JAB

My Marlin/Glenfield 336 belonged to my late father.  I still remember when he first got it, back in the '70s when I was just a kid.  It actually came brand new with a rail already mounted and a scope.  The scope even says "Marlin" on the tube.  I have no idea what kind of scope it is, though.  I took the scope off back when dad was still alive, before it was even officially 'mine' when I was shooting it more than dad did.  I still have it somewhere but I don't think it is currently on the rifle.

I have a Maverick Security 88.  Mine is the model with a 20 inch barrel and the factory mag tube on it holds seven 2 3/4 inch shells.  I also recently bought a Savage/Stevens 320 (like the one at the link below) at Academy.  The 88 is my HD shotgun and I bought the Savage mostly as a 'fun' gun - but now I am considering making the Savage my HD shotgun and maybe putting a pistol only grip on the Maverick for fun (after vetting the Savage a little more.)  Both run well.  The Maverick seems more 'solid' - not that the Savage isn't solid - but the action on the Savage was butter smooth right out of the box.  As mentioned in previous posts, the Maverick 88 is, basically, Mossberg's 'budget' version of the 500.  In fact, the Mavericks that I have seen in stores recently have had a stick-on label on the buttstock that has 'Mossberg Maverick" printed on it.   The Savage is more or less a Winchester 1300 'clone' (although I don't know if aftermarket parts are interchangeable or not) has 'only' a five shell capacity but, honestly, is that really all that big a deal?  I mean, sure, more is better but I have to wonder what kinds of wars or gangland conflicts you fellahs expect to be involved in where even four rounds of 00 Buckshot won't stop the threat.  Heck, even a single shot 12 or 20 gauge with spare ammo in an elastic butt cuff isn't exactly a pea shooter.

Apparently, one isn't supposed to fire shotshells from the .38 Special version of the Cobra derringers.  I had thought about purchasing one of them just to play around with and use mostly for shot shells and that fact (as per the company website) is a big reason I didn't.  Strangely, the 9mm version is okay for use with shotshells (again, per their website.)   I have fired shotshells (of the proper, respective calibers) from my S&W 642, Heritage Rough Rider, H&R 9 shot .22LR revolver and my NAA mini revolver with no problems.  In fact, I have a sort of odd story about them.  The story is a bit long (and, I hope, not a complete hi-jack of the thread) but I believe it is worth reading:   Last year, I discovered that at some point a snake had taken up residence in my commode.  No, I am not joking - the darned thing was living in my toilet.  See, my old crapper had, well, crapped out (developed a crack/leak) and it had been replaced by one that was already on hand and that had been stored in an out building.  The replacement had taken place during cold weather so my best guess is that the snake was already hidden somewhere inside it, hibernating.  It must have woken up when it found itself in warmer environs.  However it got there, I'd raise the lid to use the bathroom and the stupid thing would be hanging down from somewhere under the rim of the bowl - just its head and three or four inches of its body - and it would quickly pull itself back up into its hiding place.   As you might imagine, dropping a deuce while knowing there is a snake with quick, easy access to your tender bits is disconcerting, to say the least.  The snake had to go (and I mean leave, not, well, you know.)  I first tried getting rid of it without harming it.  The problem was, while I was pretty sure it wasn't venomous, I still didn't want to get snake bit.  I have heard of people getting really sick from non-venomous snake bites because even non-venomous snakes can have some pretty bad bacteria in their mouths and I figured that went double for one that lived in a freakin' toilet.  Being that I wouldn't exactly be able to choose where I grabbed the thing, I figured that getting bitten was a good possibility - and that was not something I wanted to explain at the ER.   In the beginning, I wanted to try and humanely catch the snake and then release it into the wild.  I started out trying to grab it with a pair of channel locks (in the interest of that whole not getting bitten thing) but it seems that a snake can pull itself back into its hidey hole faster than I can do that.  I then donned a thick, leather glove and figured I would just 'man up' and snatch it out of there.  Nope - the snake was still too fast.   At this point, I decided to discard the 'humanely' from my plan to humanely remove the snake.  I bought one of those frog-gigging heads that looks like a pitchfork that a tiny Satan might use on the Lilliputian souls in hell and attached it to the end of a short pole.  I then went into the bathroom strode bravely onto the battlefield with my frog gig trusty spear in hand.  I imagine I must have looked like a latter-day King Leonidas, bravely facing my foe with only the strength of spear and sinew standing between me and certain death or serious injury annoying discomfort.  I quickly raised the lid and struck at my foe.  To my credit, I landed a solid blow to the beast's serpentine body.  To the discredit of Eagle Claw brand frog gigs, rather than penetrating the Wyrm's armored hide, the damn tines just bent (then broke off when I attempted to bend them back where they belonged.)  I was almost certain I heard the fiendish snake chuckle as it retreated once again into the recesses of my crapper its lair.  Snake 3, Person 0.  Now, as they say, it was on.   At this point, anger and frustration began to overwhelm caution, reason and good sense.  I decided that, as Sam Colt had made all men equal, a descendent of his creation would probably help level the playing field between me and the no-legged bastich that had the audacity to occupy my throne.  Yep, I decided to shoot the SOB.   Now, I am not a particularly stupid person.  I have a couple of college degrees to attest to my relative level of intelligence.  Remember I said that my old toilet had just been replaced and that was what had lead to this unfortunate series of events in the first place?  Well, luckily the old toilet was still around.  Rather than risking destruction of the snake-infested bowl, I decided to test out the snake shot on the inside of the old one.  The test went off without a hitch - using the .22LR shot in the aforementioned H&R revolver, the shot did no damage to the inside of the test bowl so now it was time to put the theory into action.  I waited until I was sure ol' legless would be hanging down from the rim of my bowl like an anaconda hanging from a jungle tree, flipped the bowl open, quickly acquired my target and fired.   Success!  Quick as the serpent was, my trigger finger was quicker - nor was the scaly monstrosity faster than a speeding bullet load of shot.  Still alive but mortally wounded, the entirety of the creatures body slipped rather unceremoniously from the recesses of my John Ferguson.  I cried out in triumph ("Hell, yeah! Take that, you little bast*rd,") and, finally, removed it from the bowl.   It was then that I could finally tell, for sure, that it was probably a rat snake (or maybe some variation of chicken snake.)  As the flood of adrenalin and the heady rush of battle subsided, I actually began feeling a bit sorry for my valiant foe.  Not that I wanted it back in my toilet or regretted going to whatever means necessary to get it out but I did find myself wishing that we could have come to a more peaceful accord.  Alas, however, that was not meant to be.

