JAB

So, what do you get when 1. You take four pounds of lard, put it in a pot: and melt it over medium heat: 2. Then take a ~five pound pork roast that you earlier deboned, cut into cubes and then marinated in a mix of lime juice and spices for several hours: 3. Place the pork cubes in the melted lard and allow to SIMMER: 4. Then, after about an hour of simmering, you turn up the heat and allow the pork to 'deep fry' in the lard for nearly another hour so that it gets nicely brown and crispy on the outside? Why, you get carnitas, of course*: (Also accepted as a correct answer would be, "What JAB is having for dinner tonight.) So that covers one major food group - pork. But what about vegetative material? Well, I guess one could roast a few ears of corn in the oven, cut the kernels off the cob then mix it with some onion, black beans, an heirloom tomato purchased from an Amish produce market, fresh cilantro, spices, lime juice, vinegar and salt to create a roasted corn and black bean salsa. If one were so inclined, that is: Then, when ready to eat, one could prepare some Spanish rice and cut up an avacado then serve it all up with some flour tortillas (sorry, no pics of that - made the carnitas and salsa last night, the rice hasn't been made, yet, nor has the avacado been cut.)

Romney has actually signed a ban. Obama has not. That is truth - so, according to you, the truth is now 'crap' because it doesn't jibe with Romney being clearly 'better'. What Obama wants and what Obama gets are two, different things - the fact remains that he has signed no ban while Romney has. In fact, Obama signed legislation (however grudgingly) expanding legal carry rights to include National Parks. All that really means is that either of them would sign away our 2nd Amendment rights if given the chance - and Congress would be no more or less likely to put such a bill in front of Romney than they would be to put such a bill in front of Obama.

Dangit, I clicked on the thread thinking it was going to provide a link to databases containing articles on building homemade firearms in case of SHTF. I other words, I read Homemade Firearms Databases instead of Homemade Firearms Databases.

I doubt that as most staunch Democrats are just as blinded by party politics as most staunch Republicans. That is the problem - it's all either Dempublicans or Repocrats and if you aren't one then you hafta be the other (even though. in action, the folks each side elects look a lot alike.) Can't anyone see that BOTH sides have had a hand in ruining our country and that insisting everyone has to be one or the other (and if you don't vote for 'our' guy then you must be for 'them' - even if you vote for someone else) is what has gotten us here in the first place? Does everyone have to live by the, "My party is better than your party and we're gonna win Wrestlemania...er...I mean the election," mindset?

Hmmm...you know, it occurs to me that only one of those two has actually signed an 'assault weapons' ban into law - and it wasn't Obama. It was Romney and from everything I've seen, he did so happily and amid much fanfare. But, hey, maybe he has had a Saul/Paul like epiphany, has seen the error of his ways and will be a staunch supporter of our rights - and I will applaud him for doing so just as soon as these monkeys get done flying out of my butt. Don't get me wrong - I think Obama is a pisspoor president. It is just that I find the naieve belief that Romney will actually be even a halfway decent president to be completely ridiculous. It's like watching a race between a Yugo and a Gremlin - it might be funny if it weren't so sad and, in the end, it doesn't really matter which one wins as they both will still suck.

Double post.

I don't know why I thought there was one in Athens last weekend. I guess I may have seen an old sign or something (maybe from last year?) There may have been a show and I swear I saw a sign, somewhere but I never saw or heard anything else about it so I didn't drive down there.

And yet no matter the evidence and indications to the contrary, there is still a significant group of self-avowed conservatives who are so determined to grasp at straws and cling to false hope that they think electing Romney is going to make a significant difference or even save us all from 'certain' destruction. Or maybe they are just so blinded by party politics that they just can't imagine voting for someone other than one of the two sides of the same, plug nickel that gets pushed on this country every year - and then, because they can't remove the party blinders and vote for someone who isn't one of the 'big two', they declare that no one else should do so, either, because an alternate candidate 'can't win' - never seeing that the only reason the alternate candidate 'can't win' is because they and others like them are too scared, too stubborn or simply too indoctrinated to vote outside of party lines. I don't get it and I guess I never will...and I'm not sure I want to.

Yeah, just look at what a great job the Republicans have done in supporting us here in TN since they are pretty much completely in charge AND have a Repub in the Governor's mansion.

