10-Ring

I too have noticed this.  Used to you just went and bought a bulk pack of .22, Federal 550 was my favorite flavor.  Now it seems when I find .22 it's a variety that I've never heard of and for whatever reason it is special and priced accordingly so, I just want regular old .22 again. 

Sorry for your losses.  I'm very familiar with that area.  What appears to be a nice shopping center on the surface is walking distance from the biggest trailer park in the county.  There are always nasty people hanging out around there.  The Walmart after 10 pm is downright scary.

I see no need in a laser on a mouse gun, the added expense would make this gun not worth it to me.  If I had to use a gun of this size to defend myself I would expect that the target would be so close to me that there would be no time to utilize a laser.  The flash light I could see being handy but I have an issue with lights attached to the gun because of the possibility that the perp is going to shoot towards the light, I would rather carry a good flashlight and use it.  I could see how these features could be an advantage on a HD gun but I would never use a .380 as a house gun.  The Curve is a peculiar little piece but I wouldn't discount it on it's ugly looks alone, I'm all about function and could care less what a defensive pistol looks like.  If I wanted the gun for its aesthetics I would choose a 1911 or a nice wheel gun.  This gun has already received a lot of flak but I wouldn't discount it until I got to try it out first hand.

Yeah CPS has gotten a lot more stupid in the past year or so.  I remember when I could send a camera in Tuesday night and it would be back at my door Thursday morning properly fixed for a pretty dang good price.  Those days are gone.  Anymore it seems to be wait a week, pay a lot and I've sent bodies back as many as 4 times without them being properly repaired.  I got out of doing photography full time about a year ago and just do it part time now.  Dealing with CPS can just about put a photographer out of business.

I use that 28-135mm lens for 90% of what I do.  I also own an L-series 70-200mm but it rarely gets the nod, to the point that I usually don't even pack it when going on a trip when I'm just taking the camera without a particular objective.  If this lens had the ability to shoot at 1.8 or even 2.8 I would like it a whole lot more, that's my biggest complaint about it.    Just for price reference I got my lens in a package deal a couple of years ago I gave $350 for it and two Tamron lenses that were worth maybe $150ish for both.

I have a feist that is 8.  If I could roll back the clock I would have done it.  When he was a puppy I had the mentality of "I wouldn't want that done to me."  At 8 he is pretty well behaved but slightly aggressive and will pee at every opportunity if allowed in the house.  I've also noticed that he likes to pee on things in the house out of spite and jealously, like if I'm holding something and set it on the floor he will pee on it, I think it's because I was holding that item when I could have been petting him.  He obeys pretty well but if I had it to do again I would have done two things different 1) had him snipped and 2) put him through obedience school.    I will note that when he was a puppy my justification for not having him fixed was I didn't think it was necessary because I've always kept my dogs put up so he wasn't roaming the neighborhood impregnating everything around.  Now I see that it isn't about that.

  I have it installed but go through my phones browser 90% of the time.

Sorry you are having to go through this Doug, my prayers are with you.

Auto all the way. 1911 .45ACP. What's the point of carrying a revolver? You wouldn't have anything to argue about.

Nice!  Two of my passions as well.

That is a very nice piece you have there and no doubt a quality one as well.  I think that you audience is really important.  A lot of people are going to have sticker shock at $750, but that's not to say that you are over priced.  A quick net search found me this piece http://www.hayneedle.com/product/hyrescountryhaventeakdoublebackswing.cfm, I think that yours is much nicer.  It really looks like a piece that could be handed down if taken care of, I know I'd be proud to have it on my front porch.

Agreed.  It all boils down to the riders size and experience and what you want to do.  I have a friend that has a KLR that does 500 mile days back to back on it on the interstate and swears up and down he likes it more than his Harley.  For most a KLR would be fine for fire roads but I would have no desire to get into anything remotely tight with it.  I have two DRZ400s, a street legal "E" model and a SM, the SM is pretty limited off of gravel or hard pack and the E gets really heavy really fast in tight or really rough terrain, I initially wanted a DRZ250 when I bought it and everyone told me to get the 400, I wish I would have gone with the 250.  IMO the smaller you are comfortable on in the tight woods the better.

Always good to hear about a company that takes care of their customers.    I recently had a good experience as well.  This one with Merrell Shoes.  I certainly will not hesitate to buy from them again.  Turned out there wasn't anything wrong with the shoes they just needed to be broken in a little bit more.  Here is a copy of the email correspondence I had with them.    And their response...

How dare you talk about two outstanding members of our forum like that? :)

Do you and Dolomite shop at the same Wal-Mart by chance?

...if only there was a way we could trick those protester idiots into having one of their protests and lay in the middle of Alcoa Highway (main thoroughfare between airport and town) so it has to be shut down today.

Send 'em to Memphis.  They are liked over there.

  I wouldn't carry any gun without getting very comfortable on the range with it first and knowing the gun.  Especially something really small like a .380.  I swore that I'd never own a Taurus but I relented and bought a TCP and love it.  That said mine did not function well out of the box, it took a lot of polishing and tweaking to get it to run right.  When I got it it was for all practical purposes a single shot, if you got anything else out of it you were just lucky.  Carry a single shot .380?  No thanks.

