pop pop

I have an older wood stocked Marlin Mdl 60 that is light. Most probably killed around 900 nuance squirrels in the past 2 years. It is a tack drive scoped. I cannot shoot as well with irons anymore. Old eyes.

Most all Self Defense 38 Spl ammo, at Acadamy Sports, was around 1.90 per round yesterday. They did not have a large selection on the shelves. Edited to add; The Hornady 110 Gr + P Critical Defense was around 1.25 per round from S G Ammo. I had to order 250 rounds to get that price.

Went to Acadamy Sports and checked prices on ammo. Came home and ordered 250 rounds of Critical Defense 110 Gr +P FTX when I got home. They had 20 round boxes for 37.00 + per box at Acadamy. My online purchase form SG Ammo was 317.73 including tax for 250 rounds delivered. Big difference in price. Edited to add; My stash is totally healthy and ready to withstand the oncoming price hikes.

Hope everyone has a good year ahead.

I have a large amount of the older ammo, in my EDC ammo calibers, but am light on newer SD (last 5 years) ammo in 38 spl/357 Mag. Also the Self-defense ammo has been so high in price that I don't have an abundance of that, just adequate. So, I have decided to get 250 rounds of SD, for sure, and just think about 1000 of practice. Will do that today after church. That will put me into a condition that I will not be in need of any ammo in the near future. "Got to bite the bullet at some point in time, if you want to do the dance." As Josie Whales says, "Recon So" "Freedom Angles" Kool Johnny Rotten!

I am looking at Hornady Critical Defense + P, or Winchester Ranger T Bonded + P for SD ammo (250 rounds), and PMC 130 Gr RN for practice (1000 rounds). Never purchased much PMC ammo before. They have Magtech Ammo for the same price. Do you guys have any experience with either the Magtech or PMC? I have always purchased Winchester White Box practice ammo. It is kind of dirty after firing. I recently purchased 250 rounds of Hornady Critical Duty 147 Gr HP + P SD and 1000 rounds of Blazer 115 Gr RN Brass for practice for the 9 MM so I am good on that caliber with what I already have in my stash.

What is you guys thoughts on the supposed ammo price increase after the 1 of the year? My bulk ammo places have sent ad saying it is going up because of the wars going on and the scarcity of gunpowder. I have a good stash, but could use some practice 38 Spl and self-defense 38 Sp. It has been hard to come by, and expensive, until just lately. Just may purchase a few rounds of both after Monday.

I got an older mdl 23 40 cal and a newer mdl 19 Gen 5 9MM. The 19 has the better grip IMO. The 23 is older fat grip and is too large for my hands. I have gravitated to the S W M P series of Tupperware guns. Like them much better. Glock did change the pistol world!

I called a plumber a couple months ago. I have 2 toilets shut off valves that no longer shut the water off completely. I have 4 toilets. I also had a toilet refill valve inside the toilet that cut off valve wouldn't shut it off completely, that needed to be replaced. We are talking 1-2 hrs labor at most. The guy came and I told him what I needed, and he said he would give me an estimate. Came back and said 1180.00 for the work. I said what do I owe you for the service call now, because I am not going to pay that. Long story short he called his boss, and they dropped it to 850.00 because I have been a customer for 40 years with them. I paid the service call and my grandson replaced all 4 of the cut off valves, and I got down and took me 10 minutes to change the flush valve myself. Cost me 50,00 for parts and took a total of 35 minutes for him and me 10 minutes. Hope you have better luck than I did Scotty. My water system is in copper pipes. I put it in myself 40 years ago. Old age has caught up with me also, but I got humbled with this experience. Will be calling on son-in-law and grandboys for these things from now on. I don't want to pay those kinds of prices.

Not to hijack your thread, but my wife purchased me a copy of the TV miniseries of "Lonesome Dove" for Christmas. Been looking for it for years in junk stores. By the way I like bluegrass also.

