Jonnin

Thoughts... they used the word bare incorrectly.     I understand that journalists are not the cream of the crop but they should at least get a spelling and grammar utility or a proofreader.   Pretty good, and they even mentioned that ARs and AKs are low powered rifles for a change.   I would have had it point out that all the mass shootings mentioned by that anti-gun site are flawed: the bystanders were disarmed in all of them due to no-gun zones.  They should have mentioned that!

supply & demand.   I am befuddled that people here who decry communism and praise capitalism are offended by someone trying to turn a profit.  Suddenly when its a gun, its price gouging?   The demand for AR is out of sight: there isnt one on a shelf in a store here and has not been in weeks.   Therefore price increases to match the demand.   Its just capitalism at work.   If you do not like the price, don't buy one.   Laugh if you must, but I am not sure public links to the auctions is appropriate (even if funny).    What is funnier.... the stupidly high price, or that some are actually selling for this much, or that this price may seem low in 2 years?

for the same reason a lot of "conservatives" think it is ok to prevent people from doing what they want so often.  Both major political parties are very avid about preventing and limiting certain freedoms. 

1 oz is pretty standard for "regular" practice 12 ga ammo.  Up or down a little bit does not matter too much, so it might be 1 & a fraction or 7/8 or something --- I forget what all values but "around" 1 oz is reasonable.   Correct, shotgun gauge AND shot size are both inverted so larger values are smaller. #7 shot is fine for skeet and messing around.   #8 is standard bird shot, for small birds like doves.     Home defense, ask 20 people get 20 answers.  Here is my 2 cents on *that* First, the "spread" of a shotgun at defense ranges is nonexistant.  It might make a 2 inch pattern at 10 or 15 feet with the best choke.  So while a bunch of handgun sized holes is nice, you can't rely on spread & luck to point & pray.  You have to actually aim (still pointing, but it does take skill) and hit the target and stuff.   That said, the choice between more pellets vs bigger pellets is your own to make.  Anything in the 0 (no matter how many 0s they tack onto it) range (and possibly the 1 - 3 range as well) are more than adequate for self defense.   Slugs are very good as well but be careful, they WILL go through quite a lot of material before stopping.  Its a one ounce blob of metal moving at 1300 or so FPS --- do the math on what it takes to stop that and be wary of it!  So, again, anything bigger than #3 or so will work over an intruder just fine.  I think (but you should look it up, i could have the wrong number) that 00 buckshot is about a 9mm sized hole and you get 7,8 or so of those per shot (?).   Ouch!  #3 is .25 acp sized holes (but much more energy behind them!) and you get a lot more of them -- like 20 off the top of my head?   Consider a high cap tube mod if you do not have one -- it may as well be as long as your barrel...

hole up at home already.  Spend that first month right where you are, living off your supplies, while the sheep run around dying and the give the wolves time to get bored.    As others said, avoid others at all costs, move where you can find cover.    The nicest person will kill you for food after they have been without for a few days, count on it.

cosmo may be a pain but the rifles are not rusty, are they?  There is a reason for the stuff.   Congrats on your new shoulder thumper, those things make you respect the greatest generation that much more after shooting it or even lugging it to the car and back.

I should have said that too.... if it works, leave it alone.   If it fails to feed on generic ball ammo, it can be worth doing.  Its pretty rare for a modern gun from a serious manufacturer to need this sort of thing, but stuff happens.   If you can see it and feel it and have had issues, yea it could be a good idea.

same as any other gun.   First, stop and listen: to polish is not to grind.  To polish is going to remove almost no actual metal, it will not change the shape of the ramp, etc.    Now that we said that, take the barrel out the gun.  Pick your polishing stuff (diamond dust, ultra fine sandpaper,  that goop dremel sells, or whatever FINE polishing compound you prefer).   Polish the ramp until it is mirror like.   If it is very bad, you can start with a dremel tool using their handy dandy approximately 9mm bullet shaped felt blop dipped in polish.   If it is not too bad, or after using the dremel for a short time, you finish up by hand.  You can use a live round wrapped in the sandpaper or something of similar size and shape to a live round, or a rag dipped in the stuff wrapped around something like that, etc. Its probably smart to go in the direction the bullet travels, even when putting a mirror finish on the ramp you still create micro grooves in the metal and its a lot better if those are aligned INTO the barrel instead of against it as rings.  That is why you finish up the dremel work by hand, to get the microgrooves aligned as the rotating dremel is making them the wrong direction.   The only other advice I can give is to not try to get in a hurry to get it done.  It might take 1/2 a day off and on (you will want breaks if you are human) but you only have to do it once so take your time and work with care, paying attention to detail.

