RichardR

9mm is my "go to" handgun round, not sure how many I have on-hand off-hand, but I do keep a list somewhere, basically three .30 caliber ammo cans full, one is full of 147gr JHP's the other two cans are full of 115gr FMJ range ammo. My "go to" longgun is a Mossberg 590A1 so I keep several .30 caliber ammo cans full of various 12 guage rounds, slugs, 00buck, BB, #2, #4, #6, #7, #8 shot, etc since 12g is also my favorite hunting cartridge so as you can see I keep a lot of game-getting cartridges on-hand as well. I suppose just about any firearm could be used for "defensive" purposes if need be, especially the very popular intermediate rifle cartridges like 5.56x45mm & 7.62x39mm, which while very effective are also a potential liability if you live in an area with neighbors in close proximity. Which is one of my primary concerns, while I want something that is capable of defending myself & my family, I also don't want stray/errent rounds exiting my homes exterior walls & endangering my neighbors so if I can minimize that possibility I will (and do) so long as the cartridge I am using is also capable of the task required. Which is why I really like 00 buck for home defense, even without it penetrating any barriers such as internal/external walls it runs out of steam relatively quickly & becomes less of a threat to my neighbors at distances at which a rifle, even one firing an intermediate round would still be very deadly. That said I still have done my best to memorize the safest "lanes of fire" within my house with regards to where my neighbors homes are in relation to those "lanes of fire". Granted in an emergency situation I may or may not remember or have the chance to wait until I have a safe "lane of fire", but at least I will have the "piece of mind" that I've done my absolute best to protect my neighbors from any potential stray/errent rounds if God forbid I am ever forced to use deadly force to protect myself, my family in our home from an intruder(s).

Ummm you really should not have done that. How long did you tumble it for? Putting loaded ammunition into a brass tumbler will cause the powder to grind together inside the cartridge casing, the result of which can be a finer grain of powder than originally intended & a much faster burn rate. This can & will cause much higher chamber pressures & if the pressure gets high enough can damage or even destroy a firearm, &/or the person shooting it.

I'll have to find some Russian-made 5.56x45mm & 7.62x39mm yank the bullets on them and take a look at what sort of powder they are each using. I know that I have at least 500 rds of Wolf 7.62x39 that I bought years ago when it was on sale & never bothered to open because I was getting into AR's more seriously at the time & I still had an unGodly amount of Chinese surplus stockpiled that was the cat's meow w/regards to AK ammo. While I hate to break open a brick just to short it one round in the interest of science what the heck, I don't really ever shoot any of my AK's hardly at all anymore anyway, maybe breaking that brick open will get me excited about shooting them again. And maybe, just maybe I might have a couple rounds of Wolf 5.56 that are left over from an AR torture test I did about 13 or 14 years ago, which I believe I posted to either the Firingline or theHighRoad forums (or both don't recall off-hand) anyway I could have sworn that I saw a partial mag full of steel cased ammo (probably Wolf from that torture test, since that is the only time I can ever recall shooting steel cased 5.56) when I was going through a bag of old USGI magazines & noticed one was a bit heavier than it should have been. I didn't strip the rounds out, before tossing it back into the bag so they are still in there, I haven't used USGI magazines in at least 10 years though or whenever it was when I switched over to using Magpul magazines. And the only time I've ever used any steel cased 5.56 was for reliability testing so they'd be at least a decade old & might not be the same powder as what they are using these days. If I recall correctly the Wolf 5.56 seemed to be a bit underpowered & not as accureate (due to inconsistancies in shot-to-shot velocities) compared to the Q3131 & M193 that I usually bought. Anyway I'll dig through those old USGI mags tonight and see if I can find that partial magazine of those Wolf 5.56 & I know exactly where the Wolf 7.62 is, so that won't be a problem. Like I said though neither of these are current Wolf manufacture, both of them are easily over a decade old, but I'm bored as heck today & it sounds like it might be interesting. I'll take some pics to share, just because everyone likes looking at pictures! Maybe someone with some newly manufactured 5.56 & 7.62 can do the same?

Plus they are just plain fun! I love shooting BP, they used to be a lot cheaper to shoot, but then again I used to cast/mold my own bullets back then too, but BP was dirt cheap & plentiful, now it's not only hard to find it's kind of pricey when you do find it. I've been shooting Pyrodex when I can't find actual BP, it's not too terrible but its not quite the same either. Wish I could find my melting pot & molds, they disappeared a few years ago while in storage & I think that they (along with a few other things) might have walked off with the help of some of my in-laws who were also sharing the storage unit space *sigh*.

I have a similar wooden range box, mine was my great grand fathers, I keep all of my firearm cleaning supplies & specialty tools in it. It's a bit heavy/unwieldy to drag back/forth to the range but they are neat none the less considering they are what folks used prior to switching over to "range bags". Iffin you want I can try to get a hold of my buddy, might take awhile he spends most of his time at reinactments around the country, but he'd know all there was to know about what that stuff would be worth & could probably give you a name & # of someone looking for one.

