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Well, after two months, some very good news. I took Ellie back to the breeder with no expectations, but low and behold they went above and beyond and did the needed surgery to fix Ellie's heart murmur. I just brought her home for the second and last time. She cleared 3 different vet's with no sign of the murmur. She should lead a long, normal life with no side effects. It's pretty remarkable what they can do these days. Here she was at 8 weeks. And today at just over 4 months.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.....

I've got a Ferris 48" 21hp Kawi ZTR, bought new in 08 with the only problem to date was the time clock/meter for mowing time stopped working at 100 hrs. The dealer replaced it w/o question (residential use only). I do all of the maint on it myself. My yard is only 1 acre but very rough and it's stood up well. Still mows even, no adjustments ever needed on this one. I would at least look at Ferris and compare them to others of the same size deck and engine, etc. I bought this since I did not plan on buying another riding mower in my lifetime.

That is very nice! They are a disease though, you're officially a potential carrier when you join TGO, looks like you have fully contracted the illness. Now or you need a pistol, two carbines, and one of those fancy precision stocks from magpul for your 24". Then, you can get started on second calibers and back up part rifles, because everyone knows the best way to store spare parts is complete as a rifle. Don't forget spare parts for the spare part rifles. And magazines. If you can lift the weight of all of your loaded magazines you're doing it wrong. Once you get more than you can reasonably carry you'll know you're off to a good start though.

MCTS will be hosting a Defensive Carbine & Action Pistol match this Saturday at our Dickson range. I have 6 fun and challenging stages planned at a minimum of 119 rounds. Setup starts at 7:00 am with Shooters meeting at 8:45. Rounds down range at 9:00 am. Hope to see you there.

Ellie is lucky to have you Hozzie and you are lucky to have here. A good outcome. Enjoy. Pups are good medicine.

The best caliber is the one you carry daily.

My subsonic rounds are under a nickel a shot. I cast everything I shoot so the only cost I really have is the primer at $100/5000 and the ~8 grains of powder. Been working with the 300 Blackout since before it was a caliber. Have a couple of successful bullet designs with a third on the way. Newest one is a 265 grain behemoth that will feed from a magazine and is stable in anything 8 twist or faster at subsonic speeds. Get it to ~1,100 fps and it is stable in a 10 twist. It also uses about 1/4 less powder and that means your silencer has less gas to deal with so your gun is quieter. And single shot loads are magical in how quiet they are, most people think it is a misfire without ears on. The bullet was designed around the 300 Blackout rather than trying to find an off the shelf solution. We are getting 1.5 MOA groups WITHOUT load development. Several testers think they will get them to shoot MOA with a little work.

If you are going to mow 5-6 acres weekly, that mower won't last long. I tried a badboy zt model a few years ago and didn't like it. It was my first zero turn and it absolutely turned me off of zero turns. After talking to a lot of yard people and a whole lot more research, I went and looked at Hustler and Toro at dealers. I felt like I could get the same quality of mower with less money thru Toro. I got the 2000 series which is the first step into their commercial series and I love it. Whichever brand you go with, I suggest finding an actual dealer and going thru them. They will take better care of you when/if you have a warranty issue. Lowe's subs all there warranty work out and you can sometimes wait a couple of weeks to get it back.

If you are looking to buy soon, hit up the local shops and get a bad boy. I just picked up a new, old stock 2016 60" bad boy ZT Elite for $4500. They are clearing out their old stock for new, you may be able to get a better price than I did. <edit> that thing only weighs 685 lbs, the bad boys are 850 lbs+ = less bouncing around.

I bought one of these 2 years ago. It's been a solid machine. I bought it from Lowes because I got a discount using their credit card. I gave it a good once over before using it and found a few loose bolts that shouldn't have been loose. Other than that it's been great. I mow about 3 acres of flat smooth lawn and it's been great. If my lawn was rougher I'd consider a heavier duty machine. If you're doing your own maintenance etc and comfortable with checking it over its not bad. I did look at the bad boy as well but in the end it was a toss up then I got the 5% discount that sealed the deal. The best part of it is that the wife loves it.

Heavier Frames, heavier decks, dual hydro motors which are heavier, and commercial grade engines. They are just better in every aspect. Go drive a John Deere residential and then drive a commercial. You will immediately know the difference.

