Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire It's Hard to Get Accustomed to Being an Old Fart

I walk four miles three or four times a week, usually early in the morning. I walk about half a mile down and across the highway, and turn into a large pasture that has a cultivated field with a center-pivot irrigation system. Once around the circle and back to the house is exactly 4 miles. Keeps me off the highway and out of traffic which tends to get heavy when school is in session.

The farmer had a crew in the field baling and stacking green wheat which they had mowed and wind-rowed several days before. They usually don't pay any attention to me except to wave hello if they pass by. This morning, as I was approaching the trail that I use to leave the circle and hit the two-track that leads back out to the highway, the young man driving the stacker veered over my way and stopped. I walked over, and after exchanging greetings, he said that they had put up a couple of illegals and that one of them was carrying a machete. He said that the farmer had called the Border Patrol and they were on their way. I thanked him and headed for my exit trail. Before I could get there, the farmer drove the bailer that he was driving over to my turn-off.

He is a third-generation farmer in this valley and he went to school and played sports with both of my stepsons from kindergarten to high school graduation, so we have known each other a long time. He got down off the bailer and greeted me, and then he asked if I was carrying. I patted the butt of the XDS that was inside my waistband. He had a single action revolver on his belt.

We hadn't talked in a while and he made light conversation until the first Border Patrol unit arrived. Then he told me to be careful, bid me good-bye and walked over to the Border Patrol vehicle, as two more were pulling in through the north and south gates to the highway. I enjoyed visiting with him and always make it a point to do so when I can, and I was pleased that he took the time to stop and talk with me.

By the time that I got back on the highway right of way, there were two more BP units and an aircraft searching for the two illegals, so I began to suspect that they must have done some mischief while they were trekking northward.

It also dawned on me that Kris had been politely looking out for me until he was sure that it was safe for me to go on. As I tell my wife, I carry because, having reached my late 70s, I look a lot more more like a potential victim than a threat.

Glad you carry!

That isn’t a bad idea for any of us old people.

Never leave home without mine.

Your community sounds like a strong one. While I'm awfully immature for my age, I'm far less inclined to risk an azz beating than I might have been a few years back.

FC

The older I get the more careful I become.

I have a son into martial arts and he helps train women in self-defense. He tells me that since I'm old and white-headed that I'm considered a target by thugs and he encourages me to pack. I'd prefer him to be around for protection at times as he and some of the people he studies under are highly skilled in what they do. But he is too big to hang on my belt so my 45 has to do.

Tell Kris we say,"Thank you" for looking out for you. Stay safe.

Wise assumption!

Ruger Blackhawk 44 mag, Judge, AR-15
my constant companions.

Although a little heavy my stainless Smith in 357 is comfortable for me.

I gots a 32 auto!!

I jes shoots til its empty!!!

Then I goes to cuttin’.

The older I get, the less tolerant I get.

😁

Atta boy. Suck ‘em in close.

I am 64 years old and can't see the sights in sharp focus without my reading glasses.
I try to avoid being in town after dark.
When I go to the VA hospital they do not allow weapons on government property.
Isn't it ironic that a veteran cannot possess a weapon?

Sig P238. Never leave home without it.

Remember that over photo from desert storm I think when the pres was over there? GIsupposedly sprinting around a dune

NO mag in the rifle

Guess he didn’t want to get it all sandy and icky? Not his fault, surely

Savage 1907?

I can't fight (never could) but I can still pull a trigger and put two through the second shirt button.

I may be old, but I'll outlive any azzwipe who...

depends how warm or cold it is on what i carry for a pistol,but i always have a knife or 2 with. my favorite carry is a 1911 but its hard to hide with shorts and a t-shirt when its warm so then i carry a little Keltec 32. My truck i always have a loaded 1911 and a loaded 357 revolver,knives and unloaded rifle and shotgun with plenty ammo.

Yep. You get kind of used to the old stuff.

Once you get past a certain age, the gutless punks who prey on the weak and aged will start noticing you and trying to size you up. I learned that back in the 1980's from a guy who was in his 90's at the time and still ran what was once a big lake front hotel and dance hall that had been in his family since about the 1890's. By the time I knew him that place was just the bar that he kept open limited hours and did modest business. He got robbed a couple times by young punks who roughed him up and emptied the cash register when nobody else was there. After that he kept a revolver handy but luckily never needed it again. He also told me about the same thing happening to an old bartender there when he was young. Senior citizens look like easy targets. Take precautions as you age.

Great choice!

Sounds like you have good neighbors, Ben. I'm sure you earned them.

I find that the older I get, the more polite younger people get. Gives me hope.

Bob.

Stay safe Ben....

Just as bad over here....

1911 Don't go anywhere without it. 6000 Illegals passed thru our sector in the last month and they were not all mother's and children. Rio7

At nearly 81, I carry my Sig 365 all the time & everywhere, from awakening to bedtime. Screw the "No Carry Signs"!!! Been my practice for years.

