Episode 314: Keystone- Airsoft Armaments and the Art of Fair Play

As dusk falls on another day of tactical play, Keystone, a battle-tested warrior of both military and paintball fields, recounts his leap from splattered arenas to the stealthy world of airsoft. With a narrative as gripping as a well-oiled M4, Keystone shares how his love for vintage armaments and strategic prowess found a new home amidst MilSim events and tight-knit community skirmishes. The episode bursts with anecdotes of tactical triumphs like the "Zussman machine gun massacre," painting a vivid tableau of airsoft's camaraderie and the evolution of a veteran into a herald of the sport.

Navigating through the thicket of airsoft ethics, we engage in a candid exchange on the sport's mirror to life's lessons and the ethos of raising children, especially those with special needs, in such an environment. I peel back the layers of my parenting journey, offering a glimpse into the careful orchestration of introducing hobbies that hold a mirror to maturity and responsibility. This conversation threads the needle between sporting integrity and the inevitable imitation of conflict, drawing a line where sportsmanship and realism coalesce into an ethos that transcends mere play.

Hold tight as we march forward, critiquing the arsenal - the gear that crafts our airsoft identities and the rules that govern our battlegrounds. The episode strides into the technical plains, where limits on rounds per second are debated with the same ardor as one's choice of loadout. And as we look to the horizon, family involvement and social media presence blend into the fabric of our discussion, rounding off a saga that's as much about reconnecting with our roots as it is about pioneering paths for new warriors in the digital age. Join us, as we lock and load for an episode that's a rallying cry for the airsoft faithful and a beacon for the uninitiated.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:22

I had to get my own stuff and I had to get it quick. So I wound up 16 years old getting my dad to buy me a Tokyo Marui M3 Super 90 long version.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Well, welcome man, welcome back, I should say we. We attempted this last week and had some. My internet was out Actually it was up. It was out for about 30 minutes after after it knocked us out and so, whatever we we rescheduled for this week and we're good to go. So shout out to sponsors skirmish, go to skirmishnet to check their stuff out.

Speaker 2: 1:10

You guys have heard me talk about this thing for over a year now. It is the stat tracker for your airsoft play. It's like. It's like playing Call of Duty. Everyone says they want to play Call of Duty, you know Like. Or they want to play Call of Duty in real life. That's why they get into airsoft and then they go out there and play and they don't know how their individual. You know how they did and you know it's Call of Duty or or Halo. At the end of your match you get to see all your stats, which everyone loves to see. But an airsoft you can't do that unless you're playing with skirmish. Go to skirmishnet, check it out and Hit up your field owner if you guys don't have it there, and ask them if, if they could get it at their field or big event. They really do well at big LARP events as well. Ballahack just did one. They had 500 people using the skirmish bracelets on there, so it was really cool.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Jackal tactical is the other sponsor. Shout out to them. They're up in PA, two stores, a field, and they have. They run other world mil sim, where they host events, which one of them is Well was, yes, or just a few days ago this past weekend, the day before it was a Saturday, before St Patty's Day, and Then they have another event coming up in September that is in South Carolina, actually down by me, so it's only like two hours away from me. So I'm definitely going to check that one out. Go to jack tack com to check out their info and you can buy stuff on their store and also buy tickets for their events. So I appreciate the sponsors and and a big shout out to them. So, and then I've got my guest tonight is Keystone Kirk. Karkajou, karkajou, karkajou. Okay, we, we started talking last week a little bit and you are in. Are you in PA as well?

Speaker 2: 3:24

Yeah, you're in PA matter of fact, jackal tactical is the place I go to get all my that's right up and tech work and stuff like that exactly so you, you, you join me last week for the first time and we got interrupted by tech stuff and then we're. We're back at it tonight, so we'll start from the beginning so everybody can hear your story and that kind of stuff. So welcome, man, appreciate you being on.

Speaker 1: 3:52

Hey, not a problem.

Speaker 2: 3:53

Yeah, why don't you give a give a brief history of how you grew up and your background and then Unite talk. Last week you went in the military. You're a jarhead like myself, and yeah, yep, and then. And then, what got you into airsoft? We'll go into that.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Well, what got me into airsoft? Well, I started off as probably most of the you know, mid. Oh, I was there, I was a paintballer in the mid to late 90s and I used to play a lot of the scenario games. I used to play a lot of woods ball and when that started being the not day regor and the more toxic end of the speedball community Started gaining more precedence, a lot of us were kind of pushed out and one guy who was kind of keeping, kind of keeping quiet, he kind of turned me on to it and I started looking and like, okay, okay, I made my connections. Back then the big Information hub for airsoft was a place called airsoft zone and it was a. It was an information site. You know. They had a couple of, like little media things, couple of music videos. One was to blind by corn and then the other one was to the game by motorhead. Oh, that's wild.

Speaker 2: 5:37

So this is a website for airsoft. Back back in the day it was a airsoft zone, okay.

Speaker 1: 5:44

Yeah, airsoft zonecom, I think they had music videos on their side.

Speaker 2: 5:49

Yeah, they had a couple.

Speaker 1: 5:50

I mean it was as big as it is now because you know, now You've got a laptop and you've got video editing software. You know this was just people taking cameras out and you know it's real primitive by my today's standards. But you know, you have to remember 95 to 99. This was Pretty revolutionary right. You know, we're all. You know. We're getting a little used to things now right for sure.

Speaker 2: 6:23

Yeah, especially you can edit all you know. I know people edit all their stuff on their phones now. Oh. I've tried. I've tried any longer videos on my phone. I'm not used to it yet. Don't work. I used it. I'm not as nimble with my fingers, I guess you know.

Speaker 1: 6:44

Yeah, that that is a thing, or it's just the interface is different. Yeah, you know what Somebody like you know somebody like you or I might be used to.

Speaker 2: 6:57

Yeah, I'm used to the mouse keyboard. I've been using the software that I use now for six years I think, and you know, for editing it was cheap. It was like 40 bucks when I bought it. That's why I got it. So I tried the, the Adobe what is that the premier pro thing, whatever the, whatever their editing thing is and so I put it on my computer. I could barely run it. It had so many tools. It was just it would lag Way too much. So I need to like a dumb down version, right, you know, like Video editing for dummies. Where's that software? And that's kind of what I got back, you know, six years ago. So I'm so used to it now and I don't want to spend. It works, it does what I want, so I'm not gonna buy anymore, you know.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Yeah yeah, you get used to something you can. You can make a good, a good presentation, Even if the software is not as great as some people say. Right, Same goes for airsoft. I mean you know it's in any given Sunday situation. You know the, the kid who just showed up with you know his brother's borrowed SEMA Can nail somebody who's got a $1,200 HPA system.

Speaker 2: 8:23

Yeah yeah, I Remember when we first started our channel, we were talking about this stuff. You know, I didn't know, I was new to airsoft, and then the whole thing. So these guys were telling me oh you, man, you got to have, you got to upgrade your gun, you have to do this. Yeah, I'm like, I mean you don't really have to. Okay, like I mean, if somebody came out of you know, if somebody is very athletic and has some let's say they're a veteran, you know, and they just come out of the military or something, they and they're used to running and gunning or you know whatever tactics and stuff and they're used to handling the weapons or and all that kind of stuff. What I mean you stick a, you stick one of these cheap guns in her hand and let them run around. They're probably gonna have fun with it, like as long as it doesn't break while they're using it, you know. But the basics you know it's. You don't have to have a $1,200 gun, you know, to have fun. Oh.

Speaker 1: 10:03

Yeah, yeah, that's one of the ones, oh god. When I was playing Down in North Carolina around about 08-09 time frame. Yeah we did a, we did a player improvement day where we took you know, there were a number of us that volunteered To, you know teach various things and mine was urban combat and light machine Support guns. Gotcha Cuz, at the time I was running support guns real heavy.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Mm-hmm and uh, one of the first things we did was we we took a number of targets and we ran it out and we said, okay, here's where your effective range is. That way you know what you're looking at and that way you know it really reduced the amount, at least for a year, of Of these situations. I know you and I have seen them. Where somebody's going, I hit you, I hit you. Yeah, we've seen the meme. I've hit you. Call your hits, call you it and you're in the other part. Guys, like my brother in Christ, you're playing with a toy gun, you're falling in front of me like I could see him 10 feet up there.

Speaker 2: 11:31

Okay, they're hitting the leaves up there.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Yeah but, yeah, that that's simple thing and I've kind of refined it. Like I, I like to run. Anytime I've got a new, new anything or anybody's got to knew anything, I like to run them through it. It's a it's, it's really simple and you could run it in an airsoft field if you had to, if that's the only place you got to shoot. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:59

And it's real simple. It's a two foot by two foot piece of plywood. One of the targets is a larger ammo can, like one of the you might be familiar with them, the ones that you get the 556 ammo and when you went to the rifle ranch, yeah, so I think, can bandoliers come out? Yeah, the green one, yeah, and then the third one is a plastic 55 gallon drum. You know, the classic 55 gallon drum.

Speaker 1: 12:28

Oh yeah because what you do is you run it out there about 120 feet, so 40 yards, 40 meters. You let them take shots on around here. I use, we use a lot of semi-auto, yeah, that field. So you take, you know you can run a five-shot string or you can run a 10-shot, three of five or six of ten. You can hit that target at that range. If you're doing your part, then you run it back and you run it back until they can't get three of five or six of ten on any of them. So now you know, because you know you think about 50 cal ammo cans about the size of somebody will somebody's head wearing a helmet. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:17

You know you tilt it on its end. You know the two foot, my two foot is somebody head and shoulders out of cover. You know somebody just peek it up over the top, like you really aren't supposed to, but we all do it anyway. And You've got the 55 gallon drum, which is a little shorter than somebody kneeling out in the open. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:37

But if you can hit something shorter than that, you can hit something taller to you know exactly. But that's. That's one of the drills I like to run with people when they ask me how to improve, or I like to give them when they say how to improve right. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:00

That's a good test.

