Outskirts Overland Podcast

Tactical Choices: Personal Defense and EDC Philosophy

• Charlie Racinowski

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Daily carry items reflect our personal needs and survival philosophy, from budget-friendly knives to tactical firearms and simple house keys repurposed as defensive tools.

• EDC includes Ridge wallet, pocket knife rotation (Civivi, Zero Tolerance, Spyderco), phone, and Olight rechargeable keychain flashlight
• Firearms carry is selective rather than daily, using a Glock 43X with Holosun 507C red dot and compensator
• SERE principles guide EDC philosophy: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape
• Always wearing running-capable footwear for quick movement in emergency situations
• House keys double as improvised defensive tools when placed between knuckles
• Car EDC differs from body carry, including towels, notebooks, pens, lighters, and gloves
• Buy pants two inches larger when carrying concealed to accommodate equipment comfortably
• Testing gear extensively before committing to it in your EDC rotation
• Comfort with your equipment matters more than following trends or buying expensive gear
• Getting feedback and starting conversations about EDC creates better informed choices

Text the podcast, connect on Facebook or Instagram at Outskirts Overland, or message Charlie directly to share your EDC setup and methodology.


Speaker 1:

The. Hey, this is Charlie, with Outskirts Overland. It is Monday the 7th and it is National Beer Day today, so if you are a beer drinker, it's national beer day. Also, my mics are dying and I need to charge them, so if I lose, you at least know it's national beer day. All right, some of my friends went out this weekend. It was really really, really, really, really, really wet, it was really deep water and uh, well, they're all alive, so that's good. Uh, so, yeah, there's that I wanted to. I had I, I opened up totally random thing, I opened up the, uh, the text number so you can text the podcast, and I haven't even talked about it yet and I got like five text messages this weekend. So, thanks a lot.

Speaker 1:

Um, one one listener from Ann Arbor, michigan, said uh, what they like to do at camp is, you know, listen to a baseball game, do a charcuterie board, you know which? I? Charcuterie board's a good thing and and overlanding is also kind of like synonymous with charcuterie board. Overall, and I've never that's not something I've ever done, but I appreciated them. They. They said they liked listening to the podcast. Hey, I appreciate you guys. Um, xgrid Trailers got a hold of me and they want to through the text and they want to maybe do a uh, a follow-up on my trailer podcast about you know why trailers are so expensive Things that if you're getting a trailer to look for and not look for, I probably will hit them up on that Because I think it would matter to have somebody that's an expert in that space discuss what you know, what's what I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I mean, they're really not for me. And they said to me we're not trying to change anybody's mind on trailers but at least want to try and inform people. So, like I've said, I want to be educational and open this platform to everybody. So I'm probably going to have them on and let them talk, like, tell me about it. They're not going to sell me on it, but maybe they'll help you guys make a better decision. I me on it, but maybe they'll help you guys make a better decision. I wanted to. You know I wanted to at least open that up. But yeah, I really appreciate everybody people asking me about I've been getting more interaction and I really enjoy that. And thank you guys. Hopefully I am.

Speaker 1:

I can't reply to the text, so if you guys do text the podcast, I can see it. You guys can't. I don't know if you can see that, I've seen it, but I will try to address it on the podcast. So really appreciate those things guys. Dms appreciate all of it, people asking me questions I love it.

Speaker 1:

It makes me feel like this is worth doing. Um, cause it does sometimes feel like now that I'm doing dailies, it's hard, it's hard to get on here every day. You're like man, I want to go through the car wash, I need to go get gas, like you would just make excuses for stuff. Even this, as easy as it is for me, I'll make excuses. So I appreciate you guys. Um, I am going to get into a little bit of like. I did get a lot of feedback on EDC and uh, so I I just want to basically touch on EDC and I want to open the floor to people.

Speaker 1:

But EDC to me is everyday carry and there's different. So everyday carry to me means every day Carry on your person. So on my person. I carry a Ridge wallet, I carry a pocket knife. Today I have on pocket knife. I have on a Civivi Praxis Mini. I also have a zero tolerance I think it's 305, which is a big pocket knife, zero tolerance knives and I also have a Spyderco Para 3 lightweight. Those are the three knives that I will carry. I keep a Civivi Elementum in my truck or in my car, excuse me just as a spare in case maybe I lose one or something. So I do EDC. I carry a knife, I carry my wallet, I carry my phone, I have a Olight, rechargeable key chain, flashlight little one and it's got two brightness levels on my key chain. And yeah, I think that's it. I think that's all I EDC. I don't I I EDC often encompasses a lot of specific gear like as well as like pistols.

Speaker 1:

I don't wear a pistol every single day. I'm in sweatpants today. Okay, guys, like I do sometimes exercise with a pistol and a hill people chest bag. I do wear a pistol when I go places, sometimes in jeans with a gun belt, and I would consider, in certain instances a belt is a piece of EDC. In certain instances your holster is a piece of EDC.

