OldIronFan

That being said there was never an issued opinion letter on FRTs as there was with pistol braces. That and the limited number of forced reset triggers out in the market due to the limited number of manufacturers at this point makes them a much easier target for the ATF. I believe pistol braces will be a much steeper hill for them to climb with their history of approval/opinion letters allowing them. They may very well try to climb that hill in the future but I do not think it will be a focus in the immediate future. 80% receivers, parts kits, Form 1 products (solvent traps), binary and forced reset triggers will all take priority over braces in my opinion.

The forced reset trigger companies were not raided. Neither Rare Breed or Wide Open Trigger was raided by the ATF. The ATF did go to Big Daddy Unlimited and seized their inventory of Wide Open Triggers FRTs. I have found zero reporting of any action being taken against any individual owner of a FRT product from either company.

Well that was quick. Most of the folks that see it don't have a clue or did not know it existed.

I thought I would throw this odd ball up here and see who has a guess on what it is. Probably my strangest 1911 so I keep it around. JMB would not approve...

Had one just like it. Never should have sold that..... story of my life.

The Fort Campbell guys were selling in Chicago if I recall. They were spreading their purchases around a fairly broad area in central Kentucky. I bet this guy did the same, picked them up around middle TN or KY shops or maybe a few gun shows. Just another reason I rarely if ever sell a gun to anyone.

To be fair a big part of my anti Ruger stance is business practice related. Most companies in the firearms business treat other firearms manufacturers with a certain level of respect even when they are, at some level, in competition. Ruger actively undermines other manufacturers with petty and vindictive practices. They screwed the company I work for by acquiring part of our supply base and cut off supply to all other firearms related customers. There were several other companies affected besides ours. All were sent scrambling to find new vendors, move tooling, and/or produce new tooling to keep the flow of parts coming in. The P series was clunky, bulky, not all that well refined and the two examples I fired had an ejection pattern that put about every 2nd or 3rd case on top of my hat.

Had one of the P series guns back when they were "new". Hated it and did not keep it long. One of the reasons I don't like Ruger or buy Ruger products. I do own a couple 10-22's but have had them for many years now.

Wattage has has very little to do with distance in line of sight communication until you get to the margins of that line of sight. Frequencies below 2MHz are reflected off the atmosphere. They can follow the Earth's curvature traveling much further than the horizon. CB (26.965-27.405 MHz), VHF 130-174MHz), and UHF (400-520MHz) are well above that and are almost strictly line of sight. Signal propagation is dependent on height of the signal source (antenna), wavelength of the signal, atmospheric conditions, and topography interference (natural or man made). Many HAM operators trying to do long range do so with ultra low wattage transceivers as a challenge. They can hit the other side of the country or the world with 1 watt if they find the right atmospheric conditions and frequency window. That is called QRP operation and is a very popular subset of the HAM community. Now in these internet driven days, as Chucktshoes mentioned, most are relying in GPS based traffic updates through a stand alone GPS unit, their smart phone, or a tablet running a GPS app like Waze. CB is still used but it is nothing like it was 30 to 50 years ago. If there is a significant back up on a major road there will be more CB chatter. 10 or 15 years ago I was still hearing drivers call out to others when trying to overtake a slower truck or just to call a Swift driver an idiot. I do know OTR drivers with HAM but they are running UHF/VHF not the lower frequency long distance communication we traditionally think of, i.e. the old guy in the dusty basement with a headset, mic, and a rack full of radio gear. UHF/VHF is the go to in mobile units and handhelds. Most of your emergency communication is done across the UHF and VHF bands. There are some pretty extensive networks of repeaters that allow you to stretch the ~26ish mile line of sight radio horizon limit across several hundred miles.

No, for the most part CB is dead. Many truckers have gone to HAM and some have gone to GMRS (or run both). Even most of the off-road trail riding groups have gone to GMRS or HAM. Last time I had a CB hooked up in my truck (a couple years ago) there was almost zero traffic on the air from mid KY down through mid Alabama. I was running 600~800 or so miles a week for work and would often make an entire days drive without hearing anyone when scanning the CB frequencies.