So, is it possible that he was wearing a bullet resistant vest along with the tactical vest? Or is it now pretty much 100% certain that he was not wearing a bullet resistant vest, at all? What about reports stating he was also wearing soft armor 'leggings' and so on? Were those reports BS? Maybe this wasn't so much a bid by the media to try and parlay this tragedy into a loss of gun rights as it was an attempt to be able to say, "Well, a person with a carry gun couldn't have done much because he was wearing body armor." You know, maybe an attempt to keep more people from carrying by promoting the idea that, "Having a gun wouldn't have done the victims any good," rather than admitting, "Someone in close proximity to the shooter could have used a carried firearm to neutralize the shooter and end the massacre before so many people fell victim to his murderous rampage."

Fixed that for you.

Heh, thanks for the encouragement but you obviously don't know me very well, do you? I can always make things worse. It's a gift. Seriously, though, I have no sentimental attachment to this one so now that I have done a real check online for parts, etc. I think this project will depend on finding the pieces I need without paying so much $$$ trying to fix it up that I could just buy a SxS. If I can't, it will just go in a closet for now.

It would be cool to meet Les Stroud. Some of the other 'survival' shows/personalities do things that I think are extreme and just to make entertaining television. Conversely, I think even I could use most of Stroud's methods and actually survive, at least for a few days. I have noticed that Stroud has some knives, etc. with his picture/name on the package in stores, lately (ala the Gerber 'Bear Grylls' knives.) Anyone here have any first-hand experience with them? I'd like to think that anything Stroud would put his likeness on would be good, dependable, useful equipment but you never know.

Now, now, DaddyO, don't you realize that a person's past actions are absolutely no indicator of their future behavior? Remember, just vote for Obama Vanilla (Romney) and everything will be okay.

I admit that I still like to catch a flick on the big screen from time to time. Still, sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers isn't my favorite thing to do. Every once in a while there will be a movie I want to see first run, indoors. For the most part, though, I prefer drive-ins and hope the ones still operating in our area stay open. Failing that, I prefer the cheap, second run theater (used to be the dollar theater but no longer costs just $1.) Less crowded and I don't think any self respecting nutjob/terrorist would want to be known for shooting up the discount theater showing a movie that came out three months ago.

To be completely truthful, if Numrich wasn't listing the complete 12 gauge barrel assembly as out of stock I would have just ordered one of those and turned my attention to the internal parts in the receiver. I am assuming that would get me the ejectors and everything and their list price is $137.70 for a complete, used assembly. Even if I also ordered a complete fore end ($40.15 for a used one - that is, if they weren't listed as 'out of stock', too) that would still bring me in at just under $200 (plus shipping, tax, etc.) In all, then, even after replacing some internals that should put me in at around $250-$275 + some time when I would probably just be goofing off, anyhow. I'd consider getting a working SXS for that to be a bargain. That said, if I end up having to try and salvage most of the gun as it is then it will probably just go back into a closet until such time as my skills become 'mad' - if ever.

