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I'd like to give a heart felt thank you to all those who served their country!

Thank you, veterans, for your service.

I have avoided posting about this case, but now that the case is almost over (closing arguments start tomorrow), I thought I would share some thoughts: 1. Rittenhouse testifying -- in the vast majority of self-defense cases, there is no choice. The defendant has to say he was in fear for his life. The Defendant is the ONLY person who can say what was in his own mind. Yes, the overwhelming amount of evidence here points to self-defense and this case has video evidence and witnesses that most self-defense cases will never have. Nevertheless, only Rittenhouse can say he was in fear. So, I suspect the defense attorneys felt they had to follow the normal course. Now, with that said, the attorneys may have had Rittenhouse testify about too many issues. On cross-examination, the prosecution generally is only allowed to cross-examine on the issues Rittenhouse testified to on direct examination. Had Rittenhouse just gotten up there and said "I was in fear" and then ended the direct examination, he might have avoided some uncomfortable cross-exam questions. That said, with the publicity and scrutiny on this case, I think the attorneys wanted to get a lot of details in that only Rittenhouse could testify to. While we would love to believe that juries follow the judge's instructions and only look at the evidence that was actually presented at trial, they DON'T. Juries always have questions in their own minds they want answered. If the attorneys don't anticipate those questions and put the answers into evidence, the juries WILL fill in the blanks with their own thoughts. I've seen it happen too many times and I've talked to too many jurors who say they do it. So, I am sure the attorneys felt the need to have Rittenhouse answer those questions. Normally in a criminal case, you do worry about the defendant testifying, but as I can tell, Rittenhouse didn't have any skeletons in the closet other than some really bad decisions. 2. General Thoughts -- this case should be a wake-up call to anyone who even thinks about using a gun in self defense. The current political climate is making even clear-cut self-defense cases hard. What I see as problematic in this case is that Rittenhouse inserted himself into a volatile situation. Should he have even been there? Whether you agree with Rittenhouse's decision or not, you have to know that some jurors will see those decisions as contributing to the situation. As we say in the legal profession, "bad facts make bad law" and this may be a classic example. Had Rittenhouse been in his own home and defended the home in the same manner (i.e., going outside, engaging the protestors, etc.), I think this situation would have been totally different. But he purposefully put himself into a situation where (i) he felt the need to have a gun to defend himself and/or property and (ii) he knew (or should have known) that violence was already occurring in that location. Therefore, it should have been foreseeable that force might be used at some point. Like it or not, there are jurors everywhere who will hold that against him. In short, be very careful about the situations you get into. Do everything you can to avoid HAVING to use a gun. Circumstances change in an instant, often with no ability to control it.

The gorilla in that closet is Trump, despite his spending faults, knew how to grow GDP. Its only that ability that has kept our "promise" money solvent for histories sake. That AH in the WH has absolutely no clue....... And to think some want to make comparisons? Better stop now before the politic monsters get stired up.

Seems to me that the big driver is the cost of fuel. Gasoline is up nearly 50% from a year ago, and the energy secretary seems to think the idea of opening up more drilling here is funny. The current administration thinks that the environmental benefits of reducing oil consumption outweighs the hardship caused by heavy inflation. They're even talking of closing another pipeline. Every item you see on a store shelf was delivered by a oil-burning vehicle. If the price of fuel keeps going up, so will the price of food, clothing, hardware and everything else. There's going to be a lot of unnecessary suffering this winter, I fear.

It's interesting that the GOP/Trump actually passed two of the three rounds of stimulus and yet they are calling it Joe Biden's inflation. Short memories it seems.

Not trying to be negative, but shooting a 1/2" group at 50 yards with a scout scope or red dot is not realistic. The 16" barrel doesn't help in that regard either. I think you can build a gun that will definitely meet your needs, but I would guess an inch at 50 yards as setup is about as good as one could expect. Probably important to understand that I shoot 22 BR competitively and probably have a different view of what accuracy is. One can shoot a 3 shot group with about any gun at some point and have what some consider to be a one hole group. My expectations are that I can pull that gun out and do that at anytime within reason. Here is a picture of a 10/22 that I put together, but it is more custom than most. I had a TCR22 that I never really shot so I used it to have some fun building something I would shoot. I threaded the receiver and used an extra BR barrel I had laying around (Douglas). It has a Kidd Bolt, springs, trigger, and rear tang. I bedded the receiver as well. It will shoot better than many 22's, but for the money in it, not worth the cost IMO. I did all of the machining so that cost wasn't extra. Long story short. Buy the (quality) parts that you like the looks of and put it together. The biggest factor in accuracy is going to be a quality barrel and decent ammo. About the only thing I am confident of saying is I would absolutely get a Kidd Trigger. There are cheaper options, but day in and day out, Kidd is hard to beat for a 10/22 trigger.