This thinking makes zero sense to me. In over 30 years if driving I have run a car or truck out of gas exactly zero times. In those 30 plus years on the road I have run one vehicle out of gas exactly one time. It was a 1970's motorcycle without a fuel level gauge. Only took once to figure out the range and reserve in the tank. Rode that bike another 15,000 miles or so and never once ran out again. My wife has been driving the same 30 plus years. Just asked her and she has run out of gas or been stranded with an empty tank exactly zero times as well. If I am bugging out in a SHTF end of days scenario it wont be in an electric car either. That does not mean electric vehicles don't make sense, they just don't make sense in some limited scenarios.

I regret selling some of the guns I had in my collection over the years but my biggest regret is selling a G1 Contender pistol with 22lr, 44mag, and 357mag barrels. Had some nice walnut target grips on it and a decent scope on the 44 mag. That 14" 44 barrel had a good bit of torque to it when you squeezed one off.

Those are traditional low pressure fuel injectors and are generally easy to access. I am talking about direct injection. Injectors are directly into the combustion chamber/cylinder bore not the intake manifold. You have to remove everything off the side of the motor including the intake manifold and everything that connects to it. That intake is literally wrapped around and shrouding the fuel rail below and behind it. Refurb high pressure injectors are $128. New injectors are $160ish each from a discount parts source like Rock Auto. They are double that from a dealer. I believe the job books at 7~8 hours which is just about what it took me if I don't count my time cleaning the intake valves.

Becoming more popular than ever it seems, especially on small displacement turbocharged engines. There are a bunch of offerings from Volkswagen/Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Lexus with GDI. I am not a fan really and it may fall out of favor as technology advances but it seems to be here to stay for a little while.

Yeah the trigger feels very nice. Can't wait to get some more range time with it. And the slide release was just an observation when manipulating the controls safe/unloaded. I did not go round up my snap caps when I took it out of the box so I was just getting a feel for everything with an empty mag in it. It is lighter than my two other full size 9mm offerings and feels thinner overall. It certainly feels less bulky than a few of the other options as well so even the full size seems like it would be a easier carry option than say a Glock 17. Seems to have a well thought out profile with chamfers, relief cuts, and contours in all the right spots to reduce bulk. I have a little MP5/22lr pistol that is a blast as well. it is my favorite 22 suppressor host.

No point other than answering your questions and to state that maintenance costs on modern powertrains (gas, diesel, or electric) can be astronomically high these days. Not exclusive to battery packs. Nope, not a diesel. Regular ol 2.3l 4 cylinder Mazda motor. Just GDI (gasoline direct injection)

I just picked up a VP9 Tactical. Optics ready slide, suppressor height night sights, threaded barrel, accessory rail, and 3 17rnd mags in the package. Very impressed with the fit, finish, and overall build quality. Impressed with the feel in the hand and the adjustability of the replaceable backstraps and grip side plates. Not sure I love the mag release yet and hoping the slide release breaks in over time. If not I may have to find an extended slide release. It sits in nice and clean/snag free but takes a little more effort then I would like to release. My second H&K and I will be buying more in the future. A VP9L or VP9SK may be one of those purchases to accompany the VP9T I just got.

Engine replacement was dealer as it was factory warranty. The car was new enough that no ready source of refurb/core engines were available at the time. I would have had to go with a dealer regardless. The injectors were at my favorite local independent shop. They have been great in the past. It is a direct injection motor so we are talking 1700PSI high pressure injectors at ~$160ish each. Only one failed but since you have to take the intercooler, filter housing, charge pipes, battery, battery box, ecu, throttle body, intake manifold, PCV valve and tube, EGR pipe, MAP sensor, HPFP housing, and fuel rail off to get to that one injector you better spend the extra few hundred dollars to replace the other 3 injectors. Then you better think about upgrading the injector seals which are a known weak point in the engine. That is an extra $200. Then since you have it all apart you should probably replace the PCV valve, intake manifold gasket, throttle body gasket, and the bypass valve body gasket. Also while apart you should consider cleaning the intake valves since they will be covered with carbon and oil deposits, since it is a direct injection motor. Took me 4 hours to pull it all apart, another 4 hours cleaning the valves, and about 2.5 to 3 hours putting it back together. I spent roughly $800 to $900 on parts to do it myself and that was finding a deal on the OEM injectors from someone who bought them but then got scared of the work to do the job themselves.

