JAB

Yeah, when I say I eat slices of the ghost peppers, I mean paper thin slices. I do chew them up and swallow them, though. Like habaneros, once you get used to the heat they really do have a nice flavor. To me, habaneros have a sort of 'smoky' citrus flavor. One of my favorite flavor combinations is mango and habanero - put some fresh or dried/powdered habanero in a pot with some mango nectar and simmer to reduce by about half (until it thickens) and you have one of the best hot wing sauces around. Ghost peppers don't have that 'smoky' element but, to me, taste rather lemony. I started wondering about making candied peppers, like some folks do with orange peel or other fruits. I actually found a recipe and I might try candying some bhut jolokias. If I do, I'll let y'all know how it goes.

I agree. People throw the word 'mistake' around much too freely these days. To me, a mistake means there is at least some element of accident, confusion or non-intent. A politician partying in a hotel room with three hookers, a pound of cocaine and a goat isn't a 'mistake' as it requires intent, preparation and premeditation - it is a stupid decision but not a mistake. Likewise, you don't trip over your shoe laces and accidentally vote away citizens' rights. The way they originally voted was intentional therefore it was not a mistake. The only way it was a mistake is if they said 'Aye' when they meant to say, 'Nay' or if they misunderstood the issue on which they were voting. I doubt that was the case. Too often these days people use the term 'mistake' as a way to appear to be taking responsibility for dumbass decisions while actually avoiding that very responsibility, as in, "It isn't my fault, really. It was all just a big mistake."

If you still have ammo in the rifle then why are you using the bayonet? I'm sort of with Caster except that I'd probably want some kind of melee weapon just in case. I'd think a crow bar or some kind of wrecking bar would be best, though. With that, one could cave in the occasional zombie skull while also having a good tool for opening doors, removing barriers, etc. that might be standing in the way of escaping from the zombies. That would make the crow bar a multi-tasker, unlike a bayonet which (IMO) wouldn't even be all that good at its main task - as a weapon against zombies. Another thing I think of sort of goes along with my thoughts on regularly carrying multiple reloads (I'm talking real life, here, not zombies) - I'll sometimes carry one reload but if I am going somewhere that I think I might need more than one reload then I'm probably better off carrying the second reload wrapped in a gun, i.e. a 'New York' reload. Back to zombie fantasy land, it would be the same with a bayonet - if I have room/weight allowance to carry a bayonet then I can use that space/weight allotment to carry an airweight .38 or a pocket .380 instead. The best thing I can think of about a melee weapon is that it doesn't run out of ammo but (just like in real life) I think of using a melee weapon as sort of a 'I don't have anything else' scenario, not something I am going to plan to do as long as I have any other choice.

This year I grew some bhut jolokia (ghost peppers): some yellow Scotch bonnets: red habaneros: and some tiny pequin peppers: Sunday I decided I wanted to make some chili while the peppers are still fresh. Along with my (home made) hot chili powder (which includes serrano powder and habanero powder that came from dehydrated peppers I grew last year - the powder is still as flavorful and potent as ever), my (home made) extra hot, ghost chili powder and my home made chipotle flakes, I put these fresh peppers in: That is one Scotch bonnet, one habanero, two ghost chilis and five pequins. I made a big batch of chili (about two and a half to three gallons) but this was still enough to give it a good heat. Now, I am the kind of person who likes to taste the peppers straight before putting them in something. I have eaten slices of straight ghost pepper, before, so I wasn't 'scared'. The Scotch bonnet was nice and hot. In fact, I remember thinking, "Man, the ghost pepper can't be much hotter than this." I was wrong - that ghost pepper is just something else (and apparently the dry soil at my house helped to concentrate the heat beyond the ghost peppers I've eaten in the past.) It is hard to believe that the ghost pepper no longer holds the title of hottest pepper in the world. Most bhut jolokia are around one million scoville. Most scorpion peppers are said to be about the same, one million scoville, but a strain of scorpion pepper was recently discovered with a rating of two million scoville (for perspective, jalapenos are usually 5,000 to 8,000 while habaneros are usually around 300,000 to 350,000 and the hottest habanero strain - the red savina - is around 500,000 so ghost peppers are twice as hot as the hottest habanero and this, particular strain of scorpion peppers are twice that or four times hotter than the hottest habanero.) Still, these little ghost peppers were no slouches. The problem was that I wasn't really in the mood to eat chili with the weather as warm as it was on Sunday. That was okay, though, because I had planned ahead. In fact, that was the reason I made so much. Once the chili was done, I canned some of it. Twelve pint jars and four twelve ounce jars (ran out of pints), to be exact. A pint is the perfect size to take for lunch at work. In fact, the rain today made me want chili so a pint of it was lunch, today. I am very happy with the results. Even after all the canning, I had about a gallon left. I put that in a big, plastic bowl with a lid and stuck it in the chest freezer. I have two friends who like their chili just as spicy as I do and the three of us will get together and enjoy it at some point - they have suggested during the Tennessee/Florida game (I couldn't care less about football but any excuse to hang with my buds, drink beer and eat too much is fine with me.)