I am not sure how much utility I would see in a bolt-action bullpup but it does look pretty cool.  Enjoy it!

  Now that's the way to boil it all down!

I love the 'Wile E. Coyote' expression on the eagle that is facing the camera.

I hope you enjoy it. Just having gotten one last week, I have only fired the Savage/Stevens a little. Honestly, though, to me the recoil is probably about the lightest of any of my 12 gauge pumps (surprising with the seemingly hollow, plastic butt stock.) I haven't fired any 3 inch loads out of it, yet, and may not ever - for my purposes, I don't really see the point of 3 inch and 2 3/4 does just fine. There is a guy on another forum to which I belong who also picked up one of these shotguns, recently. Like mine, he says 'pumping' the forearm on his is buttery smooth. Heck, if it hits you too hard but is almost manageable, you could always put a slip-on recoil pad on it. I look forward to reading your impressions. Just FYI, here are a few pics I took when I decided to try to (very informally) get an idea of the patterns with a few ammo types I had onhand. All shots were from ten yards (figured that was a good indication of 'home defense' distances.) I generally wouldn't use game/birdshot loads for defense if given a choice. This was more to satisfy my curiosity than anything. Where I shoot in the back yard, the ground slopes downward from where I stand to where I mount the targets. I should have taken that into account and pointed the shotgun a little 'low' with this buckshot but I didn't - I was pointing it right at the dot sticker in the middle of the paper plate. That was likely the cause of the shot hitting a little high - but I still think the distance between the holes made by the shot that did hit the plate gives a pretty decent idea of the overall pattern. With this buckshot load, I did think to point lower but apparently pulled to the right a little (probably me, not the shotgun.) Once again, though, I think the distances between the holes gives a good idea of the overall pattern (notice that two pellets seem to have struck right next to each other and made one, elongated hole.) Then there was the S&B slug. I've had these for a few years, if you couldn't tell by the price on the box. With the slug, I pointed pretty low. Again, I think it is the fact that the ground slopes downward, not the shotgun, that necessitated pointing lower than desire POI. I plan to pattern it a bit more 'formally' at some point, soon and would like to do a side-by-side patterning comparison with my Maverick Security 88. I would also like to find some Federal buckshot and maybe a few types of 'premium defensive' buckshot loads to pattern. For now, though, I think these results give me a pretty good idea of what to expect.

