JAB

Jerry Miculek is amazing.  Bob Munden was amazing.  However, they (and probably the few people in the world who could match them) are probably what would be called 'virtuosos' of their craft.  In other words, their natural skill with firearms is far beyond anything people like me could ever achieve.  Because of that natural skill, they have an even greater advantage over the rest of us.  That is, they are 'naturally' good enough that they were/are able to make a living at it.  This means they have sponsors to provide them with all manner of guns and lots of ammo.  It also means that they don't have to make do with getting to the range when they can or getting out and plinking every once in a while.  Instead, they can spend the time that most of us spend at work, etc. practicing, shooting, planning shots and the like because that is their work.  Madmarx, I know you weren't suggesting that the rest of us should gauge ourselves and our shooting by Mr. Miculek (and you even went so far as to say that the shot isn't even remotely realistic) but I have to keep that in mind when practicing for and thinking about my own skills with a potential self-defense gun.

  Good find but, man, the price on .22WMR has gone up!  Not just the profiteer/reseller price but the normal, retail price.  Before the current shortage, one of the most expensive WMR loads, Remington Accu-tip (which is the load my Marlin 925M likes best) was right at $14 a box.  I think I paid just about $14 or $15 a box for the Gold Dot and Critical Defense WMR loads when they first came out - somewhere in that neighborhood, anyhow, and that was for premium, 'self-defense' ammo,  Maxi-mags ran somewhere around $10 a box at Wally and Dynapoint was roughly $8.  The other day my LGS owner told me that his distributor said he could get some of the Accu-tip stuff for him at a cost of about $19 per box (the store's cost, not retail.)

  When I was looking to get started reloading, I talked with the LGS owner (who also reloads) about good powders to use for .38 Special and .44 Magnum.  He pulled one of the reloading manuals off the shelf and we took a look at it.  He said that when he was first starting out he liked Accurate #5 for loading .38 Special (and Accurate #7 for .44 Magnum).  He showed me in the book that the recipes generally called for bigger charges of those, respective powders as compared to others and said you won't get as many loads out of a pound but, because they use a little more per load, you will probably know at a glance if you have accidentally double charged a case.  I don't load high volumes of rounds, anyhow, and have liked the results from #5 so there is a good chance I will stick with it as long as I can find it when I need it.

  When I was a kid, I didn't like mustard at all.  If I ate a hot dog, I wanted mayo only.  Nothing else.  Now, on a hot dog, I want mustard - preferably spicy or horseradish mustard - along with chili, chopped onion, kraut and/or slaw and/or chow chow and/or dill relish.  I generally put mayo (no mustard or ketchup) on a hamburger, though.  A roast beef sandwich, turkey sandwich, chicken sandwich or grilled cheese sandwich without mayo just about isn't worth eating.

  I hear you.  For breakfast, I like over easy with a little salt and a lot of black pepper.  Use buttered toast to 'sop' the yolk.  Or you can split a couple of biscuits, put the 'runny' eggs on top of them, cover the whole thing with country gravy then hit it with a liberal amount of Tobasco (I am not a big Tobasco fan - I generally prefer hotter, less vinegary sauces - but Tobasco is great on eggs.)   If I have scrambled eggs, I want cheese in them.  But, then, cheese is good on almost anything.

Wheel, mostly.  With the exception of my P3AT that I sometimes carry (although rarely - it has been mostly replaced by a j-frame but is so flat that it sometimes works even where the j-frame wouldn't) if I carry a semi-auto the only reason - or, at least, the main one - is due to the greater ammo capacity.  For me, if I am going to carry a gun that only holds a couple more rounds than a revolver then I'd rather carry the revolver.  So, for me, that means I prefer double stack or at least what I guess you would call 1 1/2 stack.  I can't really carry IWB in much of any configuration so if I belt carry it is OWB where the width doesn't matter, as much.  I did make a leather/kydex IWB hybrid holster, once, just to try the style (with a CZ 82) and I hated it.  Like I said, though, I pretty much hate IWB carry, in general, so I am not the best person to speak to that.