Speaker 1: 14:03

And you know you get used to that. Now the other thing you have to remember you know I'm drawing on my years of shooting and and coaching ranges. Um, if you're uphill or downhill, that impacts don't be a little higher. Yeah. Yeah, you've seen it. You know you're defending the hill. You go to shoot at somebody who you normally would hit. Surprise, you're going over their head. Get the quicker, just down. Yeah. I've had it happen, everybody's had it happen, like damn it slope. Yeah, that's slope.

Speaker 2: 14:40

Right.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Now how do you Snipers have a formulation to Account for that? But you're not doing that in the middle of an airsoft game. Let's be real, no.

Speaker 2: 14:55

No, no, huh, they're not. I mean, those babies aren't gonna travel that far anyway to adjust for that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 15:03

Now that's just. That's just Kentucky when ditching it exactly.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Yeah, one of the guys I talked with. He doesn't even use sights, he takes all the sights off his guns. He just runs a straight you know rare and straight rail on top and the way he aims, you know he's. He's like it's Right down the rail. You know he just looks down the barrel.

Speaker 1: 15:25

Oh yeah, I mean, most of the time that's kind of how I shoot. I shoot kind of paintball style with that. But you know, sometimes I've got a long shot or I'm not sure if I'm hitting the guy. For Example, I'm switching primaries this year but my M27 had a 1 to 4 on it and when I had those long shots or I wasn't sure if I was even getting close, yeah, that's what I'd go go to the optic.

Speaker 1: 15:52

Yeah you know, but most of your, most of your airsoft ranges. There's a field down here outdoor extreme lingles town. Okay, they have this field that they love to play on it. It's it's almost like it's an. It's an old speedball course, but it's all with these Shipping containers that are shaped kind of like Legos, so we call it the Lego field. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:14

That one I don't even use my. You know I don't use my optic on, but you know that one is also so short. You know it's not. It's not, you know, speed, QB short, but it's still short For what I'm used to. Yeah that I Really don't even use my sights for that one because it's open and I can usually see pretty well what's going on.

Speaker 2: 16:44

Yeah, when you. So what was your first game like when, when you first started? What was, you know? Were you a rental there or did you, you know, start out with a Cheap gun and did you start with a spring?

Speaker 1: 17:01

This is a good one. My first game was a Large game because you know we didn't have the mill sim as you know it now. Yeah, you know, in August of 1999 when I started, it was a large game at Mill Hall, pennsylvania, at a place called Extreme Adventure Games. I don't even think it's, it's in business anymore. But I Did not have a rental. I had to get my own stuff and I had to get it quick. So I wound up 16 years old getting my dad to buy me a while I footed the bill. He just placed the order for a Tokyo Marui M3 Super 90 long version whoa.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Yeah, I was gonna get the spass 12 with the shepherd's crook, but they ran out of stock.

Speaker 2: 18:00

That's wild. Okay, so your first game you play with a pretty decent weapon then.

Speaker 1: 18:07

And it was decent. I mean, the thing to remember about that particular shotgun Was I was expecting a shotgun like a shotgun. You know like I grew up shooting the 12 game. Yeah. And what wound up happening was I had to start thinking of it more like a sniper rifle that just fired three BBs per trigger pull. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:33

You know something shorter range. So I wasn't, I Was doing. Oh, you know I was doing, okay, I mean I was still getting shot out a lot because, well, I'm 16 years old but I was a deer hunter and I spent most of my life and those kind of woods. So I I wasn't completely dumb, but it was. There was a lot of situations where the firepower was needed.

Speaker 1: 18:57

Right and somebody's finally like, hey, is that what you're playing with? And they're like you know. I'm like, yeah, it's what I have. And he goes, somebody, somebody hands me a Tokyo Marui Thompson bone stock to 85 of twos and says try this. And I'm like, okay, I just ran with that. Most of the time I was actually my fruit. Well, and then later I picked up a M1 a1 is my first AEG and that was Wonderful.

Speaker 2: 19:28

Yeah, those are cool.

Speaker 1: 19:30

Yeah, and till I broke the front end, you felt everybody, every no, everybody knew. If you look at the Marui M1 a1, the Thompson. Yeah there are two screws on the bottom of it. They like to bot back out. Nobody told me about the grub screw on the trap, so there was on the top. So there was this Torquing that went on until the pot metal finally broke. Hmm right at that tab I'm like yeah right, I was mad, I was mad.

Speaker 2: 20:04

I'm sure.

Speaker 1: 20:06

But, you know, kept at it. My first Gas pistols were a Western arms standard striker 1911, which was one of the beginning of the railed 1911's. This one just basically looked like somebody had taken a chunk of rail and screwed it in and I found that was dragging on the slide, was causing problems with it cycling, so I removed it. Now you started. You started when you were 16. Did you uh?

Speaker 2: 20:43

So how soon? So then of course you grow up, you go in the military and then Did you get right back into it after the military, or you just kind of out of it for a while and like, how did you start back into it?

Speaker 1: 20:58

Well, I was out of it for a while, until I got to my first unit, and, and there was, there was. Were you at Lechun at all? Just camp Geiger for MCT, yeah and so you were assigned what West Coast or oaky oaky yep.

Speaker 2: 21:22

Okay first and then West Coast. Yeah okay.

Speaker 1: 21:26

Okay, yeah, lechun, there was a paintball field on base. I tried that again and it was a speed. It was a little inflatable speedball field and I was like, uh yeah, I started looking around and there is a, or at least there was. I'm not sure if anybody can confirm the place is still there, but it was a little hobby shop Right there in the little strip mall on western and I went in there and the guy had Airsoft guns on the back on the wall, hi. And I looked at it and was like holy crap, he's got it, you know, and one of them was a top m60, vietnam, oh wow. And I wound up picking that up. I wound up because I had a savings account that I put aside. You know, I, I, I basically took 20 bucks out every paycheck and threw it in there, and if you've been ignoring it for over a year, that money adds up sure.

Speaker 1: 22:27

So I took some from it and picked up some guns and I had a friend who was married and agreed to hold on to them for me because I was still living in the barracks and While we would consider that cool, I'm pretty sure the officer of the day would would, would, would, would have a collective connection bit exactly. Yeah, you know, a young pfc or lance corporal With an m.

Speaker 2: 22:55

You know something looks like an m60 machine gun and an m14 and it's in his, especially if you you know these guys take the tips off and and put like a Mock suppressor or whatever you know, make it look.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Oh yeah, make it look badass yeah. I've got a few like that, but some of them I don't hold on.

Speaker 2: 23:18

Oh nice.

Speaker 1: 23:21

That's the Tanaka that I was talking about. What it's positive, that is, as you can see, my friend in the barracks covered the orange with sight black. Uh-huh. But yeah, that gun is. You know, I remember mentioning it. You're looking it up, going holy crap, that's old.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Yeah, oh yeah, that's funny man. So you play, okay, you were able to play while you were in too. That's cool.

Speaker 1: 23:54

Yeah, I found a field, uh, the Sportsman's Lodge up off of what was it? 17? 24, something like that. Okay.

Speaker 1: 24:04

And then then it moved to a couple of other places and I just kept with it and got involved with the local. Uh, at that time, a lot of the, a lot of things were done through local state organizations. Mm-hmm, you know, people banded together and at that time it was the NCAO and I played for them. I played with them a lot. They were pretty reasonable people and they were very safety minded, which was always a plus in those days. Sure, uh, because, yeah, now we're getting into like 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Speaker 2: 24:40

Gotcha, and then, uh, when I left the service, Now, when was your first uh big event like MilSim type?

Speaker 1: 24:47

Oh well, okay, If you're talking about MilSim type, that would have been 2010,. That would have been Irene eight. And there, yeah, that one I remember fondly because we pulled what we called the Zussman machine gun massacre.

Speaker 2: 25:03

Whoa, what was that? Yeah, go through that story.

Speaker 1: 25:07

Okay, well, that's kind of a funny story. Now NCAO used to put up a Pultuna guys, they always re-intest for stranger and I'm like you know what. I may be leaving, but I want to do this at least once before. Before you know, everything goes on and I wound up going as the backup support gunner and you know general plug and play, what we will my, what my friend calls a plug and play. Uh, you need me to fill in at a position I can do it. I'm just not the greatest distance runner, so don't put me up front with all the speedy kids.

Speaker 2: 25:50

Right yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:53

You know, I, I, I had, I had what we used to call the old bull tendency early, and I guess some of that comes from stalking through heavy brush, uh, hunting deer, but uh, the Zussman machine gun massacre. We had the morning game. We broke for lunch. They told me I was going to need to swap up my 60 because my uh our primary support gunners gun broke. It ate a piston and they weren't going to be able to get to it. So it was, you know, get the 60. Okay, got the 60 up.

Speaker 1: 26:38

And one of the other squads in our platoon was from, I want to say, tennessee, and they had had a guy who twisted his ankle up pretty good and was a little gimped up. And we had a young 18 year old with us. He had just turned 18. Actually, he turned 18 at the event and I actually had to get all kinds of special clearances for him. But not getting into that and um, so we traded the young runner, the young Lockenvarr, for um term my dad uses God, I'm starting to sound like my dad we traded the young kid for this gimped up machine gunner.

Speaker 1: 27:20

And if you watch Zussman, you watch the videos of Zussman. There's a, there's this big balcony over top of the building that they call the embassy, where it's fenced in. They have a round uh driveway with gates and it's all walled in. But you have this balcony out there and if you ever watch some of the old Irene footage, you see people go out there and they just get shot. That balcony is a death trap, but as these big windows, these tall big windows that lead out onto it and doorway it leads out onto it. So this guy and I are sitting here fortifying ourselves in because our mission is to defend this building and we wound up doing it.

Speaker 1: 28:09

But the first part we had two guys, you know we basically divided the buildings that we saw in the sectors and we were watching the guys moving around in the in the windows and we're sitting here planning, okay, I'm going to take the roof and we're going to go cyclic, for we're going to go cyclic for a minute. If you need to reload, let me know, I'll pick up the slack. Here's your sector of fire, here's my sector of fire, and then we're going to go down to, down to rapid, and then, you know, for another two minutes and then we're going to go sustain and we're planning it out, planning it out. Planning it out game on.