When I was a kid my dad had a tractor that he usually used to plow the garden. He got into mule or horse drawn wagons/buggies, (began building his own) though, so he ended up keeping a team of mules or horses most of the time (mom actually had a silhouette of him driving one of his wagons being pulled by one of his teams put on his tombstone.) He worked mules, etc. as a kid so he got a plow and used a horse or mule to cut the rows in the garden for a couple of years. He made it look simple - hot, sweaty but simple. I took a few turns, too. His rows were nice and straight. The ones I cut were not - especially until I got the hang of it. Anyhow, I am at least glad to be able to say I've done it.

I like my 91/30 but when I think of how long, heavy and unwieldy it would be to try to put a bayonet attached to the end of it through a target as small as an eye socket while possibly dodging other zombies then a bayonet starts sounding worse than useless. I would think that bayonets would be more useful in stabbing for the gut/chest with the rifle held at the waist - not really something that would be much use against zombies unless the user is much more coordinated than I am (which wouldn't be too hard, really.) I'd probably be better off caving zombie skulls in with the metal buttplate if using a Mosin-Nagant as a melee weapon against zombies. Using it as a blunt trauma weapon would require less precision and eliminate the risk of getting the weapon stuck in a zombie skull. Of course that is with a heavy, wood-stocked, metal butt-plated battle rifle. Such might not work as well with a lighter, plastic stocked gun or one with a nice, cushy butt pad. As far as a weapon for stabbing an eye, etc. my guess would be that some kind of short-handled spear - maybe a spike bayonet set on a short, wooden handle or even a sharpened piece of rebar, also set into a short, wooden handle (I'm thinking a handle/shaft of about two to three feet long so it could be carried in a sheath on one's back as a back up to a firearm) would sound pretty effective, to me.

I think the company was based in Ducktown, TN. If I am not mistaken, the company went under largely because of a divorce. At least that is the story I heard - not sure if it is true. Didn't Cobra or one of the other 'economical' companies buy the rights to produce some of their designs when the company went out of business? That little gun does look interesting. Of their products, though, the one I'd want is the double-barreled (SxS) 'derringer' that is chambered for .410 and .45. I've seen those for pretty good prices but I haven't bought one - mostly because I am afraid that if I bought it I'd want to shoot it and things could go downhill from there.

I have wanted a Bersa for some time. Haven't bought one, yet, but have wanted one. I really like their 380 cc. It is designed for concealed carry and is pretty much a 'dehorned' version of their regular 380. It feels really good in my hands. The biggest reason I don't have one is that I already own a couple of small .380 pistols that I like and don't really have a use for another.

Ah. I hadn't even thought of that. But then how do the .22 conversions for other centerfire handguns (like the conversion kits for Glocks) get around that? I've never seen such a kit so I don't know what all is included or how they are arranged. Are the barrels bored off-center or something?

