JAB

Official: You're making it worse for yourself! Condemned man (Matthias): Making it worse? How could it be worse? Jehovah, Jehovah!

I have lots of favorite lines. One that I have always really liked, for some reason, is: "Would you please, for the love of God, stop the G--D---- hammering?!"

My wife and I go to Chattanooga every now and then (there is still no Academy in the Knoxville area and there are two in the Chattanooga area, now.) There are a couple of shops around Hamilton Place that she likes to go in while we are there but it has been a long time since we were actually in the mall. The last time we were down there, I didn't notice any signs posted at the parking lot entrances. Then, again, I am usually too busy driving and trying to avoid getting us killed by some idiot in an Escalade/Yukon/Hummer/etc. to look for signs.

I have a buddy who likes his coffee really hot. He'll brew a pot, pour up a piping hot mug full just as soon as it if finished brewing then put it in the microwave on 'high' for a full minute, take it out and immediately start drinking it.

Okay, stupid question for the day: Where is a good, local source (local to the Knoxville, TN area) to get paracord? And is it always labelled as 'paracord' or is it sometimes called something else? Finally, is there a certain type or grade of paracord I should look for? I don't have any specific projects in mind. I would just like to have some around for general usage. Of course, if I had some around, I might not be able to resist the urge to start trying to braid it/make stuff out of it.

I can't legally carry or - the way I read the law - even have a firearm in my vehicle at work. This is in addition to employer rules against same. As I generally have to go to work five days a week and have only two to live my own life, the majority of the time I spend away from home I am either at work or on my way to and from work. As most of the places where I might need to stop off on a weekday are between work and home, I end up going unarmed to those places, too. Not because I don't want to be armed but because I don't want to lose my job, my permit and, possibly even the right to own a firearm. Now, when I get home and change clothes, one or more firearms are always part of my 'evening wear', whether we are going back out or not. I always carry wherever and whenever legal on weekends, as well. My wife decided to get her permit earlier this year. Since receiving the permit, she has carried exactly once. None of the current carry options suit her. She shoots standard pressure .38 Specials from the .357 snub that belonged to her late father quite well and passed her permit class with it but won't carry it because of its size/weight/bulk. The only thing she might carry is my P3AT but she can't even put a full mag through it because the recoil hurts her hand and wrist too much - which pretty well precludes practicing to become proficient with it. She likes my NAA WMR mini but I don't feel comfortable with her using that as a full-time primary. She doesn't have all that much experience with firearms and I would be afraid of what might happen if she tried to use a tiny, single action revolver in a stressful situation. One of those might make a good BUG for her down the road when she gets more general experience. I carry mine as a BUG and I might leave mine in the car with her, sometimes - just in case - because I know she can shoot it pretty well as long as she gets the 'mechanics' right. Mostly, she wanted to get her permit for those times I am going into a store and she is waiting in the car - either so I can leave my BUG with her in case she needs it or for cases where I have to go somewhere that prohibits carry. That way there is no question about the legality of leaving one or more firearms in the car with her. That said, she really likes mom's Kel Tec P32. The recoil is enough less than the P3AT that it doesn't bother her, she is quite accurate with it and likes the size/weight. We currently have a first gen P32 on layaway for her. She says that she will actually carry it - at least sometimes - and I believe that she will.

I don't quite understand what you mean by 'no safety'. To activate the safety on a Mosin Nagant, you pull rearward on the knob at the back of the bolt, rotate it as far as it will go and let it move forward into postion. Pull it out, rotate it in the opposite direction and let it move forward into position to put it back into 'fire' mode.

I don't drink coffee very often. It isn't that I don't like it it is that I like it too much. If I have a cup, I'll usually end up drinking a whole, damn pot. Combine that with the fact that coffee and my stomach don't always get along and that road can lead to pain. That said, I am man enough to admit that when I drink it I like my coffee with plenty of cream or milk and sugar. It doesn't seem to anger my stomach quite so much that way. Plain coffee is okay but I prefer the hazlenut flavored stuff - with 8 0'Clock being right up there with the more expensive brands for flavor, IMO. I usually make coffee really strong so that the flavor will stand up to the aforementioned cream/milk and sugar. On the rare occasion that I give in and have coffee, my favorite ways to brew it are 1) in an old, electric perk style perculator or 2)in an even older style, non-self heating coffee pot sitting over a campfire on on a stove eye. Usually, though, if I want a warm beverage I tend more toward Earl Grey tea. Like coffee, I like it brewed extra strong with just a bit of cream and sugar (not as much as I use for coffee.)

