JAB

I haven't made any knives, yet - but it sounds like I need to stop by the Woodcraft store and take advantage of some of those $9.99 deals, soon. I am hoping (depending on fundage) to take a pen turning class at the Knoxville store on the last Sunday of this month. I wonder if the knife kits will still be on sale, then. I did make a cane for my mom on which I used purpleheart for the handle. All I know is that stuff is hard - much harder than the cherry I used to make myself a handle for a similar cane (unfortunately, the cherry had a weak spot and eventually broke on me - I'll be making another handle for it one of these days.) I used linseed oil on her cane and didn't lose the purple color. I wasn't really going for a super-slick, heavily absorbed finish on it, though.

I kinda agree with Jonnin, here. Then, again, I don't have kids. Growing up, however, I knew where my dad's guns were, where the ammo was and how to load them. I knew about the loaded .357 in his sock drawer. I also knew what those guns would do and never played with them. To the OP, maybe a good way to handle the situation for the future would be to buy your dad a good holster or (since he might want to be a little more 'subtle' around the house, especially at family gatherings) even a concealed carry 'fanny pack'. You could tell him that you appreciate his being willing to lock up his firearm while the kids were around and that the holster/fanny pack is a 'thank you' gift that he can use at future gatherings. In fact, you could encourage him to use it all the time so he has his firearm at hand when he is at home rather than on a shelf where he might not be able to get to it in an emergency.

I have a Glenfield 60 that is the identical gun. Mine even has the rabbit on one side of the stock and squirrel on the other, just like most Marlin versions I have seen. It is blued with wood. I don't need another model 60 - or another semiauto .22 rifle, for that matter (as I also have a Winchester 190.) In fact, rounding things out with my Henry lever action I probably don't need another .22 rifle, period. I saw one at Walmart several months back that sure did tempt me to buy another one, though. It was stainless(?) with wood and had a small, factory scope that pretty well matched the finish on the gun metal (although I suspect the scope was painted and not actually stainless but I can't be sure.) The wood was kind of light and looked good with the stainless. As much as I like blued/wood I am really starting to appreciate the look of stainless/wood on some guns, especially some rifles and that stainless/wood 60 with the matching scope was a real thing of beauty.

Which is like, "Would you like turpentine or kerosene on your sh*t sandwich?" Really doesn't make much difference.

Sorry to the folks that have such respect for Cosby but a guy who preaches 'personal responsibility and family values' all while dodging and denying his own responsibilities and using go-betweens to pay hush money to the mother of a girl who was possibly his daughter from an extra-marital affair - an affair that he admits to initiating - is what I call a hypocrite. Perhaps a more palatable hypocrite than Jesse Jackass or Al Shark-ton but a hypocrite, nontheless. Am I perfect? Heck, no - but I don't preach my opinions to the media, either. I enjoyed watching 'Fat Albert' when I was a kid but I really couldn't give a tinker's damn about Bill Cosby's opinion on firearms. As Eddie Murphy quoted Richard Pryor as saying when Cosby supposedly chastised Murphy about Murphy's language on stage, "Tell him to have a Coke and a smile and shut the f*&% up."

I would have a similar problem - I'd end up overrun with rabbits and just have more mouths to feed. Growing up, we had pet rabbits off and on. Some seemed dumb as rocks while I swear others were as smart as or smarter than most dogs and had distinctive 'personalities'. To be completely truthful, I have a pet rabbit, now. I wouldn't have a problem shooting/cleaning a wild rabbit but I just have an idea deep in my brain that domestic rabbits are pets, not food. It would feel almost like raising dogs for food, to me. Not that I am criticizing - logically I know that rabbits would make a great, sustainable meat source. I have also eaten domestic rabbits and they really are delicious (kind of weird, we got them already dressed out and frozen from the same relative we bought our pet rabbits from so they were probably the brothers/sisters/cousins of our pets.) I just don't think I could raise them for the table. I wish the darned things were ill-tempered and didn't make good pets. If they were more like the rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail I'd eat them all the time. I had a barbecue rabbit quesadilla as an appetizer at a pretty nice restaurant in Atlanta. It was delicious.

Right and totally understandable. I am just saying that someone, somewhere in a position of 'authority' believes it to be a rule that you can't carry at DL centers, period. Honestly, though, that really makes very little sense, to me. The very people who have decided that I am stable, honest, trustworthy and law abiding enough to carry my firearm in public places have a rule that I can't carry my firearm in their offices - which are public places? Seems kind of like DL centers being posted to prohibit driving a car through their parking lot. If the very people who issue our permits don't trust us to carry then how can we expect anyone else to trust us?