The first one sucks real bad. My first one hit me while I was a LEO working a parade. My PCP was open that day, so I went to him after the parade was over. On my way to his office I felt the stone shoot into my bladder. I passed it into a filter screen at the doctor's office. I have had many since then, and I drink approximately a gallon of water each day. That, alone, is not enough. I was kicking out stones like a Pez dispenser. Besides drinking water, you can reduce your risk by not eating food with high oxalate levels: Beans (low-calcium types) Beer Beets Black pepper Chocolate Coffee Cranberries Dark green vegetables Nuts Oranges Rhubarb Soda (cola) Soy beans Sweet potatoes Tea (black) Tofu Wheat bran You can also increase items that fight oxalate absorption like high-calcium foods: Broccoli Watercress Kale Okra Kidney, baked, & navy beans Chickpeas Supplements high in calcium and citrate help as well. I supplement with calcium citrate pills.

I've tinkered with a few 10/22s, not sure if they would qualify as "Sooper dooper". Most recently I picked up a 20inch barrel and single stage trigger group from Kidd innovative design and really like it. In my experience and research, the products from Tony Kidd seem to be a direct route to both outstanding performance and your bank account. https://www.coolguyguns.com/ You can spend a lot of coin in this quest and quickly your $200 10/22 has several hundred dollars of "upgrades". There are also tons of threads about the subject at rimfirecentral.com https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13 Good luck!

The last 2 years during hunting season I've passed up a lot of nice young bucks looking for a really big mature one. But after being told I have stage 3 kidney disease I decided to enjoy this years deer season. I told myself I was going to just go hunt and enjoy life and not worry about anything while in the woods. So today I did just that and harvested this beautiful wide 6 pointer with my CVA Muzzleloader pistol. Hunting isn't always about who can kill the biggest deer. Enjoy the hunt because you never know what life can deal you. P.S the bibs are from my fatter days .

1:10 Do not Recommend. I noticed a little back ache yesterday around 5:30am I figured it was trapped wind. By 7:15 I was in the ER & getting IV painkillers (they say that laughter is the best medicine. It's not. Dialaudid is the best medicine!) CT scan confirmed a 4mm stone above my left kidney. Came home with enough Hydrocodone to fell a zoo full of elephants. I usually refuse any kind of opioid, but this time out....gimme. First time in my life (including the gunshot wounds) I've ever vomited purely from pain. Guys. Eat healthy, cut down on the bourbon & salt & drink yer water. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

U.S. Army Sniper - France 1944 WW2 - 1903A4

THANKS to all that has served and it was my Honor to serve.

Guess I would fine tune that to the notion that the most probable outcome is guilty on the weapons charge, but with a suspended sentence. But the prosecution has been so sloppy and arrogant that the jury may just toss the whole thing. If this was a bench trial it would have been over a couple days ago with not guilty on all counts.

Juries are unpredictable. This DA is a soup sandwich. Rittenhouse comes off as a touch of wannabe with good intentions and a boyish face. All of which could be well received if there is a mom or two on the jury. For the most part he answered well and avoided most of the trap questions, almost too well to the point of looking rehearsed. He got a little rattled on some pressure questions when he could have scored big and made the DA look even worse. This is expected though for his age and circumstance. It is not often that I root for the defense but this is one of those occasions. I was surprised how well he handled the situation that night. "If you have a case, argue the case. If you have no case, just argue." This usually applies to the defense but it seems to be the DA's approach on this one.

Thanks.

My thanks to all who served this country.

Thanks guys, very much appreciated.

watching him get grilled on the stand was painful, I don't think many people are prepared/capable of not getting grilled by professionals and them trying to cross your words and thoughts for hours at a time. I know at 18 I definitely was not. Regardless of the outcome, definitely opened my eyes to what could occur if one was to ever be in a real self defense situation.

I've built more than my fair share of 10/22 rifles. I started out modifying existing rifles (i.e. Thompson Center TCR/22) and have built some from the ground up. Examples: Kidd guts/receiver including a Kidd 2-stage (8oz/8oz) trigger, Victor Titan stock, and a Proof Research carbon fiber barrel. Using Burris XTR rings so I can bottom out the Athlon Midas TAC scope for shooting out to 500 yards. Some of the shots from the first day with it: That rifle originally had a Fedderson stainless (polished) barrel on it that was just as accurate as the Proof Research. It now has a front rail mounded so I can use my Ckye Pod bi-pod on it. Next rifle has the same (Kidd) guts but with a Kidd chassis and a Feddersen barrel. I had to dremel in order to get the MPA grip on the chassis. The grip forces you to only use the pad of your finger helping consistency.

