saying, if you want to be extraordinary, you're going to have to do extraordinary things. I am talking specifically to these young people between the ages of 15 to 18. Do you want to look back on your life and have a sense of regret for the things that you didn't try? Now, is there risk in ignoring your parents advice and ignoring your friend's advice? There is, but there's also risk in following every piece of your parents advice following every step of the conventional path, following every step of your friend's advice and the risk there is. When you come to the end of your lap, the lap of your life, you have a list of things you wish you would have done or said or experienced. And I can't imagine how much that likely sucks for the young people. I didn't realize, I knew that the odds weren't in my favor when I chose the path that I did when I was younger. Going into the military at that age and pursuing that occupation, I didn't realize how much luck was involved. And I may. I mean that from the injury rate, percentage of students, I had no understanding of that. I had very limited knowledge about the training pipeline itself and actually what came after that I could never have forecasted 9, 11, and how that changed from a very conceptual job to a very practical job. There's no way I could have forecasted those things, but I wouldn't have the life experiences that I do had. I listened to the vast majority of people in my life at that age, outside of my parents who are telling me there's no way you're going to be able to do it. Have you researched the math? Do you know what the stats are? You weigh 150 pounds. How are you going to go do that job? Fill in the blank, Write a fucking novel on the things that people will tell you that they think you're not able to do. Meanwhile, they're not doing themselves. By the way, that's a little asterix. A lot of the times, the things that people are saying to you, the reasons that you're not going to be successful, I honestly think that if they were to look in the mirror and say those things to themselves, they'd be equally, if not more accurate. I made a decision at that age. I put all my chips on the table. I had no plan B, which I'm not saying is smart, but it's the same advice I'm going to give those young men and women between those ages of 15 to 18. If you are lucky enough to find something that is lighting a fire under your ass, potentially pulling you towards this gravitational true north at that age, which is very atypical. All three of my kids did not feel that way. And I'm completely supportive of the path that they're on right now. There's just zero judgment. If they had found that, the only thing I would have told them was, how can I help? Now, obviously, if they were going to try to repeat the path that I went down, I would Explain to them some of the things that I knew from just a cost perspective and a burden perspective, a long term wear and tear, psychological things that may come from that. And I just would have at least allowed them to make a more educated decision, but I would have never gotten in their way. If you find that fire and you are that young, grab your chips and slide them into the middle of the table. And I'm not saying ignore your parents, and I'm not saying ignore your friends, but neither your friends nor your parents have to live your life. And remember that throughout the course of your life, when people are making suggestions or recommendations or giving unsolicited advice, nobody has to walk a day in your shoes. It's you who gets to the end of that lap and has to sit there and look back and ask yourself, did I live the life that I wanted to? Did I become the man or woman that I dreamed of when I was young? And if you didn't, do not try to blame that on other people. Because the choice to do so was exactly that at that age. Slide your chips in and fucking put your head down and absolutely devote yourself to that. The worst case scenario is this. Most of the emails I've gotten were based on occupational pipelines. The worst case scenario is this. You won't be successful, try again. You may not be successful, try again. And if it's truly not a fit, you are still going to be at an age in your life where you have of 360 degrees available to you. You're gonna have like 350. You'll have a wide open universe in front of you that you can explore and hopefully find something else that can light that fire underneath you. From a motivation or passion perspective at least you will sleep well at night knowing you gave it everything that you had. As opposed to sleeping poorly at night wondering what would have happened had you made a different decision. I understand why parents and friends give advice like that. I understand why people suggest the conventional path. It is hammered into your head from damn near birth. Stability, right? This is the steps you need to make to have the life that is acceptable. Who says conventional wisdom is a good fit for everybody? I have lived my life in a very unconventional manner and I don't recommend that anybody make the decisions that I made. But I'm thankful that I did. Not only for the failures, but the limited successes that I have had as well. Those experiences have made me who I am. They color how I view the world. They color how I answer the questions that people submit to Me, my answers would be completely different if I had a different life experiences. Different life experiences? Yeah. I. I have pursued paths that most people want nothing to do with, but I did. So who's right in that situation? Or is it even a matter of right and wrong? I don't think that it is for me it made sense for