I like his music and wouldn't mind seeing him live - although part of me would be hesitant that he could no longer hit all those power notes which would kind of ruin my image of him. As far as Steinman's lyrics, there are few lines from songs in any genre that, being a fan of irony and sardonic humor, I find funnier than the last, few lines of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." As I remember it:

Looks like a good place to be.

...just out of curiousity. I used to have a Phoenix .25. I got it during the ammo shortage when I noticed that .25acp ammo was pretty much always on the shelf at Walmart even when the shelf was more or less bare of handgun ammo (even .22lr) otherwise (although that ceased to be the case shortly after I bought the Phoenix - I guess everyone else had the same thought.) My first handgun was a Titan .25 (which was apparently stolen from my mom's house at some point) so I also have a bit of nostalgia where the .25acp is concerned. Being that I have since gotten another Titan .25 at a gun show, I was no longer shooting the Phoenix and ended up trading it toward a Nagant revolver. Anyhow, I have also shot Phoenix .22 pistols and they are essentially the same gun as my .25 with the only difference so far as I could tell being, obviously, the chambering. The only barrel offered for the .25 is the 3 inch barrel but there is the option of a 5 inch barrel for the .22 version. In fact, Phoenix sells the five inch barrel on their website so that the owner of one of their .22 pistols can choose to swap back and forth between the 3 and 5 inch (they also sell a kit that comes with the pistol and both barrels.) All that leads to my thought/question behind this thread: As the two pistols are essentially the same except for chambering and being that the chamber is part of the barrel and as (at least from what can find) the SAAMI pressures for .25 acp and .22 lr appear to be very close, I wonder if the five inch .22 barrel would work on a three inch .25 gun. In other words, would the five inch .22 LR barrel essentially act as a '.22 conversion kit' for the .25 version of the gun? Yeah, I realize that there may not be a whole lot of reason to do this. It isn't like either cartridge is devastatingly more powerful than the other. Mostly, the biggest advantage would be having a cheap plinker that could fire .25 acp if the shooter wanted (or if there were another shortage and .25 were the only ammo available) while mostly burning through .22 LR because ammo is much less expensive.

Heck, if that is what is bothering you then you should know that you can get a plastic 'Monte Carlo' style stock for your SKS to give it the 'hunting' look rather than the 'military' look. Totally unnecessary, of course, but it is an option. I currently have one on my SKS just because it was given to me (free), the length and style make it easier for me to shoulder and get a good cheek weld and it doesn't require modifying the rifle so it is 100% reversible (I kept the original stock.) http://www.sksstocks.com/ATI-SKS-Monte-Carlo-Stock-p/ati-sks0300-.htm Come to think of it, I got the rifle free, too, some years back. My mom bought it for herself and ended up not liking it so she gave it to me. That was back when they could still be had for $200 or less pretty much anywhere. I honestly haven't shot mine a whole lot but would like to either get one of the Wilson front sights for it http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&brand=WU&prodID=WU60214&prodTitle=Williams%20SKS%20Rifle%20Fire%20Sight%20Bead or maybe just one of the high visibility replacement front pins.

While I am still not sure I'd trust .22LR for zombie elimination, that bullpup is all eat up with the awesome!

Sure - I wasn't saying that it was a 'flaw' per se. I was simply disagreeing with the idea that Glocks are, across the board, ergonomically correct. Many shooters obviously find them to be so but I do not and never have.