I mostly carry OWB or pocket so I cobbled together a simple, leather belt slide holster for my 82. I got the retention too tight to begin with and then over-corrected and loosened it too much. Ended up putting something like a Chicago screw through it, just left of where the trigger guard sits, so I could tighten/adjust the retention.

Being a revolver guy at heart, I haven't been carrying my P3AT as much since I got a 642. That said, when I carry the P3AT it is full of Federal Hydrashok, regardless of the time of year. I have tested the Hydrashoks enough to feel confident that they will function in my pistol. I stay with them because I believe they give good penetration and decent expansion and I don't want to spend the $$$ to test out other brands. I do plan to eventually test Winchester PDX1 from my P3AT but would want to put several boxes through the little guy before I would trust it. Some .380 will expand well, some will penetrate well and I believe that some will even do both - but none will do either if they are jammed up in the pistol.

I took off from work early last Wednesday. As I prefer to do things 'face to face' rather than by mail when feasible, had no desire to drive to Strawberry Plains and as I now live in Roane County and needed to go see the election commission because I had still not received my voter's registration card, I went to the driver's license center in Rockwood. To a previous poster, apparently things have changed so that now renewals must be done at full service centers. I actually originally applied for my HCP at the DL center in west Knoxville but when I went there back in February to change the address on my DL and asked about the impending renewal of my HCP I was told that only full service centers do that, now. Mine doesn't expire until August but I remember how long the wait times were for getting new permits and renewals when I got mine four years ago so I didn't want to wait. Had plenty of time to do it by mail but, as I said, I prefer doing such things in person. Anyhow, you can imagine that the Rockwood DL center - which is a full service center - was not as busy as some, other locations - although it wasn't exactly deserted. They were doing what I would call a steady business. I saw the nice lady at the counter, got a number and the form I needed to fill out and was actually called back to the counter right as I was finishing the form - in fact, I still had a question or two to answer when they called my number. I am guessing my wait was five minutes or less. My overall experience was the most pleasant I have ever had at a DL center. I am not very familiar with where things are located in Roane County and they even told me that the election commission office is in the courthouse in Kingston. They looked at my HCP card but returned it to me so that I still have it - they did not keep it. In fact, the lady at the counter even folded up my receipt so that it had a little, short 'pocket' in the front and slipped my HCP card in that 'pocket'. That is the way it is in my wallet, now - with the card tucked into that folded 'pocket' in the receipt. I really hope that DL center doesn't fall victim to budget cuts and that it remains a full service center. When possible, even though it is actually a pretty good drive for me to go to Rockwood (I live on the Roane County/Loudon County line - so close I have a Loudon address) I will go there whenever possible if I need to do something at a DL center in the future. I didn't notice if the one in Rockwood was posted or not. However, I was given a piece of paper with my application which stated that firearms are prohibited in all driver's license centers. Not a technically legal posting but as it is a state agency and the state makes the rules for firearms carry I don't know that I, personally, would want to test it.

Numrich apparently has Nylon 66 parts: http://www.gunpartsc...aspx?catid=4358 As much as I don't like ordering anything online, I have had good results ordering from Numrich. Got a new inner mag tube assembly for an old Winchester 190 from there as well as an ejector for a Springfield Model 67 shotgun. Just ordered a new mag tube, follower and mag spring for the same Springfield from them yesterday.

I am glad it is back at the Armory - a lot closer, for me. I went a couple of years ago when it was at the Armory, before. Pretty neat. A lot of the things there I couldn't afford but some stuff wasn't even for sale - the owners just wanted a chance to show off their really cool, historical pieces or collections of pieces. Not a lot of pushing and shoving such as pisses me off so much at the RK shows and the like. In fact, the whole 'vibe' was a lot different, almost more like a collector's meet or swap meet - and there was a deal or two, here and there. They did have a small setup with a few tables in the back room that was more like a 'normal' gun show. If I get a chance I may well go to this one.

Yeah, well imagine an unexpected move in the middle of the second season and the resultant lack of cable (can't even get cable - only satellite available where I live, now, and previous experience shows it doesn't work all that great) meaning you saw the first half of season two but have not yet seen the last half. The last episode I saw was the one where Daryl had to pull the bolt from his own side to shoot the Walker. Seven months until October (and the probable release date of season 2 on DVD) seems like seven years! If the real zombie apocalypse happens before then, meaning I never get to see the end of season two, I am going to be seriously bummed, not to mention pissed off!

I don't like their 'levels of lethality', either. Either you buy a round that is marketed as being intended to kill (not stop the threat, not incapacitate but kill, period) or you buy one of the other two variants that is specifically designed to be less effective. No, thanks.

