GI tool.
Doubles as a field toilet. Dig your hole, sink your shovel blade next to it, sit with one cheek on the handle. It's better than hovering.
GI tool.
Doubles as a field toilet. Dig your hole, sink your shovel blade next to it, sit with one cheek on the handle. It's better than hovering.
Depends on what you need it for.
I have a WW2 era E-tool, along with a 1910-pattern (WW2 vintage) Pick Mattock (which is really damn useful). The E-Tool works great as an excavation tool for moving loose(r) sediment. It sucks balls for doing heavy work/vehicle work/wet work (snow or mud). The blade is too small, the handle too short, etc. The real utility in an E-Tool is being able to use it like a hoe.
I have one of these - https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/4299...y-shovel&csp=f - in the trunk for snow. It works great on soft/easy stuff and extends to nearly 3' in length, allowing you to throw snow, mud, etc. without breaking your back like an E-Tool does. In concert with the pick-mattock or some kind of pick (like a Rock hammer or Paleo-Pick from Estwing), you can dig yourself out of most situations quickly. I got out light car stuck in 2" of mud last spring. Took me about 15-minutes of pick and snow-shovel work to get use back onto traction and out of the jam.
The straight claw framing hammers from Estwing make pretty fair digging tools in a variety of circumstances. I keep one in my vehicle all the time. Having seen video of bystanders trying to pull the broken windshield from a wrecked, turned on its side van with people inside and it on fire, I instantly thought "they need a framing hammer". They also needed a knife really badly to cut jammed seatbelts, and it seems nobody nearby had one.
I like the $20 FatMax
https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-55-11...dp/B000QFDADS/
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
I don't think this is out yet. But I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one.
http://www.condortk.com/productos-de...ucto=93&cat=63
I use a slightly different method: dig the hole, then fold the blade 90 degrees to the handle. Put the handle in the ground and rest one cheek on the back of the blade. Definitely better than hovering, especially when the weather is bad and you're wearing a lot of gear. Also more comfortable when you're in an introspective mood.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
I've only ever used them to dig fighting positions.
You can get much more of what you want with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.
My use would be pretty light. I don't deal with snow, just thinking there might be occasions I'd like to have a crappy shovel rather than no shovel, and my truck isn't set up for (nor do I likely have the need for) full-size tools. Although I do see a lot of lifted poser trucks and jeeps with spotless jacks, axes, and shovels strapped to them (presumably if you're a good enough driver you never need the tools?).
So I'm kind of aware that they are less useful than a full-size shovel (kind of figured that was a given) and am looking for the least-shitty.