Speaker 1: 28:54

And it just goes you know it, and within the first two minutes you couldn't see any movement in them windows anymore. And this one building off, off half my half left, you couldn't see any more movement in those windows. It was nothing but dead rags up on the roof. It was, it was, it was, it was a massacre. And later my buddy, who is the platoon sergeant, goes. I go how did that? How did that? How did y'all like that? He looks at me and goes Max heard the. Max heard the gunfire. Goes. What's going on up there? He goes yeah, we traded with another squad, we got two machine guns up there and he's going. It just goes. It just starts chuckling and McKnight's kind of sitting there smiling and, according to him, john Lou told him don't do that again. Apparently it caused considerable carnage because, like I said after, after that phase was over, john Lou was told. John Lou basically told him don't trade that off again.

Speaker 1: 30:01

Oh, my gosh, yeah, I imagine something right when, when the game organizer looks at you and says please don't do that again.

Speaker 2: 30:11

Well, I see how these videos, how airsoft alphons takes out whole squads with you know when he's up in the helicopter with that machine gun, and so I can't imagine two being on the roof, just yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:26

Well, what's on a roof? It was on a second floor, so for the for the one, I'm firing upwards at a slope.

Speaker 2: 30:33

Oh, okay, to the guys at the roof, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:36

Yeah, and then I just started cleaning down down the floors. Nice.

Speaker 1: 30:41

You know, I just started going roof third floor, second floor, first floor and they couldn't game by in that way. They managed to get a squad in but they never managed to take the building and you know that was that was one of those games. I had, I think, four guns on me. I had the 60. I had a Socom Gear Punisher 1911 with two extra mags, Nice, and I was in 226 by KWA, which unfortunately decided to basically work until it didn't work, no more.

Speaker 2: 31:22

Oh, that's what they do.

Speaker 1: 31:24

Yeah, and then and then I had a little Army Armament Detonics which wound up being one of the one of the one of the ones with surprising range, and I used to call that the dirty trick in the vest pocket, because people never saw that gun.

Speaker 2: 31:41

Really.

Speaker 1: 31:42

So yeah, because Was that a pistol? Yeah, it was a pistol. It was a little tiny, like Glock 26 size, what?

Speaker 2: 31:51

I thought I could have sworn. Isn't the AAP-01, isn't that Army Armament? Yep, and I thought I thought somebody maybe I misheard them. Well, it might have been one of my sons, I don't know. When we first, when that thing first came out, I thought it was their, their first pistol that they made. No, okay.

Speaker 1: 32:13

They made this Detonics long, long while before. And I picked it up it was. It was a cheap little $100. I think I paid like a fucking a quarter for it and I only needed the one mag because it had one purpose it was my last ditch Right. It was, you know, the only thing I can think of going back to old Highland, old Scottish Highland warfare, the Skienbu, the little knife that they used, that you see, if you ever go to like the run fairs with Highland games where the guy has the dagger stuck in his, stuck in his sock.

Speaker 2: 32:54

Yeah, like the boot knives and yep, yep.

Speaker 1: 32:58

That's what it was for, but I used to have a.

Speaker 2: 33:02

I used to have a Kershaw dagger boot knife thing was badass. Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:11

Kershaw makes some great working knives, but this, this pistol man, it was single stack, it was a 1911 style platform. So I knew it well and all I did was just I loaded it up, gassed it up, stuck it in my in the map pocket on the front of my plate carrier and just stayed there. So you know, it was one of the ones you could look at me, you could see I had a 1911 on my chest, I had a 226 in a in a in a thigh holster. But you never saw the Detonix. And I remember one of the guys sitting there going, I think the one. The 60 gunners run his, run his pistols dry and he pops his head up over and I can hear him going nope, he didn't, he's got another gun. They're like damn it.

Speaker 2: 34:01

So you had three pistols on you.

Speaker 1: 34:04

Yep.

Speaker 2: 34:05

Whoa.

Speaker 1: 34:08

Well, the SIG. At the time it was one of the one of the PTP series and those were hard to get magazines for, so I always ran it just one mag and then the 1911 was my primary. That's the one I used all the time. Yeah, I think I still have it, my, so come here punisher.

Speaker 2: 34:29

Dude, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 34:31

Yep Model after the 2004 Punisher Uh-huh, which was actually one of my favorite movies at the time.

Speaker 2: 34:37

Yeah right, oh, that's cool, okay, so yeah, I was going to ask you, irene, that's that's uh op. Lion claws. Yeah, that's a lion and claws event.

Speaker 1: 34:49

Yep, and in those days you had you were pretty much either lion claws or you had black sheep. There was a guy named black sheep that put on events in around the same time. Line clause was but it was uh, black sheep was a little different black sheep. Uh, closest thing I can compare it to nowadays would be like, uh, american milsim or milsim west Gotcha Cause you were sleeping out there, you were sleeping out in the Playable area, you know, you're sleeping out on the playable area.

Speaker 1: 35:26

It was possible to get merked at night. You know that kind of thing and I'm like I was sitting there thinking about it and I'm like that seems a little unsafe, you gotta sleep with all your gear on man. Well, yeah, but I'm. I'm sitting here thinking uh, you know everybody. Uh, uh good example would have been uh, years ago I took a, took a. The reason I thought about it was years ago I took a? Uh car trip with my grandparents from Pennsylvania to Alaska. Whoa yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:06

And it was a lot of fun. But I'm I'm sitting one night watching my grandfather and he's tossing and turning, and I'm sitting there thinking about black sheep and I am. This image popped into my head of my grandfather trying to sleep in Now. I mean, we didn't have the face protection, we still had the eye protection. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:29

The eye protection has always been a thing, but uh, the face didn't come around until later because we play at some. You know, compared to, you know you compare it to somewhere like England or Germany or Japan. Americans play at some real high velocity but we also have a lot more spread out places to play. You know we're not playing kind of smashed into a specific area like some of the Japanese fields, from what I understand or like. Yeah. Always wanted to go out there and see that but yeah, oh uh do you follow um?

Speaker 2: 37:04

do you follow Defro?

Speaker 1: 37:06

Yeah, I follow Defro.

Speaker 2: 37:07

Yeah, uh, he's. He's in Japan. He does a lot of uh all his videos and stuff there. He's got indoor and outdoor stuff.

Speaker 3: 37:15

Yeah. You can check out you know it's, he does pretty good job of showing them.

Speaker 1: 37:18

Yeah, but it seems like you know a lot of the, a lot of the European and Japanese fields are a little smaller, if that makes sense. Way smaller, yeah, because yeah, compared to anywhere here you know, uh, you mentioned, for example, other world doing a, an event up at EMR. I used to play paintball up there. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:42

And that field is not small. I mean it's. It's not huge, but it's always. You know, a lot of the, a lot of the European fields are also not small either. I mean we're not taught. You know God. When I went up there for Kessil Conquest it sometimes was, you know we we'd get hit walking back and it'd take us 15 minutes to work our way back up to where we were. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:10

You know we were talking about walking down the hill, walking to the. You know the respawn point, turning around, walking back up. Oh, I'm taking fire, so I need to actually start. You know, using using cover and dead space to my, my advantage, right Way to be. 15, 20 minutes before you walk, work your way back up to where you were so that we can actually start shooting again. Uh-huh.

Speaker 1: 38:36

Uh, that was, that was some, but yeah, that's, it's not a small field, but it's not monstrously big. If that makes you know, if if that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 38:48

Well now, what's the biggest uh event you've been to? Is that the? Biggest. Is that the one?

Speaker 1: 38:55

Irene probably.

Speaker 2: 38:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, and that was your first.

Speaker 1: 39:02

Yeah, it was my first milsim. Now the other ones that could qualify as my biggest events would have been CDWC in North Carolina used to put on. Uh, there were three I used to go out for out to Taylor'sville for, and one was Vietnam patrol, one was a full to gap and then one was Santa versus Grinch and I used to go out there for those and sometimes I think those were. I think one year we had seven or 800 for folder and I went out there for that one. But I mean, that's a big game with vehicles and everything else.

Speaker 1: 39:47

So yeah, well, it's not a well, it's not a milsim like we think, it's still pretty large.

Speaker 2: 39:55

Yeah, I mean milsim, the word milsim. I remember when we first started our channel you know I'm learning all this stuff about airsoft and my boys said we're going to a milsim and uh, and I said oh, what's that? And they were like military simulation. And I said what y'all ain't going to make it, cause they were. They were like out of shape, you know. And uh, cause they gained a bunch of weight after high school, you know, cause they both played football and they were both alignment, so they kept eating like they were still in football but not working out. You know what I'm saying, you know. And uh, I was like bro, what, what? I mean you're going to have to run right With all your gear on and stuff, like you don't even have boots that are broken. What are you like? What are you talking about? You're going to be hurting. And they're like, yeah, it's a three day milsim, I'm like you ain't going to last. You know I was joking around with them but I was kind of serious cause I didn't know.

Speaker 2: 40:49

I took the word literally. I thought it was literally a military simulation. So from start to finish, I thought when it said go, uh, you're, you're like being in the military for two and a half days, you know. So they were like no, there's a bunch of different types of milsim, and that's when I started learning. So I think, um, oh yeah, I think the uh, as far as the, the way, the word or that you know terminology is meant to be, I think milsim west has a lock on that. Uh, from what I understand. So, uh, there are, they are the closest to an actual simulation type, right, uh?

Speaker 1: 41:31

as they go, they go hard into the simulation. End of it. That's.

Speaker 2: 41:36

That's what I've seen Um and I know like every airsoft event is a technically a LARP right, it's still a LARP event. I mean, you're still playing with toy guns, you're still pretending to die, You're still pretending to. You know, uh, I shot that dude. You know it's.