I would drive by, but do not confront.   You are looking to see if he seems to be home --- things like 5 newspapers in the yard, or no car there every time you look, etc.    If he seems to be home and in good health, confront with a buddy in the car or maybe even call the police.   Continue to call and mail.  It is proof of your attempts to contact him.   he could be in the hospital, or something, or he could be shady and have already sold your gun.  But most likely, he just got behind in his work or something and is embarrassed about it.   Its dumb to hide from a screwup, but some folks do it anyway.

  I personally think she is probably pro-gun and is a pawn in this.  I could be wrong, but that is what I think.   The left found them a FAMOUS, brain damaged VICTIM to spearhead their agenda --- I bet she got 10000000000 calls a day since she got out of the hospital to do exactly this...

my used 1100 was under 300 and has served me very well.   IMHO 500 is a pretty good budget for a shotgun, you should be able to find a nice one with that, with enough left over for some customization like a bigger mag tube or the like.  The pistol grip is going to cost you whether you do it yourself after or it comes on it....

Clearly, packs of coyotes come in 1's and 2s so a flintlock rifle is sufficient.

It was only a matter of time before she turned on us. 

its like a "breed them out" campaign.   They probably DO realize it, but the idea is a long term total disarmament by making the guns not transferable to your kids, etc, eventually. 

just like the guns in the parking lot, a handful of powerful businesses that the government bribed to come to TN in the first place will flex their muscles to have these powers.  Cough, vw, cough.  The govt will comply lest they take their business elsewhere, along with the jobs.  I don't like it, but I almost rather have the jobs at this time...

if they work, you only need 2-3 in any realistic scenario.  Really, 2 for shooting and a third as a backup if one malfunctions.  3-4 for a very low capacity gun (single stack 6-8 rounders like a 1911 for example).    Nothing stores 223 and similar ammo any better than a mag, though --- 30 rounds stored in about the space that 30 rounds takes up, and ready to use -- yes please, need it or not, that is ideal and 10+ mags is not unreasonable.  Any other method of storing that ammo usually wastes some extra space.

well that deflates my thoughts that the guy hit with a pellet gun was in serious danger.   If the head shots were accurate .... its not clear where he was hit between conflicting stories.

  The guy here was hit multiple times in the head and neck and required surgery to remove some of them.   He could have lost his eyes, easily, and on top of that is the well known "soft spot" in the throat,  the spinal cord/neck, and of course the *very important* arteries and veins in the neck as well.   Whether he realized it or not, he was in serious danger of serious, permament harm.   He was also in danger of incapacitation followed by murder.  And the off chance of dying from the pellets, unlikely but very, very possible.

  I wish you were closer :P   I spent a great deal of the past 2 years trying to find the IDEAL small 9mm.    This has resulted in a few poorly made purchases.    One you might look at is the beretta nano.  The trigger on it is gritty and does not clean up  but its very small and 100% reliable and solidly made.   That is the only DAO I tried (and that was due to a LIE and ordering it sight unseen, something I will not be doing again).  It certainly fits as a thin, small 9.   I can yap about the others but if you want a small DAO 9, I am the wrong person to ask the rest are DA/SA or SAO.   I settled on the sig 938 for now.

the gun for the job is the one you have when the crap happens. The odds of being in a mass shooting are on par with winning a lottery, but you still have to think about it at least a little.   The gun is fine, but back to post #1 .... there isnt "much" you can do about the trigger on it beyond smoothing it out (from use or polish) and tiny but noticable spring tweaking.   Loads of folks love and carry DAOs and they serve well, you just have to manage your expectations and as I said, you have very little space in that size frame to get leverage against the hammer spring... it will always be moderately stout, at best, and orders of magnitude more difficult than the SAO.  

