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If it makes you feel any better about your chance at getting the vaccine sooner than later, a lot of group 1 doesn’t want it. Our fire department conducted an anonymous poll yesterday to determine how many doses they needed to get. Only 6% of our department is willing to take it, and yes it is optional. Similarly my wife (nurse) had to participate in a similar survey today at her hospital and only 14% of those polled so far are willing to get it, and yes it’s optional for her as well. I’m a casual observer in a few first responder forums and FB pages, and this thought process is pretty common across the board. A few people had asked earlier in this thread why we wouldn’t want it, and someone had asserted that we were possibly in the wrong line of work if we weren’t willing to get it. To the former I would say that I deal with some form of physical risk ever single day at my job. We are well versed in identifying and mitigating risk when possible. The virus is a known risk, the vaccine is an unknown risk. One I can take precautions for, and even if I do get it my chances of recovery are extremely high. The other is completely unknown as to the short term and long term effects. Once it’s in your body that’s it, you aren’t sucking it out later. The vaccine requires two shots to be effective, and has to be re-administered every year. Other than being a bit overweight I am not in a high risk group for dying if I get the virus, if I was then I would factor that in and it might or might not tip my risk scale. My 22 years of working for federal, state, and local Govt has taught me to trust them 0%. It’s a keep your friends close and your enemies closer situation. There are plenty of good people that work for the Govt, but at every level where decisions are made their are people driven by greed and fear. For those driven by greed it is both in the financial and fame sense, they will do anything to achieve either or both. Those driven by fear just want to maintain the status quo and retire comfortably, and in most cases they are so afraid to make a wrong decision that they are almost frozen and can’t make any decision, or when they do, it is so risk averse that it is ineffective or misguided. There are also those in it for all the right reasons, but they typically won’t make it very high before being choked out by the other two. All that to say, if the Govt is pushing the vaccine so hard, to include some legislators wanting to tie the next stimulus check to you getting the vaccine, then I absolutely don’t trust anything about it. To the individual that thinks we are in the wrong line of work because we don’t want to take the vaccine, maybe we are, but I guess we’ll have to stick it out until you and your friends that have all the answers are willing to come take our place. For some reason there is a nationwide shortage of EMS personnel, so the sooner you can get your initial year of training knocked out to start at $12 an hour would be great. I hope you don’t have an aversion to smells because there is ALOT of vomit, poop, and piss involved. While I personally don’t trust or want the vaccine, I do 100% support your right to choose to get it if you want to. I respectfully request that you honor my right to choose for myself without disparaging me and my profession. I would’ve thought that in a 2A group we would all know first hand the frustration and danger of other people trying to choose for us what they think is best for us. Stay in your lane

I've invested heavily in AR specific tools over the past year or so and increased my knowledge a good bit. I'm planning some armorer's classes in the future to take my understanding of the systems even further. I guess a lot of my friends know that so they've been asking me for help in assembling kits or replacing parts or diagnosing issues. Something that I've come across a lot of recently are headspace issues and receiver extension issues. I had to send a bolt back that wouldn't close on a 5.56 go gauge in any barrel that I had. The company was great about it and they replaced it without issue. I also had a friend bring a rifle by that had the same problem. It was a home built setup that he bought second hand from a shop. Luckily the shop owner knew who made the bolt and took care of it. Another rifle was a complete upper from a reputable company. The rifle headspaced fine but using one of my tools, I noticed that something was off between the receiver and the barrel extension. Or so I thought. I thought maybe the extension was clocked wrong inside the receiver. Even though it functioned fine, you could see wear on the lugs of the bolt where they were having to push past a bind to lock into place correctly. On further inspection, it appeared that the barrel extension lugs were machined poorly and had little tabs that were causing the binding. The company asked for pictures and then asked for it back. They replaced the barrel and sent everything back quickly and it was fantastic. I ran it through an inspection and everything checked out great. Most of these were pre-panic rifles and each one had some small issue. With the current state of things, check your parts before you get out and run your rifles. I'm worried about QC dropping even with the best names out there. And if you are in the Memphis area and want or need anything checked out, I'm happy to help. I'm not a gunsmith and I will happily admit that I don't know everything but I know a good bit and I enjoy doing this stuff. (Also, since I'm not a gunsmith, I don't charge anything. It's purely a hobby for me at this point.)