  Or is panic causing relative novices to shooting and/or reloading to run out and buy reloading equipment, thinking that reloading will solve all of their problems, before realizing that components to reload may be difficult to obtain?   Honestly, being relatively new to reloading, myself, the lack of reloading component availability is what has really surprised me this go-round.  I expected factory ammo supplies to become scarce and made sure to have at least some ammo on hand.  I also pretty well expected that primers - at least of certain, more popular types - would become difficult to find, at times (such as small pistol - I picked up 1k of those when I first saw the 'writing on the wall' and surmised that a shortage was on its way.)  I even expected to see supplies of 9mm, .40 S&W, .45acp bullets, as well as bullets for reloading other, popular calibers get scarce (but as I don't reload 9mm at this time and don't own a .40 or .45 I wasn't all that concerned about that.)  What I did not expect was for supplies for bullets I had assumed wouldn't be all that popular (like cast lead .44 Magnum bullets) to disappear from store shelves and have a several week long waiting list with online suppliers (although part of that is likely due to them devoting time to casting to fill orders for more 'popular' calibers.)

  I only reload a couple of calibers but when supplies finally return to normal I would also like to build a 'buffer' of on hand supplies.  Being that I only reload for .38/.357 and .44, I am thinking that it would make more sense, for me, to hold off on casting my own for now and instead invest the money that I would be using to purchase casting equipment into purchasing ready-made bullets for reloading.    I have gotten to the point where I like shooting my revolvers so much that I rarely shoot semiautos.  That being the case, I am probably better off just buying a box or two here and there for my semiautos rather than trying to fool with reloading for them.  Luckily, I had a few boxes of 9X18, .9X19 and .380 on hand before this nonsense all started.

  A more apropos question would be, "Do you think it is unethical for someone in post-hurricane Florida to go to all the local, Florida retailers, buy up a bunch of $500 generators so that there are no $500 generators left for desperate locals to buy and then turn around sell these $500 generators for $1000," in which case, my answer would be, "Yes, that would be unethical."   The scalpers are interfering with the supply chain by creating an unnatural bottleneck (stripping local stores of ammo, thereby cutting down on the number of outlets for buying ammo which, in turn, eliminates competitive pricing from the equation - scalpers have all the available ammo so they do not have to engage in competitive pricing) and perpetuating the appearance of a shortage.  The perpetuated appearance of a shortage, in turn, perpetuates the buying panic which interferes with the normal demand side of the equation.  In so doing, while the scalpers may not be 100% responsible for the situation, they are certainly contributing to an interference with the ammo supply/demand situation getting back to more normal levels.

  I just had an idea.  It seems that virtually every time a politician or group of politicians want to ban something, restrict liberty or take away rights, they say that they are doing it, "For the children."  Well, I have just had an epiphany.  It seems to me that if there were no children then they couldn't be  harmed, injured or traumatized.  Obviously, then, the solution - a solution that would take care of a large group of issues with one, simple solution, is to BAN CHILDREN!   I wonder how hard it would be to get sponsors for such a bill.

  Closet socialists?  Because it ticks us off when someone makes an unethical profit by INTERFERING with the normal supply and demand chain?  Yeah, okay.

  Open or concealed, choice of caliber, revolver or semiauto - all of these things are up for debate.  The only hard and fast rule is that, upon getting your HCP, you are required to do some version of the Wally walk.   Heck, when I first got mine, I didn't even know there was such a term as 'Wally walk' but I still did it.  Somehow, it just seemed natural.  I had to laugh, later, when I found out that doing so was such a prevalent thing that there was a term for it.

  Ah, as in 'Fahrenheit 451' which refers to burning books.  Didn't think of that.