A couple of years ago I was given an old Stevens SXS double-barrel 12 gauge. The thing was (and remains) a bit of a basket case. Apparently, the previous owner left it in a storage building for some years and it has gotten some impressive rust on it. It also seems to be missing parts and certainly needs 'some work' to say the least. In fact, when the gun was given to me (after the previous owner died) his family thought I might just want to clean it up and use it as a wall hanger. I was inclined to agree - if I could get it cleaned up enough - but had dreams of making it work, again. Of some encouragement was that the previous owner's son, now in his mid twenties, remembers the gun being fired when he was a kid so it hasn't been out of commission that long. At the time I got the gun, I lacked the confidence to tackle a project like resurrecting the old fellah. Also, I had not then seen other people's accounts of reviving old, seemingly lost cause guns - some of which looked worse than this one does. Now, older and wis...well, more experienced, anyhow I think maybe I can save it. To be a little more specific: My brother in law looked in an old gun book he has and we are 98% sure that what I have is a Stevens 530. The 530 was manufactured from the 1930s until the 1950s. Here are some pics - if we are wrong, maybe someone can set me straight. Also, maybe some guys who have done similar projects will have some tips for me - or can tell me if this is really a lost cause before I start spending time/money/energy on it. Looking casual: The barrels are pretty rusted, especially on the muzzle end: Travelling down the barrels, away from the muzzle, things get a little better. Not much but a little - plus the barrels get thicker, of course - meaning that rust that might be deep enough to ruin the muzzle end might not be deep enough to hurt further down the barrels. IF these barrels can be saved, then, I might not be able to save the whole thing. I might have to 'amputate' the muzzle end to save the rest. If that turns out to be the case, I'll just take more off and have it cut down into a coach gun and have the bead reset . That wouldn't break my heart - I'd like to have a coach gun. Might even prefer it - but I may still make the effort to save the entire length. If I am able to save at least a part of these barrels, I have already accepted that there will likely be pitting that will be too deep to completely remove. As long as it doesn't compromise the structure of the barrels, I am okay with that. It is an old workhorse - it never was and will never be a Purdy. Heck, at the breech end, there seems to even still be a little bluing clinging to the metal: And the view down the barrels from that end isn't nearly as bad - is that the glint of unrusted metal I see in there? Maybe: The breech end is certainly thicker and doesn't appear as rusty: For that matter, the fact that the whole thing isn't seized shut and that the barrels will 'lock' into place when closed is encouraging, at least. Unlike the barrels, the receiver doesn't look all THAT bad. There is certainly rust but I think it is mostly surface rust that a wire brush and some steel wool should be able to handle: The triggers will not operate the firing pins. The good news, though, is that the firing pins are not frozen so I'm thinking there is just some internal spring/part that is loose, missing or rusted through. More good news is that the safety switch not only moves but it seems to work - the triggers will move when it is set to 'off' and will not move when it is set to 'on'. It is missing some parts - including the entire fore end, extractor and one or two other things that are obvious without even taking it apart. It might be missing more internally - we'll see as I haven't had it apart, yet. The buttstock is there and isn't in horrible shape. It has a crack or two and is missing a small 'chunk' at the rear of the trigger guard. I may have to enlist the aid of some wood glue or even some putty - again, we'll see. That kind of depends on what kind of fore end I am able to get. If the fore end looks new then I had might as well strip and redo the buttstock. If I end up finding an old, used fore end then it might preserve more of the gun's 'character' just to do minor repairs and leave it more or less 'as is'. The STEVENS mark is clearly visible on one side - along with a goose: And more company information is visible on the other side: I can't find a model number anywhere but, like I said, we are nearly certain it is a 530. It is marked 12 gauge on top of one of the barrels so I am sure of that. Now is where I ask for help: I really haven't done a major restore, before. I've done one or two minor rescues but nothing like this. To date, the only parts source I have used has been Numrich Gun Parts. I have been plenty satisfied with them and Numrich has a parts list/exploded diagram and has some of the parts for a 530 in stock. Problem is, many of the parts - including some that I already know I need - are listed as 'sold out'. Somehow I just don't expect them to get in a new shipment of parts for a shotgun that hasn't been made in half a century any time soon. I'm wondering if any of you guys and gals know of another place like Numrich or another, good source for parts. I am also wondering if anyone has any first hand knowledge of the 530 and if parts from some other shotgun - maybe a different Stevens model, one of the Savage models or even a different company, entirely - will work for the Stevens 530. I plan to repeat this post on all the gun boards where I am a member and hope that someone will have some ideas. Honestly, if this were just a pump shotgun - unless it were some kind of special antique, etc. - I probably wouldn't fool with it as I can buy a new pump for around two hundred bucks. That said, I have really had a hankerin' for a SxS double and have found that even the 'cheap', used ones cost more than twice as much as a new pump. For those reasons, I really want to make this one work. My suspicion is that even if I have to scrap everything but the buttstock and stripped receiver I would still come out cheaper to replace everything else on it rather than try to buy one - and I don't expect to have to scrap all of the internals. Even if that proves to be untrue and this restore ends up costing as much as buying a working gun, at least doing it this way would let me spread out the expense over time. Then, of course, there is the experience of doing it and (hopefully) the pride of eventually shooting a gun that I brought 'back to life'.

