Jonnin

I would be happy to lose a fish to get to safely get to watch that up close & in person. Heck I would throw it another fish to see it again.

I said less extreme. The republicans need to stop trying to enforce religion and morality, which scares away a large number of voters. Some examples are losing 10% of the voting population (homosexuals) over the fight against gay marriage (pointless, the only valid argument against allowing people the freedom to marry who they want is enforcement of morality/religion). It includes giving up the abortion fight (we lost already--- beating the dead horse just forces a number of women voters away). That is the top problem with the rebublicans right now and the tea party is just as bad (cannot stop trying to enforce morality). The second problem with the republicans is allowing people to run under the party hat who do not belong. This includes our last two presidential candidates (romney and mccain are neither one conservative). The party allows big liberal states a full vote for the candidates in the primaries which eliminates the valid choices and then the conservative areas of the country are forced to swallow a turd. The third issue is just basic corruption which is a major problem for both sides. Sneaking in pork on every bill to feed the campaign contributers. Flopping around on issues as they follow the money. Epic failure to listen to the voters. Complete incompetence about management of money. Lack of any backbone to stand up to the machine. The same old same old that has been going on since 1900 at least, maybe longer.

The NRA are bullies, though, he is not wrong on that. Constant harrassment on the phone for money, constant "if you do not send $100 now obama is gonna TAKE YER GUNZ" crap. If you politely decline to keep feeding the machine, they get extremely pushy and start spouting more and more tinfoil hat spew in hopes to alarm more $$ out of you. It gets old. I am 100% in disagreement with what maggart did in blocking the vote on the bill. Pass or fail, it needed a vote and that was underhanded and she needs to go. Ramsey, if this is his first mistake, I can handle that (I do see the property rights angle, I just do not agree with it). I cannot remember anything else he has done that was exceptionally bad --- a decent track record and a valid argument, I can give him a pass this once.

I use 5 or 6 whetstones, old school I guess. The top one is surgical finisher, the low one is so rough it is only for damaged items (think an abused machete). The top 3 are usually all I need on a pocket knife. I really like arkansas type stones and strongly dislike diamond stones (most diamond can remove a lot of metal in a hurry, which is usually bad). Once I can shave the hair off my arm with it, its good enough for me and I stop there.

there are good days and bad days... and there is actual improvement. Its sometimes hard to tell which is which. I have not had a lot of sudden drastic improvement since I got past the new shooter stage, but I have seen others do so when suddenly something clicked for them. Enjoy it, because the more you improve, the longer and harder fought the next improvement will be...

I think it depends on the bus line / etc. Kind of like posted buildings, some travel arrangements are no guns allowed, others require you to do things (locked in a metal box stored in a special place for some trains, for example). Other things, like small van lines or taxis, you can have it on you (loaded with HCP). Just got to see what the rules are for the arrangements.... no laws that I know of say anything specific to busses.

older smiths and certain models (I am not sure which without looking it up again) apparently suffer from "gas cutting" where the hot gasses eat the frame (specifically, the bar a the top of the gun over the cylinder!!!!) when you use certain types of ammo (light bullets in full power mag loads, I think???). You should be able to look this up. They are excellent guns and can handle full power loads with heavier slugs just fine for decades on end. I love my old S&W and I love my ruger blackhawks (you would want a redhawk if you want DA/SA). If you want it to last forever eating whatever ammo, ruger is probably a #1 choice. I would not rule out S&W but research the model as some are much better than others. Colt python if you have a ton of money is also a great gun --- but it has an insane collector's value (on top of being a great shooter) so those may be excessive. Only rossi I have is a shotgun but it is well made and I would buy more of their stuff if that shotgun is a typical example of their work, its very nice. Their pistols look and feel good but I have no info on long term durability. I have recently become a fan of taurus revolvers, but I only have 22 and 22 mag --- a world apart from 357 so someone else may have more to say there.

Good luck with that, shows are still hit & miss but I give you 85% chance of finding *something* at a mid sized show, given your needs. I mostly go to get out of the house: $10 at a gun show is $10 better spent than at the movies, and usually equally good entertainment.