Hard to believe that Chattanooga was in there with a neighborhood at #10 but neither Nashville nor Knoxville made the cut.

The quote is also on a plaque at Fort Morgan.

Apparently, the Kerbela Shriner's are having a gunshow this Saturday and Sunday, October 2-3, 2010. My mom showed me a very, very small ad (in the Classifieds, I think) in the newpaper last week and they are advertising it in the rotation on the electronic billboard that is between the Lovell Road and Pellissippi exits. Thing is, the billboard says to go to their website for more info (kerbelashriners.com) but upon going to their site I see no info about it, whatsoever. It isn't even on their calendar of events (probably just an oversight by whoever maintains the web page.) Anyhow, as I said, it is supposed to be this coming Saturday and Sunday at 315 Mimosa Avenue in the downtown Knoxville area. We will probably go, although I am not sure exactly when. I tend to prefer the smaller shows (I seem to find better prices on the types of firearms I go to gun shows to find - well used but still functional utility shooters as opposed to rare finds, safe queens or collectibles.) Just wondering if anyone knows anything about it, if anyone has been to a gun show there, before, etc.

Florida? I didn't know that Florida required concealment. Is that just in certain areas or the entire state?

I think you have the perfect solution, right there. Carry the Ruger as primary with a reload wrapped in another gun (the Beretta.) Slipping a speed strip in the watch pocket of jeans or a small, nylon knife pouch - or even carrying a speedloader - for the SP101 wouldn't be all that difficult, just in case.

Unless I am seriously mistaken and my memory worse than I think, Bush II said that if Congress would put a new AWB on his desk, he would sign it. Congress did not. Therefore, it was Congress and not Dubya who allowed the AWB to expire. It just happened to be when the Shrub was in the Whitehouse. I will go on record to say that I thought Bush was a terrible President. I will also say that, when it was obvious that it would be either Obama or McCain - and most likely Obama - who would follow him into the Oval Office, I predicted that it wouldn't be long before we would all miss Bush, myself included. This was not an endorsement of Bush so much as the realization that Obama (or even McCain) would be even worse.

My hesitancy with the sign would be that - should she have to shoot someone - it might be used to show that she was 'just waiting' for the chance to shoot/kill someone and that she had every intent of shooting them until they were dead, even if the first shot stopped them. Probably a stretch but just might lend creedence to an argument of cool, calculating premeditation rather than acting out of fear of death or serious injury. Besides, if the folks who are breaking in haven't been afraid to do so, before, why would a little sign make them afraid to keep doing so?

Nice looking knife. I'd just be afraid it would make me have the sudden urge to foolishly jump off of waterfalls or try to cross gorges on old, half-rotten tree trunks and call it an attempt to 'survive' rather than the more obvious (and probably more accurate) 'trying to get myself killed'.

In no particular order: Lever action 30-30. Will take pretty much any game in this area out to the distances I am most likely to have a 'clear shot' at. Having similar ballistics to 7.62X39, I think it would work pretty well as a defensive rifle, too. With practice, rate of fire could be pretty good without wasting ammo by spraying and praying. .357 revolver - preferably a 4 inch barrel (short enough to carry manageably for SD but long enough to get more potential out of .357 loads for hunting backup use.) 12 gauge pump shotgun w/barrel long enough for hunting (shorter, interchangeable barrel for security usage would be a plus but not 100% necessary.) .22LR rifle of just about any action type. A repeater would be better but even a single shot would be okay since it would be mostly for practice and small game hunting. Convertible single-action .22 pistol. This allows one to use anything from CB's all the way up to 50 grain WMR rounds, making for a pretty versatile rimfire wheelgun. * A lever-action .357 might make a decent alternative to the 30-30 and would give ammo compatability with the .357 revolver. Problem there is, if .38/.357 ammo runs scarce, you are now out of ammo for both your main handgun and your centerfire rifle. For that reason, I like the idea of a bit of ammo diversification.