Yeah, I know. I've grown habaneros, jalapenos, serranos, anaheims, poblanos, cayennes and New Mexico red chiles for the past, few years. Even made some homemade hot sauces and fired up the smoker then the dehydrator and made my own chipotles (using pecan wood, one of the 'correct' woods for the process.) This is mostly an experiment as I haven't grown ghost peppers, before, or even seen seeds available. I figure that, if nothing else, I can harvest seeds from the few peppers it does produce and plant them in a more 'normal' manner next year. I guess one could always use the can to start the seed then transfer the plant. Last year, a buddy of mine got some fresh ghost peppers for me from a produce stand. I dried them, pulverized them and used them (along with peppers from my garden and some other herbs and spices) to make a home made chili powder. I should have saved some seeds but didn't think of it until it was too late. Still, even a couple of ghost chiles can go a long way toward sprucing up beans and rice for several days. As such, I still think these could have applications as 'doomsday peppers.'

Disclaimer: If you get close enough to see its pupils and it is a viper you just may well be screwed. Seriously, I generally don't go hunting for snakes to kill. I would also as soon leave a nonvenomous snake alone. However, I'm not getting eye to eye with a snake to see if it is venomous or not.

Do you live inside city limits? Many places have rules about discharging weapons inside city limits. You could always throw rocks at it and somehow always manage to miss. As long as it isn't venomous and weren't trying to move in to my house or make a snake condo out of my toilet then I'd probably let it live. As I said in the other thread, I hate rats and mice more than I worry about nonvenomous snakes.

I don't think they are a type of pepper so much as a way to package/store/grow them. For instance, I bought this at the hot sauce shop this past weekend. It is supposed to be soil and ready to grow seeds in a can. You just pop the top on the can, give it the right amount of sun and so on and the plant (in this case, a bhut jolokia aka ghost pepper) is supposed to grow, mature and produce fruit right in the can. I ordered one of these with a ghost pepper and one with a 'scorpion pepper' - which has supposedly taken the title of 'world's hottest' away from the ghost pepper - from a seed catalog a couple of months ago but they haven't arrived, yet. When I saw them at the hot sauce shop I decided to go ahead and get one. Unfortunately, they didn't have any of the scorpion pepper. If this works, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a few of these 'in storage'. After all, who wants to survive the Apocalypse only to eat bland, boring food? That, then, just might qualify these as 'Doomsday Peppers.'

Yeah, I was thinking, "Broke his leg and got an STD doing something that involved a lawn mower? Must have been one heck of a wild night!"

Good to know. Maybe I'll wander back in there one of these days - especially if they still have that special.

The story of one of my best days at work ever: In high school I started working at a local grocery store chain. I worked there until after my first year or so in college. During the time I worked there, the local chain was bought out by a regional chain that wasn't nearly as 'good' to work for. Eventually, they did a friend of mine who also worked there dirty. I decided that I would not work for a company like that and turned in my notice. At the time I left, I was a front end manager (basically a shift leader, etc. in charge of the store - and especially the baggers/cashiers/front office - when the manager or assistant manager weren't there.) I worked a notice there and already had another job lined up before the end of my notice. Toward the end of my last shift, a guy who embodied everything about the customer you hate came in. He stood behind the bagger, in the bagger's 'personal space' and watched every move the bagger made while his groceries were being bagged. He then walked over to me, got in my personal space (and in my face), grabbed the name tag clipped to my shirt and said, "Ain't you supposed to be some kind of manager here?" I responded to the affirmative. He then continued, "Well, then, you ought to teach these boys how to bag groceries 'cause they don't bag worth a damn." It gave me great satisfaction to look him in the eye and say, "I was watching the bagger as he bagged your groceries. He did just fine. However, this is my last day as a manager here and, in fact, my last day working here, period. You know why that is? Because I'm sick and tired of jackasses who just come in here to bitch about stupid sh*& that doesn't even matter just to make themselves feel important." He didn't say another word - and the look on his face as he took his groceries and left, silently, was priceless.