Speaker 1: 41:56

It's pretend, but um but yeah, the military simulation thing was fine, I get it, but the the the LARP label kind of makes me cringe cause I was a. Larp for a good few years. What'd you do? And well, I, I did a mix of things. Some of them were more dramatic, some of them were more to parlor end, and then some of them were basically, you know, uh, um, you know, braveheart with a, with a foam sword so to speak.

Speaker 2: 42:29

Now, what was the other ones?

Speaker 1: 42:30

I've, I've run the, I've run the range on that end. And airsofters to me, you know, having having watched and having done things, they're a little different. You know, while there's some similarities and I won't, I won't contest that there's also a lot of very different. For example, larpers you know the LARPers I know, and minds you like, like airsoft, larp can run, run by region. But, um, larp's can run by region. But I've been New York state, New Jersey, not Massachusetts, uh, just south of Maryland, delaware, uh, pennsylvania, down to Virginia.

Speaker 1: 43:31

They tend to be more worried about how things look from the outside, looking in, whereas we're kind of like this is how we are, we don't tend to care much as long as you don't like straight up label as a militia. You know, and it's also tends to be. You know it also, we also tend to be very what are the words of the, the wise street poet, who I often use? I often use this one with my daughter. We started playing last year Walk up in there and show them that you're equal. We aren't about tell us who you're equal, we're about show us and that you know. Showing us your equal is literally just follow the ethics.

Speaker 1: 44:15

You know we talk about 85%, looking the part. 10%, you know, some people say it's like 90%, look in the part, and 10%, yeah, 10%, tactical, I'm like it's more like 85, 10, 5, it's 85%, look in the part, it's, you know. 10%. You know play in the, you know, you know athletic skill, military skill, all that, but just more or less the same thing if you think about it. Because how many sports? If you looked at every sport, even Olympic track and field, and you go back to when it started, all of them have some aspect of of warfare in them. You know, you think about it, but I'm getting a little off topic. And then 5% ethics, which is don't be an asshole, you know, right, you know you don't want to be right, you don't want to play with the guy who, whose whole mentality is? I'm just gonna mag dump this fool in his head.

Speaker 2: 45:21

Right.

Speaker 1: 45:22

Yeah, that's. That's where I'm like yeah, it's kind of 85 10, 5 Versus 90 10, but 90 10 is a good, a good one. I'm just kind of nitpicking with that one.

Speaker 2: 45:35

No, I think it. Yeah, I understand what you're saying and because of all the look, you wouldn't have to say ethical if, if people would, would play right and had, you know, respect and good manners. So, but a lot of the younger Generation coming into the sport, you know they, they don't. This is why I think it's important, for one of the things that we've talked about with numerous people on on here before is how do we fix that kind of behavior? Right, and I had One. I had make them play paintball first.

Speaker 2: 46:11

Okay, if you want to play, you got to start with paintball, because that shit hurts way worse than airsoft. Oh, yes, yeah, oh yes. And then two on indoor fields, you have to wear. If you're, let's say, 16 to you know, let's say 15 I don't know what the youngest age is in there, but An indoor fields it might be 14, 14 to 17, right or 18 you got to wear. No, you can't wear, be wearing a bunch of gear. You have to wear a t-shirt. Okay, now you could wear your, you know, something like a chest rig or a plate carrier, but you have to you. Some kind of skin has to be exposed, like your arms or something like that.

Speaker 2: 46:59

Uh, I mean, that's just that would fix a lot of the a lot of things. Like one of the guys matter of fact, freddy From veterans for airsoft he goes you know people are complaining about uh, overshooting he's like then die better. So if you, if you call, instead of just raising your hand like oh, hit, like if you are really role-playing right, like you're uh, you know you fall down, you're falling on ground, you're like I'm hit, you know like medic or whatever, then they're not going to overshoot you. But yeah, there's uh, these young kids coming in. I think they need, uh they got to learn respect for the game and that is, bro, this shit hurts sometimes, okay, and if you're wearing a like this hoodie, you know, the first time you go to play you're barely going to feel it like you'll feel it, but you, you're barely going to feel it and um, well, yeah.

Speaker 1: 47:57

Yeah, well, first off, one of the things to accept, you know, as part of the ethical end of it is we're all human.

Speaker 1: 48:05

Yeah you know, it's like I tell people. For example, I took my daughter out for her first game and late june, early july of last year, and there were a couple things I did. But one of the things I did to everybody that was on my side of the field is I reminded them drink water. It's hot, it's humid, tempers are going to flare. If you start feeling yourself, get that way, don't say anything. If you need to vent, you come vent to me. And they're like how old you know, how long have you been playing? I looked at him, said how old are you? He goes 20 and I go. I started playing four years before you were even born. And you look at people go Huh. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:57

Now it's kind of weird because I don't think of myself, as you know, because I've had some people who are in the airsoft scene look at you know, find out how long I've been playing, and they say, oh, you're one of the og's. And I'm like I don't really think of myself as such because I remember, and I'm still talk to some of the guys that were, you know, the old heads, the old hands, when I started playing, and you know these were guys who started playing with, like jac bushmasters and asahi guns, you know stuff you don't hear about anymore and uh, you know the classics and uh, yeah, I've never heard of this.

Speaker 1: 49:33

Yeah, uh, they were. They were scuba tank guns, they were mechanical scuba tank guns. Yeah kind of like Uh, kind of like Daytona guns Uh-huh would be for us, but um, that's what you had to play with until tokyo marui invented the aeg with the famas. Um, but no, the you know, part of it is maturity, you know, I I'm a zenial, so I kind of am that weird cusp between the gen X and the millennial. You know if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 50:08

So some of my, you know some of my my upbringing was kind of feral. You know, I was one of those kids that you know when summer was in, I got up, I ate breakfast and then I was kicked out of the house until so it was time for lunch came in, eat lunch, go out and, uh, you better be home before.

Speaker 1: 50:29

Yeah, you, you be home before six. Yeah, it was five during during the school year, yeah, but you know that kind of a thing. But when we were, when I was first playing the old hands you know it was it was it was it was kind of expected you respected the old hands unless they were complete total assholes right you know, and being a complete, total asshole was things like cheating, you know, lighten somebody up.

Speaker 1: 51:00

You know what we would call mag dumping nowadays Sure, you know that kind of a thing. Or going use the search feature If somebody's asking they haven't found what they're looking for on the search feature. But uh, you know it was. But it was also expected that when you had experience you were to pass it on. Sure, you know, so it was. It was a little more. We were a little more anti authority but we're also a little more egalitarian, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 51:30

Well, it is weird to see, um, when older players Are losing their shit, like when they're getting you know, they're frustrated and they're yelling and they're like, oh I.

Speaker 1: 51:43

I. I had one incident like that that I can remember, and it was this. It was this one kid. He was well, I call him a kid because by this point I'd already hit corporal. I had already had a combat tour with an infantry battalion under my belt. I was a truck driver, but I got augmented to an infantry battalion for deployment to Iraq.

Speaker 2: 52:06

I was motor transport as well.

Speaker 1: 52:08

Yep, yeah, and secondary I secondaryed as a 34 and an 09 33. Yep, I was, I was a rifle and pistol coach and I was, I was uh semi refueler 9, 31s, 9, 70s.

Speaker 2: 52:27

Well, we, yeah, we did a lot of the same stuff because I went, uh, oki, I was at ninth motors battalion Delta company and then, um, when I got stationed at Pendleton, I was at a edson range, the shooting range out there, the small shooting range where the recruits from mcrd San Diego go up to qualify and, you know, snap in, and all that. So, yeah, it's uh. So I spent the last my duty out there in, uh, uh, edson range, yeah.

Speaker 1: 52:59

Yeah, but um you know, so I call him a kid, but this guy was in his 20s. Okay.

Speaker 1: 53:06

He was probably a little bit younger than I was and he had a reputation for being sneaky. But the thing was I had been teaching people how to watch for Somebody try and sneak up on you, mm-hmm. And to figure out if I'm gonna sneak. I Said you got to think about it. This guy is a bit of a showboat so he's gonna take the hard way all the time. So think about what the hardest way is and anticipate him going that way. You know, if somebody wants to take the easy way, they're gonna go downhill toward water, kind of a deal. You know like like uh, uh, a hit deer, a hit deer. You know when you With going back to my hunting days and you shoot a deer, if it's gonna, if it's gonna run, it's gonna run downhill toward water. Yeah. So if you know where the water features are, you know where they go downhill, you're gonna be able to figure out where they are and what direction they went. You know, just same with people. People are gonna take the easiest route downhill and they're instinctively gonna go toward heavy brush or water Because you're gonna look for something, some way to hide.

Speaker 1: 54:14

But this guy, he started shooting his mouth off about two weeks before on the ncao forums and He'd been talking about how lmg players don't deserve to play the open plays on the weekends and it should be restricted to just people who are using pistols and rifles and this. That the other. And everybody kind of knew what was up. You know and and people knew, yet You're just mad because because he's calling you out, you know, he, you're having to learn and you're having to progress rather than raw talent, and what had happened was we were playing a game and it all kind of came to a head. We were playing a game. It was ridiculously hot and humid. I think it was like 85. I mean, I'm trying to remember 15, some years ago, so if my memory is hazy, forgive me. So it was like 85 degrees out and it was like 40 50 humidity. It was like stupid hot. You know stupid hot, stupid sticky. You know carolina weather. You know, yeah, you know that one.

Speaker 2: 55:27

I do but um.

Speaker 1: 55:30

I'd gotten hit and we had a field down there around Myrtle beach called adventure beach paintball and everybody who went there usually wound up with one of their dead rags, which was bright blaze orange, which I liked. I still like the idea of a blaze orange dead rag rather than red. Reds it reds, it easy to get color, but blaze orange is also good. You know, if red can be seen, blaze orange is better. But I have one of them on top of my head Because it's sticky and I'm I'm sucking wind Because I'm running a heavy m60.

