JAB

Personally, I think that anyone who shot this stupid SOB would be justified as having had a credible fear of death or serious, bodily injury.

I renewed in person on April 4 and my new one arrived yesterday, May 31. Since the OP said he sent his application in, I am assuming he renewed by mail. Doesn't seem to be much difference in lag time between the two methods. I have moved since first getting mine so maybe that slowed it down a little but I doubt it had much impact (had changed address on DL, etc. so the change would have already been in the Dept. of Safety database.) What I do like about renewing in person is that I got a receipt right then. Didn't really make much difference as mine doesn't expire until the end of August but was still nice to walk out with the receipt already in hand, just in case. Renewing in person, I got a new picture.

For some reason that made me think of a scene in the old T.V. show "Sledge Hammer" where a television reporter is interviewing the title character after he stopped a robbery in progress:

I often OC in and around my home - largely because when I am at home I sometimes like to carry one of my larger side arms that are a bit more difficult to conceal. When carrying 'in public' I pretty much go concealed but not always 'deep concealed'. My two primary methods of carry in public are pocket carry (a compromise that isn't my favorite but admittedly gets used a lot, especially in warmer weather) or OWB with a cover garment (untucked, unbuttoned shirt over a tucked in t-shirt, etc.) If carrying OWB, the cover garment is generally in place but if incidental exposure of my firearm occurs I don't freak out. There have been a few times in warmer weather in locations where I have felt comfortable with OC enough that I didn't bother putting the cover garment on but those times are isolated events. Basically, sort of like others have said, I'm not the kind of person who wants to have discussions on any subject - firearms or otherwise - with complete strangers. I have no interest in any interactions, whether positive or negative, revolving around the fact that I am armed. Honestly, while I could probably carry on a conversation with a stump if need be, I really just don't like the general public all that much. If I am in public, I want to enjoy the company of the people I am with and otherwise mind my own business, get done what I need to get done and go on with my life.

Probably. I'd also bet that some other folks probably find calling someone out for a tongue in cheek remark made on the Internet to be stupid.

Here, here on the renewal taking forever. IIRC (and maybe I don't) it took something like 45 days for mine to arrive - which at the time (Summer of 2008) was actually pretty good. Mine expires in August of this year (2012) and I wanted to make sure to renew with plenty of time so after the six month out window passed, I went ahead and did it. I actually renewed in person so I have the receipt - the nice lady at the driver's license testing center actually folded the receipt up with a little 'pocket' to hold my current permit so they would be together. The receipt is dated April 4. As I still haven't gotten the new permit and actually received paperwork in the mail the other day telling me that it is time to renew, I called them this morning. It seems my new permit was issued last Monday (the twenty first) so should be in the mail to me soon. That means it is going to take as long or longer to get my renewal as it took to get my initial permit back when things were so backed up. I haven't had any trouble with the law and haven't even so much as gotten a speeding ticket since getting the initial permit. Seems kind of odd that a renewal check, etc. would take so long. Oh, well, at least it should be on its way, now.

I actually kind of like a light blue for a backlit screen. It doesn't seem as harsh as some, other colors. Of course, the test above rates my total error for colorblindness at 11.4 (with 11 apparently being the bottom of the scale), meaning I basically have no colorblindness, at all. I still think you are correct in that blue probably wouldn't make a very good sight color. That is because of the concept of 'cool colors' and 'warm colors'. Blues and colors with a lot of blue in them tend to be 'cool' colors while reds, yellows and colors with a lot of red or yellow (such as orange) tend to be 'warm' colors. To most people's eyes, cool colors appear to 'recede' while warm colors appear to 'pop out', for lack of a better term. So, something like a yellow, orange or red dot on a dark blue background might stand out even more, I am not sure. If I am not mistaken, this concept has something to do with how older 3D technology worked and why the old 3D glasses used to have one red lens and one blue one. Back in the days of slow, dial-up modems I sometimes used to entertain myself while waiting for emails, files, etc. to download by playing around with that concept in my paint program and creating different combinations to see which would 'trick' my eye the most. Some of those ended up as desktop background images, for a while. I have recreated three of the ones I remember best. They were: The first two give my eye the impression that there is maybe a little depth. On the last one, I would swear that the blue is stamped in or down while the red tiles are lifted up and are maybe even 'hovering' above the blue. At the lines where the two colors meet, in that last image, my eye actually sees 'shadow' lines as if the red squares really were in three dimensions.

Pretty cool looking and I would love the chance to fire one. $1200 is way too rich for my blood, though - especially since buckshot from my poor little Maverick Security 88 will mechanically separate an assailant just as efficiently for two hundred bucks. I'm glad they will be out there for folks who want them to buy, though.

When I lived in East Knoxville and worked at East Town Mall (it will never be Knoxville Center, to me) while attending UT, I sometimes used to stop just to fill up a cup with water from that Artesian well. I'd sometimes take jugs to fill up and take home, too. Good water.

Heck, I have yet to work out why anyone - even with a working parachute - would voluntarily jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Still, I can often be entertained by watching other people do stupid amazing things.