After he shot me once, I would be aimed at him.  If I realized it was a pellet gun, I would then explain the facts of life to him.  If he shot me again, he would sprout a hole.  Bystanders are a problem when you do not see them, once you know where they are, you can adjust.      The gun owner in me likes to think this would be wrong or at least biased:   "But it also could have been worse — way, way worse — for Quinnell, had he chosen a victim that decided to do what almost any other person carrying a gun would have done"   But the truth is, I would have shot the bastid if he did not cease and desist immediately.

  The local walmart manager has the authority to choose what is sold in the store (from a big master list of all wal mart brands/items).   A LOCAL walmart manager could decide to drop ARs and get some news story on it, regardless of the corporate policy.   A few may have done so in the liberal states (???) but I dunno, I do not pay much attention to walmart apart from buying ammo there once in a blue moon (They do not carry the .22 LR that I like and I make everything else, so I buy their 22 once in a while when nothing else can be had...)

  Find someone with the sig and shoot it.  It is .... very different but until you FIRE it you will not understand.   Somehow the sig cuts the recoil down 25% or more off the other guns in the same size.   Also its hard to argue against a trigger that travels a couple of milimeters total vs one that is 1/2 or 3/4 an inch.   But the sig has drawbacks too.... trigger like that means its SAO of course, and *requires* a safety to be USED if you carry it.  So you give up the pull & shoot of a DAO and must train to hit the safety if you want to carry it.  Also cocked pistols give some folks the willies, so you have to be OK with that design.    The laser is excellent for training --- I would argue that it is the most practical use of those things.    Some folks argue that you do not have to be accurate with a carry pistol and that is true to an extent: if you are 10 feet away and can hit them in the torso, that is "a good start" at least.   But I would argue that you have selected (as have I) a gun that has a very low capacity.   Every shot has to count, you cant take 4 or 5 torso shots to drop one attacker in a gun that holds 6 and lets face it, the 380 isnt known for its extreme penetration and hitting power.   I would throw it out there that being able to hit where you aim is very important in a weak caliber, low capacity pistol.   Add to that concept, the "what if" ---  what if the guy is 20 yards away and mowing down a crowd with his evil bushwhacker machine gun and you are behind him?  Can you stop him?   I am not saying I could with the sig.  But I *know* that I personally could not with any (even a 357 revolver) DAO pistol.   Some folks can, but I can't.   Its just something to think about.

22 is what preppers buy.  Its cheap, it can put food on the table, it is usable for defense (think 10-22 with 30 round mags), its lightweight.  Its ideal for survival, its ideal for range time.    Cheap as reloading is for range time,  500 primers and 500 rounds of 22 LR are not too far off in price.   Time you buy powder and make or buy bullets, the 22 is looking mighty good for practice.   People that own nothing else often have a .22 rifle or pistol.   The more guns one person or household owns, the more likely one of them is a .22   ---- I would say owners of 5+ guns will have a 22 at a rate of close to 99.99%   People are also buying up the .22 LR "AR-15" guns and ammo for them.   Add it all up, and the demand for .22 is going to be huge from across the board.  And, if you did not notice it, .22 has been in short supply since the election, the shooting had little to do with it.   The shooting did not HELP, but I have not seen my favorite 2 .22 bulk packs since thanksgiving....

well done Brian.  And as usual, exactly what you said it would be.     The liberal quotes really drive home the emotion-driven, fear-based root of their view.  "these guns are made for killing" even though only 3 out of tens of thousands have killed in years.   "the only reason one can give is I want it" --- which is the same that can be said of cell phones, TV sets, sports cars, and just about anything that is not food, clothing, or shelter....   are we really saying it is acceptable to ban anything that is a luxury, that one must produce a NEED to posess any item?  That is...huge.   I need my AR-15 more than any liberal needs a joint, or a cell phone, or a car.  While possible, one can hunt with a car, but its not really recommended, I will keep the AR and the libs can hunt with their cars if they want.