Speaker 1: 56:14

I have been running up and down a hill all day. It's two minutes till the end of the game. I just decided I'm going to stand there. So my mark 43 is, but first on the ground, my hand is over the muzzle, I'm still on the field, I've got a dead rag on my head and I'm calling hit every 30 seconds. And I'm calling hit not in a loud and in a in a small voice. I'm doing as much of the command voices I can muster and so you know. You know what that is, that really loud voice that doesn't seem to take much out of your throat because you're going from your stomach.

Speaker 1: 56:51

Yeah but you know for the, for the viewers at home, so to speak. But um, this guy walks up and he's got a high cappa. This was right after the high cappa was released and he's creeping up. He's creeping up and he's got the thing like this, two inches from my face.

Speaker 2: 57:11

What no way.

Speaker 1: 57:15

Yup and I, I'm literally looking at him in the eyes and I looked at him and I said if you pull that trigger, I'm going to shove that gun up your ass. And he decides immediately to go running back to the back, to the dead zone where all the the officials in the organization are, and go me no way. Yup and at least three other people are like dude. I saw what he did, I heard the whole thing. And they come running up and he's, he's telling everybody's like what happened. And I said I have no problem being overshot, you know, unless you know, somebody's like you know, pops up, sees me and then just unloads, right. But this guy Did something that was really out of the pale. Now, was I out of pocket? Yes, and I'll be the first to admit it. But he was also Really out of pocket because at that point it you're, you're, you're, you know, doing this to somebody two inches from their face.

Speaker 2: 58:24

No, I know Not.

Speaker 1: 58:26

I'm not doing like I said, I'm no, and when that came out, that's when everybody kind of went and his, his team captain was a 911 dispatcher.

Speaker 1: 58:40

Okay and was like Dude, you're not in trouble. Yeah, he's looking at me going no, no, no, dude, You're not in trouble. I'm like I'm sorry if I brought trouble to your door because my mother, she is the the typical, uh uh, you know, she was raised by my grandmother. My grandmother was a quaker, so she was the type that would apologize if she thought she even inconvenienced you. And I picked up a little bit Gotcha and.

Speaker 1: 59:08

I'm like, dude, I am sorry to bring that trouble to your door. He goes no, I needed to know about this. Yeah, but yeah, was I out of pocket? I'll admit it now that, like I said, but also equally understandable, because I'm sitting here Very clearly out and this guy's just doing this hoping to pull, pull some shenanigans, get me kicked off the field, banned, so that way he can, yeah, do whatever he wants to do.

Speaker 2: 59:37

No, that ain't, that ain't cool man. That ain't cool Nope yeah.

Speaker 1: 59:42

Yeah, no, no, I mean we don't care about external factors in airsoft.

Speaker 2: 59:47

Well, that's a thing like some of these stories. I'm like why do people, why do they do this kind of stuff? Like what?

Speaker 1: 59:56

like, even because they can get away with it.

Speaker 2: 59:59

I guess. But damn, man like would you ever have done that even when you were 16? Would you have done that on the field If?

Speaker 1: 1:00:07

I had done that I would have had, it would have been one of them. Cases of I'd have gotten my butt beat from one end of the field to the next, kicked off the field and then, when my dad found out about it, exactly that is a pretty calm person. Uh, he'd have caught. I'd have caught a beating from him.

Speaker 2: 1:00:25

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, man, I think a lot of these are.

Speaker 1: 1:00:29

You know bad parenting you know I'm a, well, I'm a parent myself. I got three kids. Two of them are on the spectrum and For the most part the kids on the spectrum are fine. You know, my, my son's got an interest, but I'm not sure he's mature enough. And my daughter? I offered it to her Because I thought she was mature enough. But I did a test and the test was very simple. I told her I will, I will back you 150 in this. I will buy whatever you need. It may not be top of the line, but you'll have stock. But here's the thing, um, but here's the thing. The first thing you're getting will not be a gun.

Speaker 1: 1:01:22

And I saw this with kids because one of my friends, jack, used to run big boys toys down in north darrell lineup. And you know, I I still kind of kind of, if I'm in a, if I'm in a place and the, the, the staff are busy, I kind of Start asking questions. You know, kind of acting like ad hoc store person because, well, if they're busy, the minute they get unbusy, I can, I can kind of speed them on their way. Kind of a deal, maybe steer the parents towards something. But I see these parents, you know their kids want to play and their kids are trying to steer them toward the biggest, most expensive gun there is. And because their kids they're not thinking about eye protection. I was a paintballer so I already had eye protection. The first year I wore a full jt flex seven plastic paintball mask. The next year I pulled the pulled the mask part off. In paintball you weren't no airsoft.

Speaker 2: 1:02:20

Oh, I was gonna say, did you I? I don't know anyone.

Speaker 1: 1:02:24

I had the stuff already because I was a paintball.

Speaker 2: 1:02:25

Right, right, exactly yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:02:27

Yeah, well, I thought you meant you played.

Speaker 2: 1:02:29

You played paintball without a, without a full face cover. I was like no no, bro, you're brave.

Speaker 1: 1:02:37

No, now, I did know some people who played that way because, well, they were old school paintballers, bro, we'll not get into that, that mess.

Speaker 2: 1:02:46

Uh that's right.

Speaker 1: 1:02:47

Um, but no, that's. That's the test I did, because whenever I'd bring up eye protection, you'd see these little kids, who really weren't mature enough to handle it, kind of get outraged Because my, all of a sudden, an adult is talking to an adult, is giving them a straight dope, you know. So the kid would get a little mad because mom would say no, because the, the, the nifty knew, whiz bang.

Speaker 2: 1:03:15

So what was? Your test now instead of buying a gun you uh, what was your test?

Speaker 1: 1:03:20

Yeah, well, my test was. I told her I'll buy what you need. The first thing you're getting is not a gun, it's a face mask. Oh right, so I'm watching for her reaction. Oh gotcha. And now, like I said, well, it's worked with all children. No, nothing works for all children.

Speaker 1: 1:03:38

I'm sure you, you know I, I can't use the same approach with my son that I can use with my youngest daughter, who I call the mischief that walks. She's very on the spectrum and very internally driven. You know, I'm talking the first year we lived in this house that I'm in now. She rated our. It was the first winner we were in here. She rated the pantry and I found her at 3am Sitting on the floor of the pantry.

Speaker 1: 1:04:12

She set up the step stool. She's got a can of hot cocoa mix in between her legs, the bag of mini marshmallows and she's eating handfuls of mini marshmallows. This is spooning hot cocoa mix in her mouth. I mean I look at her and go destiny, what are you doing? I want cocoa. Daddy, look out the window. Is it still dark out? Yes, daddy, it's not time for cocoa, it's time for night night. Go sleep with Maddie. I'm gonna go sleep on the couch. That little girl's the only one kicks my butt out of my bed. Now, you know I I can. You know, sean, or you know I, you know, with the older two I can usually be like boy, are you supposed to do that? No, are we goobering? Yeah, what are we supposed to be doing? Doing this? Go do it. Destiny, I kind of have to. I can only do so much with her because she is so far, you know, so far internally driven, so I kind of have to redirect her with other things.

Speaker 1: 1:05:14

Yeah but no, I, when, like I said, I was watching Trinity, I was watching my, my, my middle child, for I call her the stout. But I was watching my middle child for her reaction. If she got outraged I'd go I don't think you're ready for this and go on the shelf for another year or two. But she went. Her response was dad, that's a really strange order to do things, and may I ask why that is? I mean she, she may not have said, may I ask, but she may she. She said why is that? You know she's, she's curious.

Speaker 1: 1:05:58

Huh, and I sat there and I told her straight up, because the first thing I've always had is I'm always honest with them as much as I can. I mean, I didn't tell them the Santa, that Santa Claus, you know, I didn't tell them Santa Claus and I didn't tell them birds and the bees at six years old. But you know, dad, why is? Why is this happening? This is happening because this is happening. You know, I'm as honest with them as I can. And she go and I tell her because I'm, I'm gonna play honest with her as you go through. If you stick with it, you'll trade guns, you'll get new uniforms to your girl change, but you know what won't change you have two sets of. You have a set of eyes. You have two eyes. There's the only ones you're gonna have for the rest of your life. So that's the first thing I get you and she's like, okay, she thought about it for a minute. She's like, yeah, that makes sense, so dad's, dad's talking sense.

Speaker 2: 1:07:05

Yeah, that's the thing we got. Okay, so I have two hands, I have two sets of fingers, but your fingers ain't gonna get blown off when you're playing airsoft, but your eyes, bro, that thing is your eyes getting messed up if you don't wear eye protection with airsoft going on.

Speaker 1: 1:07:27

I mean you might get away with it once, but do you want to roll the dice on that?

Speaker 2: 1:07:31

Bro, no way Because even if you have your eyes closed.

Speaker 1: 1:07:36

I will wholeheartedly encourage you know, by the best eye protection you can. I went out and picked my daughter up. You know she doesn't know she's getting it yet, but when she comes back to play she's got a new dye eye five.

Speaker 2: 1:07:51

Nice.

Speaker 1: 1:07:53

She used my eye four Because I think on my Instagram I have a picture of her and I at a game. Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:08:01

And I'm wearing, you know, my revision goggles, the ballistic vision or revision goggles, and a face mask. And she's got the. She's got my old, my dye eye four, because I remember when I settled in West Virginia for a little bit after getting out of the military, steel City airsoft was up. Up Amp was supplying steel city airsoft and I used to play up there indoors a lot so I was kind of thankful I had a paintball mask. So I've always had one. Yep.

Speaker 1: 1:08:34

Playing around for those events where you know, okay, I'm playing indoors, so I'm going to wear a full face because, even if I'm not required to over, kills underrated when it comes to safety.

Speaker 2: 1:08:48

Right, exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:08:52

But yeah, that's how I dealt with that. Now, the other thing is, I have to say some of it might come from something a friend of mine who's a video gamer is called the asshole syndrome, and the asshole syndrome is quite simply in some of these games where there are multiple endings and multiple, you know, like fall up for dragon age origins, where you can have different responses dependent on. A friend of mine noted that her now ex husband used to pick the asshole dialogue option out of every one of the ones. That was sometimes blunt and direct but didn't always need to be said yeah, he would always pick that one and he would not a nice man, I think, is. I think the funniest thing is his daughter looked at me and says you're more of a daddy to me than my own. So yeah, I guess you could say I have four. I have four children, but three by blood.