  I don't know that it would be worth the effort of building one, to me, but if NAA were to put something like that into production I'd have a bad case of the 'wants'.   I am a revolver fan, in general.  Sure, revolvers can jam but - as a matter of course - they don't.  Semiautos, especially rimfire, are often a different story.  Get a convertible model NAA in that configuration and you could reliably use .22 short, .22 Long, .22 Long Rifle, .22 WRF, .22 WMR and either flavor of .22 shotshells (without the issue of a shotshell potentially not having the oomph to cycle a semi-auto.)  Pretty versatile and all in a package that would fold up to carry/store.  If NAA built the rifle on a 'Ranger' (break top) or maybe a 'Sidewinder' (swing out cylinder) mini to make reloading faster and easier such a thing would be a lot of plinking fun as well as pretty useful, IMO.   Further, I have been a fan of the idea of a revolver rifle/carbine ever since I saw some in a Civil War museum.  I was interested in them - and wishing someone would build one - long before Taurus/Rossi introduced the Circuit Judge.  The CJ is just about the only member of the 'Judge' family I would be interested in and I will likely own one, some day, if I come across a used one at a good price.  In fact, that interest is why I came across the NAA bicycle rifle on the 'Net in the first place.

  Think of it this way, though.  Mayonnaise is, mostly, eggs.  I have made home-made mayo so I can attest that this is true.  Egg (mostly egg yolks, actually - which is, after all, the best part) with enough oil and lemon juice (or vinegar, etc.) to make an emulsion plus a small amount of seasoning.  So, basically, when you put mayo on an egg sandwich, in deviled eggs, etc. you are essentially just adding more egg.  What could be so wrong about that?

  I put both mustard and mayonnaise in my deviled eggs.  I like the 'tang' of the mustard and the creaminess imparted by the mayo.  I usually add in a little pickle relish or finely chopped dill pickles, too, for a bit more tang.  I like mayo pretty well (and do not like the mayonnaise-like substance called 'salad dressing' at all - it is too sweet.)

Well, kinda, but to be more specific it celebrates the French getting killed - and that sounds like a good reason to celebrate, to me :D . Since we all have to work, today, a buddy of mine had a Cuatro De Mayo party yesterday. I tried a new recipe for the first time as my contribution to the festivities. It is called 'Bricklayer Style Tacos.' I first saw it on the Create (PBS - 3) channel on a show called "Pati's Mexican Table" and have wanted to try it, since. The recipe: I made one, minor change in that I sprinkled adobo seasoning on the sirloin before cutting it up. I also sliced the sirloin thin, as if I were going to make fajitas, rather than cutting it into 'one inch pieces', figuring that would make it easier to chew - and it did (anyone else noticing that meat seems to be getting less and less tender these days no matter what you do to it?) I used Benton's Country bacon. Yes, it was good if I do say so.

  But - according to the information in the OP, anyhow - it doesn't sound like the gun was legally confiscated.

  I get what you are saying but do not see the two as truly parallel.  Especially in states like TN where driving ten miles down the road could mean passing back and forth through two or three counties - not to mention the number of cities/towns, etc.  For instance, on my just under 30 mile commute to work, I am in three, different counties (Roane, Loudon and Knox.)  On that same commute, I pass through the city of Loudon, Lenoir City, Farragut and maybe clip the western edge of the city of Knoxville.  For something like carrying a firearm, it is simply not reasonable for every little city, town, berg and cow patch to have their own carry rules, ordinances and laws.  The potential for patchwork laws/rules/ordinances has to stop at some level.   I am very much a states' rights person but I do believe that many things should be consistent within each state from a legal standpoint.  I, personally, tend to see the relationship of states to the federal government as being quite different than the relationship of cities/towns/counties to the state.

I remember seeing, somewhere, pictures and (maybe) a write-up about just such a thing that some guy custom built. IIRC, it had a 'skeletized', folding shoulder stock. It also had a rifle length barrel. It has been a couple of years since I saw that but I'll see if I can dig up a link for you. EDIT: Well, so far these, two little pics are the best I can do. You can search for NAA bicycle rifle to see if your luck is any better than mine. On BING, these pics showed up in the thumbnail preview but the full sized pics were unavailable (hence the small size.)