them and for most other people it didn't. And that's okay. I'm not a conventional path person. Conventional wisdom, cool. But I don't believe in absolutes. Always and never. Right. Always following conventional wisdom to me is a path to absolute boredom. Never following conventional wisdom to me would probably be a path of struggle and hardship and challenge because I think it's a blend of both. But I don't want to be conventional. I don't want to be ordinary. I don't want to live an ordinary life. I would rather be extraordinary or attempt to be extraordinary and pursue the things that light that fire under my ass. That's going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. It's okay. Because they don't live their life the way you do. And they're never going to live your life ever for a single day. Just remember that when you are considering the advice that you are given. Especially when people are trying to govern or boundary your behavior with that advice. So hopefully that answers the question for those of you out there who are asking that particular question to me. This episode is brought to you by David. Now you might ask yourself, who is this David? It's not a who, it's a what. It is a new take on on a protein bar. How many of you have a sweet tooth? I'm raising my hand for those of you who can't see me. This is something that has gnawed me for a while. I enjoy a little treat from time to time. Just a little treat. 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Chocolate chunk, salted peanut butter, double fudge brownie. You're not going to be disappointed. Get some more protein into your life. Back to the show. Question three. Andy, let's say in the future your daughter is now 23. Michael approaches you with the request to date her. Let's run the math on this. My daughter is 16 right now, about turn 17, plus another six years. Call it six years. So Michael be 29. She'd be 23. Actually Michael's 20, 31 and 23. It's an age gap there for sure. How exactly would you fire him? And in what way would you remove Michael from the gene pool? Potato peeler, crucifixion? Or do you send him with a one way ticket to BUDS and let your buddies know that he requires special treatment and that his many attempts to do will not be accepted but will only be punished with more physical and mental evolutions. And that he will not be allowed to graduate under any circumstances regardless of not being allowed to do to a mixture of safety violations and personality slash character flaws. But regardless, he will not be allowed to leave the program until completion even though he will then be denied graduation. That is a horrendous situation you just laid out there. As far as the Training scenario. Michael right now is currently on vacation still. I've talked about this. I believe he went to Ireland and the UK where he is certainly not talking to any members of the opposite sex. Probably taking pictures of stray dogs and architecture. He did send me a picture of a hot dog exhibit from a museum which is completely on brand for Michael. So he's out and about so I can talk freely without him in the room here like he would normally be. And here's what I'll say. I give Michael a really hard time and it's good natured for people who listen to the show. You only catch the interactions between Michael and I that are on the show and they are good hearted. We laugh about it. I don't think I've ever actually said anything to Michael that he took personally or offense to on the show. I've tried off of the air but he takes it well. My point in saying all of that is I would be stoked for my daughter to find somebody like Michael. When I first met him he my wife introduced us actually a few years ago. I think we were working with each other for three or four years at this point. Up until that point, if you made an order on the store, I received the order, I printed it out, I packaged it, I sent it off to you. I did every aspect of the podcast, I did the recording, I did the editing, I did the booking of all the guests. I still do the vast majority of that. So Michael handles all the deliverables. When it comes to the soft goods stuff, I really look forward to him getting back. There's a bunch of orders in for the coffee already, so I actually really like doing trying to ambush him when he's gone for a day or two just to punish him for even considering taking time away from things that matter to me. And other than that, he does the in camera, the in room camera switching and the rest of it I still handle. I book all the guests, I do all my own social media, I do all the editing, I do the intros, outros, the ad reads. Obviously it's all in my voice and you guys can see me doing it. But when I first met Michael he was maybe 150 pound white belt who had just started jiu Jitsu. My wife was really pressing on me to have somebody come in and help and of course I was arguing against that because who knows better about my own stuff than me, right? It's idiotic. Which completely on brand for myself, smashing my head against the wall instead of going around an obstacle more Often than not. And even in the short period of time that I've gotten to know Michael, he has grown in a lot of ways, physically for sure. I think he's 30 to 40 pounds heavier now. He's an absolute pain in the ass in jiu jitsu. He's way more dynamic than I am. He can bounce around. His cardio is better. It pisses me off. It forces me to just lay on him and smother him. But he's also grown as a person and I think people get this. They can see it on the show. He's a really smart kid. He's a really caring person. He doesn't care about people at a shallow level. I