Since this thread has come back around and it doesn't seem that I posted in it, before, I will, now. I carry an Inova X1 as my EDC flashlight. I got it at Target and IIRC, the price was right around twenty bucks. I have been EDCing it for two or three years now and it is and has been a great little pocket flashlight. The one I have is black - with a couple years worth of pocket scuffs on the finish. It is roughly the size of a roll of dimes. It doesn't have the highest ever lumen output rating (55 lumens on high) but somehow it seems like a very 'bright' 55 lumens. Where I live is a wooded area and there are no streetlights, etc. so it is often very dark around my yard at night, especially when there is no moon out and so on. This little, pocket flashlight sure does an amazing job lighting up the night. I am not sure it is bright enough to 'stun' someone - maybe it is or maybe it isn't - but it would sure as heck play havoc with their vision in a low-light situation. Best of all is that it runs on one AA battery. I refuse to have a flashlight for daily use that requires some kind of less common battery or battery pack. If it won't run on D, C, A, AA or AAA then it won't be my EDC light and there is a good chance that I won't own it, at all. If I remember to change the battery once a month then it will maintain more or less maximum brightness and 100% reliability. However, there have been a couple of times when I kept forgetting to replace the battery and it went for about two months without replacing it. Now, toward the end of that time the light output was noticeably very decreased and it became temperamental about not wanting to come on when I turned it on but those issues were immediately corrected by finally remembering to change the battery. Considering I use the light at least a little pretty much every, single day I don't think that is too bad, at all. Another thing I like about it is that with the size, weight and light output it is fairly easy to use in conjunction with a handgun. I have practiced holding it in my non-dominant hand while bracing my shooting hand with the non-dominant hand and can actually get some pretty good hits on target at reasonable self defense distances that way. It isn't a laser cutting torch or even a 'burn out their retinas' tactical light but it is a fairly small, lightweight, easy to use and reliable light that runs on batteries I can probably find at many convenience store/gas stations and that come in gigantic mega-packs at Walmart. http://www.inovaligh...features_x1.php

Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a 'new' cartridge. I first heard of it three or four years ago, I think, and had the impression it had been around for a little while before that. In fact, from what I can find on the 'Net, it was first introduced at the SHOT show in 2004. That means it has been out for over eight years and you are just now hearing of it, if that is any indication as to how 'popular' it is. My understanding is that this remains a 'proprietary cartridge' or some such and I believe that there is only one company producing ammo. I think I have maybe seen one such gun (used, taken in trade) at a LGS and don't recall ever having seen ammo. My understanding is that, for the most part, ammo must be ordered directly from NAA. They also make (or made, anyhow - not sure if they still do) a .32 NAA which was a .32 bullet in a necked down .380 casing. I think it is just about as popular as the .25 NAA. My own, personal opinion is that had such a thing come out ten years earlier, before the proliferation of 'micro' .32, .380 and, now, 9mm pistols it might have caught on. As it is, I think most of the shooting public can see no advantage to a 'souped up' .25 (or .32) when they can buy something like a Kel Tec or Taurus .32 (or a Kel Tec, Taurus or Ruger .380 or even one of the micro 9mm) that uses a much more commonly available cartridge and costs less for ammo and, in some cases, for the gun, itself.

I actually kind of get where you are coming from. Growing up, many older folks I knew (some of them were relatives) kept a cheapo .22, .25 or .32 in a pocket, etc. Generally speaking, these probably weren't carried for self defense against a two-legged assailant. Instead, they were used to dispatch snakes, etc. while out in the garden, on the creek bank fishing or so on. Other than that, they were probably occasionally used to shoot at targets of opportunity (see if you can hit the knot hole in that tree) and the like. Sure they would have used them in something more like what we think of as 'self defense' if the need arose but, after all, why would a man look to the little, relatively weak pistol in his pocket for SD in a serious situation when he probably had both a shotgun and a rifle hanging within easy reach in the back window of his truck or propped up behind the bedroom door if at home? Like you, I sometimes like cheap guns. They might not be my first choice for SD but as range toys they punch holes in those threatening paper targets just as well as anything else. In those circumstances if they quit working then they can just go into a parts box and if I ever get another one it can be cannibalized if parts are ever needed in the future. I don't honestly have enough such guns to really use for that purpose, yet, but I might eventually. Now, as Jonnin alluded, I certainly am not going to pay enough for one that a couple more bucks could get me a used Kel Tec or even a Hi Point (I consider Hi Point pistols to be inexpensive and unrefined but not 'cheap'.) With the Lorcins, etc. I don't really know that I'd buy a .380 as I'd be more inclined to stick to 'weaker' rounds like a .25 or maybe a .32 in the pot metal guns. That said, within my parameters, if I can get a working gun for under $100 I'd have to at least consider it. The problem is (again, as Jonnin alluded) when I see one of these guns for sale the seller usually has a price tag closer to $175 or so on it. I wouldn't pay that for one. As far as the OP, as I said I probably wouldn't buy a Lorcin .380 but I'd sure take a free one if offered. As others have said, I'd probably put it somewhere as a 'stash gun' - maybe even bolt down a cheap lock box (with the metal hasp type lock) in an out of the way corner of one of the outbuildings, lube the gun up good, toss it in the box with enough rounds for one reload, lock the box up with a combination lock (so I wouldn't have to worry about keeping up with a key) and more or less forget about it until/unless it is ever needed. Maybe check on it every three to six months just to make sure it isn't rusting, still functions and so on.