I think what Mike .357 might have been getting at is that 'liberal', 'libertarian' and 'liberty' all have the same, basic root. I don't believe for one second that modern leftists are really 'liberals' as they want too many limits placed on the personal liberties of other people. By the same token, modern righties are not really 'conservatives' as many of them support increasing government power and feel that the government has some right to control peoples' morality - not to mention the support for spending cash hand over fist to support wars and military operations in other countries where we have no business being. Both terms have become complete and total misnomers as used in modern society. I am a liberal in that I believe, for the most part, that the citizens of this country should be free to do whatever in the hell they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. I am a conservative in that I believe the government should remain small and have only as much power as is necessary to carry out its responsibilities and that both (power and responsibilities) should be limited. Funny thing is, rather than being opposed, when used in that matter the two compliment each other and, I believe, fit the vision that the Founders had for this country. Unfortunately, neither of those things really fit the modern usage of the terms.

My used Taurus Model 66 - which looked no more than a year or so old despite having been made in the late 1980s - was priced under three hundred bucks. In fact, I got out the door with it right at $300. I have never seen a used, medium frame S&W .357 for $300. Okay, you said a few more bucks. To me, a 'few more bucks' would be $320 or so. Even $400 isn't a few more bucks - it is a full 1/3 higher and I have never seen even a used, medium frame S&W .357 for $400. More like $500 to $600, maybe more. Twice the price isn't a few more bucks. This is especially true when, at the end of the day, the Taurus launches the same projectiles at comparable velocities thereby putting the same size holes in a target as any other .357. My mom has my late father's medium frame S&W .357. He bought it lightly used and rarely fired it. We don't shoot it, much, because it is inaccurate. The last time I shot it - which I did just because it was his - the cylinder started being very difficult to open. You have to whack it HARD with the heel of your hand to get it to swing out. I have cleaned it, lubed it and double checked that the ejection rod, etc. is all screwed down nice and tight so that isn't binding. One of these days we'll take it to a gun smith for repair, I guess, but no one is depending on it for SD at the moment so there isn't a huge hurry. Now, my Taurus for comparison: In the interest of full disclosure, my Taurus did have a tiny burr at the mouth of one of the chambers which made ejection pretty sticky when I got it - which may be the reason it appeared to have been shot so little. Once I identified the problem, it took me less than five minutes with some fine grain sand paper wrapped around a pencil to take care of that. Now, where the aforementioned S&W is inaccurate, the Taurus is at least as accurate as I am capable of being (likely more so) - although that might not be an entirely fair comparison as the Taurus has an adjustable rear sight. I am no trigger aficionado but to my perception the trigger on the Taurus is much better than that on the S&W - yes, I said the Taurus trigger is better than the S&W trigger, that was not a typo. And the biggie - you don't have to knock the hell out of the Taurus cylinder to get it to swing open. Yes, this is simply a comparison between one Taurus and one S&W. But these are the examples of medium framed .357 revolvers from each company with which I have experience and, in this case - setting aside any sentimental connection and if needing one of them to defend my life - I'd take my Taurus over that Smith any day of the week and twice on Saturday.

I wonder if that is because potential robbers have taken the hint or simply because all the actual robbers have been shot, some are dead and they simply haven't been replaced, yet. To me, it is sort of like when folks say that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. My response is that the guy who was executed is pretty damn deterred from ever committing any more crimes. Likewise, I'd say that those dead home invader/robbers are pretty well deterred from committing any more home invasions/robberies - at least until the zombie apocalypse.

I had other ideas for a way to make a shell holder that would be integral with the sling. I mostly went with the method I chose because I wanted to stay with the 'frontier' looking sling. I had considered going with a different overall 'look' that would have been a little more 'western' or, for lack of a better term, 'cowboy'. If I had gone that route, instead of braiding a sling I would have used a solid band of leather for the sling (something like a belt blank.) I would then have made a 'shoulder pad' type of thing - you know, a wider, maybe slightly padded piece like many modern slings have on them. It would have been three layers of leather with the shell loops cut into one face (like I did with the shell holder I made.) The 'cut' piece would have another leather piece of leather as a backing and the sling would be sandwiched between that second, backing piece and a third piece of leather that would form the actual back of the shell holder. The whole thing could be sewn up leaving a 'slit' for the sling to pass through that would be tight enough to allow the shell holder/shoulder pad to slide without it sliding randomly around or it could simply be sewn in place on the sling. Right now, I am in the midst of forming another idea whereby I would make a leather buttcuff for my Henry lever .22 (probably no sling and certainly no forstock cover.) If I do that, since I think it would be a PITA to carry .22LR ammo around in a shell holder, I might incorporate a small ammo pouch onto the right side of the buttcuff (I am right-handed so I put my cheek against the left side of the buttstock) as long as I can place it so that it won't be in the way while being able to hold enough ammo to make it 'worth' it. Before I do that, however, I kind of want to make myself a 'possibles bag'. I first thought of doing so for woods bumming but after looking at some designs/examples online I think I might want to made something with more of an EDC application in mind.

Thankee.