I would disagree. If a newbie is not competent enough to handle a striker fired gun, they probably shouldn’t handle anything without supervision or training. All the safety gadgets in the world don’t matter if the user won’t keep his finger off the trigger.

It Snowed Last Night.. 8:00 am: I made a snowman. 8:10 - A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn't make a snow woman. 8:15 - So, I made a snow woman. 8:17 - My feminist neighbor complained about the snow woman's voluptuous chest saying it objectified snow women everywhere. 8:20 - The gay couple living nearby threw a hissy fit and moaned it could have been two snow men instead. 8:22 - The transgender man..women...person asked why I didn't just make one snow person with detachable parts. 8:25 - The vegans at the end of the lane complained about the carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with. 8:28 - I was being called a racist because the snow couple is white. 8:30 - I used food coloring to make one of the snow couple a different color and be more racially inclusive. 8:37 - Accused of using black face on the snowman...snowpersons. 8:39 - The middle eastern gent across the road demanded the snow woman be covered up . 8:40 - The police arrived saying someone had been offended. 8:42 - The feminist neighbor complained again that the broomstick of the snow woman needed to be removed because it depicted women in a domestic role. 8:43 - The council equality officer arrived and threatened me with eviction. 8:45 - TV news crew from ABC showed up. I was asked if I know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I replied "Snowballs" and am now called a sexist. 9:00 - I was on the news as a suspected terrorist, racist, homophobe, and sensibility offender, bent on stirring up trouble during difficult weather. 9:10 - I was asked if I have any accomplices. My children were taken by social services. 9:29 - Far left protesters offended by everything marched down the street demanding for me to be arrested. 9:45 - The boss called and fired me because of the negative association with work that had been all over social media. 10:00 - I cry into my drink because all I wanted to do was build a snowman... Moral: There is no moral to this story. It is what has happened to our world. We need to get back to: LOVE ONE ANOTHER copied and shared

I’ve trained a few shooters and shoot competitively pretty seriously. I’m pro-LEO AND support the cops, but don’t get me started on the lousy gun handling incompetence/shooting skills I’ve seen from police officers. Not all of them, but a significant portion of them make me cringe. I wish they used more ammo and time at the academy and had a more rigorous annual qualification. The LEOs you mentioned ignored the basics—booger hook off the bang switch til you’re ready to shoot. This is more important than any manual safety, heavy trigger, etc.

Correct. And we see a heck of a lot of experienced trained shooters become complacent and do something stupid/careless/reckless.

Striker guns with no safety is NOT the issue. There are plenty of videos of people shooting themselves or having an ND with 1911s and revolvers and whatever else. Also, what you witnessed was an ND, not an AD.

Ego is often a factor. We have LEOs occasionally come shoot USPSA or IDPA and the thinly veiled attitude is sometimes “I’m about to show ya’ll how this is done.” Them they get their asses handed to them and never come back. The LEO/tactical community sometimes writes off competitive shooting as irrelevant because the targets don’t shoot back, etc. But I’ve heard cop after cop comment after sh*tting the bed on their first ever USPSA stage “I’m not used to being on a timer with people watching.” If a little artificial match stress makes a cop’s brain turn to jelly, how will they resct in a real fight?

Do you ever do work as a firearms instructor? I do. I work with complete and total beginners. It is my experience that it is much easier to work with them when you are using Glock style pistols. You are removing as many "complications" from the equation as possible. It simplifies the process for them and helps to put their mind at ease. We don't do any work with fully loaded magazines. The thing is, you have to teach safety from the get go. Its the first thing we cover in a class and the last thing we talk about as we part ways.

I've never said otherwise. Gun handling is not for everyone. But just because some people shouldn't own them, doesn't mean that they don't still have that right.

In fairness I left out one category that deserves some sympathy. Newbies. Lousy time to be starting the path to gun ownership.

I’m a member of the NRA and FPC. No plans to let my NRA membership lapse. Hopefully they are getting their house in order because a strong NRA is needed more now than ever. I joined FPC because they are very active in litigation.

Prayers for an excellent outcome.

Prayers for your surgeons hands and a speedy recovery.

Prayers for you full recovery. you'll be back in no time.

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes, prayers and all of the encouragement and advice on PT. I’ve got to be there at 7am so I’ll be “seeing” y’all in a day or two. This is quite a family we have here on TGO. Merry Christmas guys.