That's quite a bit. I can tell you without a doubt that i would want a commercial for that much. I have a John Deere z950m that I think is perfect. Got it for $9900 out the door. Well worth the extra 4K. Better built and you can mow much faster. If you aren't limited to 5k, I highly recommend going for the commercial series. John Deere or Exmark for me. JD will mow better if you ever mow damp or wet grass. The Exmarks are too tightly baffled for wet grass.

For a comparable mower, I would go bad boy. Heavier overall in that class of mower. Yes, when you get into the next price range there is a difference, but at under 5k I believe the bad boy has more going for it. I would go talk to an independent dealer. The Hustler dealer here (Franklin) also sells bad boy. When my dad as looking he said go with bad boy for the money. Ymmv.

I absolutely, whole heartedly agree that 9mm is the best handgun caliber ever. Period. I mean, after all, .357 Magnum/.38 Special is, technically, 9mm, right? Heck, there are even Ruger single action revolvers chambered in .357 Magnum/.38 Special that are capable of also firing 9mm Parabellum. We all know that .357 Magnum/.38 Special is the best, all around handgun caliber ever invented, right? So, even though Mr. Vickers may have gotten a little confused as to which 9mm is the greatest of all time, the basic premise as described in the thread title is 100% correct as well as being indisputable fact. Period and exclamation point, no semicolon required.

Wow, they have changed things around. It looks like now nearly everything they offer has the Kohler engine. I see the 54" is offered with the Kawi engine as well as of right now. Nevermind me! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought a hustler raptor about 4 years ago now. From what I remember when I was doing research and looking to buy, you're better off buying from a different dealer. For some reason, the hustler mowers Lowe's carry feature the Kohler engine. The mowers carried at their dealers have Kawi engines, which from my research is superior. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For those of you that want to try the jar sealers, and don't have the attachment on your bag sealers, you can simply use a pistol vacuum for the same results. I use a Waring pistol vac, but I have seen some [off-brand] lately for $20 on Amazon. We use it every day for something, leftovers, half jar/can of things like pasta sauce. spiralized veggies, almost limitless for things. Even if you have a big sealer, [mine doesn't live on the counter] the pistol vac is much handier for daily use. We, of course, also use it for dry-canning just about anything else for storage......pantry, fridge, or freezer. If you want fast and easy dehydrated meat.......When I catch lean meat on sale, I grind it in a food processor, spice it how I wish, then use a jerky cannon and put it directly onto my dehydrator trays. I do suggest a good jerky gun. I have tried several cheap ones [blah], which some dehydrators will come with, but my favorite is the LEM (The Original) Jerky Cannon.

I forget the maker but there is a factory lower with this mod. Doing this modification is really easy too. The tap is not really tight fitting so you would have to try hard to break it. Still plenty of thread for the set screw. Do not tap all the way in, all you need is for the shortest 4-40 setscrew to be slightly below flush. I would also suggest you finding a drill bit that fits tightly in the hole. Then run that drill bit back into the hole after you tap it. If not the spring can sometimes bind on the material raised by cutting the threads.

That was definitely true of the early stuff, like Sputnik, Ranger, and the Mercury 7. Developing those rocket platforms perfected the ICBM and the ability to put spy sats in orbit. After that, I really do think it was more about discovery and living/working in space. Gemini was just a test bed for the techniques and equipment needed for Apollo. There was limited military value in going to the moon. That's one reason the USSR never really went for it. No sense in sending a nuke to the moon. But the politics of the day had Americans running scared into backyard bunkers, so JFK saw the space race as a way to instill pride and hope in the American people and simultaneously beat (or at least match) the Soviets at the ICBM game. He could have said "We're going to build missiles that can deliver our nuclear bombs to Moscow before this decade is out, not because it is easy, but because it is hard." Instead, he kick started a scientific boom that gave us that capability without the dark cloud of calling that particular spade a spade.

Mine is full at 3,000 PSI, I assume most fill to about the same. I run it down to around 1,000 and then pump it back to 3,000. Around 45 strokes on the hand pump, it's very easy.

