Jamie Jackson

Prayers are there for you and Kasey Doug. She's Blessed to have you for a "Dad" Good Sir.

I'm another strongly influenced by Ahern's writings Murgatroy...both in Combat Handguns magazine and of course the Survivalists series. Very innovative and original books. I still have my original series from the 80's sans one book...vol 5 iirc...but they are yellowed and would probably fall apart if I tried rereading them again LOL. I must confess Natalia Tiemerovna was a most intriguing character!

They are all excellent and I appreciate you sharing them. Beautiful sight indeed.

Awesome photos KahrMan!

I waited until the darkness was maxed then shot it. I was surprised at what it saw.. I didn't look up, just tilted the phone that direction.

LOL...nope. Still working fine. The shadow pics were after the eclipse by a minute or two. ETA....checked the phone and it still works

and this is my phone's interpretation of what it saw...

GT...I caught a couple of those shadow pics as well...pretty cool! The birds went a little nuts right before the 98.7% or whatever it was...

The last "Firearm Related" items I purchased were a couple of books. "Handgunner's Guide: Including the art of the Quick Draw and Combat Shooting" by Chic Gaylord If you are unfamiliar with Chic Gaylord here's a pretty good article by John Taffin...if you're not familiar with John Taffin I'm not certain there's any hope for you... Because of the innovative and rare ability to generate an "original thought" process that Gaylord possessed we have the concealed carry options we do today. Bear in mind this book was originally published in 1960. Sure, the material is dated, but it's great to read and see the concepts that started moving us to where we are today. I got my used copy (excellent like-new) for $25.00 and I'm quite pleased with it. https://americanhandgunner.com/chic-gaylord/ https://www.amazon.com/Handgunners-Guide-Including-Combat-Shooting/dp/1581601085/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503306610&sr=1-1&keywords=chic+gaylord Chic Gaylord: I also picked up and recently read Elmer Keith's 1961 edition of "Sixguns". Great historical read! https://www.amazon.com/Sixguns-1961-Elmer-Keith/dp/1477661697

I'm glad you found it helpful . Sounds like you have a solid plan. Please give us an update when you've worked up some handloads. Those ACME bullets look pretty good and that a decent price on them as well. Cooler weather's just around the corner. Safe shooting!

Very nice guns gentlemen! I'm currently reading Elmer Keith's "Sixguns" and it's really got me hankering for a Single Six...

Welcome aboard. I'm a big fan of Unique and have used it for a bit over 30 years now. We, as a group, cast, Powder coat, and handload. Our bullets wind up at around 130 grs. I've found, as others have, that lead bullet load data is a good starting point. The powder coated bullets have much less drag/resistance compared to jacketed bullets. Big Question? Do you have a chronograph? I find a chrono an essential safety tool for handloading. One of my old time favorites for handloading jacketed 124 gr 9mm rounds is/was a compressed load of 5.7 grs of Unique. Those loads mimicked my then carry ammo of 124 gr Black Hills +P using Gold Dot bullets as far as perceived recoil and POA/POI. These chrono'ed at around 1150 fps. But that charge would be too much for a powder coated bullet imho. I can achieve the same velocity using 4.3 grs of Unique with a PC 130 gr 9mm bullet. A current very mild and inexpensive load we use for practice, and I've run it through a couple of classes, is 3.6 grs of Unique with our 130 gr PC bullet. This load chrono's at about 1020 fps. If competition is a concern, this load yields a 133 power factor. I personally like a bit more pep and will load 4.3 grs of Unique at times. FWIW we run these loads through at least 10 different Glocks (models 26 through 34) with no cycling or functioning issues. Just so you know the above are not recommendations and are just my observations and experience. Starting with lead bullet data from a reliable and trusted source, chrono the loads, and watch for signs of over pressure is a decent place to start. Be safe good Sir.

Definitely congrats Willis, and welcome to the "Glock-side"! Trijicon HD are my favorite sights as well. Good choice imho.

Didn't Groucho Marx once say: “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.” ? And no secret decoder ring?! Balderdash!

When I was 11 years old (1965) I had, what would now be considered a full time job...40 hours a week. A Mr. Mitchell Curry owned a Western Auto store in my small town. He had an H&R 16 g single shot for around $30.00 or so. I convinced him to let me put it on layaway, brought him a note from my mother, and paid off the gun in about 4 weeks. I only made around $15.00/wk. I had to be frugal. I had a 50cc little motorcycle, rode down, picked it up, along with a box of shells and headed for a local gravel pit. Times were different I guess as this wasn't an unusual event back then. I still have it. I've killed rabbits, squirrels, dove, predators (foxes and a couple of coyotes) and my first deer with it. Couldn't part with it for anything.

