TGO David

This is my EDC. I sometimes augment it with a Glock 19 IWB. It's reliable enough that I never question whether it will go bang when I pull the trigger.

If you're attacked by StrickJ and you shuck your shorts in the middle of it to go for your gun, he'll probably be confused and think you're just surrendering.

I have several different backpacks that would be good for several days worth of essentials. What I most recently picked up is the 5.11 Bail Out Bag which is sufficient for use with a carbine (6-mags), a handgun and other "travel lightly" essentials. I plan on using this very bag for another fighting carbine style class soon since odds are that is exactly the sort of gear I would be able to snatch and run with in a moment's notice. I find it kind of silly that people kit up for classes like they were going to walk the streets of Baghdad. The odds of me being able to routinely haul a plate carrier, soft armor, chest rig, thigh rig, etc. in my vehicle are slim to none; but I figure I can cram this and a carbine in either of our vehicles without too much fuss and still use them with normal civilian clothes if the S really HTF. YMMV.

Thanks for the tip.

Let's hope that the day never comes that we have to run TGO off of packet-radio and an emergency power source.

I think a lot of us have been feeling that way the past week or two at the very least. I would encourage folks to get together somehow, somewhere and discuss.

Yeah, it's kind of alarming. I'm actually surprised I am talking about it myself... but lately some of the folks who I consider to be extremely conservative about this sort of thing have started to make some noise, and frankly that caught my attention.

I figure my family stands a better chance if we work together with other families than if we try to go it alone.

May I suggest with quite of bit of seriousness that perhaps it would be good for TGO members to consider establishing regional rendezvous points for so-called SHTF situations -- whether natural disaster inspired or otherwise. I would further suggest that these things be organized semi-privately and that particulars be communicated either by Private Message here on the forum or by email. This would necessitate "coordinators" of sorts, hopefully with some sort of redundancy built in. Like the old quote goes... United we stand, Divided we fall. Good things to consider arranging ahead of time might be: HAM radio frequencies When and where to meet What to bring Group purchases / caches of essentials Just thinking outside the box here. If anyone wants to volunteer to be a point of contact or coordinator for their area, feel free to state such here and then maybe go with the idea of keeping the particulars offline. This being the Internet, anyone could search and see where you guys plan to get together, some of whom you don't want showing up and trying to take advantage of your prep work.

You're right... just like any other day in Hickory Hollow, with the exception of the fact that you too were armed.

As much as I detest TEOTWAWKI scenarios, one does not have to possess much of an imagination to see how badly things could go in our society should the economy completely collapse. No earthquakes, meteors or zombies required. Just the thin veneer of civilization rapidly falling away and revealing the nasty stuff beneath as society turns upon itself. Might be time to actually put together that Bug Out Bag if you haven't already got one. A least enough of whatever you might need to get from work back home to friends and family and hole up for a while. And this from someone (myself) who gets a rash from tinfoil. The next few days of stock market activity should be very interesting following last week's downgrade of the US's credit rating.

Took some pics today. It occurred to me that I likely hadn't posted any since I put the red-dot sight on it and completed the build. Oversight on my part. I am actually tempted to pull the Eotech off and maybe sell it in favor of putting a low-power magnified optic on it instead. I am running the exact same RDS on my short barrel rifle, and it's a great optic, but this mid-length might be more fun if I could see out there a bit further. Anyway, I digress...

Fair enough. I don't see the Raptor going anywhere anytime soon. My wife has already called dibs if I get tired of it.

I'm not sure how your opinion of my opinion is valid either.

I bet my F-150 Raptor has more foreign made components than domestic.

I get so tired of this economic seclusionist nonsense. If you're THAT hell-bent on American Made or Bust, hurry up now and get rid of everything you own that was made in some "ricer" country and use nothing but American Made products. Start with your computer.

Very sad to hear this.

Disk LED Puts System Drive LED in Mac Menu Bar

I don't even know where to start with the absurdity of the parallel you are drawing. It hurts my head trying to figure out how you got from there to here. There are probably more people in the nation's cemeteries who have died from automobile accidents than gunshot wounds. Does this imply that our best choice of weaponry is a Ford Taurus?

Unfortunately this is rarely a reality. You can almost always gain a 50-100% increase in round count between a .45ACP and 9mm version of a like-model handgun. Strides have been made with magazine design that have reduced the gap somewhat, but you are still looking at anywhere from 3-6 rounds deficiency per mag if you go with the larger caliber. Sometimes even worse. Will I sometimes indulge myself and carry a .45ACP despite this? Yep. Can't tell you why either. It's a guilty pleasure I guess. But I know deep inside that I'd be just as well served with the 9mm from a "stopping power" perspective and actually better served from the perspectives of round count, weight of the firearm and ammo, size of the firearm and manageability of the recoil and ability to deliver faster, more accurate follow-up shots. The bottom line is that with modern defensive handgun cartridges, the disparity of potency between the various calibers is pretty minimal. As one of my friends and instructors is fond of saying about handgun ammo: We want expansion. We need penetration. So far as the ammo you're choosing does the job, is in a platform that you can physically manage without difficulty, and you are proficient with it... carry whatever floats your boat.

There are some... interesting... beliefs in this thread. My views on "stopping power" are pretty well documented in these forums, but the high points: 1. Stopping power in handguns is a myth. 1a. If we had a choice, we'd all carry rifles or carbines. 1b. We don't have that option so we carry handguns and make do. 2. Bigger translating into better is a study in diminishing returns. 2a. If given the choice between more or bigger, I'll take more almost every time (within reason). 3. Shot placement = real stopping power. Location, location, location. 4. Always shoot to eliminate the threat. 4a. If elimination means fatality, so be it. I won't start the fight but I intend to survive it.

Yes and with each trigger for each model being so radically different from one another as well.

Meh. I do hardcore tech every day for a living but I've preferred my iPhone for the simple fact that it just works. I don't have to pull the battery because of needing a reset, I don't have to worry as much about rogue code upsetting the ecosystem, etc. It just. Works. That said, my next phone will likely be the Droid Bionic because I'm getting to where I actually could use some of the tools that the open-ecosystem provides, but I'm going to sit and watch for a while before making the leap again. I've been burned by two Android phones in the past and don't want a repeat.

That's probably one of the things I'd agree with them on, actually. In a civilian self-defense shooting I've been taught by several instructors to not worry about magazine retention during the heat of the fight but rather to streamline the process and get the weapon back into action as quickly as possible, using as few wasted movements as possible. Those two points are a good example of cause an effect and I agree with your final conclusion. James has always been cordial to me and his instructors likely teach good material, but there are plenty of other instructors out there who teach good material as well but don't carry the baggage that TR does. It's truly a buyer's market when it comes to firearms training.

Welcome!