Speaker 1:

A fixed blade. I have a fixed blade, a carry fixed blade that was actually made. I mentioned Michael Pruitt. My fixed blade, that carry um, when I'm carrying a fixed blade, is from pruitt knives of valor. I have other bushcraft knives that are made by a different knife maker but my edc you know stabby defense knife is one from michael pruitt and it's thinner, it's sharp as sharp gets, it's got a really fine tip on it, so great knife for that.

Speaker 1:

But those aren't things I carry every single day. You know, I want a knife that's not so expensive but that's robust enough I can pry with it. I don't care if I potentially lose it. Now my zero tolerance knife was like 200 bucks. My Spyderco Para 3, 250 bucks. My Civivi Praxis Mini. This is a $30 knife, okay Like, and it's D2 steel. You see it's got fidget factor. I mean I'm driving the car screwing with it. It's a good knife to not care about. Even the Elementum I carry in the car as a spare it's $60,. You know, and sometimes EDC to me you want quality stuff Like. I'm not going to get a cheap pistol because I don't plan on losing it.

Speaker 1:

I carry a Glock 43X with a Holosun. When I carry with a Holosun 507C red dot, a hollow sun 507c red dot, I do have my slide um milled to fit to mount the uh red dot on it. I had that done by a gunsmith. I do have a compensator on it built in like sloss, slotted into my slide again. I have a buddy that was in the rink or me. I had that done with a gunsmith. I have shield I think it's shield arms. I have 15 round mags with an extended mag, a little extended mag. Well, on the bottom from my Glock 43X, All my friends literally all my friends but me have P365, six hour P365, different variants of the macro or.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's a bunch now, there's a bunch now, but they have 15 to 17 rounds. You can even get one with 21 rounds. Now it's a double stack, mine's a single stack. I like my Glock because two things it's got a fatter grip. My 43X has a fatter grip. The P365 is a great gun.

Speaker 1:

I tend to use too much lateral pressure with a thinner gripped gun, so I pull it. You know, if you guys are watching, you'll see me kind of like, if you're joysticking like think of joysticking a jet for jet, for instance you know you kind of tilting it with the 43x. I could, I, can, I. It's just the right. It's just the right size to where I'm not when I'm pushing my hands together, I'm not also pulling. It's just thick enough for me. That's a specific though, that's a specific to me. All my friends at p365s um it's, it's me with a Glock 43X and every single other one of my friends, military friends, police friends, any tactical friend of mine at all literally has that one gun in different variants.

Speaker 1:

I probably have way more money in my Glock at this point with the upgrades on it, but it's all due to the damn grip. I love the grip. The Glock grip is good and I'm not a Glock guy. This is my first Glock. I just went and looked at, you know, casio carry guns and that was the one I liked the best.

Speaker 1:

As far as full-size pistols are concerned, I like the Springfield. Honestly, I like the Springfield Armory XDM 9mm full-size. But you know I don't carry a full size, so I do carry my, my pistol when I carry it. I carried an appendix carry. Um, a lot of people talk about that. I buy all my jeans. You know they're just talking edc. I buy all my jeans about two inches bigger than what I actually wear. I I buy my like actual pants, not sweatpants and stuff, but my actual pants, two inches larger than I actually wear, with the idea that I'm. My belts are all bigger. My belts are all gun belts at that too Like. So they got some rigidity to them, which I'll get into that stuff another time. I told you I'd start touching on this, but I buy all my jeans two sizes bigger for a gun, for carrying a gun, and I carry an appendix.

Speaker 1:

I don't carry outside, I do conceal. I do practice concealing. I do carry with around in the chamber. Docs don't have safeties. Everybody's like oh, you're going to shoot your hoo-ha off. No, get a Kydex holster that has a trigger guard.

Speaker 1:

Train, be confident. Being unconfident and nervous is going to cause more injuries than anything else ever even thought about. So just be confident. Train practice. They make laser things now where you can dry fire Like it's a resetting. You can reset it in the mag. It's not a real round but it looks like a round and there's a laser. I recommend that so much I don't even remember what it's called. I have so much stuff I don't know what it's called. But you can just practice in the house. Practice in the house. You know, always do brass checks and stuff just to make sure you know the gun is unloaded. Always check, double check, triple check. Before you hand a gun to anybody, show them that it's empty. These are extremely important things.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to get too much into guns because it's so freaking. It's so freaking, you know, they demonetize you and like all these things. I just don't want to get into guns too much, but I do want to, at least if I'm talking about it, say like, be safe. But I also want to be the guy that's not like every single day I carry my pistol. I don't, okay, I don't. I flat freaking, don't.

Speaker 1:

I carry a knife and the idea to me is I have a methodology with EDC, like my EDC. So I stand by the uh seer principles here, like survival, evasion, resistance, escape, and you want to survive and evade, then resist. Resist would be a gun, which means you're captured. I tend to try to not end up in the gun situation. Okay, like so I've got a knife, I've got a flashlight, I've got my wallet, I'm trying to in my wallet. Here's something in my wallet. I have cards that never get used and I only have for a situation like such, so they don't get used for any other purpose. So I'm always.

