Danger Rane

Dang @E4 No More sounds like a rough and serious experience. Glad it worked out and that you are still here with us. I hope you continue to mend.

Erik, I’m not sure how many COVID patients you’ve dealt with lately that ended up in the hospital, but I can tell you from my experience, that alot of them are having the hard time with it that they are precisely because of their past health decisions. Obesity, diabetes, and history of smoking are absolutely contributing factors in how severe an individual’s reaction/symptoms will be vs someone of good health. So yes, these conditions are a drain on resources, just as they are without COVID.

Yep, pretty messed up. Imagine going to sign up to be an awesome fighter pilot and they instead put you into a syphilis study.

Welcome to the group Pong.

We should all be thankful that many generations before us did indeed value Freedom, to the point that they prioritized it before their individual health. It is possible to take this virus and its subsequent effects on the world seriously, while also being aware of how it has been used and manipulated by individuals, businesses, and governments alike for power, control, greed, etc... You don’t have to be on one side or the other, people choose to be. Not everyone who has gotten the vaccine is a mindless sheep, just as not everyone that hasn’t gotten it is some evil, selfish conspiracy theory nut. Within our country there is a pick a side and win at all cost mentality. While that is fine for things that don’t really matter like sports teams, it’s a dangerous mentality to hold when it comes to our country. Ultimately the only thing that matters is Freedom, and our ability to protect it.

In other news, the hospital system that my wife works for is trying to bribe the workers to get vaccinated by entering then into a drawing for $5,000. If that’s not alarming to anyone I don’t know what is. The majority of those that haven’t gotten vaccinated have either already had COVID, are currently pregnant or trying to get pregnant, or just young and/or healthy and not at high risk. Meanwhile they have not had a COVID patient in her hospital in a couple weeks.

Like every other early winter?

For production ammo current rates in my area are $1-1.10 a round for plinking grade 300 blackout and .308/7.62x51. On the rare occasion that I’ve seen match grade or hunting .308 in stock it’s running $2-$2.75 per round. I saw some 300 blackout last week that was marketed as a hunting projectile and it was $1.72 per round. Hope that helps.

With that logic it’s amazing that you are into guns at all .

It was very common “back in the day” to delink belts of .50 ammo to shoot out of the Barret M107. The one exception to this was the slap rounds, for this exact reason. The M2 with its crowned barrel had no issues with them of course, but the M107 with its muzzle brake had known issues, and it’s the only round that I know of that was prohibited for use in the Barret. I recall there was even a picture up for awhile in our arms room of a left handed shooter that had been injured to the right side of his face from a catastrophic failure that had occurred after shooting a few slap through his Barret. There were also instances of spotters being injured by the shed petals deflecting back at them. Possibly another contributing factor at play in this instance would be the higher pressures that the SLAP rounds needed to achieve the velocities required for effective armor penetration. I don’t recall exactly but I recall there was a substantial muzzle velocity difference between the SLAP rounds and the standard FMJ round used in the Barret, something to the tune of 1,200fps difference. Thankfully the guy in the video lived to tell the tale, and if nothing else it will hopefully spread the word and prevent others from this same dangerous mistake. It’s wild how we can get in our own bubble sometimes and think these things are just common knowledge/sense to everyone.

Sounds like you are in an ideal situation. I’m not yet in that situation, but once I’m there I think I would load enough to shoot 4-6 months at a time, or to survive the first couple waves of zombies, and then load more as needed. Worse case scenario, if you ever needed money for any reason you could easily sell off the components, or once you’ve passed if your family isn’t quite as into shooting as you they would have a much easier time selling the components than your loaded ammunition. I’m only 40, but a lot of my gun/ammo purchases at this point have ease of future resale in mind, as my kids just aren’t anywhere into it like I am. For probably the last 10 years anytime we have gone into a store that sells ammunition I have always bought a box (if they’ve had any) and often tell my wife and kids when they roll their eyes that I’m “investing in their future” or “investing in precious metals”. Whatever route you go, don’t feel guilty that you are in your position. You are there because you’ve built yourself a life that provided you the means to prepare for “whatever may come” and you’ve obviously had the foresight and discipline to do just that. I for one salute you, and am trying my best to emulate.

This site has a sale going and free shipping. I just ordered one. https://www.rockeybrass.com/Midwest-Industries-Upper-Receiver-Rod-URR_p_7627.html

For TIG welding in particular, welding tips and tricks on YouTube is an excellent resource. He covers everything, but his Information on TIG equipment, setup, and techniques have really helped me a lot.

