Danger Rane

I've had great success with Hoppes #9, Slip 2000, Militec, and TW-25B. For Bolt guns I use the Shooter's Choice All Weather Grease. My first year in the military all we were provided was CLP for the small arms and LSA "whale sperm" for the big guns. I was always skeptical of using one thing to clean and lubricate...but if you wanted anything else you had to by it out of pocket. Fast forward to the war(s) kicking off (and the accompanying funds for R&D) and it was quickly decided that additional options needed to be explored for cleaning and lubrication. Hence we started seeing Militec and TW-25B being issued out as a lubricant, but for many of the small arms (minus Sniper Rifles) CLP was still used as a cleaning agent. Now that it's my own money buying it I usually stick to Hoppes, but like others have stated many of the products are very similar, it's just which wizzbang marketing scheme or sense of nostalgia you want to buy into.

So much awesomeness going on with this piece. You are truly talented sir.

You beat me to it! First thing that popped in my head when I saw the post. The black label is best.

One of our favorites. We have taco soup 4-5 times a month. We do ours cooked 6-8 hours in the slow cooker after browning the ground beef.

Welcome to Tennessee and to this great group Mark.

For new construction with a basement I would work with the builder to either have them partition off a section with rebar reinforced cinder blocks after the concrete was poured, or have them add on a separate room to the basement that is made/tied in at the same time. Those will minimize some of the leak or structural issues involved with adding on later. Depending on ones needs you don't necessarily need a big square room. I have seen a few that were 4-5ft wide but ran the entire length of the home. The narrow size also made it much easier/cheaper to use a steel roof for the safe room. One option for secure attachment of a steel plate roof is to weld a small "foot" onto the bottom ends of the rebar that go in the bottom row of cinder blocks. As you build up your rows fill the cinder block pockets with concrete as you go. You want to have the rebar a minimum of 6" taller than you want your roof. This will allow you to set your 3/8" or 1/2" steel plate on top to mark where to drill your pass through holes. once your holes are cut, drop the plate in place and weld the plate to the rebar, cutting of the excess end pieces. Then seam weld your plates together and coat with a subterranean protectant (like builders us on the outside of your cinderblock before backfilling. The "feet" at the bottom of the rebar prevent prying your roof off with a spreader breaching tool (think mini jaws of life) that would normally break the rebar free from the concrete. With the foot added the are pulling against the entire mass of the wall. This also makes an excellent storm shelter, exceeding the FEMA specs that I've seen.

PM sent.

After he went down the first time I made sure to mention to him that he's the only one besides me that's been down there.....he looked even more uncomfortable at that point.

You might be a prepper if the termite inspector won't look you in the eyes after coming back out from under the crawl space.

I used to buy Craftsman tools exclusively (under the advisement of several mentors who used to buy them back when they were good). I quickly learned that anything other than their non-powered hand tools were made just as crappily as everyone else's. Recently I am seeing even their ratchets and such that won't hold up to average use without binding or locking up. Took one in to switch out a couple weeks ago and the replacement looked like it was forged out of #### and painted silver, the mesh gear sounding as smooth as 40grit sand paper. Craftsman was the only reason I ever did business with Sears to begin with, I'm certainly not going to bother with them now. They've been digging their grave for years as they've let their quality slide, good riddance. I'll probably backfill bad tools with Kobalt as my local Lowe's stocks them and has an excellent return policy. I don't think the Kobalts are necessarily anything that great.....if anything they appear to be stepping up their game a bit in recent years....but at least they know their place and aren't charging Craftsman prices for their Chinese made junk. Snap-on is great, but they are way too proud of their stuff to get along with my wallet.

I'd call it a success!

You are making a large assumption that if rifles and handguns got banned we would actually turn them in.

I'd give the designer a thumbs up for thinking outside the box, but that's about it. Been trying to see a benefit to this and just can't come up with enough juice for the squeeze. I'm all about guns with cartridge versatility, like a Glock 23 with a 9mm barrel, a Rossi Circuit Judge, a S&W Gorvernor, anything that works with .22LR and .22Mag and maybe even those full length shotgun caliber inserts that KahrMan mentioned, but I just don't like the idea of a little chamber insert inside a big ole shotgun barrel that only gives me a couple inches worth of velocity, and I wouldn't want a full length insert because I imagine it would add a lot of weight for say a 9mm out of a 12 gauge bore that it would be counterproductive. I would never use one for hunting anything given the availabilty of more efficient hunting arms in easy to find calibers, and defensively I would never want to use a 9mm with a 2" barrel in the same package that I could use some good 00 Buck. Just my two cents, but if you do end up getting a set I hope you share with us your feedback.

Welcome!

I'm not familiar with them, are they just a chamber insert which would basically just give you an inch or two of velocity for whichever caliber you have inserted, or is it a full length insert?

Welcome to TGO.

Welcome to the group.

Welcome to the group.

Excellent report sir, you have a way with words. I'd probably enjoy another report, regardless the topic.

I know this was just a hypothetical question, but it is something I've given some thought. My hope is that all my TGO buddies are doing the same thing I am and covering the bases with my family unit as far as arms and training. I don't really intend to arm the unprepared masses. Those that survive whatever caused the EOTWAWKI situation and find their way to our group can do the laundry, gardening, food prep, ect...while we do the dirty work...haha. If at some point they prove themselves to be trustworthy then they might be given some training and a firearm, which there would be extras due to scavenging and various forms of attrition within the group. With that being said I would be focused on common calibers that can be found "scavenged" from most homes across the country. I have some novelty firearms in non standard calibers but the bulk of my collection could be fed from most any Walmart, armory, or residence.

Where I grew up in Northern California it was almost every summer we would see these scooping out of Lake Shasta. Quite a site to behold, especially if out on a boat near the scoop site. They would usually have a couple small boats out there right before scoop run trying to herd the recreational boaters out of the way in time. Fast forward a couple years and I was a volunteer firefighter working on wild-land crews getting to see these and the retardant tankers up close from the receiving end. They are real game changers tactically. Not sure who came up with the idea of this as a viable water delivery technique (and I'm sure there were some pucker factor moments in the development phase) but they are owed some serious kudos for all the lives and land they have helped save over the years.

I can try to take the plastic off mine tomorrow and get you pics...or I'm only about 25-30 minutes from Murfreesboro and we could work out a day/time to meet somewhere. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

The plastic "tactical" stock is definitely shorter than any of the wood versions I've handled. I have the plastic version and I like it a lot, but the length of pull on it feels like that of a youth gun. I'm not exactly sure why they couldn't just send you the plastic furniture though, because as best I can tell all of the main metal components are the same across the .45/.410 models.

I don't think those calibers are this or that comparable. I'd go as far as to say you "need" both, at least that's what I told the wife. I'd keep the .308 and save up for a 5.56 AR....and a .300Blackout upper to go with it.

Sorry for your loss. Beautiful guns, I'd keep them as he left them.