I also owned a 1970 Cutlass 442, it had the 455cid bolted to a 400 hydrostatic turbo trans w/Hurst dual gate console shifter, dual exhaust with Cherry bomb mufflers, street slicks, paint was white with dual blue racing stripes on the hood, had airshocks so I could raise/lower the back end for either the track or street, came from the factory fully loaded option package, man that was a sweet ride especially for a highschool age kid. I unfortunately only had it a couple of years, an 18 wheeler merged into my lane while I was still in it, bumped me hard enough to spin me, ran the back end of his trailer up over the hood of my 442, spun me around some more, and finally skittited rearend first into a ditch along side of the interstate, the truck never stopped. Loved that car though.

I unfortunately suffer from a number of ailments, osteoarthritis, degenerative disk disease, along with multiple ruptured, herniated & buldged disks. I can usually manage walking short distances without assistance, but I keep a cane handy & even a wheel chair at the house because well some days are worse than others. I spent 9 months trapped in my wheel chair & spent several years of agony going through physical therapy to get to where I am now. The greatest fear I usually have is slipping and falling down, there is no way on God's green earth that I am going to allow myself to "take a beating" ..... I will do everything that I can to walk away, but the moment I think that walking away is no-longer an option my pistol is coming out. Once it comes out of it's holster the person or person(s) who forced that action had better do exactly as I tell them (keep their hands where I can see them & to stay exactly where they are until the police arrive). I am not a hardass, nor do I ever allow myself to get into shouting matches which could be considered "escallation of an altercation" if God forbid I am ever involved in a self-defense shooting it will have happened because I could not escape & they would not comply with my commands.

Well they way the collectors have driven up the value on the old pinned & recessed Smith's & just about anything with a Colt rollmark it's not surprising that you don't shoot them much anymore.

Gotcha thanks guys.

I am not familiar with "brandishing" as we had no such thing in Indiana, although "pointing" a weapon at someone (without justification) was either a misdemeaner (unloaded) or a felony (loaded). Could someone point me to the TN statute on brandishing a firearm?

1st response in the comments section nailed it. "If only Obama had provided this much security for our folks in Bengazi" ....

Actually I wasn't trying to be funny, or attempting to crack a joke or even trying to make light of the tragedy. The Obama administration has a track record of using these sorts of devistating events/tragedies to A.) Blame the previous administration for not doing enough B.) Proposing new spending that furthers his leftist agenda. In this particular case it'll be "global warming" and of course it'll ultimately be the Bush administrations &/or the GOP's fault for not being green enough, which is what caused this tornado to happen. In fact it has already started ... http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/20/democratic-senator-goes-on-anti-gop-rant-over-climate-change-as-tornadoes-hit-oklahoma/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I guess a sword is better than the typical choice of say a baseball bat or 9 iron or something like that which some folks *think* will be sufficent to protect them & their families.

Trevor, I am curious, are you a revolver guy at all? The reason I ask is because I've noticed a trend with regards to the kind of folks who do & do not care for Sig's DAK trigger groups (I've also found that the opposite of which seems to hold true for Sig's SRT trigger groups as well). Anyway my P226 DAK is 6lbs for the full stroke, 8lbs for the short reset, both of which are smooth as silk & very consistant, and because the trigger is so smooth & consistant the sights stay fixed on the target throughout the entire pull regardless of which reset I am choosing to use. The best way that I can describe it for the folks who've never had the chance to experience a DAK for themselves is that they feel like you are squeezing the trigger on a lightened, finely tuned Colt Python revolver (in double, not single action). Now I'm no slouch with a Glock & it certainly isn't what I would call "innaccurate" at all, but my P226 (because of how smooth & consistant the DAK trigger is) will outshoot my G17 all-day-long, the Glock does have one advantage, I can empty the Glock a lot quicker than I can the Sig. Essentially what I'm trying to say is that I can "mag-dump" the Glock's 17 round magazine & keep all rounds in the black of/on a standard B-21E target @ 21' about twice as fast as I can with the Sig, the gap gets closer if I use the DAK's short reset point, but even using the short reset the Glock still holds an advantage there. Now I have no idea why anyone would ever want to blast away wildly like that, except for for fun, but I suppose iffin you ever needed to lay down some suppressive fire with a handgun the Glock would be a better choice. In the end though it is hard to go wrong with either a Glock or a Sig, both are very capable, reliable & accurate handguns, and the Sig's are availible in a wide range of various trigger group configurations. While I personally love the DAK (Double Action Kellerman) I am NOT a fan of traditional DAO (double-action only) or DA/SA (double-action / single action) trigger groups in semiautos. But everyone is going to have different preferences in that regard, which is probably the reason why there are so many choices in the first place.