  But without the scalpers buying ammo and jacking up prices, more of those same people would be able to purchase ammo at regular, retail prices in regular, retail outlets.  How is beating those buyers to the ammo and then charging them double or triple the normal price providing a 'service'?  Adding an addition, unnecessary 'middle man' to the process of buying an item one could ordinarily purchase through the usual channels and jacking up prices in the process isn't providing a service.  Neither is perpetuating the illusion that there is a shortage of supply.       I do hope that more people learn that lesson from the current insanity.  For the most part, it was a hard lesson that I learned from the last ammo 'shortage' - as soon as things returned to 'normal' last time, I began buying an extra box here and there until I built a decent (not huge but decent) on hand supply of ammo in the various calibers that I shoot.  I also started reloading a couple of revolver calibers and so have a 'decent' on hand supply of .38 Special and the potential to load some .357 and .44 ammo.  Last year, well before the current scare, I even decided to buy a lever action rifle in either .357 or .44 (ended up with a .44 because .357s were scarce even then) so I would have a long gun in a chambering for which I was already set up to reload, just in case such were needed for hunting/survival.   Last summer, I had a feeling that even .22LR ammo was going to get scarce so I bought a few, extra bulk packs of it.  Because of that, I have some .22LR on hand.  I can shoot my .22 LR rifles and handguns if I want.  Heck, I even put a few boxes of .22 WMR back, just in case.  That said, my supply is not infinite - I will eventually need to buy more - nor is my supply large enough that, with the current ammo nonsense, I feel comfortable shooting .22LR in the volume that I did, before.  I would like to see the insanity end, not because I don't have any ammo but instead so that I could go back to my normal volume of shooting.  I am also loathe to see how much the normal, retail prices of ammo will likely increase - even after things return to normal - because of all this nonsense.   As far as 'proof' of how much the profiteers are impacting the situation, such an in-depth study would obviously be more than my limited time and resources would allow.  However, I can offer some pretty strong albeit anecdotal evidence.  I have spoken with Sporting Goods employees at many of the area Walmart locations and all of them have said, basically, the same thing.  They are getting ammo in and the same people come in every morning when the ammo goes out, often in groups, and buy up everything before anyone else has a chance at it.  These employees have said that the people in those groups have even gone so far as to brag about buying the ammo just to resell it at higher prices.  If the people who are working the counter say that these folks are consistently and repeatedly acting in a way that keeps others from being able to buy ammo at Walmart then I tend to believe them.

  Oh, they aren't illegal, per se.  He just couldn't explain, to the authorities' satisfaction, why he had a perfectly legal object in his luggage.   Good thing he didn't also have a deep fryer and one of those giant Toblerone bars - they would probably have tacked on charges for violating Michelle Obama's health nazi initiatives.

I have to wonder to what the 'zed' in the name refers.  Of course, I believe that Canadians and some, other nationalities refer to the letter 'z' as 'zed' as in w, x, y, zed - which is probably where the idea of calling 'zombies' by the appelation 'zeds' came from in the first place, if I had to guess.  So the name of the restaurant could simply be Z451 - whatever in the heck that means.

  Oh, absolutely.  Where we apparently disagree is on the idea of how much ammo scalpers are contributing to the scaremongering and perpetuating the abnormality.  You say the profiteers are providing a 'service'.  I say that they are part of the problem as, without them constantly cleaning out store shelves, things would return to 'normal' much more quickly and any of us would be able to walk into Walmart and purchase ammo.  Probably not immediately as there would still be those folks looking to spend their tax returns on ammo to bury in the back yard.  However, without scalpers perpetuating the problem I expect that normality would return much, much more quickly.   IOW, you think they are providing a service while I believe what they are doing is a disservice to the average ammo buyer.

  Good luck!  I meant to tell you that when I bought the Savage/Stevens at the Knoxville Academy they didn't have one on display.  The guy behind the counter initially said that they were sold out of them but decided to check their stock via their computer and realized that they had two of them in stock (locked in the 'cage' behind the counter) and the problem was simply that no one had put any out on display.   I think it is a good idea to go into Gouger Mountain on a semi-regular basis just to make yourself feel like the prices at other stores just might be somewhat reasonable.   Y'all don't have an LGS down that way right now, do you?  I noticed last Saturday that 'Guns and Ammo' on Congress Parkway in Athens looked to be closed.  I had only been in there once and that was over a year ago so I have no idea what their stock/prices were like.  There's Fugate a little further down the road but I have never even been in there so don't know anything about them.   There are a couple of gun stores in Vonore and my favorite LGS is actually Farnsworth's in Vonore.  They generally have fair pricing but I don't know if you'd be able to find a Savage/Stevens like you are wanting there.  Normally, I would have ordered the Savage through them but with the current gun craze, etc. I think they have had a little trouble getting stock plus they probably couldn't have done much better than Academy's price on it, anyhow.  I will say that Farnsworth's had the exact, same model of Tristar shotgun - with a pistol grip and full buttstock - that Academy was selling.  The difference was that Academy's price was $530 while the price Farnsworth had on it was $350.   I have only been into Dunham's once but, based on the ammo prices (this was just before the current scare) I was tempted to ask if they were a subsidiary of Gander Mountain.  Their prices seemed pretty high, to me.

