JAB

  Yeah, I got the impression this was a face-to-face discussion.  I could be wrong, however - believe it or not it has happened. :pleased:

Just had an idea about the chain bracelet.  I know you can pull the core out of paracord and string some of the thinner strands together to make fishing line.  With that bracelet, if you had a way to remove one of the links once the bracelet was disassembled, you could run the fishing line through the hinge 'eyelets', tie a couple of knots in the line to keep it from slipping up and down and you'd have a pretty good sinker.  The length of chain inside the bracelet should provide for a pretty good supply of sinkers.   Now you just need a way to safely and securely carry hooks in/on the bracelet.  Hmmm...I wonder if it would work to pop the back off of a cheap, non-working watch (like you would do if you were replacing the batteries),  take the 'guts' out, put a couple of fish hooks and a fly or two inside the case then replace the back and then attach it to the bracelet as if the bracelet were a watch band.  I'll have to ponder that one.

  I hope I am wrong but I have a feeling that if we wait for those prices to come back we had might as well just sell our .22LR guns and move on.  I just don't think it is ever going to happen even if supplies return to normal.  Like most things, ammo prices just don't drop that much once they have gone up.  I think we will be lucky to see seven cents a round as the new 'normal' when the dust all settles.

I have read on here where several folks were talking about the Perfecta having a great price at their local Wally but the couple locations I checked (mainly the one in Lenoir City and the one in Sweetwater) the Perfecta was priced about the same as Federal, Remington, etc. with TulAmmo being a lot less expensive than any of those.  I checked multiple times to see if the price had come down and it remained the same.  My luck - the stores in my area never have the 'cool' stuff (pricing.)

Being that I don't even much like most people in the 'general public' - especially idiots like the one you encountered - and so really don't give two damns in hell what most people think of me, I would probably have just shrugged and said, "So?  I'd rather be those things than a hypocrite who claims to think that people should live the lifestyle they want when really you so-called 'progressives' think it is okay for someone to live however they want as long as you approve of their choices and as long as they hold the opinions you think they should hold.  See, if I tried really, really hard I might manage to care less what you think but, honestly, that is probably impossible."   Want to hear a real doozie of a 'progressive' argument - specifically, an anti-gunner statement?  You'll get a kick out of this.  In an online discussion I once had a rabid anti-gunner call me a 'stupid gun nut.'  I responded, truthfully,, "Gun nut?  Maybe.  Stupid?  Well, the last time I was tested my I.Q. was 148 so I don't think stupid applies."  Their response - and this is the doozie - was, "Having a high I.Q. doesn't mean you are smart."   Huh? 

The Knoxville Academy had some the last time I was in there.  It is up front, behind the counter, where they generally keep all the .22LR they get these days.  I started to buy a box then remembered that I still had a few rounds at home.  They have also had a stack of Colibri every time I have been in there for the last, couple of months.  I have the feeling that most other folks have as little interest in that as I do.

