JAB

  That thought crossed my mind, as well.

  I keep thinking that, too.  On the other hand...   When we were younger, my sister had a pony that was calm and sweet as could be when she was riding it, when you were just standing around petting it or so on.  However, it hated having the bridle/bit put on and would pitch a fit whenever you tried.  One day, when I was about sixteen or so, I was trying to hold it still while dad put the bridle on.  It ended up raring up on its hind legs and taking me with it - which caused it to pitch us both over backward.  The back of my head hit a rock so hard that my mom heard the 'thump' from about thirty yards away.  After the adrenaline rush went away, I got a little woozy but never lost conciousness.    There was also a time when my sister was angry at me and she broke a broom handle across the back of my shoulders, neck and head.  She ran away when I turned around and growled, "Dammit, that hurt!"   For that matter, in a case of mistaken identity (some guy hated one of dad's brothers and mistook dad for him - dad didn't even know the guy) some guy once hit my dad across the forehead with something - he was never sure exactly what because the guy just hit him out of nowhere with no warning but dad thought it was probably a bottle - that caused enough damage dad had to have stitches.  From what I heard, that was the only hit dad took - and the other guy ended up in the hospital.   I am nowhere near the level of badassitude that my dad was but the point is that my head is pretty hard and I come from a long line of hard heads.  I'm not sure one of those little punks could knock me out with just one punch and I wouldn't be inclined to let him have a second try.

  Maybe.  That said, if he was able to articulate why he had a reasonable belief that he was acting in self defense to the point that the charges were dropped then I, for one, would at least like to hear it.  Extreme actions or not, agree with his actions or not, if the charge really were dropped then there has to be some reason.

  I don't know - I imagine that when he started his crap with her a good, ol' country gal would lay a frying pan upside his head and show him what having his brains scrambled really means and then she'd call the cops on him.  Hmmm....you know, maybe you do have a good idea there.

  Nah.  He was doing stupid crap at least as far back as 2005.   I believe that the reality is the Zimmerman some folks thought was an upstanding citizen never existed.  The guy is, was and will forever be a jackass.  A jackass who was (I believe) rightfully found 'not guilty' in the Martin case (being that 'not guilty' and 'had no responsibility for creating the situation in the first place' are not the same) but a jackass nontheless.   The current woman is not the first, not the second but the third woman to accuse Zimmerman of domestic violence.  Sure, they are probably not 'winners', themselves - and the fact that they are dating (or even married) someone like Zimmerman strengthens that suspicion - but c'mon, when the same or similar situations arise involving three, different women then you have to start considering what the common denominator might be.  In this case, that common denominator is Zimmerman.   It is kinda funny, to me, that getting in trouble at school and posting a picture of himself flipping the bird was enough for some folks to label Martin as Public Enemy #1 and a stone cold killa, gangsta in training but a history of violence against women and even a row with a cop simply means that the whole world is out to get poor, ol' Georgie.  

  Even after becoming convinced that he was not legally responsible for committing a crime in the Martin case (i.e. "not guilty") my thoughts about him have been something along the lines of, "Just because he may not have been guilty of a crime in that instance doesn't mean he isn't still an asshat."  I have never thought he was the kind of person I'd want to hang around with and certainly not the guy I want being seen as representative of the gun owning/carrying community, in general.

If I came across a smokin' deal on one, I might buy it - and I already have a 30-30 that I honestly don't shoot very often.  Thing is, though, the one I have was my dad's and I don't want to get it all beat up, etc.  I love lever guns - probably because I mostly learned to shoot a rifle on dad's 30-30 when I was a kid.  I have a Henry in .22LR and a Marlin (microgroove) in .44 but still wouldn't mind having another 30-30, one with no sentimental value, to go along with dad's old (Marlin) Glenfield.  I'd rather have another pre-safety like dad's but could live with a safety.   My budget wouldn't allow for it - especially just as something that would mostly be a curio and 'toy' - but pairing a lever with one of these could make life interesting, I think:   http://www.magnumresearch.com/Firearms/Magnum-Research-3030-Win-Revolver-10-inch-Barrel.asp