According to one news report I saw yesterday, highest in 30 years. Yep, it's all good, I know what my core budget is and it's particularly easy for me to stop spending money on extras. A few million liked minded upper lower and middle class folks follow my lead, let's see what really happens. Reducing spending and increasing cash / savings seems prudent with the millionaire tax on over $400k... This bothersome noise from DC supposedly aggregates totals and targets unrealized income which includes equity in a home or those evil tax deferred 401Ks that only certain, lucky, fortunate individuals get. Add 1.5 trillion in new spending for infrastructure, where 20ish percent is actually for infrastructure, and rain money in the masses, my guess is 81 million voters are going to get what they probably didn't exactly think they were voting for. Supply chain? Americans sitting at home buying excess items on the internet are the problem, be a part of the solution!

What Grayfox said. You going to have a hard time finding components. Shelves are bare, same online. Good time to do some reading up tho. ABC's of modern reloading is a good starter.

A friend asked me to install his new DD M4 RIS II FSP. But the rail didn't come with the wrench it was supposed to. Rather than wait for a wrench to arrive, I found a cheap castle nut wrench in my tool drawer that I don't use because I can't put it on torque wrench. It wouldn't fit but I figured it would be easy enough to file it down to fit. That took just a few seconds with the file and it fit good enough. Now I set myself to creating a hole in it for the torque wrench. I started by drilling out a hole with a 7/16" drill bit. Then I used a triangle file to make it square and then work it out to size. I should have taken pictures at each step but I didn't so here are some pictures after I'd been filing for a while. Yeah, my square is crooked but it doesn't really matter. The point was to be able to get it on to the torque wrench. Worked perfectly for getting this barrel nut torqued down. And now I have a wrench for that rail if I ever need it again.

Putting together a model is like anything else...woodworking, house repair, etc. If things don’t line up sand it or put some filler in there and then sand it or whatever. It’s just on a smaller, more aggravating scale.

I used to cut the parts apart and sometimes if it looked like it needed it, I would sand. I always glued the parts together and then painted. At least if several parts were gonna be the same color. It's hard to glue parts together when they've been painted. Unless you sand the surfaces that join. I've had parts that didn't fit together well and had to sand a little and keep trying it till it looked good.

I had something similar to this one: https://www.amazon.com/Magnifying-Dimmable-Adjustable-Reading-Workbench/dp/B085Q2N746/ref=asc_df_B085Q2N746/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416811141592&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3603424904208575143&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026083&hvtargid=pla-915134692705&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=90730999341&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416811141592&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3603424904208575143&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026083&hvtargid=pla-915134692705 It came in quite handy.

Hahahaha. Yesterday a shipment that was scheduled for today arrived in Ooltewah early yesterday morning. This is about 15 minutes from my house. I should have received it yesterday. I thought I would receive it today. Nope. Instead it was minutes ago scanned in Nashville. You know, 2-3 hours away. FFTW Fedex for the win.

3 HUGE mistakes

Northern Tool/Harbor Freight did have some clamp on style magnifiers with lights. I use one in the reloading room at times when needed. These have a limited reach, so not sure what length one would need for projects like this. I'm sure amazon has various ones.

Not a point, a fact! Adding more just never seems to work out.

Thanks to all Veterans.

They tell me it’s like pizzing a cocklebur. I’d be happy to just take someone’s word on that. Ouch!

My Mom said that her kidney stones hurt worse than giving birth. Interesting comparison, but I don't know that I'd repeat it in front of any other Moms.

A couple of years ago during a routine exam a couple of things weren't looking right. An X-ray discovered a large marble sized stone had almost blocked one of the ducts into my bladder. I never even knew it was there. They had to do arthroscopic surgery and cut it up with a laser to take it out in pieces. They did the surgery by shoving a camera tube up my urethra. Not a good experience.

1.Ruger 10/22 blue receiver 2.ER Shaw Heavy Barrel Blue 3.Boyds Hunter stock 4.Ruger BX1 trigger 5.Tandemkross bolt hold open extension and charging handle 6.Ruger standard bolt 7.Vortex Crossfire II 4x12x44 with AO Around $1000.00 at finish-and will shoot 1/2 inch group at 50 yards with CCI SV ammo

AWESOME NEWS!

Good advice so far. The internet is full of reloading date. BUT use reliable resources. Not just some load some guy posted on some forum somewhere. Sorry to tell ya, but now is not a good time to get into reloading. Just like ammo, there's very little out there as far as reloading supplies go. It may even be worse as manufacturers can get more for loaded ammo than components. Right now I'm hoarding what powder and primers I have to only make those calibers I run low on. The days of loading a ton of any caliber just to stock up are gone. And forget about working up a best load for any particular gun.