Its not rocket science in this case. A well trained monkey could produce better cars and more profits than GM at this point: they have nowhere to go but UP (and if you F it up, Obama will rescue you anyway!). Now, if I had to improve the business models for a functional car company, that would take some management skills and know-how, sure. Its the difference between armchair QB for the local grade school team vs the superbowl: a lot of us could improve the tactics for the kids, and almost none of us could do better for most of the big teams....

The biggest gripe I have with the bailouts is it is a monkey wrench in the stock market. Can I now invest in GM whenever it is low, because I now KNOW that the company will never go bankrupt because it will be bailed out?? What about other companies, can I know that microsoft or apple will be bailed out if they mess up big? Or joe-bloe's nerdbook website company, will big government save that one too, or is it still a high risk / big payout investment? No one knows, it just a random act of stupidity that cannot be predicted nor bet against. Well, its not random really.... we know that only unionized businesses will get the money, but of those, which ones and at what times???? A pox on all of em, though I did score pretty big with some $2 ford stock

I know there is a civil war BP competition group that shoots everything from pistols to cannons, muskets & more, with a big national event and lots of local ones. I am not sure who to go to for it anymore, its been 10 years since I went a couple of times with a work buddy (long moved away) but I am sure they are still active. Not sure if your gun qualifies, but they seemed to allow almost anything BP including an event for henry rifles so odds are it counts. They dress up for it somewhat. Someone on here surely knows more than I do from here, or maybe you can bing it.

I will never understand why anyone high up in a corporation would sign an agreement that they could not fire their employees if said employees refused to work (strike) over their pay (which was negotiated at the time of hireing). Unions should be easy to handle... if they cause trouble, you fire all the workers. Plenty of people would love to have the job at the current pay if the current crop of people do not like the wages and want to quit. The problem lies 100% with the idiots that allow the unions to bully them into stupid agreements, and in some places, the idiots that elected idiots that give "rights" to the unions that infringe upon the rights of the employers. Its not actually the fault of the union: if some moron promised me a job where I could get whatever pay I demanded for doing however much work I feel like doing, I would take it too! I cannot bring myself to care. The companies did it to themselves by agreeing to allow the unions to have authority inside their holdings. The people did it to themselves by voting in people who made stupid union enabling laws. It is totally self inflicted.

If used is on the table, consider some older guns and hit up a gun show? Two of my best are some old mossberg .22s from the 70s with a bull barrel --- we had deer rilfe scopes on them (7 or 9 or something power) and used to shoot the caps off 2 liters at 50 & 100 yards, and the only gun I have that is heavier is my mauser. That bull barrel is *heavy* --- modern ones are all lightened but this is just solid steel. Typical 5 round mag bolt action guns, simple, rugged, and accurate. I see similar stuff (60's - 80's era guns) at shows all the time, and most of it is not too expensive. Modern stuff is all lightened with aluminum, plastic, etc so if you like a heavy bench gun, a new one is harder to find, most folks do not want a 10 pound .22 anymore!

Honestly, its not that hard if you watch a couple of how-to videos on the web and follow basic, starter load data or even weaker (308 can be dropped all the way down to below 30-30 power to start out, if you do not need a shoulder thumping adventure and just want a short range (200 or so yards) plinker. If you need help I would be happy to show you (I can set up for 308 pretty quickly but you might bring some empty cases, I dunno if I have any empties), but I would give it a try first, then if you have questions, you can ask. The 2 things to keep an eye on is to never forget to lube your case (well, when you do this once, you won't forget again anyway...!!!) and pay attention to your powder quantity (just pay attention, be precise and careful as you work). Would be a long drive, probably someone closer to you but if you want to drive down here, I am happy to go over it...

You gots to roll the window down. They cost a ton to replace if you shoot through them.