We had a good Christmas day. Accomplished all our goals and ended it all with opening gifts, last evening, after a fine meal(16 souls). Up this morning and headed to the trash place after it opens today. Oh well, another successful Christmas in the behind. Got much more than we deserved. Family, during the holidays, is totally grand. One daughter and grandson going to be with us until Thursday then they fly back to Florida. Hope you guys had a good day as well.

Starting our day with a family breakfast after present opening. Having the works, country ham, bacon. sausage, biscuits and gravy, along with scrambled eggs. Don't have any young ones any longer. Youngest is 14. Then will feed them Christmas dinner again at 5. Long day for my wife and me, but we love it. Good to have family during the holidays. We also have wife's 91 Y O sister who fell and broke her hip 3 weeks ago. My wife did not want her to go to a rehab center, because of their lack of care now a days, so she took her in. Sweetie is a retired RN. Sister is improving, however very slow. Still does not need to go home alone yet. Looks like we are in for a busy day around "Reed Manor" today. Hope all of you have a Merry Christmas. I feel good this morning and getting ready for the day. At my age, "I'm just so proud to be here" as Mini Pearl always spoke many times. Hers hoping a good, fun day for you all.

IMO, the Judges were gimmick guns. Made for very close range. Saying that, I would not want to be shot with any of them. Just never found a good use for one.

Wowzer ,Spirited discussion. I say to the original question, False. My opinion a Rifle "with the right kind of ammo" will be far superior. IMO, the WWII 30 06 caliber and 308 of the M 14 were far superior to the M 16 556 of today. Of course, the military is subject to ball ammo because of the Geneva Convention restrictions for war rules. Does make me wonder what a 357 2" snubby revolver, and a 357 16" or 18" brl lever gun results would be firing the same ammo. I have plans of water jug testing both these and see the result soon. I don't know the intent of the person who wrote the question, or his politics. He compared a 45 pistol or 500 Mag Revolver to a 30 30 Rifle. RED233, I will NOT cut and paste any more. Did not know the result it would cause. Black screen, Sheese! BIG Throwdown Guys.

The gel tester seems to think that velocity was not good with the ammo and may be a factor.

Just read this and found this interesting. Do you agree or disagree. Question Text Handguns do less damage because they shoot a smaller bullet than a rifle. A. True B. False Correct Answer = B Many handguns shoot a larger bullet than that of a rifle and can cause equal or more damage than some rifles. For example, a 0.45 acp fires a 230 g bullet and can produce over 400 ft/lb of energy. A 0.22 LR fires a 40 g bullet and only produces 130 ft/lb of energy. Some pistols like the 0.500 S&W Magnum can fire a 300 g bullet producing 2800 ft/lb of energy whereas a popular deer rifle, the 30–30 Winchester will fire a 130 g bullet and only produce 1799 ft/lb of energy.

Just read a gel test report on the new 30 caliber from Greg Ellifritz's weekend newsletter on his Active Response Training page. The guy gel tested 4 loads, Federal HST 100 Gr Hp, Hornady Critical Defense 100 Gr HP, Remington HTP 100 Gr HP, and Speer Gold Dot 115 Gr H P. Only 1 had any expansion at all. Hornady. Just might be cause for concern.

Chances R, that is exactly why the Hamas terrorist were so successful in killing many and kidnapping 250 Israeli citizens. They were defenseless. Stupid idea to disarm any good citizens of any country. Them of all peoples, because their neighbors are all intent on killing every Jew, they see over thee. It renders all to a total state of vulnerability against an opposing army, or for that matter, an criminal. Politicians, Sheese! Edited to Add; If one does not want to be vulnerable, get you a gun, and get the Permit! then Train, Train, Train, then "Train" some more.

I am going to say I find this story very suspect. "Possibly" could have happened, BUT?????