No, there’s nothing wrong with us. Our hineys are fresh and clean. Think about it this way. If you got some poop on your hand, would you wipe it off with a dry paper towel and call it good? I wouldn’t. So I am all about a bidet or wet wipes now. If you’re just using dry toilet paper, you might as well still be using leaves. It’s just plain uncivilized.

I’ve said it before and I'll say it again…. There’s something wrong with you guys.

Thanks much. The guys have preferred buying them instead of loan. Getting $40.00 to $45.00 a brick depending which flavor. Unfortunately I’m out of what I was willing to pass on. It was a pleasure to meet great guys who enjoy this sport.

I know a couple cops who shoot lights-out, but they didn’t learn it at work. No disrespect meant to the LEO community and the ego thing is not just cops. I cringe when I hear a new competitive shooter say “I’ve been shooting X years and I know how to use a pistol.” Sometimes I am wrong. I would rather train a newbie female because they don’t have to put their ego away. Their attitude is usually “I don’t know what to do, so teach me” vs “my granddaddy taught me to shoot and I really don’t need to listen to this” that some guys are thinking.

Virginia Mayo Colorado Territory - 1949 Colt Single Action -Something?

I took this guy this morning about 30 minutes after daylight.

It certainly is great to be in the want instead of need on both guns & ammo.

Its circular. You have first timers and you have speculators. The regular user is crushed by both, but probably more so the speculators. Speculators start drying up sources as demand from first timers rise. I have empathy for first timers, I have much annoyance from speculators. The good part is watching the speculators trying to unload after the tide subsides. Main reason I want the tide to end is so I can start negotiating with speculators on their cache of drawer parts they overpaid for hoping to turn a huge profit. Those are the best most pleasing deals!

I think if Trump is re-elected the left will double down on their craziness. They have been emboldened by what they’ve gotten away with the last 4 years. Now, they’re going to be even angrier. So, I expect the market to remain unchanged for some time. Plan accordingly.

Well, if President Trump is reelected I believe the gun/ammo business will get back to some reasonable level, if biden wins, all bets are off.

Death is a natural part of life. We may not like it but will all experience it in time. All the animals and fauna will die eventually. "Death is a subject many do not want to discuss." Some fear death. Death is the point where one's spirit leaves this tent, where it exit here on earth (our body), then our soul spirit enters the Hadean Realm (the realm of departed spirits) and eventually the spirit returns to God who gave it in the first place. The body (tent where the spirit exist on earth) is placed in the ground and returns to dust which God used to form our bodies in the beginning of mankind. One can confirm this in the pages of the Holy Bible, which is Gods word to mankind, and in written form. King James had the Bible translated and put into written form many centuries ago. We can all benefit by reading a good translation. We are blessed to have it in this day in time. Matter of fact, one does not need to fear death. One can prepare for death. That is the key to not fearing death. Guys it is going to come. Death to some people, those who prepared beforehand, will be something looked forward too. The Bible tells one heaven is a wonderful place to spend eternity with God and Christ sitting at His right hand. I don't say this callously because death, is separation and it brings great grief and pain to our families, loved ones, and friends who are left behind here in this realm. Those who are left, in this realm, can take comfort in the fact they they can go to the one who had died and gone into the next realm. You can read what King David said after he lost his son he had with Bathsheba, in (2nd Samuel 12:15-23) in your Bible. It is comforting to know one can go to the departed providing we prepare for it. The key to deal with death is to prepare yourself for it before one reaches the end. I know this is a gun blog and death is not a pleasant subject, but we will all face it sooner or later. Why I put this in General Discussion. I have a friend who is haunted by those he killed in war. I told him they had the same chance to prepare themselves as he did, before they met their death in War. Not a good/pleasant subject to discuss, but a needed one in the days of Coved and after.

"They" should be called a snowperson. Or maybe a snow entity, since labeling somebody as a "person" might be some form of profiling. It's hard to keep up nowadays ...

As Omega stated depends the position of the deer. I have probably put down 50 plus with a pistol round to the brain. If you choose the broad side near the shoulder but with a rifle or slug. Thats my rules and hasn’t failed me.

Just one more reason to not use them, I'll be canceling and closing my GB account, I'm not about to pay nearly 10%tax on top of buying a $3500 + 1911, or any other collector grade guns. Just my $.02.