Well, I decided to go ahead and add a sling with an incorporated shell holder. After my previous results with using walnuts to stain the leather, I left a few of the walnuts in a bowl of water for a few days. The walnuts absorbed some of the water and shed particles from their previously dried-up hulls (not the shells, the hull that is outside the shell) resulting in a thin, dark 'sludge' in the bowl. I used that 'sludge', applied with a sponge, to stain the shell holder. I also used some if it and the sponge to darken the color on the buttstock/forestock covers a bit. For the sling, itself, I simply braided together some of the same thongs that I used to lace the other parts onto the shotgun. I haven't stained the sling, yet, and haven't decided if I will. The thongs are already darker than the leather for the buttstock/forestock covers originally were but I still might decide to stain the sling so that everything will match better. Other than that, this is pretty much the finished product, at least for now:

That looks good. I like the riveted look. I went back and forth on the idea but after our discussion in the other thread I decided to put a sling on my .410 and incorporate a shell holder into it. I'll post pics over in that thread. I don't know. I don't know if it is just Hollywood's version of old west attire or if they were really used but I have seen 'gunslingers' wearing leather wristlets/cuffs in some movies. I think the style of shell holder you have come up with wouldn't look bad, at all, incorporated into a set of those cuffs.

That is a nice looking setup. Forgive my ignorance, though, but what is a 'toggle bolt' action? I Googled it but couldn't find a good explanation. Does it basically convert the rifle into a straight pull bolt action?

Yep, and that goes for those 'in power' on both sides of the aisle as well as behind the scenes. It goes for many of those with political power as well as at least some big money corporate leaders. As long as those who are 'in power' - be they Democrats, Republicans or whatever, be they black, white, red, brown, yellow or some combination thereof - can keep average Americans hating each other over stupid things like the amount of pigment in the skin then those same average Americans - meaning an overwhelming majority of Americans - will never ban together to oppose those very people who are 'in power', the very ones who are REALLY screwing the rest of us over. I have more in common with a black man who gets up and goes to work every day than either of us have in common with Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Warren Buffet, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or leaders of the Aryan movement or the KKK. As long as people are swayed by meaningless BS, however, they cannot and will not unite against the real threats to our liberty and happiness.

Wow, in this age of online buying/selling and electronic advertisements do door to door salesmen really still exist? Man, that was one feature of by-gone days that I wasn't missing and I had thought (hoped) they had gone the way of the dodo bird. Still, I think the guy with the shotgun went just a bit too far. Surely going back in the house and slamming the door would have gotten the message across just as well without the need for criminal charges.

Nice looking rifle. Really pretty wood on that one. I have always 'liked' guns and grew up shooting long guns more often than handguns although I tend to shoot handguns more often, now. However, I was never really all that versed in the differences between various long gun configurations (longer barrel vs. carbine length vs. youth and so on.) As I have gotten more familiar with those different configurations, I am finding that I like the way that shorter (carbine) length rifles balance. Also, although I am not a small guy, I don't mind shooting 'youth' model firearms. I think maybe it is because I like using iron sights and tend to place my cheek pretty far forward on the buttstock to get closer to the rear sight. Youth models allow me to do so a little more naturally.

No citizen should be forced to go to court, jump through hoops, spend time (and money) etc. to retrieve 'seized' property when there was no real, legal justification for seizing it in the first place. It would be like a cop coming into my house, taking my shotgun because of some claim that he suspects that I might use it to illegally shoot someone, some day (despite a total lack of evidence or any behavior on my part to support such claims) and then force me to 'prove' that I won't do so before I can get my shotgun back - and then (in some cases) telling me that I can have the shotgun back as long as I agree to let the cops take it to the range and shoot it on the second Tuesday of every month. It is theft and extortion, plain and simple.

Have done that for years and am sick of it. Also, to use your analogy but in reverse, it would be like telling a Tennessee fan that he has to root for either Alabama or Florida. Why would he do that when chances are he hates both? Nope, the Tennessee fan is probably still going to root for his preferred team (Tennessee) even if they don't have a chance of being National Champs that year while hoping for a better season next time - and supporting Tennessee does not indicate de facto support of either Alabama or Florida. See, to me, which of two privileged, anti-gun, pro-big government, left-wing, Yankee politicians ends up in the White House for the next four years probably isn't going to make a whole lot of difference - no more difference that whether Florida or Alabama go all the way makes to a Tennessee fan. Of course, not being a fan of football or politics, I will simply have to vote my conscience. In short, the thought of Obama being president for four more years makes me want to puke. The thought of Romney being president for the next four (or eight) years makes me want to puke. And just for the record, the thought of the Gingrich or Santorum being president for the next four (or eight) years made me want to puke. The Republican Party and the Democratic party both make my stomach churn.

Yeah, I think Coleman stuff is more for us 'weekend warrior' camping types who drive to our camping spot, set up camp and then walk a trail or two without all that gear on our backs. For such applications, the Coleman stuff I have works pretty well.

So if I buy a Ford instead of a Chevy then I am supporting Hyundai? Gotta love that logic!