Just had a quote to replace the fuel injectors on my wife's car, $2800. Just the fuel injectors. What do you think it would cost to replace an engine in a late model car? I had an engine replaced on a new car about ten years ago. Thankfully it was still under warranty, the bill was over $8,000. 32,000 miles on the failed motor, just under the 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty at the time. If I had driven it a few more months before failure I would have been paying that out of pocket. There is already a huge market for the used batteries. There are resourceful people starting businesses that refurb the packs by disassembling them testing the individual cells, replacing the failed or failing cells, and selling the refurbed packs to EV owners. You know sort of like engine builders who will sell you a refurb engine, take back your bad core, and refurb it for the next customer. Again the solutions for the problems EV's face will not come overnight. It is constant development. Not enough range... Battery tech, motor efficiency and control efficiency is constantly improving. Not enough charging stations.... The network is ever expanding and will continue to due so. Charging is slow... again battery tech is ever evolving, as is charging tech. Battery cost is high... Economy of scale, when the demand for them begins to approach the demand for IC engine components you will see battery cell costs plummet. Batteries are no more environmentally friendly than gasoline... I will admit this is a tough one. We have a long way to go to improve all aspects of battery production from mining of the elements to recycling of the spent cells. This alone is the biggest hurdle to continued development but we still have significant environmental issues extracting crude from the earth and refining it. Massive oil spills, spills from train wrecks, pipeline issues, a few pesky wars, and some genocide have all plagued oil production. To think that the environmental issues surrounding batteries are a deal breaker to their development/use is to wear blinders and maintain ignorance of the issues that surround oil/gas use.

They were somewhat popular and were in a race to become viable but like you stated IC/gasoline won out over steam and electric. Any advantages they may have had did not translate to the masses for more widespread use at the time. Certainly would be interesting to see what would become of industry, technology, and the world if it had gone the other way.

I am sure that Jackson and Crocker had no issues finding gas for their trans continental trip in 1903. https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/crossing-country If electric cars were feasible in 1903 we would have a nation with many thousands of electric charging stations across the country instead of a gas station on every corner. Electric cars are just now in this century becoming feasible so it might take a few years to develop the network of charging stations that begins to meet the demand/need.

If you are looking for pizza Pequod's Pizza is the place to go. I spent about two months trying them all. I was flying into Chicago on Sunday or Monday, working the week, and flying back out on Thursday or Friday so I had plenty of time to try them all. Pequod's was one of those places that combined everything to achieve the best all around pie but did so with the second best of each key area. They had the second best crust, the second best tomato character, the second best sausage, and the right amount of cheese and other toppings. All of those second bests combined to hit it out of the park. It is a dive of a place though. Lou Malnati's has some of the best crust but lacks in many other areas. Giordano's has some of the best sausage out there but their crust is doughy, thick and not that appealing plus they load it up with too much cheese which muddles the flavors. Gino's East has some of the freshest best tasting tomato character and is a solid all around good pie but not the top of the list. Bartoli's and My Pi were good but not that memorable honestly. Bartoli's did have a nice crust. If you are not after Pizza there is always Gibson's Bar & Steakhouse or Gene & Georgetti's which are Chicago standards that never disappointed me.

4 to 5 inches at the house in northern Rutherford County, looked like 5 to 6 inches at work in Christiana. Best kind of snow to get, pretty to look at for a few hours then starts melting right away on the roads so you can still travel without issue. I did have 1/8" to 1/4" of ice under some of the snow that made the drive a bit of a mess at first. Much better than that crap we got last January that was a combo if freezing fog, freezing rain, sleet, and snow that made an absolute mess and stuck around for 5 or so days.

Barrett produces a good bit more than 50 BMG. They have offerings in .223/5.56 up through 7.62 NATO in AR platforms and 6.5 mm up through the .338 Norma or Lapua mag options in bolt actions. They used to have even more small bore options in the now discontinued Fieldcraft line. You point is still valid though. Their target market is not generally "rolling their own" from 80% lowers. Plus their ownership is historically very pro 2A at the state and national level.

I know the feeling. One of the other bays of the garage normally has a motorcycle in front of the spare car and the mower behind it during the summer. There is about 2" between each. I leave lots of room around the wife's car simply so I can access the mower and motorcycle without moving everything I own around. I don't even try to fit the truck in the garage. It would be fine with nothing else in there but not with all the crap I have packed in the garage.