When I met my wife she was scared to death of guns. I laid a AK on the table and yelled at it to shoot about 5 times. She said "what the h-- is wrong with you" I sad I'm proving a point. She eventually got it has been an avid shooter for 15 years now.

Cops are just people; just like any other shooter. They also aren’t the only ones with big ego’s. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen shooters that call themselves trained say “There is no such thing as an AD; only ND’s” or “They had to have pulled the trigger” or “A gun can’t fire without pulling the trigger”. People that say that just haven’t been around guns much. But their egos’ get a little bruised when you tell them that.

And I think the legal term for the last few posts is “thread drift” lol

Unfortunately, those are just more examples of negligence. I also agree with what Deerslayer said below. I don't know what their training entails and I'm not sure if that's the problem, ego is the problem or if it goes back to that complacency thing. Or if all three come into play. The DEA agent that shot his foot in the classroom, it was an ego thing. But I don't know. I know that a lot of them need to take it more seriously.

I bought a (blem) Masada several months back. Despite the reviews online saying it shoots low with iron sights, I didn't have that issue with mine. It was dead-on from the factory. But the reason I bought the Masada was that it was optics-ready from the factory. Adding a Holosun HE507C green dot was dead simple. One of the standout features for me was the trigger is nearly as good as the Glock 26 trigger I put time, effort, and money into customizing. I've put a mixture of FMJ (Federal/CCI) and a couple of mags of each carry ammo (IMI, Speer Gold Dots, Hornady Critical Duty) with no issues. Total round count is around 500. Note I did clean and lube before firing the first shot. My big gripe is that IWI has been out of stock on the 17-round mags for the last few months. Since mine was a blem, it only came with one mag. I ordered 2 spare (17-round) mags and wish that I had bought at least 2 more before they were sold out. Speaking of the blem, I couldn't find a but one tiny discoloration on the right side of the frame. if I hadn't been looking for it, I wouldn't have ever noticed. After getting a leather avenger style holster from Desert Gun Leather, the Masada has become my daily carry. It's much larger than my normal carry of a Glock 26 in a OWB pancake holster. And the design of the Avenger holster makes it stick out even further. So it prints a lot more, but I don't care. I'd rather have something that I can shoot well and with the green dot, I'm a lot more accurate than simply point shooting. I have presbyopia (aka "old man's eyes") and need reading glasses to see iron sights. if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

With Tennessee getting 56,000 initial does, it doesn’t look like it will make much of a dent even in the 1,750,000 in Group 1. So I guess it will be summer for most of us; even us old farts.

I wouldn't use FL as any kind of comparison as to veracity of anything Covid related. DeSantis has played fast and loose with all data since the gitgo, even squelched it entirely for a while. He reached a new shameful level today by raiding Rebkah Jones' home. (pick your poison); https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=fl+raid+on+rebekah+jones If anything, TN daily rate may be often a bit under reported, as per this note: "Please note for deaths: Some deaths may be reported by health care providers, hospitals, medical examiners, local health departments, or others before they are included in the statewide count." That said, Tn weekend/holiday daily totals are almost always lower than most M-F rates; I'd put that down to localized reporting lagging from the average facility that is less clerically staffed during those times, so some of those counts may well get folded into the next biz day. - OS

Battle of Flanders

This one time, at band camp... Girls have been uptalking since the 90’s. Guys do it too when they’ve been around one of them long enough. Thing is some of of those people marry and then you have to listen to it on a professional basis...and they’re way to old to be doing it.

I suspect if it is ammo, if gets sold quickly. A hardware store in Livingston, Tn. had quite a lot of ammo yesterday morning. I was getting a key cut and just walked the counter, I am sure it was expensive, but they had most of what folks are looking for.

Thanks Beltfed. I have commented before that these people paying $200-300 for a thousand primers evidently don't have any friends that would sell, or loan them some primers. May you reap your just rewards!!! Merry Christmas!! And at pandemic prices you guys are looking at $10K-15K.