I just did- so you know constitutional carry will pass now

We had a nice one in the shop on consignment for 14 months. Owner wanted $2500, lowered to $2200 after six months, it never sold. Many people looked at it, wanted it, and had a lot of offers for $1500. Folks price them high, like you see on Gun Broker, but they rarely sell. Usually it's a collector looking for a specific one for his/her collection. I bought one for $1000 ten years ago, sold it at the Lebanon gun show last year for $1200. It sat there Friday and Saturday, and sold on Sunday to a man that looked at it on Friday. It's worth what someone will pay, as you know, but I would say top dollar is $1500 for fair price. I have been trading/collecting/selling guns for over 60 years. The only Python and Anaconda I see lately are priced high because people THINK they are so valuable, and when they can't sell at the high price.......say they'll just keep it....take their [ball and bat] and go home. For $1500 (and less) today, there are better guns in my opinion, like a Super Redhawk, 629 Stealth PC, Alaskan, etc. If I could get $1500 for the one in the picture above, I would be happy.

Yes. It is a stroked LS2 block with PRC 237 heads and a Ed Curtis spec cam 236/244 114+2 with .631 lift. It still has the old Grotyohann 1 3/4" headers in the pic. It now has Kooks 1 7/8" headers.

I might be wrong, there are always loopholes and so forth, but it was my understanding that one of the provisions for buying the old decommed HMMWVs is that never be titled for on road use.

You 9mm guys need a hug?

Good question! From the Law of Self Defense classes by Andrew Branca I remember discussing five elements needed for a legal self defense claim. They are as follows. Innocence Imminence Avoidance Reasonableness Proportionality If you didn't start the fight you are innocent. By showing your gun you could be perceived as threatening the other party or a third party could assume you are the aggressor. And you might prevent him from choosing you as his next victim. Slippery slope. If the other guy is casing you for a "possible future" attack it will be hard to convince a judge / jury that the attack was imminent. This rapidly changes when he starts walking toward you or follows you. The advice about looking for his buddy is good. If you have an opportunity for avoidance (get in car and drive away or run away), but instead consciously decided to stay in the area where you think the attack is about to happen, you are adding liability that could erode your self defense claim. Having limited mobility, escorting a family member, and being in a kill zone all detract from you ability to avoid the situation. TCA 39-11-611 is worth a read here to somewhat understand the law in TN. Reasonableness is the hardest of the five because it depends largely on the area from which the jury will be pulled that you are showing your gun in. More liberal could = less reasonable from our point of view and vice versa. You have no way to prove what this other person is thinking if they are only staring at you. Proportionality means you match lethal force paired against you with lethal force of your own with a caveat for disparity of force (multiple attackers, big attacker vs little victim, MMA fighter vs disabled...etc). Gun vs stare is not proportional. Gun vs walking at you isn't proportional unless he's a big dude and you are not and he's somehow someway threatening you in a way that you can prove in a court. Gun vs "Hey man, you got a dollar?" still isn't proportional. The race to 911 is real and I don't think it can be underestimated.

I think the best kind of fight is one that I never get into. Therefore, I'd rather the guy see that I'm not an easy target and move along.

Depends on the manner in which you expose your weapon, it may be seen as brandishing by some and an overzealous LEO may agree if called. Personally, I would not show my weapon until I was ready to pull the trigger.

Sure you can. It’s a crime to carry a loaded gun in Tennessee. You and I are part of a “Special Group” so we can carry. The FEDS decided LEO’s are a “Special Group”; so they can carry. I don’t believe my right to carry comes from the 2nd amendment and I am a firm believer in States Rights. The Feds can’t tell you that you can carry in another state unless that state agrees. If you believe they can; then they can tell you that you can’t carry at all. The SCOTUS has recently ruled you have a right to keep arms. They haven’t ruled that you have a right to bear arms, but they have indicated the direction they would go. Until the SCOTUS rules everyone in the country can strap on a gun and walk down the street; the Feds need to stay out of it.

Completely legally albeit pushing the boundary of good taste on the suicide vests. I honestly have to take a very Libertarian view of this, which required a step back and a deep breath, and say that if it's legal and it feels a bit like a middle finger at the government, carry on. I seriously doubt anyone is going to Form 4 a suicide vest to use it, let alone to use it for criminal purposes, any more than they are going to Form 4 an SBR for criminal purposes when they can be just as criminal building them without the necessary paperwork.

Brownies. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jeff Walle at Guns & Leather in Greenbrier. Always a pleasure to deal with. No idea on the cost. Edit: Apparently some of the DPMS flash hiders are held on with Loctite. Hit it with a propane torch to see if that'll loosen it enough for you.