  Marshall's findings, while interesting data points, are often discounted nowadays because of questions about his data, the validity of his approach and - most importantly - a relatively small sample size for some firearms as well as some types/weights of bullets, loadings and so on within a particular firearm type.   It is my understanding - and I could certainly be wrong - that the .357 was originally developed to use a 158 grain loading and that most if not all revolvers with fixed sights have the sights more or less set up to use a 158 grain loading for POI to be closest to POA.  In fact, I have read cautions against excessive use of the lighter weight bullets - especially 110 grain but even 125 grain to some extent - because they can supposedly cause increased flame cutting and other problems that, over time, can prematurely wear the revolver.   You cited Ballistics by the Inch in previous posts.  If you notice, on the heavier end of things the .357 outperforms the 9mm.  The Federal Hydra-Shok 147 grain 9mm hit 837 fps from their two inch test barrel.  The 158 grain .357 Hydra-Shok hit 858 fps.  Not a huge difference but 21 fps faster with a bullet that is 11 grains heavier does give the 'w' to .357.   How about real world guns?  Well, the 147 grain 9mm Hydra-Shok hit 933 fps from the 3 inch barrel of a Para LDS Carry 9.  The 158 grain .357 Hydra-Shok hit 1154 fps from the three inch barrel of a Bond Arms Texas Defender.  I think that is a good comparison because, like 9mm semi, the Bond Arms doesn't have a cylinder gap through which to loose pressure.  That is a 221 fps difference with a bullet that weighs 11 grains more.  Once, again, the .357 gets the 'w'.   I think you do have a point in that the .357 doesn't show such marked increases in performance out of shorter barrels as it does out of 4 inch barrels and up.  Further, .357 appears to show marked velocity increases once you get into carbine/rifle length barrels whereas 9mm - for some, odd reason - doesn't really gain that much velocity from being fired from a carbine over being fired from a handgun.  Anyhow, the lack of marked increase in performance from a super-short barrel as compared to the increase in recoil, noise and fireball are some of the reasons that some folks cite to support the idea that - in a snubbie revolver - one is just as well off if not better off with .38 Special.  Some even say the same about .38+P vs. standard pressure in that they don't believe the rather minimal velocity increases from a snub barrel vs. the increased recoil and so on make +P 'worth it' in a snub.  I am not so sure on that as I believe that 'some' .38+P likely has just enough of an increase in velocity to make the difference between a JHP expanding correctly or not.  The thing is, going by the data on BBTI, to even get close to a .357 you would have to use +P ammo in the 9mm.  Using +P 9mm, IMO, would pretty well negate any potential advantage the 9mm might have in the areas of recoil and so on.  In other words, at standard pressure loadings the .357 beats the 9mm in velocity but the 9mm might have less recoil and so on.  In +P loads the 9mm might match or even slightly beat the .357 for velocity but probably not by any significant amount and you give up the advantages of less recoil, etc. in the 9mm.   My honest opinion is that - with good JHP ammo - one is about as likely to put an assailant on his butt as the other.  In fact, .when talking about snubbie revolvers, my guess would be that a .38 Special with good JHP ammo would perform pretty close to those two on the 'put the assailant on his butt' scale.  To go a step further, I honestly think that if an assailant keeps coming after someone puts a good JHP .380 round or two in him with good shot placement from a P3AT, LCP, etc. then it probably wouldn't make much difference if the intended victim had a 9mm, etc. instead as nothing short of a 12 gauge is likely to stop such an assailant cold.  But that is just my opinion. 

              Maybe it will be used for sacrifices to the volcano gods to keep them quiet.  That would make it a Volcano Vanquisher.   Great work as always, GT.  I think I want to be you when I grow up.

  I like to call them 'Gouger Mountain' and, yeah, their prices are generally higher than a lot of other places.  The biggest reason I used to go in there was that all of their long guns were on display right out on the sales floor - attached to the display with an alarmed cord to keep people from just walking off with them - where one could peruse them, pick up as many as one wanted, go back and forth between one an another and so on without having to stand at the counter.  I don't want to wait for a sales associate to help and take up their time when really all I am doing is deciding which gun I might want to buy somewhere else that has more reasonable prices or ask my LGS to order for me..  I often would buy a box or two of ammo or something like that while I was there, though, and that setup had me in there a couple times a month.  They were also just about the only store in the immediate area that had a fairly decent section of reloading supplies but they pared that down to nearly nothing when they redid the firearms.  Now that the long guns are all behind the counter and one has to interact with a sales associate, etc. to look at them and they have little to nothing I need for reloading I maybe go in there two or three times a year - and I work on Lovell Road so I could go right by there on the way home.  Still, sometimes they have things that I can't find elsewhere in the immediate area so every once in a while I bite the bullet (pun intended) and go in there.   At any rate, it is good to know about the .22LR for folks in that area.  I wonder if the Knoxville store has a stack like that.  As I said, $5 a box isn't ideal but it isn't out of line with current pricing in other retail stores lately.  I did get a couple of boxes of Federal .22LR at Academy for $3.99 a box a week or two ago.  They had a stack of Aguila Colibri that were priced at over $4 a box so, again, $5 for CCI doesn't seem too out of line.  Unfortunately.

