10-Ring

I see a lot of avenues here, though I'm not sure what, if any would be most effective. 1) Send a certified letter demanding the immediate return of your firearm. Explain that if you do not have possession within 10 days you will report the firearm as stolen and/or you will file a civil suit to reclaim your firearm and any legal fees that your incur. I see no reason that this shouldn't be your first step. If the gunsmith is even somewhat reputable he will want to avoid the potential legal hassle that may be coming his way. 2) Report the firearm as stolen, most likely that will need to be done locally as they will likely need to take a report in person. 3) Call the ATF field office that covers the area where the gunsmith is. Be able to provide them with the police report where you have reported the gun stolen. They can help you, the big question is will they be willing to. 4) When you attempt to report the gun as stolen, you may be told that it is a civil matter and not a criminal matter. As you likely do not want to travel to where the gunsmith is, contact an attorney that is local to the area. It may get a little pricey, but you will most likely recoup your expenses through the courts, if the gunsmith, is smart he will want to avoid absorbing your legal expenses, as they will much more than he stood to profit from his work on the gun. 5) Document EVERYTHING. No more phone calls unless they are recorded (no need to inform anyone that the call is being recorded, Tennessee is a one party state, so only one person on the call (you) has to have knowledge that it is a recorded conversation. The one party rule would apply on an interstate call as long as the call is placed from a one party state). Email and text messages are your friend as they are very easy maintain as evidence. GOOD LUCK!

Currently a safety guy for a state agency that shall remain unnamed. Previously I have worked a series of mostly low paying, but interesting and mostly fulfilling jobs including, heavy equipment operator, explosives handler, professional photographer, and retail loss prevention agent.

And done! Hope this safe doesn't suck!

I recently aquired several firearms from my father in law. Amongst them was a Taurus Judge. Admittedly, I own several firearms that haven't left my safe in years and may not have been fired in decades. However, each has a use. The barrel of the judge is too short to legally use it for deer in Tennessee, so it's out for hunting purposes. I seem to have an ongoing rat problem in my chicken coop/shed, a .410 single shot is my go to for rats because it does the job well and doesn't blow too big of a hole in the wall. I thought that the Judge would make a good rat gun, but it doesn't even do that well. One recent evening I had a rat out there, so I grabbed the Judge loaded with .410 7 1/2 shot. Walk out there and sure enough the rat is sitting at the opposite end of the shed 12 feet away. I fire and holy crap it was loud. At 12' the .410 had 3' (yes feet) of spread and the pellets didn't even penetrate the thin sheet metal walls. I took a second shot at another one with the same results. So, it's no good for hunting. The .410 is useless for rats. I've heard several people sing the praises of the Judge as a wonderful stuff defense weapon. Do I want 45LC slugs being flung in my direction? Absolutely not. I also have no desire to carry around something that bulky that has a 5 round capacity. I do have quite a bit of .410 PDX, and I honestly haven't messed with it, but after seeing what the 7 1/2s do out of that 3" barrel I don't think I could confidently use .410s in a self defense situation. Hate to be a negative Nelly, but in my opinion this gun has few (if any) redeeming qualities. What is the most useless firearm in your collection?

I have a 12 year old daughter who has zero interest in any kind of guns (or anything else I like for that matter) and I have a 17 month old son who is getting to where he is into everything. I think I'll order a safe for the bedside table right now. Most everything is secured in my safe, but I do like to keep a pistol and/or my Shockwave handy.

Give Simple Green a try

Just got finished standing and wiped down with mineral spirits. Tru Oil will start tomorrow.

It's there anything Tennesseans don't have the ability to excel at?

Wish I had taken better pictures of the prep process, but I didn't because I've done it so many times it's not really fascinating. I did it a little different this time though. Sanded what I could with 80 grit, then used a citrus stripper. After that I washed it with Dawn, then slathered another heavy coat of Dawn on and let it sit over night. This morning I rinsed it off, then let it sit in hot water, changing the water out every hour of so until there were no suds or color from the old stain in the water. The Dawn did a really good job lifting out the oil stains around the receiver. After cleaning it up, I found a hairline crack in the wrist of the stock. To my knowledge there isn't a lot that can be done to that other than reinforcing, so I cleaned the area really well and put Gorilla Glue in it and worked it into the crack with a straight pin. It should expand into the crack as it dries. Currently everything is sanded to 150 and the glue is drying. I'll go a final sanding at 300 grit. Wipe down with mineral spirits, and start the Tru Oil process.