I recently bought a nylon one (and even that was expensive, comparatively speaking.) I bought it solely to carry my 4 inch Taurus 66 .357 while hunting or trout fishing. I figure on carrying it while fishing as much for potential (however unlikely) critter encounters as for defense against two-legged varmints - with 180 grain hard cast Buffalo Bore it should make even black bears think twice. I needed something that would keep the gun out of the water when I wade out in my hip waders but would still allow it to be quickly and easily accessible. What I really wanted was an old Tanker-style rig but I couldn't find one so I have adjusted the shoulder rig to carry the revolver a bit forward of where a shoulder rig would normally ride. I usually wear my fishing vest when I am wading so that should help conceal it but, for my purposes in that limited use, concealment is not as much of a concern for me as if I were in town. I have more compact firearms for EDC but I do also have a FOBUS for the Taurus if I want to carry it in a more regular situation. I don't think I would like a shoulder rig for EDC but for the specific purpose I have in mind I think it will work well.

I can't carry at work because I work at a college. Even so, when I get home and change clothes, even if we aren't going back out, I will have a firearm of some type on my person. I don't live in a bad area but I also don't have unicorns and fairies keeping my home under a magical rainbow shield so as not to let any of the bad people in. Everyone must make their own decisions but, to me, "close enough that I can get to it," means, "far enough away that I might not." My wife asked me why I was carrying at home, once - not as an objection, just more out of curiosity, I think. My reply to her was the honest truth. I said, "Things can happen at home, too. Imagine having gotten a permit to carry everywhere else then getting murdered in the living room because someone kicks in the door and I am not armed. In addition to getting killed and maybe seeing you killed, I'd feel pretty damned stupid while I was in the process of dying knowing how easily I could have been carrying a gun and maybe prevented it." My wife's reply was, "I hadn't thought of that. Makes sense." Now, I don't usually carry anything larger than my P3AT while in the house. In fact, I like to wear loose-fitting, workout type shorts around the house so I will often just have my NAA WMR mini in my pocket. Not what I'd want to carry as primary in public but I figure it would give me something with which to fight my way to a bigger gun.

Funny thing, I did the Wally-Walk before I had heard anyone else talk about the Wally-Walk to get comfortable with carrying and get used to the idea that no one else knows I am carrying (unless I tell them.) I liked Walmart for that purpose for some of the very reasons mentioned, before - along with things like: Walmart doesn't post, you are unlikely to run into a roving gang of uber-leftists who will give you grief if your concealment method fails, I go to Walmart often enough to feel comfortable there but - as someone else mentioned - it is a good place to 'practice' carrying around a lot of other people. I chuckled when I later found out that the 'Wally-Walk' is actually pretty much common practice to the point that it is a running joke.

I agree. If only they made mags with a greater than 10 round capacity. My 995 didn't like the 147 grain ammo I tried in it (the length of the ammo seemed to be an issue - didn't want to feed reliably) but has never balked at any 115 grain ammo - including some that had such hard primers that even my P95 needed double strikes to fire a few of them. I just tried the one kind of 147 in it - WWB JHPs - and haven't tried any more because I generally buy 115 grain stuff, anyway. I bought a HP 9mm pistol for my mom some time ago - maybe 18 months to two years or so back. She was relying on a .22 rifle for HD and I wanted to get her started into pistols but didn't want to spend a fortune in case she didn't like shooting 9mm (she has lifelong experience with long guns but less with handguns.) I thought that if she took to it, we could always trade it for something better, later. Well, forget trading. She loves the darned thing and I don't think she'd part with it even though she has since bought other pistols. In fact, she qualified for her HCP with it and apparently shot better than anyone else in her group. I have to admit that I like the thing, myself - especially the sights. Those sights make it pretty easy to keep all shots on an 8-inch target at 25 yards. Not sure I'd want to carry one, though. Quite apart from the size/weight/bulk issue, I'm not sure how safe it would be to carry with a round chambered. I've even heard from more than one source that HP, themselves, recommend against carrying with a chambered round. A carry gun without a round chambered isn't very useful, IMO. I'd have no qualms about using one for applications where the need to chamber a round before using wouldn't be as big an issue, however (as a vehicle gun for backup, etc.) There is a good chance I'll eventually get one of their pistols in .40 and maybe in .45 just to have those calibers covered without getting into them in any big way.