Don't really see why a 'Nickelback' sticker would be funny.  I mean, yeah, they weren't (aren't?) the greatest band ever but I'd a heck of a lot rather listen to them than The White Stripes.  Talk about formulaic crap that all sounds the same and that all the 'critics' went ape-slat over.  For that matter, Rage Against the Machine got all sorts of critical acclaim some years back even though I, personally, thought their music blew goat.  Going back a 'few' years, RAT was another band that had a decent amount of success (in the late '80s) and whose songs all sounded pretty much the same.  Heck, for that matter, Def Leppard songs all started sounding pretty similar after the drummer lost his arm and, I suppose, became a little more limited in the 'beats' he could keep up.   I am not really a bumper sticker person.  I did have one on an old '78 Lebaron that read, "Peace through superior firepower" and one on a pickup I used to own that read, "If the North is so great then why don't you go back?" (because I got tired of so many Tellico Village people in Loudon talking about how much better they did this or that 'back home'.)

Just plain, pure awesomeness.

  They still have to verify that you remain eligible for a permit every so often.  Probably you would have to do all the same paperwork at the same interval as if you were renewing so that the criminal record check, etc. could be done.  So, in effect, you have to jump through the same hoops as if you were renewing.  The only difference is that you give them $500 up front - which you may never recover if you move out of TN, don't live another 40 years, do something that makes you ineligible for a permit, develop mental or emotional issues or illnesses that make you ineligible or so on because I would be willing to bet that the state won't refund any funds, in total or partial, if that happens..  Basically, then, you still have to 'renew' your permit (or verify that you are still eligible if you prefer that term) but the state already has your $500.  It is a 'win' for the state as they already have a guaranteed $500 whether you get $500 worth of use from your permit or not.  I can think of no, real benefit for the permit holder, however.

The only way someone is jacking my car is if they threaten my life in order to do so.  Otherwise, if there isn't a threat of death or serious, bodily injury why in the heck would someone just let some jackhole take their vehicle?  I mean, what else would a carjacker do?  I don't think a carjacker would just walk up to the car and say, "Gimme your car or I'll tell you to gimme your car, again!"  I don't think, "Gimme your car or I'm gonna throw a huge hissy fit right here in the street," would get their desired results, either.  Without the threat, I would just tell them to eff off and drive away.  There is no duty to retreat from such a threat in Tennessee and once that threat is out there I'm not shooting them to protect my vehicle but, instead, I am shooting to protect my life.

I am coming to accept that somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 per box of 50 - while disgusting to those of us who are used to the 'old' pricing - is going to be closer to the new 'normal' price, even after things settle down, than the prices we remember.  Heck, when you consider that places like Benton Shooter's Supply had prices of $7.99 and more a box on reg'lar, ol' .22LR ammo when I was in there a couple of months ago - just like many of the profiteers at gun shows - $4 or $5 a box doesn't sound all that bad.  Saying that makes me a little sick but I am afraid it is the new reality and even at that price .22LR is still less expensive than pretty much any other factory ammo (possible bulk order discounts, etc. aside.).

I saw something on the news the other day where one of the city officials - I think it was one of the high ups in the police department - has already said that there was no cause to arrest him.

  The only thing about the Old Hickory knives is that - being high carbon, non-stainless steel (which is also a really good thing about them) they require more maintenance else they rust very, very easily.  I've seen one develop a little rust just sitting in the sink in dishwater waiting to be washed.  That said, the high carbon steel and relative thinness of the blade make them easy to get and keep wicked sharp.   They are so inexpensive and so easy to sharpen thta there is actually a 'trend' among the bushcrafter types to mod them into bushcraft knifes (or just use them as is - after all, many/most of the real frontiersmen and mountain men didn't have specialty sheath knives and just carried butcher knives or other kitchen type knives.)  Here are a couple of youtube links on the subject:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ziV3R9Jcro   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-MhQasRzQ8

  Besides, I've been to New York.  Once.  For one night (took a cruise that left out of there.)  Based on what I know of you just from posts on here, you'd last about as long as I would before you took off running back toward the Mason-Dixon line desperately singing/yelling/screaming the words to "Dixie" at the top of your lungs.