Carry or be carried.

knowing ben, i would never assume him to make a good victim.
as to old age.
years ago my mother rented an apt to mr. reilly. he was a 80 something at the time veteran of WWI.
lived off social security and big thing was when the check came in to go up to whiskey row and tie one on.
he carried a pretty heavy knob knocker cane.
one night couple kids decided to jump him, and he beat the wholly hell out of both of them.
police showed up and after arresting the two kids just started laughing.
reilly laughed about it for weeks.
as to mr kaywoody, i have to ask too, is it a savage 1907? first thing came to my mine.
love that little gun and 12shots too.

conversation starter:


Detente ahora mismo o te volaré la cabeza.

Or conversation ender...

Stop right now or I'll blow your head off. Detente ahora mismo o te volaré la cabeza.

Ben, I applaud your wisdom in carrying, since most of us are aware how close you are to the border and what that implies nowadays.

Our NM elected officials, especially those in Santa Fe, seem unwilling to help on that.

Most also know about the crime problem up here in Albuquerque, but I regret to say that it is spreading out to the East Mountains area beyond the Sandia "hills". I will spare the details, but they even include murder in one case this year. Burglary incidents are also picking up.

New Mexico does allow open carry without a permit, but a couple of years ago, as I reached my late 70's, I took the required training course and got a CCW permit. That allows concealed carry, which many think is the only way to go.

Actually, the course was quite fun, attended by like-minded folks and getting the permit was easy and treated by the office as quite normal (they were processing tons of applications there.)

Fortunately, we have been living in a patrolled golf community. I'm now in the process of moving the family down the road to an even more remote house, an old log cabin hunting lodge built in the 1940's, with TWO gates before access to the house, one on the road and the other on the long driveway. You can even hear a car coming before it's in sight,

Interestingly, most of the other 6-7 houses on that dead-end road also have two gates, possibly because it is so close to the heavily trafficked Interstate Route 40.

Of course, the property does back up on the Cibolla National Forest, but it is posted, and the only danger coming down that fairly steep hill is likely to be four-legged (bears, lions, coyotes).

BTW, my current favorite carry gun is a fairly rare small double-action only Colt Pocket Nine. Bernalillo Coumty generally forbids discharging a firearm. I realized that even if I used it on a varmint, it might be taken as evidence, so I have instead picked up a lighter, cheaper but very similar polymer frame Kahr PM9. In fact, they are so similar that Kahr sued Colt for patent infringement and got Colt to discontinue production of the Pocket Nine, assuring its rarity.

Norm

I must be seriously out of the loop. I would have thought ANY old White guy walking around rural Southern Arizona is gonna be armed to the teeth.

If you live long enough you will get used to being old!

So after reading this maybe I'm not paranoid? I have always tried to be aware. Years ago I worked a 7-11 in KC MO Independence Avenue two blocks off the Paseo. Then Truman Rd and Hardesty. Was never robbed once but my relief guy at night was robbed three times his first year. Anyway 30 years later I have white hair and am a bit heavier.. but with 20 plus years as a corrections officer I go very few places without my 3" 1911 and sharp pointy objects in my pockets. And my eyes open scanning at all times. Nine years transporting convicted felons ………… Packy

You know it's sneaked up on you when you get senior discounts without asking.

I carry habitually too, always have cause I hate surprises, but like gifts, they are better to give than to receive. And now that Im 66 the other reason is the trite quip that I'm just too old to take an ass whipping....

that's pretty good assumption in my book.
also true 100miles north of the border in the desert too.

One of the big issues in my mind, even more so today, is the number of blood carried deseases alot of people carry with them.
i don't want to be close enough to share.
fisticuffs went out a long time ago.
As to birdwatchers comments, your mind set might change if you are sitting on a hill watching black clad mexicano's sneaking BACK across the border with fn/fal's slung on their backs.

Mauser 1914

Hope they caught the illegals but even if they did probably had to let them loose. I carry an old Smith m36 but I've been looking around for a better choice for my full figured self to carry.

??

I said I would assume any old White guy walking around rural Southern Arizona is gonna be armed to the teeth. Not sure how my mindset needs to change.

Edited in: never mind, got it now.

Judging by the effort that was directed at catching them, I suspect that criminal charges were pending. However, most of those guys do get turned loose after being arraigned, and most don't bother to show up for their trial.

I live in a small town outside Houston. All you have to do is watch the nightly news. A couple shot each night. Not counting the robberies. I’ve warned my wife there is nothing left to steal were the ferals live . So they have to expand their territory. Always have a handgun with me. Usually another in my truck. Hasbeen

Too old to fist fight or grapple. Still able to shoot. I won’t be someone’s vic.

Never leave home without it.

Have 2 potential problem tenants right now. One has already threatened me. He gone.

Have a meeting with the other one today.

good enough, just to be clear, i wasn't talking about your mindset.
there within eyesight of crossfireops place, was the side of the huachuca mountains. Some nice homes up in the canyons. School bus stops on the main road to pick up kids. Mam's dropping off kids are all packing, and wait for the school bus to get on its way. there is a historic trail south/north used by the indians, now in use by the new arrivals. I have sat at gregs place after dark and watched the string of lights up on the mt. Greg lived only a few miles from the north/south river going through there. He would tell me of hearing automatic weapons fire after dark.

If in doubt......SHOOT!