  One of the few 1911 guns I have ever fired was a S&W 1911 style in 9mm that an acquaintance had.  I can't remember the model number but it was the one that Smith supposedly designed to be a 'production target 1911' or 'production competition 1911' or whatever.  The first time I shot it (which was also the first time I ever shot any 1911), from ten yards out shooting offhand I put that very first magful into a group that could have been covered by a quarter - and I don't consider myself to be all that great a shot, in general.  Danged thing was amazing.  The only down side (as a carry gun) was that it only held eight rounds of 9mm.  Then, again, in a gun I could shoot that accurately 8 rounds of 9mm would probably be plenty enough.  1911s aren't really my 'thing' - being a revolver fan, I prefer DAO or DA/SA even in semiatuos for carry - but one of these days I may have to get one and it just might have to be a 9mm version.

Just to take a step back for a moment - and I mean this question in all seriousness because there appear to be possibilities that I am not considering - I have to ask:   What kind of situation are you folks envisioning that would - in the space of a single work day (8 hours or so) - result in:   A. Roadways - not just major ones but backroads and alternate routes, as well - becoming unpassable by vehicle and B. law and order breaking down to the point that you need an 'anti-personnel' long gun to traverse a 20 mile or so distance to get home?   Being that this is a 'get home' plan, living in East Tennessee, working in Knoxville and living in a rural area on the Loudon County/Roane County line, I simply cannot wrap my mind around such a scenario.  Even in a serious natural disaster I would think it would take a few days for the marauders to get to marauding, form up groups and move outside the confines of inner city, urban areas and I wouldn't wait around for them to have the time to do so - my happy butt would either be at home or well on the way, by then.  I mean, if I lived in an urban environment on the outskirts of Nashville or Memphis and worked in the heart of downtown then maybe something along the lines of the 1992 Los Angeles/Rodney King verdict riots  would fit the bill - but still, an event that would result in outright chaos and the need to engage marauding bandits while walking home that would break out, escalate and go full-on pandemonium in the space of less than eight hours happening in Tennessee?  I just can't seem to get my mind around that.

I sometimes use mine as a bum around the yard/woods gun at home. When so carried, I usually have one or two WMR shotshells in it backed up by (these days) Hornady Critical Defense and an empty chamber under the hammer. In my super-informal water jug tests, Speer Gold Dot WMR did better out of my NAA mini but the Critical Defense did better out of the longer barrel on the Heritage. From the Heritage, the Critical Defense expanded decently and was found in the fourth gallon jug in the line. It wouldn't be my first choice for serious, social situations and it isn't a gun I carry 'in public' but if it is what I have on me when a need arises, I'd not consider myself unarmed in the least. I would hope that it would at least give me a chance of getting to something better. The Critical Defense from the Heritage:

  Well, if you want to go by that, Luger created the 9mm Luger (aka Parabellum aka 9X19) cartridge in 1902 and 9mm Luger pistols have been around since then.  Meanwhile, JMB created the .45acp and the gun to fire it in 1904 so not only has the 9mm also been getting the job done for over 100 years, it and pistols to fire it have been around even longer than the .45acp and 1911.   Also, it is said that Browning, himself, felt that his 9mm Hi-Power was what the 1911 should have been.  Apparently, it was the gun he wanted to create if the government had left him alone.  It is said that he thought it was a superior pistol and chambering.  Just sayin' :yuck: .   NOTE:  Honestly, the above is really just a little good natured ribbing.  I believe that one is as good as the other for the purposes of personal defense with modern defense ammo.  I just get a kick out of pointing out that 9mm is actually an older 'tradition' than .45.