Speaker 1: 1:10:17

Right, but we have a couple of those that yeah kind of adopted. Yeah yeah, my dad adopted adopted one of my sister's friends when she got married. Her parents couldn't stop fighting long enough to give their blessing, so she came over to my parents out of distraught and my dad's just like you know, I'm wearing a kilt, right, yeah, but but yeah. So that's some of it. I think some of it is immature kids. Sure, some of his kids, who have been taught that being an asshole gets you what you want. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:10:57

And the other half of it is as much as I hate to say it. I think there needs to be some kind of immediate response. Yeah, because the minute there isn't now up here in Pennsylvania, there's, there's actually, I've looked it up. There is a law for discharging a paintball gun. Now, obviously it's lighter than discharging a firearm. If somebody's, if somebody's being an asshole and trying to play, you know, those mag dump videos is emulating one of them, and you know they've been. You know they do it bad enough and the cops get called on them and that charge gets pressed on them. That's an immediate response, because now mom and dad have to go get him a lawyer. Mom and I mean as much as I'd love to be, you know pop him upside the head like you know my dad would have. You know what you thinking, you know, and my dad didn't have to use closed fist. No, he knew, he knew, you know he did that. I knew I'd messed up.

Speaker 2: 1:12:10

Oh yeah, my dad really had to hit me. I mean, I was even as a teenager. He would still. He was a big dude, he would still like a young teenager. All he'd have to do is grab my arm and he would squeeze his thumb underneath. You know, with that nerve point is where the artery is underneath your bicep. It, bro, I mean, he got my attention, that's all it needed. You know, he never yeah he'd smack me in the head. Same thing He'd hit me in the back of the head.

Speaker 1: 1:12:38

You know what are you thinking. Now, he, my dad, didn't do that for everything. If I messed up at school, my dad would, you know, up? You know, he, he, he chin wag the whole time. You know, because he was a street kid from Detroit and it was funny because when I was a kid I got into a fight with a kid on the playground. He had called my mom A woman of negotiable affection, shall we say. I turned around, I turned around and I popped this kid in the mouth and immediately everybody's. You know I had started a brawl on the field on the, and everybody looks at me because I'm almost a carbon copy of my dad. You know, if you know, I've seen pictures of me and my dad at about the same age, like my baby my boot camp picture at 22. Yeah, versus my dad's basic training picture at 20. Because my dad was a drafty. The similarities are so shocking it's not funny, it's it's like carbon copy and my son is basically the same way. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:13:56

You know you take the beard off, take the hair off, I'd look like an older version of him. But everybody's like but your dad is so calm and collected, how is it? And I looked at him and said so, chasing somebody with a with a wine bottle down and beating them with a wine bottle for five blocks is an option. They're like no, your dad couldn't have done that. No, my dad did it. It was because somebody had said that he had gotten it with his sister. Dad confronted the dude that was running around shooting his mouth off and just, you know he's like. I know you didn't do that, I know who's it, what's it to you, and he says I'm your brother. Oh, shit Starts taking off. Running Beat the guy with a wine bottle for the better part of five blocks Every time he caught up with him. But you know as much as that would be. You know an immediate. You know you do something like that. You get popped in the mouth. Might do it. You can't do it in this day and age. No.

Speaker 2: 1:15:06

You know, I was growing up when we were kids. You know in the neighborhood, all of our parents, all of our neighbors. You know all of our friends, parents. Like they, they all knew they had permission to they. They'd grab you by the back of your neck or hit you in the back of the head or yell at you or smack your hand or whatever. Like they. They all did that back then. But we also my parents also knew Whose house I was going to like. They knew the parents right. Everyone knew each other.

Speaker 1: 1:15:37

The parents all knew one another Exactly and they all communicated.

Speaker 2: 1:15:41

Right.

Speaker 1: 1:15:42

Yeah, and the thing was also, as I got older, I learned that parents weren't infallible. For example, there was a period of time with my childhood friend where you know his, his little sister, basically said I hit her but I hadn't. And when it finally came out, he, the mom, basically brought it to the father's attention and the father kind of had to come up and say he came up, he sat down in our, in our living room. He asked if he could come in, went into our living room, apologized objectively and I said I understand you were protecting your daughter, sure, and I thought there was a predator. And it turns out there wasn't. And what happened was she got. You know what had happened, was she had.

Speaker 1: 1:16:38

I was a martial, I was doing martial arts at the time and I had found a secluded place and was practicing a form and what had happened was, when I was practicing the form, she jumped out of the bushes Just as I was, just as I was doing a block this way, and she jumped out so close that I popped her with this part of my hand. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:17:04

And she's like I'm like. The first thing that came out of my mouth is I am so sorry, did you? You know, I did not mean that you. You know, you you kind of ran into it because she kind of did yeah, and she's like I'm like, I'm just going, she's jumping out. Yeah, I'm like oh, but you know, that's also one of the things you learn too. But I think some of it has to do with we also don't let kids be kids.

Speaker 2: 1:17:34

Yeah, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:17:36

You think about it. My kids don't have phones yet. One of them will probably get one before the summer is out Because she has a boyfriend. She's doing things more out of the house. It makes sense. I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 20 or 21. Yeah, and that was because I was doing a lot of work outside the house. You know I was doing, I was working out the outside of the house and I was going out more with people and I was ranging a little farther afield and my parents were like you're ranging a little farther afield, so if something goes wrong, we want you to have a way of getting up, getting a hold of us. And that was a Christmas present. That wasn't, it was a. It was a Nokia brick bow, yep, oh yeah, you know the type.

Speaker 2: 1:18:30

Yeah, I had one.

Speaker 1: 1:18:31

Yeah, it was one of the ones that had that still had the little nubbin antenna. Yeah. God, I wound up giving that that phone to my sister before I left for Paris Island. Okay. And she inherited my old phone because she was starting to do the same thing and I was like, if you know, I'm going to be making my own money. My parents don't need to be paying for this, no more. Yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 1: 1:18:59

That's. That's the other half of it is. I also don't think we're letting kids be kids. They're trying to handle things like an adult, but they don't have. They don't have the experiences of kid to learn how to be the adult.

Speaker 2: 1:19:13

Yeah, they don't have the social experience either.

Speaker 2: 1:19:16

So they're, they're, they know, they go to school. They can't, you know, at school they're not allowed to. You know, like boys aren't allowed to get in fights anymore, right Like the cops are called on two eight year olds that are fighting. That's ridiculous. And then you got I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, you know, we were allowed to fight and we got in fights in the neighborhood, like all the time. It wasn't bad, you know, but little scuffles here and there. You learn social interaction through that and you learn about consequences and you learn respect. So there's a lot of that. And then also they're sitting in front of screens instead of going out and doing a bunch of exercise like running around. So, and then they sit in a class, they sit at home Uh, they don't get all this, you know, energy out. And when they're, you know, going through puberty either. After they're done with that, they've got a, you know, boys have a ton of testosterone at 15 years old.

Speaker 2: 1:20:12

Like they want to break something. Like they legit. This is like built up in them and I want to break something. I want to get out here. I want to chop wood or or hit, hit the baseball with a baseball bat, right, like, and they're not able to do that and as much as we did. And so they get on the airsoft field and they're like they got all this power and this uh A G that they can just worry yeah or ask somebody yeah, especially at HPA Cause it seems, yeah, and it seems like the ones that do that.

Speaker 1: 1:20:40

I hate to say it, but they're always. It always seems like their DSG or your HPA built and do. I think it's because HPA is inherently bad.

Speaker 2: 1:20:50

No, no, it's too much power.

Speaker 1: 1:20:52

for that? It's because HPA is way easier to tune than an A J. Well, I wonder if what?

Speaker 2: 1:20:59

do you think about, like, if a field would, especially indoor fields, would require you know how we do? Um, they uh, you know you have a jewel limit, right. Uh, what if they had a, uh uh, rps right, like rounds per per second, um type of thing?

Speaker 1: 1:21:20

Yeah, I remember you talking about this, I think with six millimeter cult, uh-huh Cool guy. I'd like to meet him one day.

Speaker 2: 1:21:28

Yeah, he's cool dude.

Speaker 1: 1:21:29

He's going to be on again.

Speaker 1: 1:21:31

Yeah, I think he, I think he's pretty cool and, uh, I don't know the speed soft end of it quite so well. I will admit that that is a blind spot of mine. I'm hoping to get that rectified at some point within the next couple of years, you know, maybe at least dip my toe into it. Um, I know Jackal does, uh, does uh, custom high cap of builds. I may see if I can get one done like the lion rampant flag. Oh nice. Well, like I said, I'm part Scottish Highlander. Right.

Speaker 1: 1:22:14

So and my family were Jacobites who fled to Canada after Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion. So I'd go with the gold with a little bit of reddit to rep that.

Speaker 2: 1:22:28

Well, you played a lot of outdoor stuff then. Have you seen? Is that an issue? As much as you know, as far as the younger guys doing the overshooting and spazzing out and, you know, just flipping the auto and, like you know, really punishing somebody, around, around here. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:22:49

Not as much. Okay, it seems like we've got a real, a real good handle on that. Now, like I said, I'll admit that I haven't always played by the rules. One of the first games I played back, I was carrying my M27. I flipped it to safety. I ran to my first bunker. I peeked over to give a shot, went for the shot and realized oh crap. And I looked down at the selector switch. I must have nudged it with my gear or nudged it with my glove when I wasn't noticing. I flipped it to auto. I went equipment malfunction, lipped it back to semi and no problem, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:23:37

But somebody asked who shot that little burst of auto? I'm like it was me. I must have brushed up against something. But I took my safety, you know. But the minute I realized it I fixed it. They're like okay, I mean I have an ICS I'd love to put out on the field, but I can't because the safety, the selector, actually drifts. It's an ICS L85. And some of them shifted and what it is is when it's in semi. If you fire it enough, there's enough of a vibration that'll actually flip down into auto. So as long as you're aware of that kind of stuff, usually it's not too bad. But you know this stuff of oh, he's not calling his hit, so I'm going to flip the auto and run up and just unload into them. No, that's the cross, that's cross the line. And well, that's another good point too is the selector.

