peejman

Amazing what a little context can do..... Amen. Amen again. People who don't live with a teacher have no idea how hard they work. They don't see the nights spent grading papers, the weekends spent at various school functions, the frustrating phone calls with clueless parents who don't give a damn, and the stress of dealing with 100+ kids all day long. All they see is the 6 weeks off in the summer and 2 weeks at Christmas and think it's a cake job. My mom taught high school math for 30 years. I made more at my first job out of college than she did after teaching for 20+ years. There's something wrong with that.

DSA has uppers w/o bolt, carrier, charging handle for $275. DSA ZM4 Forged 7075T6 A3 AR15 Upper Receiver - DSZM4CBU-D S Arms

I am a mechanical engineer and have designed a few springs. They're affected by a few things... Design - the spring has to be designed "correctly". Most of the time, coil springs can be designed for "infinite life". They'll go more than 1,000,000 cycles before failure, with little loss of stiffness. Magazines are fairly long and aren't round, so I can imagine this might not be as simple as it seems. I haven't run the calculations on one to verify. Assuming the spring designer accounted for the maximum number of rounds in the magazine such that the max spring compression is within the "infinite life" range... leaving them loaded to full capacity indefinitely will not hurt anything. Even when designed to their optimum condition, some coil springs can be damaged by compressing beyond a certain point (before coil-bind). Some springs can be damaged by compressing them to coil-bind. This is why some mags have a spacer in the bottom or follower designed to prevent over-compressing the spring. Those are both one-time events and typically cause permanent deformation in the spring. A loss of pre-load is the typical immediate result. Long term, a stress riser is created in the wire and can cause it to break. So if you take your mags apart, don't mash the springs. Some springs do have a finite cyclic life. The stress level during normal use is above that "infinite life" point and so they will break eventually. That's usually in the tens or hundreds of thousands of cycles range. That's lots and lots of rounds downrange. I'd guess that only the military or professional shooters would approach that level of use. And they probably don't use the same mags for that long. Quality of the steel wire is very important. Wire that has not been heat-treated properly will reduce the life substantially. Any nicks/dings/dents/gouges/kinks in the wire can reduce life substantially. Those can be caused by dirt/debris or poor forming during manufacture. Keep your mags clean. If you do take them apart, inspect the springs and housing for signs of rubbing, look closely at the wire for damage. Brand new Chinese made mags, 60 year old milsurp mags, 40 rd mags in a gun designed for 20, aftermarket vs. OEM, .... all of these things may matter. So after all that... the answer is generally no but it depends.

I'd suggest you visit Gander Mtn, BassPro, or other similar "outfitter" type stores. Most have lots of packs available to try on and compare features. I have a no-name brand (Outdoor Products maybe?) day pack that I bought at the DayHiker in Gatlinburg several years ago. I think it was about $20 and has worked great. Big enough but not too big, drink pockets, nice padded shoulder straps and hip belt, sternum strap, etc. I hiked with it a lot and it's held up very well. The only thing I wish it had is a pocket for a hydration bladder.

I'm certainly no expert, but here's what I know... photography is all about light management. Lenses are more important than the camera (and tend to be priced as such). No camera can take good pics using a crap lens. If you're using the built-in flash on the DSLR, back up from the subject and use the zoom or digtally crop. Close-ups with the built-in flash tend to over/under expose and throw ugly shadows. Ring-light flashes or dual off-axis flashes work very well ($$) for close-ups. No flash can work too if you've got decent ambient light and a very steady hand or a tripod. If using the tripod, use the shutter timer feature so you're "hands off" when the shutter snaps. This allows the camera to stop shaking. Bland, non-reflective backdrops work well for highlighting the subject. That said, there's something to putting an object in a particular situation to highlight it (e.g., hunting rifle leaning on a fence post). Controlling the depth of field (area in sharp focus, related to aperture size) is important in those situations. Rifles are particularly hard to photograph because they're so long and skinny. It's basically lots of trial and error... move the subject around several different ways, move the lights around several different ways and learn what works best. Digital is wonderful for that since you get instant feedback and can simply delete the ugly ones. Here's some good info... Digital Photography Techniques

Get one of these and put it on your desk. It's more indicative of what you really do... In a past life, I had a sign hanging at my desk with a train engineer's hat and a firefighter's hat... In big letters it said "which hat do I get to wear today?" My boss didn't think it was funny.