I like the .45acp as a concept.  As far as actually owning/carrying one, meh.  To be truthful, I have always been more of a revolver fan, anyhow and the older I get and the more I carry the more I prefer revolvers and the less I see a need for the high capacity/quick reloading capabilities of a semi-auto in my own, personal sphere.  I am also becoming more and more convinced that, when discussing 9mm vs. 40 S&W vs .45acp with modern, SD ammo getting shot is getting shot and a violent assailant ain't gonna know much difference.  IOW, if a 9mm (or, honestly, even a .380) doesn't convince Mr. Psycho Drug Addict to cease and desist then I doubt a .45 - or anything short of a 12 gauge - is going to do the trick, either.  Now, if I were limited to only old school ball ammo - as is our military - then sure, the larger, slower, heavier .45 round might have some pretty convincing arguments going for it.  As it stands, though, I am not so limited.  Further, even in the current nonsense 9mm ammo is a good bit cheaper.  Having 9mm pistols that function well along with carrying any semiauto less and less combine to make the idea of getting into a more expensive semiauto caliber not very attractive.  I could maybe see getting a .40 just because that is the direction most LEO agencies are going, meaning the ammo is (generally speaking) easier to find, not quite as expensive and possibly has more research going into developing even better ammo.  A .45, though?  Beyond the 'mystique' - which is mostly just legend at this point, IMO - nah.   I honestly think my little .38 +P S&W has plenty of power for my needs as well as plenty of capacity for most of the places I frequent (although I have a couple of higher capacity, semiauto options if I need to go somewhere that the perceived threat level is higher.)  If I feel the need for more power, I'll carry a .357 and if that doesn't bring comfort, I'll skip all those "low powered" rounds like 9mm, .40 S&W, .45acp and 10mm and pick up something I can comfortably carry in .44 Magnum.  Just my :2cents: .

  Same here.  I built up enough of an on-hand supply over the past, few years that I don't feel the need to wait at Walmart at 5:30 am with the privateers and the desperate but I do check the ammo shelves any time I am in a Walmart (or Academy or Sportsman's Warehouse if I happen to be in Chattanooga.)  I am kind of rationing myself on my onhand supply so I can shoot one or another of my .22s now and then.  Before the nonsense, I was shooting .22s once a week or so and those were the guns I was shooting most often.  I'd like to have enough .22 on hand to be able to ease up on the rationing a little.  After the nonsense ends, I plan to concentrate on buying rimfire ammo here and there for a while so the next time this happens (and it likely will happen, again) I will have enough on hand to be able to shoot more without worrying about running out.

  Hopefully won't break any rules posting the address for the Heritage forum here:   http://www.gunslingerforum.com/   The forum is not run by Heritage but by a fan of their products..  It is a pretty laid-back forum.  There aren't a lot of members and even fewer 'active' members but they are a good bunch of guys.  I am 'JAB' over there, too.   Single action revolvers are pretty much all Heritage does, now.  I think their bread and butter is the Rough Rider .22 series.  They also do/did a Rough Rider in .32 H&R that I always thought sounded interesting but is priced a little high for my tastes for what it is.  Heritage also sells some big bore revolvers.  The difference is that they pretty much make the Rough Riders in house while the parts for the big bores are made by Pietta in Italy and only assembled at the Heritage factory.  Apparently, they also used to offer the Rough Rider in .17 HMR but those were discontinued some years back.  They also offered a .45/.410 single action revolver for a while but now that Taurus has bought Heritage I don't know if they will continue that or if it will be seen as unwanted competition for the Judge (might have already discontinued it, as far as I know.)  Heritage also apparently used to make a semi-auto (called the Stealth) but I had never even heard of it before joining that forum.   In the .22 Rough Rider line, they offer models with varying barrel lengths (from 3.5 out to 9 inches with 4.x, 5.x and 6.5 inch models in between) although I don't think the 9 inch models are very common.  Some barrel lengths are available with adjustable rear sights and those usually have a 'fiber optic' front sight.  Some barrel lengths are available with birds head style grips (that looks pretty good on a 3.5 inch barrel model.)  There are some with cocobolo grips and some with 'camo' laminate wood grips.  There are also some 'aftermarket' grips available from Heritage.  There are a couple of different finishes available.  Unless I am mistaken, a few of the models are even available in all steel (mostly to be compliant in places like California) but they cost a bit more.  A year or two back - actually before Ruger came out with their 'Single 10' ten shot model - Heritage released a 9 shot model of the Rough Rider.  They cost a little more than the six shot model, though, and the cylinders are not interchangeable between the 9 and 6 shooters.   The only thing I kind of don't like about the Heritage is the stupid safety switch.  Why in the heck a single action revolver needs a safety when the company recommends carrying with the hammer on an empty chamber, anyhow, I will never understand.  That said, I just pretty much ignore the safety and try to forget it is there so no big deal - it just kind of messes up the lines of the revolver.  I guess it might be useful if using the Heritage to teach a young 'un to shoot.   If you come across a great deal on a new LR only model, it still might be worth it.  Last I heard (keeping in mind this was before the Heritage buy out) you could order a WMR cylinder for something like 35 bucks.  My understanding is that, most of the time, the cylinder doesn't have to be specifically fit to the individual revolver.  Instead, Heritage asks for your serial number as there seem to be a couple of different 'types' of the cylinder and they send you the one to match your serial number range.  You may want to double check my info on that before proceeding, however.