I'll second the SCCY. They are actually good little guns and reasonably durable...but if he doesn't practice with it the small safety could be an issue. Good Luck.

I'm bumping this one back because it has several great suggestions for various podcasts and to recommend another: Civilian Carry Radio Civilian Carry Radio is hosted by a group of three people, Baraka James, Allen Sams and Karie Thomas. They offer a solid format, simulcast on YouTube, and have had a phenomenal list of "guests" to interview thus far. Their focus is, as you may have guessed, Civilian Carry and the topics discussed are actually related to us mere earth walker everyday carry type folks! Here's a link and I hope you folks will give them a listen. https://firearmsradio.tv/civilian-carry-radio/

I would keep my OEM barrel personally. What would be the purpose of the stainless barrel if I may ask? Factory or OEM Glock barrels are "generous" in that, while not match accurate, they certainly allow most to spec rounds to feed readily and reliably. I have a couple of Lone Wolf barrels and have to carefully tailor my handloads to them for reliable feeding. The Lone Wolf barrels are very picky as far as feeding SD ammo. I've read the same of KKM and other aftermarket barrels. But I also believe KKM will tweak a barrel for a particular load for a fee. I only carry with an OEM barrel...others opinions may differ. But I wouldn't sacrifice the known for the unknown...not saying you would. I have between 50-60 K rounds through my G 19 barrel and it still quite serviceable. Gunbroker lists a few OEM Glock barrels fwiw. Just a WAG but they may be replacing a barrel they sold ...

These are indeed "Golden Times" for shooters.

Good on you Bersa, all the way around! Being proactive just makes sense. We lived in SW MS near New Orleans at the time of Katrina. As we had a window unit and generator we were able to maintain a "cool place" during the 6 weeks we had no electricity. It was a valuable lesson learned. We've been in Knoxville since 2006. We purchased our current home in 2007 and installed 2 window units in our home in 2008. We have a single central unit and it services 3000 sq feet. We put reflective tinting on all of our windows around the same time as installing the window units. We literally cut our electric bills in half once we did this. We keep a generator serviceable to run the window units and freezers ... just in case. I can always dress with more warn clothing in the winter...but darn! You can only get just so naked in this heat and not be arrested!

I'm glad to hear you've joined the AK crowd David. I wonder just how many of us were honestly influenced by this?

That's a great book to own! I remember only too well...way before the interwebz...when if you needed to do any non-local gun business, you had to subscribe/consult "The Shotgun News", purchase the "Shooter's Bible" and utilize what's referred to as snail-mail...why we even made phone calls back then! Oh yeah, you needed to subscribe to Brownells catalog as well, and know how to decipher the wholesale pricing...I had an FFL back in the late 80's to early 90's and these were the essential sources. I sure do miss the $5.00 Hazmat fee of those times.

While I've never trained with Melody Lauer or John Johnston (Ballistic Radio), they do offer a class along the lines that you're asking about. They have a training organization called Citizen's Defense Research and the name of the class is Contextual Handgun: The Armed Parent/Guardian. The reviews and AAR's seem pretty positive. Hope this is of some use to you. http://melodylauer.com/2016/04/contextual-handgun-the-armed-parentguardian/ AAR from P&S: https://primaryandsecondary.com/citizens-defense-researchs-the-armed-parentguardian-aar/

Thanks Taylor. Just an add-on for the handloaders here. X-treme bullets is having a July 4th sale with 10% off plus free shipping. http://www.xtremebullets.com/

That sucks K. Sorry to learn of your loss. Have you considered doing a "3 Sisters" planting? We only planted tomatoes so far this year as we've been out of town and having to do OT at work. But a few years back we planted pole beans mixed with butternut squash with some corn. I learned you have to let the corn grow for about 4 weeks first, otherwise the beans can overwhelm the corn. If you time it well I've found the beans to actually support the stalks and can help mitigate the wind damage. Speaking of beans...have you folks ever planted dried red kidney beans (like you buy to soak and cook from Walmart)? They are hand's down the most delicious beans I've ever eaten! They are a bush bean, and as I use raised beds, so they take up a lot of my space...but I'll darn sure be planting some in August!