think for the people he cares about, he cares about them deeply. He's responsible, he's honest, he has integrity. He treats men and women with respect. And when it comes to somebody that I would want my daughter to end up with, that's hitting a lot of the wickets. I personally believe that all men should be very capable of violence and that they should avoid it at all costs. Jiu jitsu, I'll say it again, is not magic. It's not the end all, be all. A gun is not magic. It's not the end all, be all. A knife isn't magic. The end all, be all. Krav Maga boxing, none of its magic pros and cons blend, have a mixed capability and then never, ever, ever, ever, ever get into a fight. But for anybody out there with a daughter, what kind of man would you want to have her with? One that is waiting to become a victim. And we're one that is willing, able, prepared, trained, current, and competent at handling just about any violent confrontation that comes his way. I'll take the latter, please. Especially when my daughter's there. He's the kind of person that I would want my daughter to be with. Would I ever tell him that to his face? Of course not. That fucking curly haired little shit. A ginger cabbage face. I mean. And I say that because of his hair. I see the little TikTok videos. Not TikTok. I've actually never been on TikTok. There's this Instagram video of these two kids and it was the most amazing half pipe of hair. I don't. I assume they put a cap on and then blow their hair up to get that. And then these two adults made fun of them with lettuce on their hair. That's where I get the cabbage head from. Great video. It occasionally works its way back through my feed and I enjoy it every single time, watch it more than once every time. It pops up too. But I mean, to shorten the answer up. He's the kind of guy that I would be looking for. And again, if you've ever heard me try to like pull out of him as experience with dating, he's not liking the online dating thing. He's not looking for transactional relationships. He wants an actual relationship with somebody. He's an old soul for sure. He's like a 40 year old trapped in a 23 year old's body. And I worry that he's going to have a hard time finding the right person. But I do know this, when he finds the right person, it's going to be amazing for him. And I think he would look back and say, you know what, the bullshit that I went through, it was worth it because the person that I am with and the relationship that we have makes it worth it. Now, is Michael ever going to be allowed to date my daughter? No. No. His cock and balls would become my personal property and I would keep it in a mason jar on top of the refrigerator. But he is the type of person that I would want my daughter to be with. He's a good kid and he's a good role model, in my opinion, for people of that age demographic. So, next question. We're prepping for a month long road trip with our seven and eight year old boys. God help us. Ha ha ha ha ha. Kalispell and Glacier is going to be a stop on the trip. For those who don't know, Glacier national park is just northwest. I'm sorry, north. Jesus, north. East of Kalispell you can see there's a couple buildings that are in the way. But from where I am right now, I would be able to see at least the opening towards Lake McDonald of Glacier National Park. People get all pissed when I talk about how awesome Montana is. Yellowstone is amazing. Go see Yellowstone. Please don't get out of your car and try to pet a buffalo. If you're gonna do that, at least film it and send it to me. People know I like that type of content. Actually, everybody likes that type of content. You know, go out there and there was literally a video forwarded to me the other day of somebody throwing bread at a grizzly bear that was slowly approaching them. And then the last thing it did before the video cut out is it lunged at them. And I'm just going to assume that didn't go well for the bread feeder. Glacier rivals Yellowstone in every aspect. It's just not as highly trafficked and I'm not trying to like drive more traffic. I'm just saying Yellowstone's amazing. But there's some other amazing things in Montana as well. Yellowstone for most people is down south of Bozeman Glacier GNP if you will. And then the Bob Marshall Wilderness which is just south of Glacier is up in the northwest corner of the state. So definitely hit up Glacier. And if you want to fly in here to do it, fly into Kalispell. FCA is the airport. They're actually working on it right now. It's a pretty kick ass little airport at this point. Moving on. I have heard you mention you utilize a fanny pack for concealed carry. Well hold on, let me grab it because I happen to have it right here in front of me. We can talk about this. What I don't remember is the brand of it. I've always been an inside the waistband person, but I wear similar stuff to you which is me in the summertime board shorts and a T shirt. In the wintertime it's a T shirt and pants and have been struggling to find something that doesn't say hey there's a gun in this one. Like most 511 brands make, that struggle is real and the easiest way to wrap your head around this one and the way that I view this and I might be wrong in how I view this, but any man I see carrying a fanny pack I assume that there is a gun in it because they're really easy and convenient ways to carry a gun. I also always assume that people are just armed, not like oh no, everybody is armed. But I'd rather go with the assumption that they are and be proven wrong than as assume that they are not and then be proven wrong in that in a moment that mattered. So it's interesting as