Never heard of it but a quick search tells me that it could be pretty annoying to have someone watching me all day.  I like to rock out in the car but I don't even do it around other cars, I just don't think that I could handle that.  I would so put that in my kids car though.

When someone swears that some gun info is absolutely true because a cop told them.   Example:  "My neighbors cousin is a cop, and he said that it is illegal to have more than 3 rounds loaded int any gun."   Nothing against cops all of them that I personally know are great guys.  But they are not all gun guys, they just happen to carry one everyday.  I carry all kinds of stuff around everyday like hammers, ratchet straps, shovels, and motor oil yet I do not consider myself an authority "subject matter expert" on these things, they are just tools that I use to get my job done.  I will note that I've never heard this bologna come from the mouth of a cop, some of the cops I know are VERY well informed about guns because they have a personal interest, like us, instead it always starts with the "I know a cop..."   Other people who are "gun experts."  I have an uncle that is a real A hole.  He was telling me something about his buddy that is a "gun expert" (like it's a professional title) telling him that a Taurus Judge was absolutely the best home defense weapon a person could buy.  He would listen to nothing that I said because I'm not a gun expert.  I have nothing against the Judges and similar weapons but it's not what I would grab for a bump in the night.  Just to poke the bear...  Ever shot a squirrel with a .410 and had to shoot it again?

It's amazing what an addict will do for a fix.  I saw one of my very best friends get hooked on Oxycontin, it ruined his life.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear that he was using heroin because it was cheaper.  An addict will steal and sell every precious family heirloom in their parents house and pawn it for nothing just to get high once, and they think nothing of it.  They would thoughtlessly sell their soul to the devil for one more hit if they could.  I say let em at it, problem will solve itself, I've been around more than enough addicts in my life, they rarely get better.

Back around 2007-2008 or so I was living in Cookeville and would see them in town all of the time.  There was one down at the end of the parking lot at Kroger one night that some morons were hand feeding. 

I'm sure the same could be said about some members here and their relationship with guns.  To each his own.

I do the bulk of my dual sport riding in Cherokee National Forrest.  You are good as long as it is street legal and you stay on open roads, same rules as an automobile.  I was out there on Saturday actually, they had some roads opened up from hunting season that are not ordinarily open that I got to explore!  I have a dirtbike that has been "converted" to be street legal.  This is a tricky process that I could write a book about, but it can be done.

It sounds like you are looking for something that will offer good utility, and low maintenance, and low price and performance is secondary to this.  I've kind of sat back throughout this thread to see what direction you are headed before I made a recommendation on a bike.  I will just offer you these tidbits...   -Stay away from modern motorcross 4 strokes, they require more maintenance do to the power that is being squeezed out of that little engine.  Example, I had a Yamaha YZF400, it had 5 valves for one cylinder and was a complete pain in the butt to check valves on.     -Depending on how big a boy you are I would get an electric start on anything over about 300cc.  Preferably with a backup kickstart.  I'm 5'8" 160 pounds, know what I am doing and still had to kick that YZF just right to get it to start, not to mention that kick starter will come back at you with a vengeance.  My DRZ400E only has an electric start, which is nice when everything is working, my battery died on the trail once and it was so muddy that I could not bump start it, even in 5th gear it would just go into a skid when I popped the clutch.  A friend had to ride out and fetch a tow strap to pull me about 2 miles to pavement before I could get it to start.    -I will second the XRs as a great option for you.  They are a little heavier and not quite as powerful as their modern CRF counterparts but they are bullet proof and you should be able to pick up a nice one for around $1500 or less.  Unless you are a pretty big guy I would look for a 200 or 250, if you are bigger a 400, if you are just a strapping dude that is really big and really strong then a 600.  The old XR600s are a beast of a motorcycle, even as an experienced rider I don't enjoy riding them in tight spaces you have to muscle them around.  A friends dad raced one for years back in the 90's.  He was 6' 225 in great shape and worked out everyday.  A really experienced rider that isn't big will have a hard time muscling that bike around.  If you don't want a Honda I would really try to keep it Japanese.  KTM and other European brands make an excellent performance product.  It sounds like more performance than what you are looking for, parts cost a lot more, and they will just require more maintenance all the way around.    -Bigger is not always better.  If say a CRF150 suited your needs and you are not really big I promise you that you can not ride that motorcycle and NOT smile.  I think one of the funnest bikes that I ever owned was a CRF50, built up with the 88 kit, and it would go anywhere in the woods since you can lift it over or scoot it under a blown down tree on the trail.  That package weighs 100 pounds and will still run 45MPH.  A couple of friends and myself have done 50 mile days on the trail on these bikes, the seats on the other hand are not butt friendly.    If there is anything I can do to help you just shoot me a message, I've owned dirtbikes all of my adult life (momma said "not under my roof") and I currently own 5 dirtbike based motorcycles, each with a specific purpose.