I know that it is generally illegal to kill most animals for which there is no set hunting season, regulations, etc. That being said, I have never been able to find any law or any reference to any law specifically mentioning it being illegal to kill snakes. In fact, about a year or so ago I specifically asked on TGO if anyone could provide a link to such a law and I don't recall anyone being able to do so. To me, any critter living in my house that isn't supposed to be living in my house is a nuisance animal and, unless it is a specifically protected species, it is fair game as a 'pest' animal. That was how I responded to the snake that was living in my toilet up until one day last week. Yes, living in my toilet. Not in the bowl and not in the tank but in the solid 'body' part of the pedestal/bowl where the tank sits. It would poke its head and body out a few inches at the back of the bowl, where the water comes into the bowl from the tank, but never came out far enough to grab it and would quickly pull back into its hiding spot when the toilet lid was opened. Venomous or not, this made it a bit hard to relax when sitting on the throne. In fact, it made it a bit hard to be comfortable with sitting on the throne, at all - something about exposing my 'tender bits' to a what was essentially the opening to a snake's den. As someone else said, even nonvenomous snakes can have bacteria living in their mouths which can make their bites 'bad' - imagine what kind of bacteria might be in the mouth of a snake that lives in a toilet! I made attempts to run it out using 'less lethal' methods, all to no avail. As I said, it didn't come out far enough to grab by hand. It was too quick to grab with some long 'tongs' I tried. Banging on the back of the toilet with the plunger handle had no noticeable effect. Even turning off the water, draining the tank then pouring Clorox through the tank and into the bowl (meaning it had to pass through the are where the snake was hiding) didn't run it off. After several days of trying - and failing - of making an honest effort to get rid of it while leaving it alive I got more than a little frustrated. I'm not saying I killed it but I will say that a .22 shotshell round fired from a revolver won't crack a toilet bowl, just mar the finish a little - and not even that if most of the shot hits something else, like something hanging down between the shooter and the toilet bowl, itself (I tested the theory on an old toilet, beforehand.) If you happen to have a 16 (almost 17) year old chihuahua living with you, be warned that shooting a shotshell in the house may well scare the bejeezus out of it. In such a case, the little dog may express its consternation by standing stock still beside its bed and not moving a muscle for several minutes. If this occurs, be aware that a couple of bacon flavored dog treats will calm said chihuahua down and set everything right, again. Before anyone asks, yes this is a true story and it happened over the course of the weekend before last and the first day or two of last week. No, it is not a belated 'April Fool's' joke. If I see a snake in my yard and am sure than it is nonvenomous, I will leave it alone or, at most, encourage it to relocate. Many snakes eat mice and rats and I hate rats more than I worry about nonvenomous snakes. In fact, I think nonvenomous snakes are kind of neat - when they aren't living in my toilet. Now, if they are messing around my chicken coop/stealing my eggs then they are destroying property. TN law specifically makes it legal to kill any animal that isn't specifically protected/endangered and that is destroying property.

I think the article sums things up pretty well. I am not a Republican. In fact, I don't particularly like the Republican party, as a whole - not that I like the Democratic party any better. I thought Bush was a horrible president and, from the image he projected, came to dislike him on a very personal level. To me, he came across as a bit of a dullard with a spoiled little rich kid attitude. Likewise, I have truly come to dislike Obama on a personal level. I really do not believe him to be all that bright. Intelligent, perhaps, but not 'bright' enough to use that intelligence in a creative, productive manner. I believe that he is so locked in to his own high opinion of himself that he can't get past the idea that if he crams things that most American people don't want down our throats we will eventually see that he is smarter than us, that he was right all along and that we should (and will) be thanking him. I also believe the article is right in that Obama cannot win the next election but the Republicans can easily lose it. I mean, Mitt Romney? Really? A candidate that comes across (to me, anyway) as being more like Obama than he is different? A candidate who I cannot even see as the 'lesser evil'? It is kind of like when Bush was running for his second term. The Democrats could probably have won the election with a trained goat but instead managed to find one of the few politicians in the country who couldn't beat Bush. It is almost like the Republicans are now trying to return the favor.

Thanks for that interesting information. On one of the gun shows there was a guy who is apparently a 'gun historian' or some such (in fact, I am thinking it was Bob Boze Bell but can't recall for certain.) He was talking about how short barreled, birds-head gripped guns were largely made for concealed carry by townsfolk such as bankers, etc. who could carry one of them in the pocket of a coat or a large jacket pocket while going about their business in town and still looking 'respectable'.

I generally prefer wood/blued as well. However, polymer and stainless in a take down rifle are probably for people who want to be able to break the rifle down to put into a backpack to take camping, hiking and so on. As such, the rifle might be exposed to varying degrees of moisture and might not even be near a cleaning kit for a week or more at a time. Also, I'd say that polymer and stainless in a take down rifle are probably also for people who want to break it down to put in a duffel bag, etc. to keep in their car or truck, just in case, for emergency uses. As such, polymer and stainless are going to be much less prone to being scratched up, rusting and so on. Therefore, for the intended uses of a take down rifle, polymer and stainless make sense, to me.