well. It'd be interesting social experiment to watch behavioral interactions in a group of individuals where they knew that nobody was armed and they weren't allowed to fight versus a group where maybe some of the people were armed and you were allowed to fight. My hypothesis with no scientific data to support this in any way shape or form and is that the latter category will be a lot less contentious. But I digress. The current one I have is an eberly stock for people out there inside the waistband carry a firearm however you want to carry a firearm. In Montana we even have people who like open carry and I have seen one person, I am not joking, open carrying two AR rifles. How he was going to use both at the same time I do not know. He did not have any load bearing equipment that had extra magazines for either. So he might have been one mag in each of those, which is likely still plenty of ammunition, depending on what he was going to do with it. But yes, he was full send. There are some people who really want you to see their firearm. In most, actually, I can't say most. In some states it's very illegal. In Montana that is very legal. Not my cup of tea though. I like inside the waistband holsters for myself. I like an appendix carry used properly with a holster that covers your trigger and trigger guard, you're not going to shoot your dick off. Which is something I hear all the time. People say, oh, I don't want to put a round in the chamber because it's pointed at my junk. Well, it really shouldn't be pointed at your junk and guns. Unless you're talking about the Sig 320. I'm just joking, Sig. I'm just repeating some things I've heard on the Internet don't generally go off in the holster. Now, I'm not an expert on the Sig 320 and I actually love Sig products. I don't think I've ever shot a 320. I'm just hopping on the bandwagon. All right, I'm having a little funny haha about something that's not funny haha, which is guns going off in their holster. It shouldn't do that. You are not going to shoot your dick off pulling your gun out of the holster or putting it back in the holster as long as you keep your finger off the trigger. You take your time, you look at what you're doing. Especially when reholstering, making sure that the T shirt isn't working its way into the trigger guard, you're going to be okay. My theory when carrying a firearm, personal opinion is that there should be a round in the chamber because otherwise you're carrying a hammer with an effective range of whatever you could throw it at or hit somebody with. Yes, I understand you can draw and chamber around. Fine motor skills are some of the first things to go in high stress situations. And unless you are practicing that at a very high volume, be prepared to not perform at your best in those moments. So carry however you want to. My recommendation is develop a level of comfort with whatever handgun, because that's what I'm talking about. Specifically, I've yet to find a rifle that can go into a fanny pack. Well, you understand that the weapon. There are perhaps external safeties depending on the weapon you're using. There are internal safeties depending on the weapon that you are using. There is the safety of the individual actually touching the firearm itself. There are ways that you can cover the trigger guard. There are, I suppose, ways you could lock the slide. There's a variety of different things and people are innovating all the time. But develop a level of comfort with your weapon that you understand exactly how it's going to work, why it functions, when it won't function, when you should be very cautious, which is at all times with the firearm because it's an item that is designed to kill. So let's treat it with that respect. So you should never not be cautious with a firearm. But you also don't need to be overly anxious thinking your dick is going to fly off or at least have a hole in it. So a little bit of a diatribe there. Let's talk fanny packs. Like I said, Eberly stock. I don't know if you're going to be able to find a fanny pack that doesn't scream at least a little bit. Hey, I've got a gun in here. And maybe that's okay. I do have a gun in here, but I got a lot of other things in here as well, too. I have all of my keys. We can open this bad boy up. I have keys in there. I have this awesome Montana knife. Company fixed blade knife. I think this is the War Goat. This thing's amazing. I get in knife fights with cardboard boxes with this, an envelope sometimes if I'm feeling real sassy, just give a little. I've almost cut myself with it many times. For the love of God, people pulling these knives out of the sheaths, please. Here's how I do it. I put my thumb on the back of the Kydex, leaving even a little bit of space from that first part where the blade may be. And I pull with my thumb. Look at that. I have watched quite a few people grab the sheath like this. And for those of you who are audio only, my pinky is essentially below the Kydex. And you can imagine if I were to pull that thing out, you're going to get a little slicey dicey. There's a video of Dana White doing exactly that. He went to the hospital afterwards and got stitches. So let's not do that. All right, So I have keys and stuff in here. And most fanny packs designed to carry a firearm are going to be set up in this manner where there are going to be pockets up front, one or two. And then there's going to be a different pocket that is in the back that generally fully unzips. Right. And what is going to be displayed? Your firearm. So I have the Sig365 fuse, I think it is with the Sig red dot on there and then the TLR7 sub light. I don't have a