Just try different ammo. Smaller guns tend to be picky with what they'll feed reliably. Google a bit and see what other TCP owners use. Lots of .380 people just use ball ammo for the (potentially) increased penetration.

You sir, have the single most sucky job in all of modern manufacturing. I mean that in the nicest way. While I've never been a Quality Manager, I've been an engineer in factories long enough to know that I'll never be a Quality Manager. Manual laborers have a direct outlet to relieve some stress, both in the actual work and in the environment. Us pencil pushers trapped in a stuffy office don't get that (other than on the fax machine...). I get far more satisfaction from spending a saturday working in my yard than most anything I've accomplished professionally.

I like my 552 as well, plenty accurate and fun to shoot. I had lot feed problems with non-jacketed HP's. Runs great on any jacketed bullets.

Flat back vs. Round back.... care to elaborate? Photos to illustrate the difference?

Thanky.

What does it cost to bid? Is FFL/TICS required?

Wow.

Actually, I think getting a new upper is a better idea. I was just letting you know who can do the modification. Just depends on how much you want to spend.

Here's some excellent info on this topic... Cornered Cat - Table of Contents

Coal Creek Armory can do it.

I find it surprising that the Armada doesn't have some form of traction control for this very reason. Adding something heavy to the back will help. Older vehicles are easier to drive in the snow than newer ones because their tires are generally much narrower, they're heavier, and they have a lot less power.

My first handgun was (is) a P85 MKII. It still runs great with who knows how many rounds down range.

If you don't like tipping EVERYONE, don't go to Jamaica. Otherwise, carry a big wad of $1 bills. My wife and I went for our honeymoon. I was nearly broke before we got to the resort. There was a guy getting your bags off the conveyor who wanted a tip ($2). There was another guy who carried them to the spot where they herded you onto the bus to your particuarly resort... he got a tip ($2). There was another guy who loaded the bags onto the bus who got a tip ($2, my last $1 bill). There was an attendant on the bus who brought you a drink ($10 for two $3 drinks, last $10 bill). The bus driver got a tip when he dropped you off ($5, last $5 bill). The bus attendant unloaded your bags and got another tip (I told him to split the driver's tip... he wasn't happy). The bell-hop at the resort carried your bags to the check-in desk wanted a tip (I told him I was out, but I'd tip him after I changed my travellers checks... he wasn't happy.). A different bell-hop carried your bags to your room (told him the same as the other... he also wasn't happy). The resort itself had "no tipping" policy, but service magically changed from mediocre to excellent with the addition of a few $. They also allowed various vendors on the property and nearly everyone who did anything while off property wanted tips. That was about the only negative part... otherwise we really enjoyed it. As for tipping at restaurants, typically 0 - 20% depending on the service. A good attitude can compensate for a slow kitchen. Very good or very bad service is pointed out to management. I don't normally tip other people unless I think they went above and beyond. I bring my own tools and install my own batteries and wiper blades. I'll give my barber a small tip when I get my Christmas haircut, that's about it.

A Freudian slip? Sounds like a good plan. Though the 91/30 ain't exactly a flyweight.

The more I look, I think this. There are holes in the first pic, whatever is behind the holes just happens to be a similar color. They couldn't be bothered to stick a light or something in there to make it more obvious. Someone should buy one so we can verify.

Plus they actually work for a living.

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

These photos are interesting. SERO - GM6 Lynx The 3rd one shows marks like the rounds are just bouncing off whatever that is. Not good when it says it's used to repel "light armored vehicles". The next photo shows holes but looks like it's key-holing, which indicates it's got a velocity/weight/twist problem.

Bill's Outpost typically has the best handgun prices around. $50 or more below everyone else on the usual suspects.