I'm impressed that you can hit POA from 15 yards or so using any sight picture. I can get all 'head shots' on a B-27 target out to five yards shooting it about as quickly as I can - or seven yards if I'm doing really well and I might put two or three somewhere on a paper plate from a little farther, shooting strong hand, but that's about it. Of course, carrying it as a weak-hand BUG, I figure if I ever have to use it then it will be a contact situation, anyhow. A guy on another forum calls the minis 'ear, nose and throat' guns because he feels the best use for them is to stick them in the BG's ear, up his nose or against his throat and fire. I've held a mini that had the wooden boot grips and will be getting those for mine. I don't think they would make it appreciably more bulky, etc. than the little birdshead grips but will give a much better grip. Some folks like the oversized, rubber grips like on the Black Widow but to me those add so much bulk as to kind of defeat the purpose of the mini.

I have a mini with the 1 5/8 inch barrel that I carry a lot as a BUG. I'd say choose ammo for it based on the best constructed ammo that is reasonably accurate from your mini. I include those two criteria because, strangely enough, Winchester Dynapoints seem to be the most accurate from mine but I'm not really interested in giving up a true, jacketed bullet in favor of a washed one like used in .22LR. Winchester Super X JHPs are more accurate from mine than the CCI Maxi-mags but I do have some concerns about them getting enough penetration from the short barrel. The Maxi-Mags, while not as accurate for me from my mini as Dynapoints and Win. Super X, are decently accurate from ~5 to 7 yards (which, with practice to find an optimum grip, is doable with the mini) and I think they would penetrate better. In very limited water jug tests I did, the Maxi-Mag hp appeared to fail to expand even from a 6.5 inch revolver barrel. I say 'appeard to fail' as I didn't recover the bullet because - from the 6.5 inch barrel - it zipped right through four jugs and kept going, just like the FMJ version of the Maxi-Mag did. I haven't had a chance to do any penetration tests with the mini, yet. Just FYI, I did test shotshells out of it a few weeks back. I made a couple of newspaper 'snakes' to see what kind of pattern I could get. I coiled one up like a snake getting ready to strike and just laid the other out like a snake crawling towards me. I shot them once each, from about six feet, with CCI shotshells. The pics show what I got (I think the top and bottom pics are of the coiled piece and the middle pic is the one that was lying straight but I can't remember, for sure,)

I haven't fired any and have no interest. I figure that if premium, standard pressure ammo in that caliber won't get the job done then some nebulous (non-SAAMI rated) "+P" load probably won't, either. To me, the reason for carrying a .380 (in my case, a P3AT) is that it is so small and light - which means that (IMO) it is already pushing the operating envelope for the caliber. I see more potential for harm than good from using 'hot' loads in such a pistol. Of course, with modern bullet designs I am not even all that sure that I believe there is a whole lot of benefit to using +P ammo in a 9mm. Heck, for that matter I kind of go back and forth on the benefits of +P in .38 Special with modern bullet designs. I mean, generally +P ammo generates more recoil, etc. while picking up, what - maybe a couple of hundred feet per second from a short barrel? I'm not sure its worth the trade-off (although I do carry .38 +P in my .357 snub, sometimes.)

Wow! Of course, I have to say he survived but stopped what he was doing. That's the point, really. If I am forced to fire my handgun in self defense, I don't care if the assailant is DRT or not as long as he is no longer posing a threat to me and mine. On another note, I wonder what NYPD carries. I'm guessing .40 S&W, not 9mm.