relationship with Sig. I paid full retail price for everything that was on here. I carry a light on my pistol because half of every day occurs at night. For those of you who don't realize that the red dot side is backed up with visible night sights as well. They're glow in the dark sites. So even if the site fails, I'm going to be able to see it at night and let me see if I can find a way. This is kind of how it fits in the old fanny pack. So not a whole lot of extra space. But that's okay because I have a 21 round magazine plus one in the gun. So 22 rounds on me. It's very convenient storage, it's secure storage. It's not going to go anywhere. Trigger is not going to pull itself. It's not going to get ripped off of me. And the one thing I will say is this. Carrying in a fanny pack adds more steps to your draw sequence than an inside the waistband holster. Unless you're wearing like a ton of clothes and you're really digging to get out of the way. If you're going to switch to a fanny pack, make sure you take the time to practice your draw sequence. Do this with an unloaded firearm, please. Can you do this with one hand? You can. Is it easier with two? Yeah, more than likely. Because unlike an inside the waistband holster, a traditional one where it's just Kydex and you can pull straight out and you can even if you need to just pull on the fabric of your T shirt with your thumb, be able to actually index the pistol well and then pull it out. This right here, it's just, it's behind a zipper. So it's going to add some steps. Figure out how you're going to carry this thing and then how you are going to get it open. Because not only are you going to need to open it, then you're going to need to get your dominant hand. Unless you want to shoot with your non dominant hand, which if you're a psycho, go ahead as your primary great to do on the range. I don't know if I'd go with that as my optimal performance metric in a real world two way range, but you know, you do, you, you're gonna have to open this thing and then you're gonna have to actually get in there and get your hand on the firearm itself before you're able to do any work with it. It's just different. Better or worse? I don't know. I like the fact that the fanny pack, you know, inside the waistband holders, holsters are, I've used them for years. It can get old a little bit, especially getting in and out of a car. It can dig into you a little bit. Can be a little bit uncomfortable. I like to wear board shorts. I know that there are options out there with reinforced waistbands and things like that. I don't really like them. They don't feel great. It's a lot easier for me to throw a fanny pack on. I've actually kind of switched to it to be in my year round. It adds some more steps and that's okay. Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. When I carried with an inside the waistband holster, and I still do this every day that I do, I'll unload the firearm and the first thing I'll do is, you know, maybe three to five times, practice actually drawing from concealment all the way to the point of aligning my sights. And if I have an empty chamber and an empty gun, I'm gonna go ahead and pull the trigger, work myself all the way through that trigger, squeeze, reset, put it back in. Same thing with fanny pack. You have to practice. That's the biggest thing. What I have noticed with the fanny pack is sometimes the light will come on and you'll feel like, God damn, my belly's a little bit hot. And you look down and there's a little bit of light on. Turn that off. That's about it as far as a difference. Everly stock. This is a specific fanny pack for a firearm. What I would never recommend doing. Let's say that you had only a two zipper firearm, or I'm sorry, it wouldn't be a firearm. You had a two zipper fanny pack. Let's say that this back zipper wasn't available. Well, what I definitely wouldn't do is have a knife in there instead of keys. The coffee shop and normally I have the rest of the keys in there to get into the studio and the house and all those things. What I definitely wouldn't do is have all that stuff in there and then put a firearm in there. Just rallying about why that's not secure. Things like keys, key fobs, the end of this. You know what, let's unload this thing. I bet you. I bet you. Right, Remove the source, eject around, double check. Clear and safe. Here we go. I bet you this is exactly why I would never do that. You could get. Oh yeah, look at that. All the way in there. You can just imagine that was the trigger going all the way back. That would suck. And that's exactly why I would rather have people saying, oh, he's probably got a gun in that fanny pack. But trying to make a fanny pack work that isn't designed for a firearm. Combining all these other accoutrements, if you will, and all of a sudden smoking a hole in the side of your fanny pack and God knows where else downrange. So just food for thought. Pros and cons to both. You know, one thing I will say about fanny packs is that you can accessorize them and you can pick colors that align with who you are and what you like. Maybe you like red, maybe you like pink. I don't know. Live your life. It's just a nice little accessory that you could use as well. And that's it. That's all I have for this week. Hopefully that was helpful. Again, this is an Eberly stock. I have no relationship with the brand. I paid full price for this. Same with the Sig. I was joking about the 320. Sort of. And yeah, that's all I got. See you guys Monday with pretty awesome episode. Buddy of mine. We went down, we flew migs together. We did that episode right before we did MIGs. See you guys then.