Good to know but I still haven't seen any around here.  Also, if things are lightening up, I imagine that will come just in time for .22 to sell out, again, around Christmas when folks start buying .22 rifles as Christmas presents.   I still think it will be next summer before we see anything even approaching 'normal' stock on .22LR or .22WMR (or most handgun ammo, for that matter.)  I also think that the prices on LR will be markedly higher than before.  That said, I would very, very much like being able to say in a couple of weeks, "Nope, I was wrong and TankerHC was right - the fiasco is nearly over."  Let's hope I get that opportunity.

    Sorry, no owner impression, here.  Honestly, when I first saw in one of the gun rags that Taurus was going to do a 9mm carbine, I kind of eagerly flipped over to read the article.  The wind was taken out of my sails by the '10 round proprietary mag' statement.  My thought was, "Well, then, it has zero benefit over my Hi Point 9mm carbine that has been 100% reliable and also uses 10 round, proprietary mags.  At least Hi Point carbine mags are, supposedly, compatible with their handguns (but not vice versa - the handgun mags don't work in the carbine.)"   Then I saw the projected price tag and thought, "Okay, so now the Hi Point has an obvious advantage over the Taurus.  Price."  I see nothing about the Taurus that would make its end user value worth any more than the Hi Point, to me, much less more than double the price.

I like mine. I don't completely understand the 'drop out cylinder' comment above - you only have to drop the cylinder out if you want to change from WMR to LR or vice versa. The Heritage loads/unloads via a loading gate - no need to pull the cylinder. These are not high-dollar, safe queen, heirloom guns. They are guns that are intended to be shot for fun. I belong to the Heritage forum and overall owner opinions seem positive. Sometimes one of them might come from the factory with the sights a bit off - and the traditional way for addressing that is to bend the front sight a little to the right or left (for windage) or file a bit off of it (for elevation if it is shooting low.) Of course, some models are available with factory adjustable rear sights but they are going to cost a little more. Also, most of the time when you see the $99 special on them (at Academy, for instance) those are the LR only models. I will say that I haven't had the LR cylinder in mine for over two years - I have other LR pistols and I think the Heritage is just more fun with the WMR cylinder, although shooting LR through them is fun, too. As for accuracy, I love, love, LOVE posting this picture because A. it is some of my best handgun shooting ever and B. it proves that across the board 'Heritage Rough RIders aren't accurate' statements are nonsense I first put up and shot at this target at 100 yards with the Heritage as more of a lark than anything. I had been consistently 'pinging' some swinging metal targets that the range had up at fifty yards so I thought I'd try a paper target at 100 yards just for grins. I don't shoot well from a rest (never shot from a rest much and I find it awkward to do so, now) so all of these shots were taken from a standing, off-hand position shooting two-handed in more or less a Weaver stance. After seeing I had actually hit the paper a couple of times from the first cylinder full, I decided to try and 'dial in' on getting better hits just going by memory of where I had put the sights when firing the previous cylinder full. On the second cylinder, I overcompensated for elevation but got the windage about right. I think my results from the third cylinder weren't too bad, at all, for an inexpensive, rimfire revolver with a 6.5 inch barrel and open sights (for me, anyhow - I am not that great a shot, fair I suppose but not great.) It was fairly warm that day with little to no wind and we had no spotting scope so I was walking the 100 yards out and back to check the target after every cylinder full so I stopped after three cylinders full. If I had kept at it, I think I could have gotten some pretty good results. Certainly the gun is more accurate than I am. Having not shot nearly as much, lately, due to the ammo nonsense I am not sure that I could even repeat these meager results, now.