Speaker 1:

I will tell everybody all the time there are going to be situations where having a pistol or a gun of some type is advantageous, but I just try to not be in the situation and through my training I vet that a little more closely. But you guys can't all just have I mean the recruiter's open. You can, you can have it. I mean nobody's going to not let you go be in the infantry. I'll tell you that. That's like you can do that, um. But yeah, so I don't carry my pistol every day. I don't want to act like I do my.

Speaker 1:

I tell you what I do is tie my shoes every day and wear. I don't wear like Birkenstocks and hey dudes, you know, that's something that I'll talk about. With my EDC, I'm always wearing a shoe that I can run in and if I'm going somewhere really crowded, I'm always wearing a boot that would hurt if I kick you. Take that for what it's worth, um, but I always wear a shoe I can run in, a hundred percent. I don't dress for like. I want to be able to move. If I got to move, I want to be able to. Fastest way to get shot is to stop moving. Keep, just move. That's why I got a flashlight, that's why I got those things on me. So that's my little. That's my intro into EDC.

Speaker 1:

I always carry a house key on my keys. Um, for those of you, I don't ever use my house key, but if you ever need to use your house key, you can put it between. See how I did that guys turn it sideways, put it between your knuckles. You could punch somebody with it. It would be effective. Doesn't look like you're doing anything special, but if you needed to defend yourself doesn't look like you're doing anything special, but if you needed to defend yourself, a simple house key between your fingers is now a weapon, so you can have a key in one hand, knife in the other hand. Something to remember. Yeah, so that's my EDC talk for today.

Speaker 1:

I just wanted to get into it a little bit to get people thinking and we're kind of going what's on? Johnny said he likes a springfield hellcat. That's a short. That's too little of a gun for me for, uh, just the the amount of accuracy that I want to. It's too short. That's the grip's too short for me for the type of accuracy I want to have with a pistol.

Speaker 1:

If I have have a pistol, I want to be able to shoot. You know, within a reasonable range, like if you are holding somebody and your head's over here. I want to be able to shoot you. I want to not have a thought about second thought about. You know, am I shooting the hostage? Am I shooting the? You know I can get to the threat. I could probably shoot within a I't know pretty easily, probably like a 12 by 12 box, pretty much from everywhere, which is your head, you know, um, you always want to shoot anyways.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to get into shooting right now but, um, anyhow, I I like my glock for the grip as long barrel, short grips, long. So really, what I'm concealing when I'm concealing that gun is the grip and the extended mag. So, and that matters, bullets matter. It was a hard thought for me, coming out of the military, that my concealed carry weapon is now my primary. I'm so used to having a long gun primary and a short gun secondary. It was a hard thing to get across for me that the primary is now the pistol. Um, so you know, and those of you guys that are civilians, that you're fully aware of that, but you've never had the comfort of, you know, body armor and long pistols. So, hey, scotty, so that's my edc methodology.

Speaker 1:

That's where I stand with edc. I just want to talk about it just enough to start a conversation. Um, and I'll leave it there. Have a happy, have a happy, you know monday, have happy beer day. Don't mix your the gun talk with beer. Keep those things separate. Um, but it just happens to be beer day today and I got some feedback.

Speaker 1:

You guys want to talk about all the EDC. Like, quote unquote all the EDC. Um, so go ahead, start that conversation. You can text the podcast. You can get a hold of me Charlie Rasanowski, facebook. Charlie Raz Instagram Outskirts Overland Facebook. Outskirts, overland Instagram and hit me up with what your EDC is, what your methodology is with EDC, and we can start a conversation.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk about what you guys have. I don't want to just give my opinion. I mean, edc is a very personal thing. Edc is going to be like what car you pick. Edc is going to be like you know, it's just very personal, like what shoes you wear, what kind of clothes you wear, like it's a very personal, personal. If you're somebody that's basing your EDC off something you saw on TV, you're doing it completely wrong and you should really take the time to go feel guns, go to ranges and shoot guns. Ask your friends if they're real gun people that let you shoot their guns Because they want to make sure that you have a gun you're comfortable with. Don't go buy a gun and make it comfortable. Don't go buy a knife and make it comfortable. You are going to spend some money getting your EDC right, but being comfortable with what you have is extremely important.

Speaker 1:

Just no matter what, my EDC on my body is a lot different than in my car. In my car I always have, you know, towels notebook pen. I have a metal cased pen so I could handle you if I need to with the pen john wick style um, I carry, I carry lighter gloves, stuff like that. So car EDC is different than on the body, but I just want to make sure I got on here to talk about it a little bit. You guys have a happy Monday. I'll catch you tomorrow and my likes will be charged. Have a good one Later.