Speaker 2: 1:24:33

Like what you know? What about these fields, especially the indoor ones, if they've required the only gun you're allowed to play with if you're under a certain age, right, if you're under 20, I don't know that you it can only have semi like it can't even be able to have auto. And, matter of fact, lancer tactical just did a. You know, I've been following their there's a Instagram and Facebook and all their stuff for a while and I know at shot show one of the guys I was talking to shout out to Bondo, he was talking about Lancer tactical coming out with some really badass stuff and one of the things they just talked about on their on their Instagram was they did a short video on this where it's a and I'm not sure what the model is, but it's a, an HPA out of the box. Okay Type of gun. It doesn't have to be converted.

Speaker 1: 1:25:36

They're going to select the old tip.

Speaker 2: 1:25:38

The old tip mints and it comes. You buy the tank that screws on the back, okay, so, like these indoor speed soft types, whatever and this is going to be geared, it's marketed towards field owners to buy as their rentals, that way they don't have to have all these batteries charged and blah, blah, blah, you have the tanks. Obviously, you have to buy a tank. You know, I think it's a 12 or 16 ounce tank. It's small. You fill them up, okay, so you put them in. But this thing is it doesn't even have the ability to go full auto, like it's safe or fire and it's all. It's only semi. I think it's a really good option, man. I think maybe that's what would fix a lot, of, a lot of these issues. Who knows?

Speaker 1: 1:26:28

It would, it would, and for a rental that, for a rental fleet, that makes perfect sense. Yeah. I'm just. I've always been a little leery of HPA because of the remote hose. Back in my paintball days I bought three of those things and none of them ever worked. What was it they? Leaked. Oh, okay. Remote hoses. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they leaked and I was just like I'm not wasting my money on this crap.

Speaker 2: 1:26:59

Well, they're definitely a lot better now.

Speaker 1: 1:27:01

I was well no thinking about. Well, that was, that's another thing. I think that that another thing, I think that sometimes may also be a maturity thing is everything I bought for all of my stuff, whether it was hunting or airsoft or paintball, I paid for.

Speaker 2: 1:27:27

Oh yeah, you had to work for it.

Speaker 1: 1:27:29

So I put a lot yeah, I worked for it. You know I worked for it. So it was. It was. Let me let me do my research rather than let me buy the prettiest gubbin on the thing.

Speaker 2: 1:27:45

Well, yeah, it's what you could afford, and you know you had learned how much work it takes to get X amount of money. You know when you're 16, 17 years old. So yeah, that's another. I mean there's a lot of factors going into that, for sure. But yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:28:01

And I mean I mean I'm you know, right now I'm still finishing up getting the Stoats equipment and I picked her up a gun, but it was. It was one of the Speckna Arms Gen 1 edges. I have a leery thing about the polymer bodies. Yeah, probably just an old man's you know leery-ness. Well, no, because my second AEG ever was the Tokyo Murray XM177. Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:28:38

Plastic body creak to no end. You could feel the flex in the body and I'm like, anytime I hear polymer body, I'm like I think back to that and I also think back to some of the early classic Army sport lines. You know where the gearbox was nice, but one kid took a spill with one and busted the body and it was. I wound up giving the you know lending the kid my KWAM4, you know the KM4A1, and just tell him look, if you strip a piston, that's fine, but if I catch you beating, beating trees with it like a baseball bat, we're going to have a problem. You know kind of a thing, because I'm, you know, I'm like, yeah, you bust this when you fall down. My first priority is are you okay? Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:29:38

Because I can buy a new gun. Sure, might take me a little while, but I can buy a new one. We can't buy a new, you you know, and that's the other thing is also, I think, some of the older, you know, like we see, some of, like we said, some of the older players, you know. There's a quote that comes out at me from Dick, from one of Dick Marsinko's books about the real red cell. Yep, if you ever read Marsinko, I read all his books bro.

Speaker 1: 1:30:10

Yeah, you remember the one where he actually went into the actual people. Yep. And he had his, his commandments for speck war. Yes. He's talking about. Have character, don't be a character. That's what we need. We need people with with character. Now, does character mean you're going to be Mr Rogers? Oh hell, no, we're human beings. If we accept that human beings have laws, you know, long as you can follow the ethics reasonably and you ain't a Stalin want to be, or a follower of the mustache man, I got no problem with you. Right.

Speaker 1: 1:30:55

Right, and I'm going to put it both ways. You know, a Stalin want to be or a follower of the mustache man? They're both. They're both, you know, not okay people.

Speaker 2: 1:31:05

Now you so you've been playing airsoft a long time, man, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:31:09

I have, I mean that's good, I think.

Speaker 2: 1:31:13

do you know Don NEPA airsoft, he's up in PA.

Speaker 1: 1:31:18

I know of him by reputation. Him and I have not had had the opportunity to cross cross paths. He's been playing some conversations.

Speaker 2: 1:31:27

I think he's been playing. He started playing probably just a few years longer than you A few years before you.

Speaker 1: 1:31:35

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:31:38

He, he, the North, early 90s I think, yeah, you have to remember I was growing up outside of Philadelphia so getting up into the Northeast was a little, it was a little bit of a hike and whenever you know, like I said, the the, the fields I knew of and the people I knew were more around Mill Hall, which is a little more toward Penn State, so that's why my life took me out there. Now M Saddo is also having a milsim in my backyard in Ashland. Oh, okay, that's in my county, I'm. I'm north of Redding. Gotcha.

Speaker 1: 1:32:15

Pennsylvania yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:32:18

And NEPA's. He's been, oh Don, he's been playing airsoft for a long time as well, and he's seen all the transitions I got to contact him and yeah, and I think him and I have had some very interesting conversations about, about things.

Speaker 1: 1:32:33

Like you know, I've had some very interesting conversations, not just with some of the people like don't know Don, but also some very you know people like uh, uh, leah Del Castillo. You know I've had some interesting conversations with her because you know she'll, she'll bring up some interesting stuff and I'll bring up something that very few people remember and they did that. Yeah, she won. What is it? What is an old? An old airsoft gun you want to see remade again? My answer was the? Uh, tokyo Marui HK 51. I don't care if Marui doesn't make it, but I want that style back. You remember that one? Yeah, uh, look look it up on Arnie's airsoft. It's a really interesting one. It was based on much like the MC 51. It was based on a Bulmer conversion of a full auto capable HK 91. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:33:37

But it's basically an MC 51 with a longer barrel and a full stock and you know, given the fact that we were running Nikads or some of us were running NIMS, that was high tech in those days, but I like that style, you know, it's just yeah, it looks like an MP five yeah. It looks like an MP five that takes a 7, 6, 2 mags.

Speaker 2: 1:34:09

Oh, it fires 7, 6, 2.

Speaker 1: 1:34:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:34:13

Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:34:14

Like I said, uh, the guy, uh, there was a gunsmith named Bulmer V-O-L-L-M-E-R who took a, um, a G three or a HK 91. Yeah, and he did that modification to it.

Speaker 2: 1:34:31

I'll put it on the screen real quick so you can see it.

Speaker 1: 1:34:33

It's one of those really cool ones.

Speaker 2: 1:34:35

Okay, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it looks a lot like an MP five. That's wild that that short of a gun shoots a 7, 6, 2.

Speaker 1: 1:34:52

Yeah, um. Well, it's kind of funny because years ago, when I was overseas, they actually found something like it in Iraq. It was an Iranian G three that somebody had basically cut the barrel in the gas tube off and silver soldered a AK gas block onto it. Oh wow. And they found it with mismatched 7, 6, 2 ammunition. You know, like some they had stolen from you know one's one source or was older Iranian or something that nature, uh-huh. But yeah, they found one like that that was actually gunsmith, almost like that. That's crazy overseas.

Speaker 2: 1:35:36

So weird, weird stuff finds its way everywhere, um now, what do you got going on for the rest of the year, Like do you have um? Do you do you plan out a certain event you would like to go to each year, or certain event hosts that you follow?

Speaker 1: 1:35:55

Um. This year my biggest goal is to get out May Well it a lot of it is going to depend on what goes on. Um I'm married. My wife is dual citizenship American, mexican. She grew, she was born in San Diego and she grew up in Tijuana.

Speaker 2: 1:36:15

Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:36:16

Her dad was a doctor down there. Her mom was a lab tech and phlebotomist. So start about two years back. Her father passed and every year around Mother's Day we try and take the time and if we can't make it down there to check in on her physically, we try and uh uh, I try and uh uh. If we can't go down there physically to check on her, I try and um, at least make sure she knows, you know, send something down there. It's that way it gets there around their Mother's Day, which I think is always May 11. So I'm going to cut it close, but one of my goals is to try and make um the uh, uh other world event in at EMR.

Speaker 1: 1:37:13

Oh okay, because that one, yeah, cause I haven't been to EMR in a while and I kind of feel like seeing it now again.

Speaker 2: 1:37:19

Right, I think Mother's Day is the second. It's always on a Sunday. It's a second Sunday, so let me see what it is this year.

Speaker 1: 1:37:28

She lives in Mexico. Mexico. I think it's always May 11th, 11th or 12th, somewhere somewhere in there.

Speaker 2: 1:37:35

Yeah, it's always the second second Sunday. Yeah, I got you and then Cinco de Mayo is the, you know the week before that.

Speaker 1: 1:37:43

See, I've been down to Mexico for Cinco de Mayo. It's not as big down there as it is here.

Speaker 2: 1:37:47

They don't celebrate it like they do here.

Speaker 1: 1:37:50

It's uh, I've met it's very understated.