I got mine directly from the CZ custom shop. They can get pretty much anything cz makes that can be imported, and if you want any mods... My cz rami is my favorite 9mm so far.

don't be silly. Gold makes as good a bullet as lead and its as easy to cast, I am sure of it.... I will take the gold....

desert eagle has 2 recoil rods each with a spring. The barrel is fixed. It is gas operated. Wife's cz kadet is fixed barrel but it does have a recoil rod and spring in it as well, but as you said only part of it moves. Again the closest thing I can think of are blowbacks that have the spring around the barrel with no rod at all, there isnt room for one as someone else noted.

yea I even conceded that #1 is dumb for any responsible gun owner. The Dr. that has to warn about guns & kids would have to warn about 10000000000000000000000000000 other dangerous objects as well .... kids can make a spoon into a trip to the emergency room with only a little creativity. I know... I was one of those types of kids.

Heh if capacity is one of the talking points, I surrender..... not too many other guns have 30+ round mags. A serious advantage, for sure.

There are a lot of trigger jobs out there, yes. But most autos cannot be set have zero pretravel due to the reset. I have been there and done that --- on most autos (not all, but most) if you tighten up the trigger so that it has zero pretravel, it will not reset without additional action work ($$$$ here and not easy to DIY for average people). By the time you do that additional work, you will have invested enough money in the gun to have bought the revolver already. Take just my ruger mark 2 .... $100 or so (whatever it was) got me a volquartsen kit, but same story ---- with only the trigger kit, if I tighten it up so that it has no pretravel, it will not reset and becomes a single shot gun. Backed off until it would reliably reset, it has a small but noticable pretravel. Out of the box, my SA .22 blackhawk still has a better trigger than the modified and greatly improved ruger mark 2. It has a better trigger than the hammerli I tried. It has a better trigger than every 1911 I have shot except one (which was a $2500 gun). If you know of some way to remove the pretravel slop from the autos for cheap, share please!

Ok, so I am not sure what makes something a "gun belt" really, but IMHO you cannot go wrong with a solid leather belt. The more it is sewn together, the sooner it will fall apart, from my experience. I wear the same solid leather belt I got at the atlanta renassiance festival 20 something years ago --- its just a solid black piece of leather with a big strong metal buckle (dragon design, so that makes it medeival?!). I do not wear it every day, but close enough. Its got some scratches and wear, and one of the holes is pulled a little and I cut a new hole, but all in all, for its age ..... So, whatever you choose, I cannot recommend enough a single solid chunk of leather, about 1/8 of an inch thick.

The difference is that there is no connection between kroger, groceries, and guns (unless they sell ammo there?). Guns however can be of importance to your doctor, under some circumstances. Let me name a few: 1) you have kids. The doctor asks, and when you say yes, he directs you to the NRA website pages that have information on how to protect your kids from guns at various ages, including the kiddie rules (do not touch, tell an adult, etc) of gun safety, or the toddler/infant rules (keep it away from them, duh!). As a gun nut, I think this is dumb, but then I remember that there are umpteen million novice gun owners that have 1 pistol that they never shoot stuck in a drawer somewhere.... 2) You have alzheimers. You could do something very, very stupid with a gun, car, knife, or even a can of hairspray. A gun is one of many, many concerns for a person with dementia. Same goes for other mental illnesses. 3) He is about to prescribe you a pill that has some funky side effects. Along with not driving, perhaps you need to be asked to disarm yourself for a week or 2 while you are under these effects. 4) lead exposure. ..... and so on. A lot of the above is subjective, sure, but they are valid concerns to the health and well being of you and your family. Yes, in the cited case, that particular instance stinks. I do not agree with what was done. But I also do not agree with the case (was it in flordia??) where the government said doctors COULD NOT ask. There are times when the doctor does not need to know (most of the time, really). There are times when it could matter (same as most of the time, they do not need to know about your sex life, but from time to time, that overlaps with health issues!).

once you have felt the trigger on a half decent, even cheap SA revolver, every auto feels like until you get into the multiple thousand dollar stuff. Or even a good DA/SA, once cocked, the tight, short, light pull is just 1000 times better than any auto. I can forgive a lot of aggravation (cocking, reloading, etc) to get that trigger, and that is the real reason why I love a good revolver.

Its possible to use the barrel as the recoil rod, with a spring around it. My makarov does this, for example --- but that means a fixed barrel blowback pistol, so it would have to be a light caliber, it would be a handbuster in 9mm or stouter.