Welp there are both pros & cons to an AR pistol without a buffer tube. The pro is because it makes for an over-all smaller, mmore easily concealable & portable package, but that is also a con because without a buffer tube you cannot get a cheekweld on it. I've owned both & personally I think that the accuracy obtained with a cheekweld outweighs the benefits of a slightly shorter OAL there is however a way to sort of stabilize a non-buffered AR or an AK pistol enough to use the sights on them, that is by using a sling & pushing the weapon forward to create tension against the sling, while not a perfect solution it does help some.

Don't worry Obama will hold a news conference soon & say it's all "Bush's fault" ...

Covington is about 30 minutes north of Memphis, so the next time you find yourself on this side of the state gimme a hollar & we'll do some fishing &/or grab a bite to eat.

Agreed to an extent, however once the "suspect" (for lack of a better term) declined to give his name & refused to answer any questions (which was his right) the officers should have parted company & went on about their merry way, seeing as how they had no reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed or was about to be committed. But instead they got a bug up their butt & decieded to teach this guy a lesson, filing false charges and such. Anyway how does Mexican sound? I know a great mexican restaurant in Covington that we could hit where everything on the menu is simply outstanding.

I own & shoot both regularly, I like my Sig p226 DAK better than I do my G17 but either one will do the job required of it. The Sig is easily the more accureate of the two, in fact I don't own a more accurate handgun & I own a lot of accurate handguns, including a Ruger MKII w/10" bull barrel. I believe that the main reason the Sig is so accurate has a great deal to do with the DAK trigger group, which is the smoothest, most consistant trigger group I've ever owned in any hand gun, let alone a non-target, combat oriented pistol. Don't get me wrong my G17 is no slouch, it groups consistantly within respectible groupings at 7, 25 & 50 yds but it is not the nice tight target gun "clover-leaf" type groups that the Sig produces. Both have proven to be extremely reliable with a wide range of both target & defensive rounds, both are realitively easy to break down & clean, both have a multitude of after-market goodies availible, and both have great reputations world wide. If I had to choose between one or the other, I'd pick the Sig (no hesitation) for any task, be it SD or competition or end of the world. Of course the Glock 17 isn't a bad runner up to the Sig at all though.

DaveS, Although we've never met in person I've become rather fond of you from our interactions on this forum. I think that you are one heck of a good guy & I'd be honored to share a meal or some beers with you some time. That said ... You are absolutely wrong about this, under no circumstance were the officers in this story "right" about any thing they did from the first moment that they first recieved the MWAG complaint, to the moment where they filed false charges against the guy. Listen man I appreciate what our law enforcement officers have to deal with day-in-day-out, I got a little taste of it myself as both a reserve deputy (MCSD) & as a metro officer (IUPD) while I was working my way through college. We all want the bad guys to be caught, but we also want our Constitutional protections to be upheld, the balancing point has got to be at the individual officer level, too many officers have the attitude "let the courts figure it out" and are simply to quick to detain &/or arrest. This is especially true if any "attitude" is given to them, regardless if any violations of any ordinances or statutes have occured or not. Which this incident appears to be a great example of.

It was last spring when I first moved to TN, I just asked for "a fishing license" and they asked me what kind and I said "a regular one" to which they issued me one of the county residence licenses. So much for the thousands of dollars of tackle that I have aquired over the years LOL, anyway I remedied that with the combo license this year, but I still needed a $300.00 freaking dollar commercial license to run a string of catfish slat-baskets & trot-lines! I don't mind paying a reasonable fee, but TN seems to be on the high-side w/regards to paying for hunting & fishing privilages. Oh and don't get me started on the limited seasons & small bag-limits.

Yup the first fishing license I bought after I moved down here was a resident fishing license, had no idea I couldn't use it outside of your county of residence & that I was forbidden to use artificial baits or lures with it. In Indiana a fishing license was a fishing license, they didn't care what type of bait or lure you used or where in the State you fished at. So I've had 3 different licenses since moving down here, a resident, a commercial & a hunting/fishing combo. I'm still not 100% certain that I am in compliance with everything but at least I've tried LOL.

Yes it is possible to use a faster burning powder, however doing so also increases chamber pressures & could be ultimately be unsafe. Without access to proper chamber pressure testing equipment it could be done by working up charges slowly, carefully examining spent casings looking at/for signs of over-pressure but I don't recommend it, to easy for something to go wrong.

Interesting & informative, thanks for posting it OS, I have never personally tested Monarch, Wolf or Tula, since I don't buy or shoot those brands but it's good info to know iffin I ever come across a deal on any of them. The results you've posted (ie: 55 grain bullet @ 2500-2600fps) by my calculations are delivering between 763 ft/lbs & 826 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle (depending on the round) out of your 10.5" barrel. That level of energy falls between the upper-end of the .357 magnum spectrum & the lower-end of the .44 magnum spectrum. Now I'm going to leave it up to everyone to draw their own conclusions on whether or not that is sufficient for self/home defense use or not, but I'd say it certainly clears up many of the prior misconceptions & myths that had been floated earlier in this thread.

Welcome to TGO Cris