  Again, in normal times - when scaremongers aren't cleaning out the local Walmart shelves and perpetuating the myth that no one will be able to get any ammo, soon - how often have you walked into Walmart and not been able to find .22LR ammo?  The truth is that the answer is likely 'never' and that is not a fantasy.  It is reality.  The current Bizarro world where someone would pay a couple hundred dollars for an $18 bulk pack of .22 ammo because 'Obama ain't gonna let you have it no more' is the twisted, dark 'fantasy'.

  The Federal government MIGHT do anything at any, given time.  However, based on what they HAVE done and, perhaps more importantly, what they have failed to do, I stand by my statement.  No, I am not naive enough to believe the threat of government action has passed but I am saying that it is time for everyone to calm down a little.   Further, my main point was that - to my knowledge - there has been no, serious attempt to do anything that would impact a person's ability to purchase .22LR ammo.  I can actually understand, to a point, people buying certain guns, "while they still can" or "before Federal background checks become a reality."  I can understand picking up a few, extra 15 round mags for pistols (or even 30 rounders), just in case.  I can understand picking up AR mags, parts, etc.  I can even understand panic buying of .223, .556 and even 7.62X39 ammo.  That said, the only government 'threat' to .22LR ammo and the like of which I am aware is that of the boogie man being perpetuated largely by those who want to dupe people into purchasing cheap, bulk pack ammo at beyond premium rates.

  I disagree.  In fact, without the scalper cleaning out the shelves every time a new shipment of stock comes in, the scare would die down and there would be plenty of ammo for all of those, other customers.  Think about it, other than times when there have been ammo scares and scalpers cleaning out the shelves, have you ever walked into a Walmart and had trouble finding at least some kind of .22LR ammo on the shelf?  In fact, other than such times, have you ever seen the bulk packs of .22LR completely wiped out?   Sure, the initial scare might have a few folks buying up ammo and burying it in PVC pipes in their back yards but I think the market would have started to return to normal by now if that was all that was going on.  However, the scalpers perpetuate the ILLUSION of an ammo shortage and, therefore, prolong the scare.  Such scalpers, then, are NOT providing a 'service'.  Instead, they are a part of the problem, in the first place.

  In our state, TN, the state government has done NOTHING to indicate that there is any sort of government threat to gun/ammo ownership.  Further, the attempts to pass new laws at the Federal level have failed, at least for now - although there is a chance that such efforts will be revived and perhaps sooner than we think.  Also, I haven't heard of any serious attempt to do anything that would impact a person't ability to purchase .22LR ammo, 9mm ammo, revolver ammo and so on.  So, at this time, there is NO reason, in this state, for any sort of 'market distortion' created by government entities because - at this, specific time - the government hasn't done and isn't doing anything.  I have no more trust for the government - especially the current administration - than anyone else but c'mon, the whole 'you better buy this 500 round box of .22LR ammo for $200 now because the government is going to make it so you can't buy any, at all," nonsense is a bunch of BS, a total fabrication.   Therefore, there is NO, valid reason the ammo shelves at gun stores, sporting goods stores and Walmart locations in this part of the country should be empty.  They are empty because 1. a few people are buying up all the ammo in order to resell it at artificially inflated prices and 2. some folks - probably those same profiteers - are perpetuating the MYTH that any minute now new government regulations will go into effect - and they are doing so in order to use the government boogie man to justify the ridiculous prices of their falsely inflated market, thereby scaring some folks into buying every round they see, regardless of how ridiculous the price.

  Honestly, my thinking is that the main reason I might want to keep a long gun in the truck is in case I find myself in a 'stranded/get home' situation.  To me, if 'they' are not all that close to my vehicle then in most instances I would choose to simply drive away rather than engaging in a firefight.  I am not saying that you are 'wrong' in your thinking and there may well be occasions where driving away might not be an option, just presenting a different view.

  Some people call rifles that are used to hunt deer "deer rifles."  So by that reasoning, can a gun be called a 'truck gun' if it isn't kept in a truck but is used to hunt/shoot trucks?