I've camped at Cedars several times as well. Seems kind of silly but it's only 6 miles from my house. Sometimes we call with friends there and sometimes it's just an easy get a way. Should be 35 miles/ 1 hour drive to downtown from there. We're RV campers so I'm going to throw this out there. State parks aren't going to get you away from RVs unless there is a tent only area. Actually stayed at Cedars last weekend and it was full of RVs.

Nothing impressive. Looks more aluminum than silver, (just like the receiver ). It's just an old Ted Williams Model 34. Hope it will be a good shooter. Here's a before pic. Excuse the disaster of a workbench.

About the time I get done with one I swear to myself that I'll never do another. Yet a short time later I come across a rifle or shotgun that begs for my love and I can't help myself. Just stripped this one down today. Had an ugly reddish varnish that didn't show the natural grain of the wood. The picture is just water on the wood after I washed the stripper off. That grain is amazing. Thinking it's just going to get a good sanding and about 30 coats of TruOil. 

Nearly 20 years ago I had a gun stolen. Filed the report, all of that good stuff. I had just bought the gun a couple of months earlier. (Side note, I bought it from an acquaintance who was a dealer. Turned out he was sloppy with paperwork and had not entered the gun on his logs. I recall that the ATF was not amused, but don't recall what happened to him over the incident.) About 3 years later in contacted but the jurisdiction where I reported the gun stolen. They told me that I could come get it anytime. I was pretty excited to get it back and went down there a day or two later as I live about an hour away at that point. I picked it up and it was absolutely filthy. Detective said it was recovered in Nashville a year earlier and had been held as evidence for the trial. I still have it, don't have much use for it, haven't shot it in years, I guess I hold on to it because there is an interesting story attached.

I own the same rifle, and it, of all of my rifles probably gets picked for duty more than all of the others put together. It's a hard caliber to beat for a truck gun, which by my definition in a gun you keep in the truck that is good for anything you may encounter. I've taken squirrels, groundhogs, deer, and pigs with it. Doesn't get much more versatile than that.

Racoon, not possum. I've studied this in depth through placing trail cams in my coop. I've also locked possums in my coop just to prove a point and have never had an issue. Possums are incredibly lazy, and have poor eyesight, making them lousy predators. They are extremely talented in finding carrion, also they aren't generally scared of people especially when eating. As such, it's common to walk up on a possum eating a chicken that a raccoon killed and left. Possums will eat eggs, and I wouldn't trust them around chicks. But, I have yet to see any hard evidence (videos) of a possum actively killing a healthy chicken.

I'll take butter over margarine and sugar over artificial sweeteners. Key is moderation, which I struggle with.

Bingo

Yep, looking like you guys are correct and it is a K11. I'll check for sure when I get home.

Just acquired this and decosmolined and cleaned it up. Not my first rodeo with cosmoline, but I did something different this time. Soaked everything heavily in Simple Green and let it sit for a day or so. Spray it again and wipe it down. Repeat the process with PB Blaster. Go over all wood, and any metal showing rust with 0000 steelwool. Process seemed to work well. Seems ammo is currently unobtanium. If anyone has 5-10 rounds they could spare, I would love to shoot it. Last picture is before I did anything to it.

Per your request... You want to give the government money to proclaim that you won't be made to give the government money?

I would be honored to run from that position.

Helping a friend restore his grandfather's old Remington Model 58 shotgun. It needs blueing bad. He said that he tried to blue it himself years ago, but he can't recall anything about the process that he used. While money is always a concern, he wants a nice restoration of a family heirloom, so it is not of the utmost importance. Does anyone have recommendations of anywhere local that does this kind of work?

I agree, we don't need to promote people vacationing here. The woo girl epidemic is crippling Lower Broadway in Nashville clogging up the road with all types of pedal taverns and tractors hauling obnoxious drunks who are having so much fun that they decide to move here, drive the housing prices sky high, and then complain about how we don't do things the way that they did them back in Connecticut. Tennessee is a horrible place. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, with a very short spring and fall. The level of humidity is such that we have forgotten what it really means to truly dry off. We're infested with alligators, rattlesnakes, chiggers, ticks, and mosquitos that are difficult to distinguish from hummingbirds. Our roads are treacherous, curvy, and poorly maintained. All of the natives are hillbillies who will do their best to drive you back to wherever you came from. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It was already harvested but still had plenty of melons. I'll be hunting that field in Saturday, I understand they bush hogged it this year after harvest. Doesn't make sense to me that they were attracted to watermelons, but I'd never seen that many birds in a day before.