Making It Count – Part 5, by Pat Cascio

(Continued from Part 4. This concludes the article.) As I’ve mentioned before in SurvivalBlog, from 1990 to 1993 I worked for the late Colonel Rex Applegate as his assistant, on numerous projects. I also maintained his gun collection. He had more than 850 guns – many were prototypes and one-of-a-kind. It was a great honor working for the good Colonel. He taught me a lot about a lot of things, especially when he served in WWII for the military. He told me a lot of things that he said that he’d never mentioned to anyone else. He also taught me …


Making It Count – Part 4, by Pat Cascio

(Continued from Part 3.) In 1989, I took a job as the police chief in a small town in Eastern Oregon. I had also completed my training with Executive Security International (ESI) at that time, the world’s best place if you wanted to do bodyguard work. I had completed their 650-hour home study course and then needed to complete two weeks at their school. There, I met John Farnam, who taught the firearms training portion, and to this day, I honestly believe that Farnam is probably the best firearms trainer there is. At the end of my training, I was …


Making It Count – Part 3, by Pat Cascio

(Continued from Part 3.) I dated one girl at our store and her sister who worked at the other store, and they didn’t seem to mind it in the least that I was dating them both. Yes, I was a horrible womanizer, and I’m ashamed of myself for that. If I could only change the past – that is one of the things I would change. One girl I was dating worked in the back room, in accounting. I didn’t even know her name when I first asked her out – and didn’t really care. Sadly, I ended up marrying …


Making It Count – Part 2, by Pat Cascio

(Continued from Part 1.) Went I turned 13 years of age, I attended Luther South High School – a private Lutheran school. All the rest of my friends either attended a public high school or a Catholic high school. We didn’t associate with each other much after that. On a good day, it would take an hour and a half to get home from that high school – during bad weather it would take a lot longer. And many times I had some “interesting” bus rides home. I had to travel on public buses through a rough neighborhood and I …


Making It Count – Part 1, by Pat Cascio

Editor’s Introductory Notes: Several months ago, I asked our Field Gear Editor Emeritus, Pat Cascio, to write a serialized autobiography, and scan some photos, to accompany it.  In reading this, you will learn that Pat has had a remarkable life, with the opportunity to “wear many hats.” The title of this series is an homage to the “Make It Count” tagline that Pat has habitually used in signing his letters and e-mails. Pat’s life has indeed counted for something. His influence has helped shape the lives, improve readiness, and provide spiritual guidance to countless others. Pat touched the lives of …


Valley Forge Damascus Bowie, by Pat Cascio

There was a time, some years ago, when many of the knives coming out of Pakistan were pure junk, and I mean junk! This has changed over the years, and now some high-quality knives are coming out of Pakistan, at very good prices. I previously covered another Damascus fighting knife, made in Pakistan, and it was a 100% winter in my opinion. Today, we’re looking at another selection from Pakistan and it is imported by Cutlery Corner Network. They have television shows daily on cable television. Many of their knives are not up to par, in my estimation. Then again, …


Springfield Armory Ronin 1911 10mm, by Pat Cascio

I requested a sample of the new Springfield Armory Ronin 1911 in 10mm as soon as I heard about it. Still, I had to sit and wait for my sample – this gun, in this caliber, is in great demand! Back in 1988, I owned the only 1911-pattern pistol chambered in 10mm at that time. I ended up selling it, because we just moved back to Oregon, and my wife wasn’t yet working as a teacher and I was on disability from an auto accident – collecting a whopping $125 per week. I thought I’d never own another 10mm in …


Pistol Magazine Loaders — A Must For Some Shooters, by Pat Cascio

Getting old is no fun! Back in the day, I was able to load any type of magazines, with thumb power only. Sadly, along with old age, comes certain disabilities. To wit: I have terrible osteoarthritis in various parts of my body – not the least is lower back pain, that at times is debilitating to say the least. Next are my hands, and especially my right hand and fingers – they are misshapen. My trigger finger is the worst. But thankfuily, I can still pull a trigger! Over the years, there have been efforts to produce manual magazine loaders, …


Valley Forge Damascus Steel Knife, by Pat Cascio

Today, I’m going to cover something a little bit different in the cutlery world. it is a nice fixed-blade fighting knife, made in Pakistan out of Damascus steel, and marketed by Valley Forge Cutlery. Damascus steel-bladed knives used to be all the rage and it was pretty much restricted to the custom knife-makers’ realm. First, a little bit of history is called for: Damascus steel-bladed knives go back to Damascus, Syria some centuries ago. The development of this steel began perhaps as early as 700 AD, but most point to closer to 900 AD. But “authoritative” sources vary widely. Most …


You’ll Need Air, by Pat Cascio

How many times have you found that a tire on your vehicle was flat or halfway flat, sitting in your driveway or garage? Yeah, me too – too many times over my lifetime. I hate to change a tire, especially on our SUV or pickup truck. On these rigs, the spare tire is stowed underneath the body, and a royal pain-in-the-rump to get out to put it on your vehicle. I have the tire store check the air pressure in my spare tires, every time I go in for a rotation If you neglect to have that done, then you’ll …


CRKT HZ6, by Pat Cascio

It’s always fun when I get to test a knife design by a real martial artist. Having spent 35 years in the martial arts myself, I’ve run across more than a few wannabe Black Belts who aren’t really a Black Belt at all. It’s easy enough to purchase a piece of paper that states you are an expert in some form of martial arts. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “martial art” know that it means a person specializes in a “military art” of some sort. You can always find some martial arts school that teaches …


CRKT Attaboy, by Pat Cascio

I don’t usually start out an article by reporting on the designer of a knife. However, this time around, I will. This handy-dandy little folder, known as the “Attaboy” from Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT) was designed by Flavio Ikoma, who resides in Brazil. I previously reported on one of his other designs that really impressed me, and I heard back from Flavio about my article. Like many young children, we had dreams of what we were going to do or become when we grew up. I honestly don’t remember much of what I planned to do, other than …


The Prepper’s Storage Dilemma, by Pat Cascio

Storage of your voluminous preps can be a real problem. We don’t live in a large house, it is only about 1,600 Square Feet. It has two bedrooms, one is extremely small, and is used as my office. The home we used to live in, on the dry side of Oregon, was quite a bit bigger, it was originally an earth-sheltered house, with most of it underground. And, at some point, in the 1970s, there was another level added and it became a more traditional house. However, the below-ground portion of the house was totally useable. Half of the “basement” …


Springfield Armory XDm Elite & Black Hills 10mm HoneyBadger, by Pat Cascio

A little over three years back, I reviewed the then-new XDm in 10mm, and found it to be an excellent handgun. However, this review isn’t a rehash of that pistol. This review is an updated version of the XDm Elite, as well as the brand-new Black Hills Ammunition 10mm round that isn’t even yet on the market. My original 10mm handgun was a full-sized Colt Delta Elite, in stainless steel, and I liked it a lot. However, in short order, the gun shot loose. We had also just moved back to Oregon in 1988, and I was in a recent …


CZ-75D Compact, by Pat Cascio

Back in 1976, a new handgun was introduced to the marketplace – all over the world, with the exception of the United States. It wasn’t allowed to be imported directly for some reason – I’m sure it was all about politics. The CZ-75 was really something to brag about, and I really wanted one, for many years. Some folks found that they could secondarily import the CZ-75 from Canada. Unfortunately, they were paying upwards of $1,000 for those guns, and back then that was a huge sum of money. The original 9mm CZ-75 was a full-sized combat/duty gun. The original …