Speaker 2: 1:37:52

I've worked with a handful of Mexican dudes that I'm still friends with that. Um, you know, when I was flipping houses and uh, we, I'd always ask him you know, cinco de Mayo, you going? You know what are you doing tonight? And they're like bro, that's not even a thing we do. Okay, like that's, that's all American stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:38:10

I was like, oh, okay, yeah, um, yeah, um, yeah, my, yeah, like I said I was, I was in, uh, two years ago. I was down there for Cinco de Mayo, because that's about the time that he, her, her dad started going down hill. We got word. I said it was it was a Monday. Uh, it was a Monday morning. I said you go to work now and when you got a chance start looking for flights Wednesday. Now, sadly he passed before we could get there, but I was still down there. I still met her mother. Her mother loves me and I don't know, I'm going to insist, I don't know why. Uh, sometimes she, she, she has said I am a little loco. Well, her mom and dad wound up getting a place in Rosarito, which is kind of like.

Speaker 2: 1:39:07

I've been to road Rosarito.

Speaker 1: 1:39:10

Yeah, rosarito, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:39:12

I spent. I spent a weekend in Rosarito. We went there's a Lube Fidora was. Uh, we heard about this place called the Lube Fidora. We went down there and, um, when I was stationed in Pendleton, we went down there and hung out at this place, got a, got a little motel room in Rosarito, went down to Lube Fidora. You know, I mean there's really nothing there. It's not really good. You know, back then this was 91. So, uh, you know it wasn't a whole lot of. It wasn't like a tourist thing, um, but it was cool it was. It was a place to stay and see and that kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 1:39:45

So, oh, yeah, it's definitely a change of pace. Um, but, yeah, she, well, that's the thing. They were living there and then her dad had his practice in Tijuana and it was kind of funny because, um, we were already when, when her dad went downhill, we were already planning to go down and meet her parents. I was going to go down and, you know, as we call it, face the music kind of a deal, but her parents loved me, so Nice Actually. I found out they were trying to learn English so they could communicate with me. I'm trying to meet them halfway and learn Spanish, yeah, but, um, which is kind of hard. But, um, now, right now, my two big things that I'm trying to do is I'm trying to make more connections with the air softers in Mexico, particularly in that, in that area around Tijuana. Yeah, cause I'd love to go down there and catch a game.

Speaker 1: 1:40:51

Um, as I was going to say, one of the old Takarías that my wife went to was called tacos frunk. It was in, uh, uh, it's in Tijuana. It's down there a couple of years ago. I'm pretty sure it's still around. Those kinds of things don't go away easily. Um, real good place if you want Carnaje, sada or Alpastor, but uh, uh, that's one of my goals. I'm going to try and make the other, the other world productions in May. Um, it's kind of like I look at it and I go, I get more enjoyment out of airsoft teaching the next generation and you and I are military guys we understand the concept of crawl, walk run.

Speaker 1: 1:41:41

Yep you know. So crawling and walking is where. Where do you do the crawling and walking before you go to the running for the big games? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 1:41:51

I know last year I hit up one at OX Outdoor extreme Chesapeake City, but that was more of a bigger game. I've been watching some of the from. I'm right now still kind of feeling out some of the promoters and where they're going the big ones. Yeah and so I'm kind of watching that one Teaching the next generation and Just having you know, having fun where I can. That's kind of where I, where I look at it.

Speaker 2: 1:42:23

Nice. Now what about your kids? You said your daughter. Is she gonna play for the first time this year?

Speaker 1: 1:42:31

She played for the first time last year. She, she played, she played an open play and then for November she played a large game at. She played the large game at Chesapeake City and I think if you go on my Instagram there's a, there's a picture somewhere down there of it. Like I said, with me, my, my, I tend to view the start of my season Because I know you've talked to Paul Paul's, a wonderful guy. Love the man. Yeah, like like my own family, but he lives down in Lancaster. Okay, I'm kind of up in the mountains, like you go a little farther north and and east. Yeah, you're right, where the Molly McGuire's happened, you remember that, uh-huh. So, for example, this week we had snow. It didn't stick, but we still had snow. That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 1:43:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:43:33

Yeah, this morning it was. I Took my dad to go run Samaritans because he's retired. He's got some diabetic neuropathy in his feet. I took him out and it was 36 Fahrenheit. So I still have a warning on it about so. That's why it seems like I get started a little later Because I'm up in the mountains.

Speaker 1: 1:44:07

Sure so sometimes where People who are a little farther down or a little farther south From me, they you know, okay, oh, it's clear and I go it ain't clear up here right, well, that leads me into another question, then, what you brought up earlier when I start.

Speaker 2: 1:44:29

One of the one of the events you talked about was Santa against Grinch. Yeah, what, how, how is that played like? What's up with that?

Speaker 1: 1:44:43

Well, you know, we did a, we did a standard ncao green versus tan gotcha inside, you know, one side was was Santa, one side was the grinch. Okay, it was a drive actually for Twice, for tops. Oh, okay which you know what I can, I can, I can back that. That that's, that's one you know, you hear about Some charities are a little shifty. Now, this one, this one, this one, you can back a hundred and fifty percent, sure yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:45:17

You know. So anything for twice over tots, I I usually. You know I was, I was big into usually backing. You know it was one of the things you said. You know those smaller beaters, aware and those beautiful. So that was, that was how that ran.

Speaker 2: 1:46:01

But now I thought I was what I was picturing was a bunch of suited up Santas you know, santa suits and Grinch suits running around.

Speaker 1: 1:46:12

Oh, I mean, we had some of those and you know what for a game like that, that is completely fine. I was like you know I I went one year for folder and I had I always had a lion rampant flag in the barracks. They took it once. They took it from me once and that was when we had rumors that the British Royal Marines were going to do an exchange program with us. Everybody looked at that. One went Find Farcarson and hide it. We got to take them because we do not need you starting a fight.

Speaker 2: 1:46:56

Oh, that's funny.

Speaker 1: 1:46:59

Yeah, but I have. I have one lion rampant flag in my house that was in the barracks with me and I took it to Iraq with me and I always kept it in my back and my in my day pack because I said, if things get shitty, I'm just going to, I'll go out like my forebears under the same flag. Nice.

Speaker 1: 1:47:26

And and then for folder one year, I decided, you know, because somebody's like, I want you to counter up your inner mercenary, I'm like, ok, so I wound up. I wound up safety pinning it or can't remember did I safety pen it or how I fastened it, but I fastened it to my plate carrier so it draped over my back like a freaking cake. Oh wow. So I have this giant golden red flag as I'm, as I'm doing my best to all Hall hell for leather down the field and it's just trailing behind me and everybody's yelling brave heart quotes. Oh God, it's fun. And I looked at him and said you know, I looked at him when we hit, we started taking fire. I looked at him, said the Almighty says he can get me out of this, but he's pretty sure that I don't have to finish the quote.

Speaker 2: 1:48:33

You know the one, I love that one, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:48:39

Yep, because I'm Scottish and Scott's Irish on my, on my dad's side.

Speaker 2: 1:48:43

Oh yeah, yeah, that character in that movie has great.

Speaker 1: 1:48:48

Even the Irishman was hilarious.

Speaker 2: 1:48:52

That's awesome, man Well listen brother it's been great talking with you.

Speaker 1: 1:48:57

Yeah, oh yeah it has.

Speaker 2: 1:48:58

I'm enjoying it, but yeah you got some good stuff coming up this year. You got your kid one of your kids playing with you. Yeah, starting out already, that's good, teaching them good etiquette and manners and.

Speaker 1: 1:49:15

Well, yeah, that's that. Like I said, I think that's the biggest one with with the next generation is teaching them, teaching them the right way, because I guarantee you, youtube is not teaching them the right way. No, unfortunately and I'm going to tell that to any parent that gets involved with it, even if you are themselves, get them, find them somebody they gravitate to.

Speaker 2: 1:49:40

Yeah yeah, unfortunately online they're always bad. Yeah, they're getting rewarded for bad behavior. You know, with social media stuff. When they post these videos, they're getting all, it's what gets them ad revenue. Yep, yeah, I know right. Well, thank you so much, man. I appreciate you. Where can do you have any, any social media that people can follow your journey on?

Speaker 1: 1:50:08

Yeah, I have a Facebook on Keystone, on Keystone Karkashu. I have a YouTube channel. I have a rumble channel. You search for the same thing. Yep, there the videos are somewhat limited right now because, well, I'm still getting camera stuff and everything else kind of put together, sure. So it's kind of raw, but you're hearing how people do things and kind of how people are supposed to behave, kind of deal, gotcha, yeah, so that's, that's valuable. My Instagram is the big one which I usually try and try and do. I usually try and post reels there, mostly help, helps for help and encouragement for the next generation, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 1:50:57

Good, Awesome man. I appreciate being on.

Speaker 1: 1:51:02

You search that Keystone, karkashu. You know Karkashu, you'll, you'll, you'll find it.

Speaker 2: 1:51:09

Yeah, I'll have all these links on the description on across all the platforms that I post on.

Speaker 1: 1:51:14

So yeah, and I think I also have an axe, but I mostly, I mostly lurk there. Yeah. If you want to find me, though, shoot me a message. I'll I'll if you. If you shoot me a message across, I'll find it on one.

Speaker 2: 1:51:29

Yeah, speaking of X with formerly Twitter. Okay yeah, everyone, I'm really trying to build up my my Twitter following, okay as much as my Instagram, because I don't want to be like you know a lot of these. I post just about everything I post on Instagram I post on my Twitter, okay so. But I think I've got 24 followers on Twitter. So anyone watching and listening go find my Twitter there's links all over all these videos for it and follow me on there. Let's see if we can get at least a hundred followers on Twitter. Man, I'm at my Twitter looks pathetic right now. It's like I got all these posts and 24. So go there and hit me up on there and I'll have all your links on there too, on this video and description. So everyone watching listening go follow this guy and all his links will be listed. But I appreciate you, man. It's been a great meeting you and I look forward to talking to you again in the future.

Speaker 1: 1:52:34

Oh yeah, I look forward to it. Yeah.