  Heh, here is a Ken Onion chef's knife at Williams-Sonoma that can be yours for the low, low price of $999.95!   http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/ken-onion-chefworks-limited-edition-chefs-knife/?pkey=ccutlery-chef-knives||&cm_src=cutlery-chef-knives||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_- -_-   It is a nice looking knife but it ain't $1,000 nice.  Not to me, anyhow.   And if you need to spend two grand on a knife to chop shallots and dice carrots, they have you covered:   http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/wusthof-ikon-damascus-chefs-knife-in-collectors-box/?pkey=ccutlery-chef-knives||&cm_src=cutlery-chef-knives||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_- -_-   Of course, notice that the 'suggested retail price' on that one is $2,500.  Yeah, I think this po' country boy will be sticking to his Old Hickory knives and his Walmart specials - although this knife (the 8 inch version) at this price point would tempt me if I had that kind of cash to splurge on a kitchen knife:   http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-classic-western-chefs-knife/?pkey=ccutlery-chef-knives||&cm_src=cutlery-chef-knives||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_- -_-

  I don't know about picking one up cheap.  Last year at the Highway 127 'flea market' I was specifically looking to pick up some old, high carbon kitchen knives cheap either to use as they were or to mod into other knives.  Well, I guess there must be a market for collecting such things, now, as I saw a few people selling such knives in different locations for prices in the $30 to $50 range.  These weren't 'like new' knives, either and some of them had been sharpened so many times that the blades had developed that tell-tale sway in the middle or were simply ground down to about half of what was obviously their original width.  My thought was, "I'll pass.  I can buy two or three brand new Old Hickory knives for $30."     I like Old Hickory knives, too.  Lately, though, I have been using some Paula Deen knives I picked up on clearance at Walmart.  The set came with a 10 inch chef's knife, a carving/utility knife and a paring knife.  They are stainless but actually work pretty well, came sharp and are easy to resharpen on a ceramic pull-through sharpener.  Not bad for twenty-some-odd bucks.  Probably not up to use by someone who cooks for a living but for just home food prep they are fairly nice.  In fact, I ended up buying another Paula Deen set on clearance at a different Wally that came with a large and small santoku style knife which I also like.  Like I said, I like my Old Hickory knives but they don't really make a true chef's knife, as far as I know, and sometimes the ease of caring for stainless is nice when I am feeling lazy.

  Yep.  I started a thread about it in the '2nd Amendment Issues' forum back on 4/15:   http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/87316-sb0700hb0745/

  There was an episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets (a cop drama that just happened to be set in Baltimore - and was based on a factual book) where two black detectives, Pembleton and Lewis, investigate the shooting of a white woman in a store parking lot.  They determine that the bullet was likely a 'stray' fired from one of the two neighborhoods in the vicinity of the store.  One neighborhood is predominantly white while the other is predominantly black.  Lewis gets upset when Pembleton immediately begins the investigation in the black neighborhood.  In the end, it turns out that a kid in the white neighborhood was playing with his dad's gun and fired the stray bullet.  After the case is solved, Lewis is giving Pembleton (who is just as much a proud, black man as Lewis) down the road about immediately assuming the bullet had come from the black neighborhood.  In one of the most frank responses I have ever seen on television, Pembleton (who was played by the awesome actor Andre Braugher) responds with something along the lines of:   Yeah, this time the bullet came from the white neighborhood.  However, you know as well as I that nine times out of ten that bullet came from the black neighborhood.  If I had another investigation like this tomorrow I'd start with the black neighborhood, again - and so would you.  I know you would because you are a good detective.   Not that it has anything to do with this thread but unless I am mistaken, at one time Baltimore was either the murder capital of the U.S. or had the second highest murder rate (I believe that was the case when Homicide was on the air but I could be wrong.)  From what I could find, in 2014 Baltimore had the fifth highest murder rate in the country.  Sounds like it can be a pretty dangerous place, to me.