Well, this pretty well sums up my response: From The Return of the Living Dead:

I have one I bought at a small gunshow about two years ago. It was actually my first .22 rifle (yes, I was in my late thirties and owned a Mosin-Nagant before I owned a .22 rifle. It needed a new inner mag tube assembly (the spring was shot) but has otherwise worked fine. In trying to find out about it, I have read claims that they were built by Winchester with selling at a less expensive price point and a lot of folks badmouth them as being 'cheaply built' or not up to the former Winchester standards and so on. Personally, I like mine and think it was well worth the $79 I paid for it. Like pretty much all of my .22s - rifles and handguns - when it comes to bulk pack ammo mine seems to prefer Federal. I have read more than one recommendation against using a lot of hyper-velocity ammo it in. Apparently that ammo can beat up the receiver if used in too great a quantity. That isn't too big a deal, though, because accuracy with the hyper velocity ammo I have shot through it wasn't all that great - no better and in some cases not even as good as the Federal bulk pack for a good bit more $$$. Of course, I've heard that hyper-velocity ammo isn't as accurate from most firearms. Just to give you an idea of how a couple of different ammo types did in mine, I'll post some pics of targets I shot right after I got it. I have an inexpensive scope on it, now, but these were shot with open sights from 25 yards. I am really not good at shooting from a rest - never had any experience doing so growing up - so these were shot from a standing, offhand position. I'm just posting these to show how different ammo did from the same 190 on the same day with the same guy shooting it. Don't laugh - I never claimed to be a crack shot. Looking back at these pics, I see that the Mini-Mags held an okay group - maybe the tightest - they were just way low and left:

I thought about going to this one but apparently there is one in Athens, TN next week. Same type of flyer but I am not sure if it is the same promoters. Anyhow, I decided to wait and go to the one in Athens.

I do not doubt the potential lethality of .22LR. However, again, this is not about lethality. Lethality refers to the ability to be lethal, i.e. the ability to cause death. Zombies are already dead. In other words, they have already experienced a 'lethal' event and are now reanimated corpses. You can't cause death in something that is already dead so the lethality of something - in this case, 22LR - doesn't matter. After all, we are talking about creatures that don't have to breathe, don't have blood circulating through their veins, might be slowly (or not so slowly) rotting away and have maggots and worms gnawing on them. In many cases, they might have their throats ripped out, arms torn off and entire abdomens ripped open and their entrails gone but are still up, walking around and trying to snack on your cerebral cortex. Being that they remain animated despite those grevious wounds - wounds which were likely the lethal event that killed the person they used to be in the first place - I have serious doubts that putting a 40 grain piece of soft lead into possibly unused, dead brain tissue is going to have the desired result of returning them to a state of non animation. Therefore, potential lethality of .22LR on a living person means nothing. Instead, you have to be able to do enough damage to shut down whatever is making the corpse walk/attack. On another hand, I could see the possibility that it is the introduction of the lead, itself, into the zombie's system that does the trick rather than any damage done by the bullet. It could be that lead is toxic to whatever prion or virus caused the dead to rise, etc. In which case people using 'lead free' bullets are pretty well screwed. I know, I know, I'm harshing some folks' mellow and this is just a silly discussion for fun. At the same time, we are already talking about sitting on top of a building sniping walking corpses as if it could happen in 'reality'. As in some philosophical discussions, then, once an unlikely premise is accepted as 'given' for the sake of having a discussion, I just think we should then stick with that premise and see where the logic takes us - the premise being that there could be a need/desire to neutralize dangerous, walking corpses. Of course, if we look back to some of the 'original' zombie legends (as in voodoo legends), a shotgun loaded with shells filled with rock salt might be the most effective weapon. In voodoo zombie lore, salt makes a zombie conciously realize what it is. There is one story I have read claiming that a plantation owner had a zombie workforce doing much of the labor for his plantation. They were doing such a good job that his wife, who didn't know about the whole salt thing, gave them some roasted, salted peanuts as a reward/treat for working so well. The story claims that the zombies ate the salted nuts, realized what they were and left the plantation. Further, the story claims that these zombies were found next to their graves, having returned to decaying, inanimate corpses while trying to dig their way back in. Of course, those are voodoo zombies which seem to differ significantly from the Walking Dead/Night of the Living Dead type.