Good for you! I received notification that Larue shipped me a new item today after having the claim approved by UPS.

Update: Had a conversation with a very nice lady at Springfield Armory yesterday. They are shipping my order again at no charge. Got e-mail today with new tracking number and expected delivery on Friday. I've said it before, Springfield Armory has the best customer service in the business. Now if Fed Ex can manage not to lose this one.

I don't understand why they put him on the stand. That's pretty rare and usually only when the defense is desperate. This case is winnable without him on the stand.

https://nara.getarchive.net/media/general-william-r-etnyre-right-commanding-general-of-the-combat-center-and-9f8152 The link above is to the gun that I worked on in 1983. In the picture of us firing off the last 175mm gun round fired by active duty Marine units, I am the A-gunner sitting on the right side of the gun, (you can only see my helmet as I am looking down and braced for the recoil). Sergeant Stillwell, (who was a Staff Sergeant select at the time of this picture), is seen standing up and wearing a headset on the left side of the gun. IIRC, LCpl Terriault was the loader sitting on the loader's arms with his back to the camera on the left of the gun. We had decided beforehand that all 4 of the guns that were actually firing the last 175mm rounds would fire a full charge 3 for their last round. That was 99 lbs of powder behind 146 lbs of projectile that caused the whole gun to rock like you were on an angry bronco when fired off. It was common for us to draw an "X" in the sand behind the gun where we guessed that a virgin plugger would land after pulling the lanyard on a charge 3 for the first time, and a general was no different. Gunnery Sergeant Hangslaben, (the platoon sergeant for the HQ platoon), drew an "X" on the ground where he guessed that the general would land. I believe that it was LCpl Pennington that was assigned as the plugger on the gun that day. You can see his helmet and arm behind Brigadier General Etnyre who's pulling the lanyard with the gun barrel in just about full rearward travel. He was warned by Sergeant Stillwell to not let the general fall off. He failed. Shortly after this picture was snapped, the general rocked forward, (towards the back of the gun), then back, and then forward again where he did a flip off the back of the gun, (with LCpl Pennington failing to grab the general's waist), and landed exactly on the "X" with his ass first. He was lucky to miss the top loop of the spade because he'd have been seriously hurt otherwise. The general was a mustang, (prior enlisted), and true to the form of a mustang, the general got up, brushed his self off, then exclaimed "The sum-bitch kicks, don't it!" answered with the chuckles of all that were standing around. My CO, Major Schmaltz, came up and teased Sergeant Stillwell calling him soon to be Private Stillwell. Somewhere in the archives is the video of the incident, (unless the general had it destroyed). It's amazing the memories that military service can give you; both good and bad. That was a good one. EDIT: The general was extended the honor of firing the 1st 8" projectile out of gun number 5 but passed. He didn't want to have anything to do with it after his experience with the 175mm gun.

I have about 200 rounds through mine now, no malfunctions whatsovever with a mix of 147 gr lawman, 124 gr winchester, 115 gr federal, and a magazine of hornady xtp 124 gr. The trigger was excellent and seems to be even better now. finish is holding up and internals looked good during a detail clean. Im very pleased with this pistol, so much so that I lucked out and got another one for my oldest son, a consecutive serial number, both 3 digits. I paid a little over msrp, but lifes too short and you cant take it with you. Hes shot and handled my 1911's, my sigs, glocks, cz's, you name it, but he lit up with this one! Its going to be worth it to me when I give it to him!

Nice deer, and I hope the kidney disease is under control. Personally, I prefer to take a doe over a buck every time. The meat's better, in my opinion. I'm originally a west-coaster, and I still have to chuckle at calling a three-pointer a six-point!

I think it is done on purpose, if laws were easy to read, lawyers and judges would be less needed. Besides, laws are sometimes written by politicians (or special interest groups) with little to no concept of law.

Unique stair rail

I cant pull for any team from California. Im glad the Titans won.

Inflation last month was 5.4 % up. that means if you make 75 k a year you took a pay cut of over 4k. I think it will get worse as we keep righting off student loans and printing money. Not sure what the effect will be other that higher prices and lower buying power.

If I were still young and had a mortgage I might consider it less of a problem. I could pay back borrowed money with money that is now worth less than it was when I borrowed it. Unfortunately I am now 70 and living off my savings which are becoming worth less each day. The bank is paying me 1/2 of one percent interest and inflation is going to eat away 10 percent of my savings each year. I am a bit concerned.