Originally Posted by BuckFelize

It wasn't until around 87/88 that I routinely drew ammunition for stag. What was the point of pickaxe handles... apart from attaching to pick helves? The armouries were full of gats and they had some mong on the gate with a stick? FFS!

Something lurking in the back of my addled memory seems to recall that the use of pick helves stemmed from their use by the Firepickets, but I am not 100% certain of that! Can anyone confirm?

Ive stagged on armed with a pickaxe handle in Ballykinler NI training course 1991, i was lethal.

During basic in 78 with RACTR we'd be given them. Wandering around the tank sheds I often wondered how I'd stop someone determined to nick a Chieftain with a stick with a lump of iron on the end...........

In the 1950s the RN used to post an overnight picket at our Tipner rifle range in Portsmouth - the IRA were thought interested in stealing ammunition that was kept there, so the picket was armed with pickaxe handles! Mercifully Paddy didn't materialise. RN Seaman officers were all taught how to use a pickaxe handle as part of their five-day course in Land Fighting (Pongo officers spent two years on this at Sandhurst but then we're brighter).

As I recall, the idea was first thrust forward horizontally into the stomach. Target doubles up so bring the woodwork up smartly under his chin. Target will then obligingly fold backwards, presenting his midship section and so enabling a third stroke which is a wild swing upwards which comes to a halt between the legs. Then (optional) hold the hleve horizontal across his face and break his nose up a bit. After that just whack him for a bit of fun. The instructor (RM Sgt) then taught us how to take someone's eyeball out with one's thumb.

Jusr another of the thousands of things one was taught and never used.

Pick axe staves are about the same length and grip size as a bokken (Japanese wooden training sword). With training and practice they can be lethal. Literally. Miyamoto Musashi fought several duels armed only with a wooden sword, never lost any and depending on who you read, may have killed at least one man with it. Then again Musashi is regared as being the finest swordsman to have ever lived.

Seaweed: With a good straight thrust into the solar plexus, delivered with a reasonable level of violence, target will not be present to have woodwork smacked into chin. I got clipped once in training by a staff thrust. Fell over in a heap. Took me about 5 minutes to remember how my legs worked. Unlike a deliberate target, I didn't have a shattered sternum. In skilled hands, a good bit of hardwood is SCARY.

Originally Posted by Trans-sane

In skilled hands, a good bit of hardwood is SCARY.

Quite possibly, but not to a bloke who's quite happy to stand outside the range of your stick and shoot you.

Or some pissed-up passed-over sprog who always fancied a cabby in a panzer.

He'll be lucky if plod doesn't come down hard on him. He said the naughty words.







"Moral Fibre"

Good drills that man.

Although...........

I was feeling really sorry for him until:

"They were demanding money, but I only had £150. They took that, along with my £3,000 Rolex watch and the keys to my Mercedes car.

Still doesn't make it right that thieving scum can break in and frighten an old man, but life can't be that hard. I stop feeling sorry for people when they use any excuse to show how well off they are. Could have just said "They took my watch and the keys to my car".

To offer some context, beer_man, I've got a Rolex of similar value, and I drive a BMW.

My Dad gave me the watch, that he'd got about 30 years ago; to replace it today would cost about £3000.

The BMW is 19 years old.

Lucky he wasn't lifted for possessing an offensive weapon or something along those lines.

Must invest in a pickaxe handle.....does Aldi do them?