  Interesting.  From what I can find, the main difference in the Robust and the Companion is that the Robust has a thicker blade, right?  Another interesting thing is that, looking on Amazon, there also appears to be a Heavy Duty version of the Companion that has a thicker blade than the 'standard' version of the Companion (just about the same thickness as the Robust.)   http://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Companion-Sandvik-Military-4-1-Inch/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1384358737&sr=8-2&keywords=mora+robust   I didn't realize that when I ordered mine.  Now I am going to have to go back and look to see which version of the Companion I got.   EDIT:  Looks like I ordered the 'standard' version.  Might have to order a heavy duty, as well.

  That is good to know for future reference.  I can see buying more of them down the road.  I generally prefer carbon steel but if the stainless takes/holds and edge almost as well in this case then I'll consider stainless models, too.

I recently ordered a carbon steel Companion from Amazon.  I haven't had a chance to get out and use it, yet, but it seems like a great, no-frills knife that was nice and sharp right out of the box.

  I take more of an Archie Bunker approach.  I dislike all (well, most) people pretty equally.

Huh...heck with the glow sticks in that situation. That is what the light mounted on the end of my HD shotgun is for! :)

First, let me say that I am a light source junkie.  This isn't really because of any deep-seated fear of the dark, I just like light sources and find the absence of them, when needed, to be quite annoying.  Living in a rural area where a storm, etc. may knock out the electricity for an extended time, I can say that one of the worst parts of such outages, for me, is getting bored as there is not much that is more boring than being stuck inside (due to the storm) in the dark when it is hours before bedtime.   Partly due to that reason and partly just because I just plain like various light sources, I have flashlights galore, candles, rechargeable LED lanterns and so on.  I have those little, fairly low output 'push' lights in a couple of rooms.  I even some higher output, stick-up, battery operated LED light bars over my chair in the living room which allow me to sit and comfortable read if the power is out.   Wanting to round things out a little with another backup light source, with Halloween recently come and gone, I started thinking about chemical glow sticks.  Sure, they are one time use things but they don't require batteries and don't represent a potential fire hazard.  They are also very compact and should work even when wet so I could see situations in which they would be useful.   Thinking along those lines, I decided to check one or two Halloween sale/clearance sections as I know that glow sticks are a popular Halloween accessory.  I made a bit of a score at the Big Lots! in Rockwood.  They had packs of 12 glow sticks - originally $4.00 a pack - on sale for 50% off.  I figured that for $2 a dozen they were worth trying out so I bought three bags.  IIRC (don't have them in front of me at the moment) these are only 4 inches long and I think they probably don't produce as much light as glow sticks intended for emergency lighting - maybe not nearly as much.  Still, they were cheap and I thought they would be interesting to play around with.   The ones I bought are a variety pack of colors (as in they produce different colors of light - the color didn't really matter a whole lot, to me, but it could be interesting to find out if one color yields more usable light than the others and so on) and were intended to be worn as necklaces.  This meant that they came with thin, rubber 'threads' to tie onto the glow sticks and wear around the neck.  I figure those would also be useful for hanging the glow sticks up and so on.   I took one of them (an orange one, fwiw) out of one pack and broke/shook it to test it out the other night.  I took it into various rooms with the lights turned off.  One stick certainly does not produce as much light as even a single candle - not even close - but when held close to an object it did make enough light to easily see the object.  I also found that, if tied onto one of the 'necklaces' and then held by the top of the loop so that the stick, itself, was hanging close to my feet I believe it would produce enough light to walk through a dark, unfamiliar area without tripping, stepping in a hole, etc. as long as I don't get in a big hurry.  I am also thinking that if I used one of the 'necklace' lines or maybe a piece of tape, etc. to lash four or five of the glow sticks together then the bundle may produce a decent amount of light.  I didn't really notice how long the one I tried out lasted so I'll want to do that in the future.   Anyhow, just thought I might throw that out there in case anyone else thought it would be a good idea to pick up some similar glow sticks while you might still find them pretty cheap in the Halloween clearance stuff here and there.

Obviously, the fine officers involved in this incident were simply doing their jobs.  After all, they risk their lives to protect the public from keister stashers on a daily basis never knowing if the next stop will get them killed covered in explosive diarrhea.  Shouldn't they take any steps necessary to make sure that they go home to their families every night not smelling like a  gas station restroom?  I mean, aren't they the 'good guys'?  So what if some random citizen gets anally violated now and again - it isn't like the rights of private citizens matter when compared to the necessity of continuing to fight the war on drugs.  Right?   Right?

  Yep.