I'm going to give my testimony. I've always been a little bi(det)-curious. But as a confident heterosexual male, I was skeptical about anything nearing my no-no hole. The stink star just isn't something that I want penetrated and having high pressure water aimed that direction seemed a good way to get violated. And it's not like there are an abundance of bumguns out in the world for the general public to inspect or even try. So I stayed in the dark, unaware of the clean feeling that my chocolate faucet was missing out on. Earlier this year my elderly mother had a UTI that traveled up into her kidneys and nearly killed her by means of sepsis. After she was discharged from the hospital she was given a followup appointment at a local urologist. I took a long lunch and picked her up from the house and delivered her to her appointment. Because of Covid, I stayed in the car. After a while, it became apparent that she was still in her appointment and unable to answer the phone (they were doing a biopsy of something) and I was about fill my pants with some form of poop demon. I could no longer afford to wait on her and hope that we made it back to the house. This was happening where I was whether it was in the car or hopefully I could make it into the doc's office. After waiting on the counter staff in the office for what seemed an eternity, I made it into the bathroom just in time to get hovered before all hell broke loose. After exorcizing my demons, I noted that my butt cheeks had gotten rather warm. After reading some of the wall plaques and doing a quick google, I discovered that I was sitting on a $1500 bidet seat. It was full featured with all of the bells and whistles. It was a heated seat. It has adjustable power front and rear washes with adjustable temperature control. It even has a blow dryer built in for the grand finale. Well, it's not every day that you sit down on a 1500 dollar toilet seat so who am I to pass up the opportunity to live like the wealthy? I was blown away. I grabbed a piece of peasant paper and took a single pass at my sin socket and found it to be not only completely clean but completely dry. I stood up with a balloon knot that had been cleaned and dried in luxury in a way that nothing short of an after poo shower can provide. I buckled up my belt and left that bathroom with my head held high. I immediately started googling bidets. But knowing that I can't afford a 1500 dollar toilet seat, I looked to more economical units. Within a week, I had my own installed at the house for under 70 bucks. While it doesn't have the heated seat or the blow dryer, it's been quite the workhorse for me. I've spent every moment since trying to ensure that I only poo at home, although installing a bidet at work is on the horizon. I preach the gospel of the shiny hiney whenever and wherever I can. Do yourselves a favor gentlemen, install a bidet!

As someone that was shown the way of the bidet earlier this year and immediately made the switch, I've been preaching the gospel of the clean booty ever since.

Check out The Motley Fool (fool.com) if you are really interested in investing in individual stocks. They have several interesting podcasts that are free, and they offer multiple paid services.

Just about everything comes with a risk. Not taking a vaccine has a risk, just like taking the vaccine has a risk, as we will see once it becomes widely available. As we have seen with the virus to this point, unless you are in a high risk demographic group, your chance of being very ill or dying is extremely low. In that case, most likely feel there is less risk in not taking the shot until more is known. I know I have an aversion to being a guinea pig.

Three Canadian soldiers in a captured German dug-out during their advance east of Arras, 1918

Lovely lady to be sure. As for the guns, they look like Colt Single Action Armys. But given the time period of that movie, I'd guess that they are more likely a set of Hawes Western Marshall revolvers. In the 50s & 60s Colts were hard to come by and expensive. The Hawes singles actions were used in many movies and TV shows. The Hawes revolvers were actually made by J.P. Sauer in Germany.

People are scrambling to pick up AR pistols and pistol braces because they think the ATF is going to do to them what they did to bump stocks. Buying that stuff in a panic makes no sense, because *IF* the ATF screws us all over on this, you're either going to register it as an NFA item and might as well put a real stock on it, or you're going to hide it away and risk being charged with a felony if ever caught using it. The ATF needs to be done away with.

I figure either way it goes, January will see lots of lightly used guns and ammo for sale as Christmas credit card bills come due. I feel bad for Newbies too because I can sympathize. I got back in to shooting and bought a .22lr a couple months before the great .22 drought. Luckily I had been picking up 4 or 5 50 rnd boxes every time I stopped in Wal-Mart. I still felt a bit panicked since that was the only rifle I had and my awareness of preparations I needed to have on hand had began to peak. So I did what I always do, I scrounged. I found places to buy ammo that were off the beaten path and ways to find it in stock before it sold out. Now is a different story. Lots of retailers are not even listing the stock on hand in stores. So unless you can stop by physically before it sells out, you are out of luck. For us working stiffs, that is harder to do. Things must not be so bad though. There were 40 boxes of 5.56 Hornady Black on the Academy shelf the other day. Or maybe it was the $17.99 per 20 round price tag that was keeping it glued to the shelf. lol