  Oh, I would say that you are almost certainly right.  My post was more intended to respond to Erik88's question:  

  How would anyone know the homeowner were 'waiting for them' unless the homeowner either   a.  told someone beforehand that he/she planned to do so or b.  confessed after the fact that he/she had been doing so?   As far as parking his truck in a different place, I know of no law against doing so as long as it isn't parked illegally.  I also know of no law requiring someone to vacate their own home if they suspect a burglar/home invader might be coming by.  To my mind, the bottom line is the homeowner is home and the intruders break in leading to an assumption of justifiable use of lethal force.   Setting up a comfy chair and a tape recorder is going too far and looks like premeditation.  Delivering a coup de grace once the intruder is down looks like murder.  Simply not going out of one's way to be gone when intruders break in or to make sure the intruders know when one is home, however, wouldn't be enough to get me to agree to a 'guilty' verdict if I were on the jury.

  Have never been to the Lambert's in MO but have been to the one in Foley, Alabama (just outside of Gulf Shores.)  Those throwed rolls are really good.   I had a similar experience with pot roast.  My maternal grandmother made really good pot roast and, since her death, no one in the family can exactly reproduce hers.  It wasn't due to any, special ingredient, just something about the way she cooked it.  After her death, I figured I would never taste her pot roast, again.  Then, on the way back from a cruise a few years back, we purposefully went a little out of the way to eat at Paula Deen's "The Lady and Sons" in Savannah.  I had the buffet and pot roast was one of the things on that buffet.  It turned out that the post roast tasted exactly like my grandmother's.  I took one bite of it and was so taken by surprise by the taste and the flood of memories that came with it that I literally teared up (although I did retain my man card by not actually crying.)   My maternal grandmother also made really good yeast rolls.  Luckily for me, she used one of the yeast roll recipes from her old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (the one with the red and white checked cover - they do a new version every, few years and it is, IMO, it is one of the best, all around cookbooks available.)  That means I can more or less reproduce her results.  Well, when I am not too lazy to go through the process, that is (the recipe involves 'scalding' the milk then letting it cool and then you have to let the dough rise a couple of times so it is a bit time consuming.)

  Maybe he thinks that signing these, now, will make us forget how he seems to have attempted to hamper gun rights legislation in this and the last session.  It won't.  Still, I am glad to see the 'car carry' and HCP time frame extension bills made official.

  SB1612   Here ya' go:   http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=SB1612   Haslam hasn't vetoed it (yet), just hasn't signed it as of right now.

When I was a kid, for some unexplainable reason, I liked canned biscuits better than home made.  By that, I mean I greatly preferred canned biscuits and was often disappointed when mom made them from scratch (yeah, I know - I was an uncultured buffoon.)  I used to absolutely love opening the biscuit tube solely due to that 'pop' it makes.  I wouldn't want that happening in the fridge, though.   These days about the only use I have for canned biscuits is to deep fry them, roll them in sugar and have an exact replica of the 'donuts' you find on a Chinese buffet.     For even more quickness at time of consumption, you can go ahead and brown them just a little, let them cool and then stash in the fridge or freezer.  They can go right into the oven frozen to warm them up and finish browning.  Sprinkling them with just a little water before putting them in the oven will keep them from getting dry - generally speaking it is hard to tell them from fresh made.     Back when I was at UT I had to go to the cast lab (where the fossil casts are kept) in the Anthropology department to study some of the casts for a Paleo final.  I knew that I and several of my classmates would be there studying for several hours so before I went I made some home-made, glazed cinnamon-raisin biscuits and took them with me.  They quickly disappeared and one of my classmates from north of the Mason-Dixon line asked me to give her my biscuit recipe.  I told her I couldn't and she responded, "No one in the South wants to give up their biscuit recipe.  Why is it such a big secret?"  I told her that it isn't that we aren't willing to give up the recipe.  Instead, it is that we don't have a recipe.  I went on to explain that I learned to make biscuits from my mom and grandmothers and that we never measure anything for biscuits - just go by eyeball and feel.  I further explained that the recipe might differ from one time to the next as it might take more buttermilk one time but less the next, etc.  I then said, "I can teach you how to make biscuits but I can't give you a recipe because I don't have one.  For a recipe, about the best you can do is find one on a bag of White Lily flour."