At my last church I had to tell people you do not have to allow a suspicious person in your building. If a guy comes in looking "Possibly Dangerous', you do not need to allow them into your building. They really had never thought about that. We had the same kind of person get into my last church dressed in the same manner the shooter in the video was. Our perp had a hoodie on with it pulled over his head where you could not see his face and was very filthy and dressed heavily and the temp was 96 outside. He was acting deranged. Let me say this is not practicing favoritism, but safety we are talking about here. Favoritism is condemned in the Bible. Our plan was to handle such incidences, like this church allowed this shooter in, just outside of the locked entrance doors. Have 5 or 6 team members in reediness and 3 go outside and encircle the visitor and not allow him inside. This is called overwhelm them with numbers of team members and deny entrance to the perp. We always kept 1 team member in the entrance to alert other team members, but he had to go lock back entrance doors and leave his post for 3 minutes to accomplish the locking. A kid was on the rest room and came out, as the team member was locking doors, and let this type of perp into the doors to our church building, and he was in the auditorium before we knew it. Our perp turned out to be not a shooter, but he scared some of the ladies so bad they went to the restrooms and barfed up. If you watch the short video, you will know what I am discussing here. Dirtshooter, Plans can have holes in them, sometimes, just like what happened to us in our situation. In my new church we now have 2 team members in the entrance at all times. Usher and greeter with most likely 1 armed at all times. Plans of Mice and Men thing. Be safe. Edited for spelling;

Deerslayer, I like the course of fire. never shot it but if I have a chance will try. I am 75 now, however after I turned 65 I decided to go and take the NRA Certified Instructor course on pistols. I just wanted to see if I could pass the test. I did. I had to shoot 20 rounds at 50 feet with open sights and used a 4" 38/357 SW model 681 firing 38 Spl practice ammo. I hit an 8" paper plate at 50' with 19 out 0f 20 in the qualifier, with required 17 hits to qualify. I mostly just shoot at steel now on a fairly regular basis. I still have my plate I qualified on, for Instructor class, and my original, signed by instructor, B 22 target I originally qualified on for my CC permit, in my gun safe. My instructor, way back then, talked to us about court allowable proof in case one needed to prove they could hit what they were shooting at. That turned out to be good advice in this day-in-time. Seems now that one needs to document everything one does to train and have good records to prove what training you did. I even have rerecords of books I have studied and every trip to the range. Sound advice deerslayer.

My grandson and his family had my TX out over the Holiday week and it had one failure due to the same thing, soft grip. I guess I got close to 1500 + rounds thru the TX now. Totally satisfied with it and so was my family. Son-in-law said he might purchase one, if he can find it locally in Mt Pleasant, S Carolina where the reside. The TX is a great addition to anyone's collection. I have not cleaned the one I have yet which could have added to the failure. Will see to it soon. We have a 91 Y O sister-in-law in the house recouping after she fell and broke her hip for now. Be tied u for this week. Jamie seems you are enjoying yours like my family and I have the one we have. Thanks for the update.

Thank you dirtshooter. I totally understand turning the team over to a younger Officer. I was glad to let the younger take over our previous team, but in our new church they drafted me. My skills are decreasing by the day however I have been practicing lots more recently. "Most probably" we will be called on to handle light disturbances, door locking, and directing traffic in our church, and prayerfully a very long shot on the more serious stuff. These small instances can be very unnerving to our brothers and sisters. Yes, I meant to say brothers, because some/many have not gotten the big message yet. I, for one, am verry thankful we do have some that are willing to put themselves out there for "the all". In the West Freeway church it only took one skilled senior citizen to save the many. IMO, he is and was a true "Warrior". So was the neighbor at the Southerland Springs church who stopped the shooter after he did the carnage there. Be strong and safe Dirtshooter. Thank you for your service to your church sir. Edited to add content; Dirtshooter google West Freeway Church of Christ shooting." You will learn of that Warrior there. Watch the 3 minute Video in "real time". Shame on the people who only want to criticize humble efforts to protect others!

We will try to watch tonight.

We are in the planning stage of taking a trip out West. We want to go to Big Bend National Park in South Texas. Anyone here have any advice or knowledge of the area and Park. Looking at entering from the West side of the park. Driving to Alpine Texas and then southward, about 100 miles.