My point was that a lot of the people shouting about how the police are 'unfairly' profiling them are the same people who are rampantly committing crimes in the riots. There is a certain amount of irony to people committing crimes to 'protest' the idea that police are (supposedly unfairly) 'profiling' them as people who commit crimes. They are basically just proving that the cops are right.

  Well, I'd say it is profitable for the Republicans, too, in some ways.  It is profitable for all politicians and other folks who wield power 'behind the scenes' as it keeps the masses occupied and divided to the point that most folks don't look up and realize, "Hey, it isn't my neighbor whose actions are oppressing me - it's Obama/Clinton/Bush/Haslam, etc."

  I had a conversation along these lines with a black coworker, once.  This was a few years ago when the shrub was president.  We started talking about race and I told her that, in my opinion, it wasn't the whites oppressing the blacks or the blacks problems for whites (she used the term 'blacks' of 'black folk', not 'African Americans', herself.)  Heck, I'm too busy trying to survive to have time to oppress anyone.  Instead, it is the people who either make money and gain fame from the convlict or who are able to get away with things that oppress us all (politicians) because we are too busy being at each others' throats to see where the real problem lies.  I went on to say that I have more in common with the honest, hard working black man down the street who - like me - gets up and goes to work everyday, pays taxes and has little influence over the way things are done than I have with the Bushes, the Clintons or Bill Gates and he has more in common with me than with Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton.  She nodded her head for much of what I was saying and, when I finished, stated that she thought I was absolutely correct.

  To look at it the other way, though, maybe more minorities are engaged in police contact than non-minorities because more people who commit crimes happen to be minorities.  I am not just making this up.  I recently saw an interview with a group of police chiefs (can't remember which news program or show it was on) where the reporter addressed just such a question to one of the white chiefs, trying to put him on the spot.  It didn't exactly work out that way, however, as one of the black chiefs jumped in and stated that what people have to consider is that, in his district, for instance, roughly 80% of crimes were committed by black men.  So, if 80% of crimes are committed by black men (in a particular area, anyhow) then one would naturally expect that roughly 80% of police encounters would be with black men.  What, the cops should stop and question 85 year old white grandmothers who haven't committed a crime just to avoid being accused of 'profiling'?  It is kind of like with terrorist screenings.  When the most likely terrorists are Muslim men of middle eastern ancestry then screening a blonde haired, 8 year old Jewish girl makes no sense except to the politically correct who insist that profiling - which can be a useful tool - not be used.   Further, burning down your neighbor's house, trashing the cars of people who live in your neighborhood, destroying the businesses in your neighborhood and using so-called 'righteous' anger as an excuse to steal a new television is not 'protesting'.  It is a bunch of destructive a-holes using the death of someone they likely never even met as an excuse to tear crap up and steal stuff.  If they were amassed outside of a police station, etc. it might play more as 'protest' but as it is it this is simply trying to excuse yet more criminal behavior under the cover of 'racial inequality.'  I mean, if rioting, looting and theft from private businesses who have nothing to do with the police or what happened to Gray are any kind of indication of the type of people these folks are then I'd say it is no wonder they have more 'encounters' with police than other portions of society.   BTW, I have been stopped for driving while white.  It was when I was in college at UT and stayed at my grandmother's house during the week.  She lived at 2314 East Fifth, just off Magnolia, in a neighborhood that had become predominately black over the years.  The officer claimed he had stopped me for a tail light that was out (checked when I got home - the tail light was not out.)  He proceeded to ask, "What are you doing in this neighborhood?"  As badly as I wanted to respond that I was unaware that martial law had been invoked and that Americans were no longer free to travel where they chose, I instead answered that I lived there.  He then asked why my DL had a Loudon address and I told him that my home address was Loudon but that I lived with my grandmother through the week.  He then asked the address and my grandmother's name so I told him and he (obvously grudgingly) let me go on my way.  I must admit that the encounter ticked me off - especially after I realized he had outright lied about my tail light.  I did not, however, use my anger as an excuse to go break the window out of the local pawnshop and steal myself a bad-a** stereo system.