I came across this sign posted on a small bridge on the trail that leads to the Donley Cabin in the Tellico/Citico area a couple of summers ago. The bridge, sign was just off of the road where the parking area to walk the trail or go to the cabin are: The summer before that, around the 4th of July, while camping along the Tellico River we overheard a couple of TWRA guys telling the folks in the campsite next to us that they had already had a couple of bear vs. human related incidences in that area. This incident also took place in the same, general part of the Cherokee National Forest (although down around Benton) a few years ago. A mother mauled and left in critical condition while trying to fend off the bear, her little boy attacked and her little girl killed and at least partially eaten : http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/16/bear.attack/index.html?_s=PM:US Here is a report about a woman who was killed by black bears in the Smoky Mountains, also a few years back (2000.) http://www.mysmokymountainvacation.com/news/bear-attack.html Then there was the 8 year old Florida boy who was attacked by the same bear not once but twice in the same incident (the bear attacked, the father managed to run it off then it came back and attacked, again - luckily, the father managed to run it off a second time.) The formatting on this article is screwy for some reason but the story is still readable: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/aug/12/black-bear-attacks-boy-in-smokies-father-also/?printer=1/ As for only seeing them in Cades Cove, there have been black bears sighted running around in West Knox County over the past, couple of years. This sighting took place last summer: http://www.wbir.com/news/article/282065/2/Black-bear-spotted-in-West-Knox-County I have also, personally, seen a black bear running around right in downtown Gatlinburg, running across the road and through the parking lot of a hotel. This wasn't even after dark - it happened in the middle of the day, right around lunch time. I think it was just scared and trying to get back to the forest as it ran past at least one group of people who I don't believe were ever even aware it was there. So, sure, bear attacks aren't all that common and two-legged threats are more likely but that doesn't mean that every, single black bear got that memo. I also certainly don't want anyone to think I am advocating shooting/shooting at bears that are just minding their own business. Further, I will never understand people who purposefully approach a potentially dangerous, wild animal, walk to within a couple of feet of the animal, pose for a picture and then act all surprised when the animal attacks them. However, I don't want to end up as a snack, either. My thinking when I spend time in such areas is that a gun that would be 'sufficient' for a two-legged threat might not be sufficient for a bear but a gun/ammo combination which would at least stand a chance against a bear would most likely be more than adequate for two-legged threats so why not opt for the latter? For me, that means a four-inch .357 Magnum (formerly a Taurus but now a Ruger GP100) loaded up with Buffalo Bore 180 grain lead flat nosed, hard cast bullets. Even that might be 'marginal' for an aggressive black bear and If I were in grizzly country, I'd want something bigger but I think it would at least be better than a 9mm, etc. for potential bear defense.

  :confused:   Ummm...me throw big rock.   (I know little to nothing - leaning more toward nothing - about gas piston systems or the like.  I felt the need to respond in appreciation of your technical knowledge and I had to go with the ??? smiley because there wasn't one depicting something going right over its head.)

Being that it is a .32 and not something bigger/higher pressure like .380 or 9mm, I'd look it over really well to make sure there weren't any obvious cracks or the like.  If it passed inspection, I'd probably put on some good eye protection - maybe even a full face safety shield - and probably the thickest leather gloves I could wear and still shoot it then proceed to shoot the heck out of it - assuming it would function.  If in doing so I became confident that it was actually going to function and not detonate, I'd likely load the mag (but not keep one in the chamber) and use it as a 'tackle box' gun or similar.   Yeah, I guess I have no shame.  I actually kind of like little, cheap guns (for what they are) as long as they go 'bang' when they are supposed to, hit somewhere in the vicinity of POA and don't leave me with any fewer appendages than I started with.

