Beware the Tactical Stone Ax
I have come to loathe the terms “tactical” and “operator”. Take something, paint it black, add 20% to the cost and call it tactical. Tactical is one of those terms that has become so over used/abused due to marketing and consumer ignorance. Just yesterday I sent a letter to the editor of the Marine Times asking what they were thinking. The Oct 19 edition has an article on Tactical Tomahawks. I almost choked reading through that junk. It tried to show how a $550 tomahawk could be used in a combat setting for tasks such as breaching and rescues. Sure it could work but why would someone want to use a tomahawk when they could use a purpose built piece of gear to do the same job more effectively and at the same time save themselves from all the ridicule of their peers because they showed up with a tomahawk. After years of deployments and military life, I have yet to see a guy carrying a tomahawk. I think a good majority of the time these tactical gurus are nothing more than armchair commandos and internet operators.
It is all similar to the idea that certain cartridges are obsolete and ineffective at taking a deer. i.e. “you need this .338 ultra magnum because the 30-30 is underpowered for deer.” Give me a break; it is the indian and not the arrow. I recall growing up, my grandpa would go hunting with a rifle and the clothes on his back. Fancy to him was taking a pair of binoculars or using a rifle with a scope. I scoff at some of these hunting shows on cable TV. Guy does nothing but advertise for all his sponsored gear and equipment that is “essential” to putting that big buck down. Scent blocking, anti-UV clothes, newest super short mag cartridge fired from a $2000 dollar custom rifle topped with a $2500 scope, electronic game calls, laser range finder, tripod that you have to unpack and set up to shoot from, and of course a beautiful female guide to take them to the most productive spots on the game farm.
I try to do it like grandpa: me, my gun and lunch – in a brown paper bag. Oops, almost forgot my trusty tomahawk.
Rant over, excuse me while I go vommit.
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Why do you bother packing a tomahawk? That is just extra weight. You can make your own out in the field/woods. All you need is a forked limb, a stone and some sinew. Cutting the forked limb is very easy with a chainsaw. If you don’t have one you can avoid having to completely rough it by using a Tactical Tomahawk. The stone is pretty easy, but some considerations should be given in the selection. You don’t want to use one that was previously someones’ pet rock that has gone astray. Numerous studies have been done and it’s a unanimous consensus that former pet rocks don’t make good tomahawks. Even in Hollywood movies, you just don’t see an Indian using a tomahawk made from a pet rock. The sinew is the tough part. You are in a desperate situation—you need a tomahawk. If it weren’t a life or death deal you might take an extreme gamble of getting a deer to get some sinew using a 30-30. But that is too risky. You need a .338 Ultra Magnum it gets em EVERYTIME even in the hands of less experienced operators that have lesser tactical skills. You can avoid all this hassle if you get a 4WD long bed diesel and a 4wd quad ATV—then you can haul the needed gear.
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, the stone tomahawk head is a great idea… in theory. I used to carry a rock for my tomahawk, though it was a rather large rock – more along the lines of a battle axe than tomahawk. Anyway, long story short, I had my rock with me on a deer hunt. Two bucks were locking horns and distracted me (common deer tactic) while a doe snuck up from behind and got the drop on me. She startled me and I ended up dropping said rock on my foot. Broke some toes – leather moccassins, while tactical because they allow me move so stealthily, don’t provide much protection for the feet from misplaced tomahawks.
Thus began my dislike for products labeled as “tactical”.
