DavieCrockett

You makin' fun of 'Ol Betsy, you dandy? "I know not whether, in the eyes of the world, a brilliant death is not preferred to an obscure life of rectitude. Most men are remembered as they died, and not as they lived. We gaze with admiration upon the glories of the setting sun, yet scarcely bestow a passing glance upon its noonday splendor."

I hear he's like Jeremiah Johnson the mountain man. "Some people say he's up there still". Always around. 'Course, that was long after my time, but I helped pave the way for him.

Sure thing, pardner. Since you're a lawyer, you would be pleased to know that Erle Gardner was the writer who created the character "Perry Mason". Read this fast, because a greenie will be along shortly to remove it.

Ha! I'd like to let him try "Old Betsy" and see how he does with a .40-caliber black powder flintlock.

Yeah, just look at what has become of my old Kentucky flintlock rifle. Now they've got that new-fangled smokeless powder, and some genius invented a primer and integrated it with a self-contained cartridge. Wow! Just think how many bears I coulda kilt if I a had me some of that technology. "You can all go to hell, I'm goin' to Texas." - Davy Crockett

No. Coal is evil.

Do you check your entire reserve repack on every jump? How about the tightness of the swage on the reserve ripcord cable ball? Do you check the hardness of the steel in your three rings? Do you thumb test canopy fabric strength on each cell? Is there a pebble inside your ripcord cable housing? Is your leg strap webbing okay inside the leg pads? I make every effort to check my gear before donning it... everything else that is within my capabilities. Right. That's why we only check half our gear, because much of it is beyond the capability of field testing, and impractical to do if you want to make more than one jump per month.