  Yep.  Most of the arguments revolve around fear of workplace violence.  That makes little sense.  Kind of like some anti-gun arguments seem to hinge on the idea that a would-be criminal would say, "Well, I'd really like to rob that bank, shoot up the place and maybe murder a few people but I don't want to violate that gunbuster sign they have on the front door so I guess I won't be doing that."  Similarly, these employers seem to think that disgruntled employees would think, "I'd really like to shoot my supervisor and maybe a couple of my obnoxious coworkers but my employer doesn't allow guns on the property and since I don't want to get fired I guess I won't do that."  I mean, how stupid do you have to be to really believe such rules prevent a person who is bent on violence from committing said violence?  Even the, "Yeah but if he has a gun in his/her car that makes it more likely that he/she will act in anger and haste."  It is as if they think the would be shooter couldn't make a short drive to his/her house, get a gun and come back if that was his or her intent - as if many or even most such folks don't plan their attack in advance, anyhow.  Heck, for that matter it is like these folks think he or she couldn't wait in his or her car for the supervisor or offending coworkers to leave and simply run them down.   Of course, as the only thing a true, real 'parking lot' law would protect is the interior of an employee's vehicle, employers could still leave rules in place to prohibit firearms inside facilities/buildings and even in the parking lot outside of the confines of the employee's vehicle.  Such rules would still make it impossible for a disgruntled employee to walk into their place of employment with a firearm, right?  Well, just as impossible as doing so would be with a rule in place to prohibit firearms in employee vehicles.

Me, either.  I hope that he at least lets them pass without a signature but even if he does so I believe it will be because he feels he doesn't need the grief that would come from a veto and not because he is in any way on our side.

  The really weird thing is that it sounds like - just by altering a few of the actions he took - this could have been a legal shooting that would probably not have ended with the home owner even being prosecuted.  For instance, it could have gone more like:   "I was working in my basement when the first intruder came down the stairs.  Fearing for my life, I grabbed a 12 gauge pump that I keep down there and fired two shots at him.  I then went upstairs to call 911 and that is where I encountered the second intruder.  I had brought the shotgun with me in case there were multiple intruders and, still afraid for my life, I fired two more shots at the second intruder in self defense.  I then proceeded to call 911 and request that police and an ambulance be sent to my house."   That series of events would not be so 'premeditated', would fall in line with the law and would leave the home owner firmly in the role of victim.  Also, after taking a 'double tap' of 00 buckshot to the chest/torso area it is pretty unlikely that an 'execution' shot would have entered into the picture.   I have as little hesitation about defending myself and my home as the next guy.  I will even go so far as to say that I would support a change in TN law to be more like Texas law in that the use of deadly force would be legal in defense of property (but due to current TN law I wouldn't use such force to protect property unless such a change were made.)  That said, shooting the first intruder, administering a coup de grace, hiding the body and waiting for a second intruder is not something I would feel was reasonable under similar circumstances.  I also don't think I could bring myself to execute a home invader once he (or she) was obviously down and no longer a threat.  I realize that neither age nor gender prevents someone from posing a threat to my life.  I also believe that I could pull the trigger to defend myself against a threat to my life regardless of the age or gender of that threat.  Still, I really, really don't think I could walk up to an 18 year old young woman who was already injured and likely not a threat, hear her screaming in pain, tell her that she was dying and then execute her.  In fact, I have to say that I pretty much hope that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do that.   Not calling 911 after shooting the first intruder and in fact not even notifying authorities until the next day, hiding the body and waiting calmly for a second intruder (which kind of goes against the idea of 'in fear for his life') and recording himself executing both of them was probably already a slam dunk for prosecutors.  Honestly, though, right or wrong I can't help but think that the fact that one of the home invaders that he 'executed' was a pretty, 18 year old "girl" (because you just know that the prosecution referred to her as a 'girl' and not a 'woman') likely played a role if not in the verdict then probably in the sentence he received.  I am not saying that should be the case but I would be surprised if it wasn't.