Good thing I don't give a flying f...um...fig about 'society'. I care about me and mine (and I include many of my friends in the idea of 'mine', not just my immediate family.) 'Society' can go to hell. Personally, I'd say that people who walk around being potential victims because they won't even do something so basic as take responsibility for their own defense (be it with a firearm, pepper spray or a stout club) is what deteriorates society. To me, then, 'society' is already pretty deteriorated and I'm not throwing myself on the pyre to try and save it. Some keep saying that this is a 'moral issue vs. legal issue' and that some people are hesitant to do the 'moral' thing because of 'legal' concerns. That is not entirely the case. See, I feel no moral obligation, whatsoever, to take a significant risk of physical OR financial injury to myself to save a stranger. To me, morality (and you can throw religion in there, too, if you want) is sometimes simply a way for 'society' to get individuals to do what 'society' thinks they should do even when it goes against that individual's best interests but, as I said earlier, society can go to hell as far as I am concerned. My morality is my own and my morality does not require me to take such a risk on behalf of a stranger regardless of gender, etc. nor does my morality lead me to expect anyone else to do so on my behalf. Helping someone who needs a hand, if I can without harm coming to me, is one thing. Taking a serious risk for someone I don't even know is quite another. Some here may think that means I am not very moral, at all. Some may think I am 'heartless' or 'not a good person'. I'm okay with that - I live up to my own standards and really don't care whether or not I live up to anyone else's. Along with expectations to do what 'society' says is moral comes the expectation that one should feel guilty for not doing what 'society' says is the moral thing to do. Feelings of guilt or fear of feeling guilty can be a powerful motivator. Such feelings are often used by various people to try and manipulate others into doing what they say is 'right'. However, it isn't all that effective when used on those of us who refuse to feel guilt simply because someone else thinks we should. Oh, I'm 41 and wouldn't shoot.

Unless I am mistaken, S&W is one of Mr. Miculek's sponsors. If Rossi were his sponsors instead of Smith and Wesson then I'd bet he would be shooting Rossis. And he'd still outshoot most people with S&Ws or pretty much anything else. Of course, given the customizing, tuning and so on that likely goes into his competition guns it probably doesn't matter what the gun starts life as - it is going to end up as a 'Jerry Miculek custom'. I'm certainly not saying that Rossi is 'better' than S&W or even that they are just as good. I'm just saying that the fact that Jerry Miculek is an almost superhuman shooter who just happens to be shooting certain guns because the manufacturer of those guns are one of his sponsors isn't really that much of an endorsement for the guns, themselves. That said, I carry a S&W 642 as my primary a good bit of the time, now. To be completely honest, I traded a fairly new Rossi .357 snub for it but mostly that was because I wanted a revolver that would fit in my pocket for times I wanted to carry it that way. The Rossi handled .357 just fine and I will likely own another one day. For a 'first' revolver that might see a lot of use, though, I would also stick with a S&W or a Ruger. For a full-sized gun (as opposed to a pocket rocket), my preference would probably go to the Ruger just because I like Ruger guns.

My place of work is on Lovell Road and I will occasionally go through Turkey Creek and stop by Gouger Mountain on the way home. I used to do so to look at their long guns as they would sometimes have things that I don't see, elsewhere. However, that was when the long gun racks were all out on the sales floor and I don't do that now that the long guns are behind a counter and you have to ask to see them. Consequently, my visits there have been cut down from about once a month to about once every six months. The only good thing I can really say about them when it comes to guns/ammo is that they will sometimes have ammo that no one else stocks or they will sometimes get 'new' types of ammo before anyone else. For instance, I bought a box of Gold Dot .22WMR ammo there shortly after it first came out. I don't recall having seen any of that ammo anywhere else, yet - I've seen the Hornady Critical Defense stuff (which, in my informal water jug testing, didn't do quite as well as the Gold Dot) elsewhere but not the Gold Dot. They also used to have pretty good prices on Silver Bear 7.62X54R - not sure if they still do or even if they still stock it.

This. I was in there when they were getting rid of the hunting/fishing section. I was told that, in that store, they had found that they could make more money by expanding the softball/soccer/league sports sections due to all the various school affiliated and private leagues in the area.