Yep. The whole thing has become like a pay-per-view 'event.' Instead of debates, the candidates from each side should just step to the middle of 'the squared circle', microphone in hand, and declare (in as loud a voice and as over-the-top manner as they can manage) that they - and not the 'other side' - will win Electionmania 2012, BROTHER! And the sad thing is that so many people - just like many of the fans of 'professional' wrestling - believe that all the nonsense is real and that their candidate is the 'good guy' who is incapable of lying, etc.

Heck, I'd say that a relatively inexpensive, mail-order Carcano rifle with a low-powered scope could be a sniper rifle. If he were still alive, you could just ask Lee Harvey Oswald about that.

Thanks, Caster!

Me, either. The last time I recall looking at a pawn shop gun it was a 10/22 with a really bad home camo paint job that looked like it had been dragged behind a truck for five miles down a gravel road. I was only considering it because I wanted to put an aftermarket stock kit on it, anyway. Then I saw that it was priced at about $10 less than the price on a brand new one at the Walmart just down the road from the pawn shop. Starting that high even a haggled price would be about twice what I would have paid for it so I just walked away. Even the single shot shotguns I have looked at in various pawn shops have often been priced higher than a brand new one. I'm not talking 'collectible' guns, either - just working guns with some cosmetic blemishes. I often want to ask them what gunsmith they get to plate the inside of those barrels in gold for them. To the OP, great find!

The really bad thing is that I recently discovered (because they are a fairly new product, apparently) Twinkies with a CHOCOLATE creme filling. I like them better than the original.

My mom bought a Mossberg 500 .410 at a local Walmart a few months back. They were busy that night and we ended up waiting more than half an hour for a manager to get freed up to come back and carry the gun/escort us to the door. If the paperwork hadn't already been filed, etc. she would have just cancelled the transaction and walked away. I, too, felt this was extra special stupid as I was standing there waiting with a CZ 82 on my right hip and a NAA mini in my left pocket, both fully loaded. I really don't see how it could be a 'shoplifting' issue as the guns (at Walmart, anyhow) are all locked up in a case and the Sporting Goods employee has to go to the back where the boxes are kept (apparently also in a locked 'cage') to get the box in order to box up the gun. I know about the second part because we also had to wait about half an hour for them to find the right box. So in order to shoplift a gun and carry it out in the box, you'd either have to get the key to the case or break the glass then you'd have to somehow gain access to the area where the boxes are kept and find the right box. Heck, there are microwaves there that cost as much as/more than some of the guns. Those microwaves are right out on a shelf, already in their boxes and they don't call a manager to escort folks who are buying them out of the store.

It has just been about four years ago that I started carrying outside my home. In fact, my original permit expired this month (no worries - did the renewal thing a couple of months ago.) At the time, however, I didn't belong to any discussion boards that had forums specifically related to carrying. I also didn't know many people who had their permit at the time. Funny thing is, the first place I went to try out carrying in public was Walmart - even though I had not heard of the Wally Walk at the time. It just seemed like a natural place to do it. The first time or two going into stores and the like, I was nervous about being made. Mostly, I kept thinking, "Are they really just going to let me carry a gun in here?" Even after that feeling passed, I was guilty of either walking with my right arm pressed tightly to my side (to keep my shirt from riding up) or checking to make sure my gun was still there every couple of minutes. As others have said, though, all that eventually passed.