I wouldn’t consider myself a pro welder by any means, as there is so much to welding, fabrication, and metal work that it’s undoubtedly a lifelong study to reach that level. But I am certified, own my own mobile welding rig, and make a fair amount of money welding as my side job. I’d be happy to answer questions on here, or at some point link up and put on a small class. I’ve taught quite a few military guys to weld, if they can figure it out anybody can .

Does it bother anyone else the way reporters throw around the term “decorated” when talking about service awards that pretty much everyone gets as long as they don’t mess up? This video is an eye opener on many levels.

Your TGO family is pulling for you Robert. Thanks for the update.

Welcome to the group Randy.

If that’s the case how do you explain the states and cities that have been requiring masks most of the year having the same seasonal rise in numbers as the areas that have left it up to the people whether they will wear them or not?

My friend, I may be completely off base here, or maybe somebody deleted something that would have provided context, but your couple comments in this thread make no sense to me all. I’m truly interested in what you are trying to say, but it’s not coming across in a manner that I can put together.

Lots of damage, but thankfully no fatalities reported as of yet, just a few minor injuries. They either sucked at their planning (timing wise), or it was meant to be just an attention getter. It’s also possible they were intending to set it off once the streets were crowded, but the early detection by law enforcement made them change plans.

Our local Fire Departments (the paid and the volunteer departments) had the option to get it Monday and Tuesday. I know a handful that did, most passed. The Hospital my wife works at started giving it to those that wanted it Tuesday. Again, she only knows a handful that got it. Most either don’t trust it or would like the priority of it to go to those that are actually high risk. Most of those that I know that got it are in poor health (high risk categories). Depending on which service you work for, some say that you are not eligible to receive it if you are within 90 days of having COVID. I know one relatively healthy guy who just recovered from COVID, he’s only been back to work about a week, and he managed to talk his way into getting it, which I find pretty selfish. As noted by someone above, each person that got it should get their 2nd shot 4-5 weeks after the first or all is for not. By that logic, the period between the first shot and the second you would not be protected. Those that got it were told it’s good for 4-6 months max.

Just speaking from what I’ve observed where I live, more people have been wearing masks the last couple months then at any point this year.... yet the numbers continue to climb. I can’t think of the last time I was at a store and saw more than one or two people in the whole store not wearing a mask. I’m certainly not suggesting masks are the problem, I’m saying they are not the solution that has been fed to so many to give them some semblance of hope, by feeling like they are “doing something”. I learned many years ago in the military that if the “leadership” at any level doesn’t know the answer to a problem, they pull some BS out of their ass to make it look like they are “doing something”. What we have been seeing at our state level, and many of the larger cities across the country is exactly that same mentality.

I’d be hard pressed to choose a favorite between my Rossi Ranch Hand in 45lc and my Marlin Dark 1895 45/70. Both very different but both so perfect in their own way.

I use Excel to keep track of the few I have. Each gun has a couple different tabs. One tab has the info on the purchase date, price, vendor/seller, plus all the info about any upgrades or accessories. The next tab is the overall round count to include details of exactly which ammunition was used for each shot, how it shot, any malfunctions etc. On the round count tab I also keep track of who I shot with and where. It’s nice to look back and see which guns my kids took their first shots with and where we were. I hope they will appreciate that info someday too....or they might just think I was an OCD nerd. I also detail when and to what level of cleaning I perform on each gun. Some I clean every time I shoot them, others I clean at a certain round count or level of accuracy degradation. I then have other tabs for my ammo inventory. For bulk ammo I have metal cans with numbers stenciled on them. Within my spreadsheets the ammo can number corresponds with info about the ammo, how much, what it’s worth etc... I used to update the ammo value every year buy stopped a couple years ago. If I updated it with current values my wife would think we have won the lottery. For many years I’ve bought a box of ammo every time I walk into a Walmart or a gun shop. I’ve always told my wife and kids that I’m investing in precious metals, which has certainly turned out to be accurate. I might be a weirdo, but I enjoy cleaning guns, collecting ammo, and cataloguing the above mentioned data as much as I do shooting the guns. It’s all part of the “gun” experience for me.

If you think 0.6% is a pretty small number, would you agree that 0.087% is also pretty small? That’s the percentage of COVID deaths within the US population based on a US population of 331 million and current US COVID deaths estimated at 290k. If you factor in only about 6% of the 250k deaths (15,000) dying from COVID alone, that brings the COVID alone death rate to 0.000045%. Pretty hard to justify what’s been done to our country over numbers like that.