TGO David

Thanks @JayC. I should have updated the thread. I installed it all this past weekend. Drilling that hole and mounting the antenna was the easy part. It doesn't help that I am OCD when it comes to projects like this. I ended up with half of the interior of the truck out to run cables, hide things, and try to make it look as close to stock as possible.

My radio will do D-Star also. I need to learn about that and check it out.

So... @Photoguy67 @Obiwan and any others who might know, what repeaters are active around Nashville on the 2m band these days?

Yep. I still have it. Probably going to put it up for sale.

Width is the same. Length of the slide is 0.30" shorter and the overall height is 0.50" shorter than the full size.

Believe it or not those were all taken with an iPhone 7. I just upgraded to an iPhone 8+ through work and it has an even better camera, so I can't wait to try it out soon. The best advice I can give is use natural sunlight and avoid using the flash if at all possible. Early morning, early evening and cloudy days are the best for taking photos. Or, if you can take your photos in a shady area on a bright day, it works well too. I do have a Canon DSLR, but I find myself using it sparingly these days. The cameras in the iPhones have gotten really, really good.

I like it better than the P10C. It's a tie between it and the P-07 but bear in mind that they are somewhat different animals. Striker fired M&P and DA/SA P-07. I think they are among the best of breed for both categories.

The utility and ubiquity of the Glock 19 and Glock 17 platform are undeniable. Arguing against them is like arguing that the AK-47 isn't a benchmark for the same qualities in the carbine platform. But, I'm telling you, the M&P 9mm platform is better in just about every way. All it lacks is the widespread presence that the Glock enjoys due to a two-decade head start. Had the M&P been introduced at the same time as the Glock 17, we might be having a completely different conversation right now.

Grabagun.com had them for $409 plus shipping to your local FFL last week. I think total shipped was around $420.

Just type the "at" symbol, a space, and then start typing their name. When you do, it ends up like this: @Ronald_55

Feel free to link it or post it if you want. Those thoughts are just the sum of my rumination on the current state of things and don't represent any sort of copyrighted epiphany. I imagine many others have thought the same things I did long before I hammered that out.

Do you have a picture of what you're describing? An AR-15 pistol with an A2 or an M4 detachable carry handle mounted topside is still a pistol. You can even put an angled forward grip on it so long as it isn't a vertical grip and that's legal too. But when you put a standard vertical foregrip on it, it becomes an AOW and requires a tax stamp. Honestly, if this doesn't make you want to defund the BATFE and do away with the NFA, nothing will. It's the most asinine crap imaginable.

Thanks! I got the patch from OML Patches. http://www.omlpatches.com/its-not-the-gun-you-suck-patch/

As to the general uptick in traffic in the classifieds... Yep, I've noticed it too. I've participated in it lately. I think we can ultimately thank the fact that good deals are to be had on the primary (new) market, and as a result folks are moving things around on the secondary (used) market to fund those new purchases. Capitalism at work. Gotta love it!

I honestly don't remember us ever having a dedicated NFA classifieds. My intention would be for anything NFA to be listed in the appropriate category. A short barrel rifle or shotgun would go in the firearms classifieds and the seller should indicate that it is NFA. An AOW would go in the firearms classifieds, same as above. A suppressor would go in the accessories classifieds and the seller should indicate that it is NFA. The sticky wicket of NFA items is that the purchase of them of course involves a tax stamp or being a Class 2 or Class 3 SOT. In the case of private parties transferring NFA items to one another when neither is a SOT holder, the buyer would have to apply for and receive their tax stamp from the BATFE before the seller can give the item to them. Since that could be months, up to or exceeding a year currently, the buyer would ostensibly give the seller the money for the item and then wait that period of time and hope that the seller doesn't skip town, lose or damage the item being purchased. Are private-party NFA sales / trades very popular? Reading through this blog entry here (click me) it sounds like there's twice the taxation involved in doing this through an FFL.

Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 Compact 9mm I have owned a variety of M&P semi-autos since they started producing them back in 2005. I bought my first M&P, a full-size .40SW, from Guns & Leather 12 years ago when the pistol first came out and quickly followed it with an M&P 40c and then several other versions joined them over the years. The 40c and the 9c were never really a favorite of mine as they seemed to suffer from the same things that the Glock 26 and 27 sub-compacts did. Namely, they weren't small enough to really be a pocket gun but they weren't large enough to be very versatile either. Just like with Glock, if I was going to carry a double-stack 9mm, I was going to go for the Glock 19 instead of the 26 and with the M&P it meant the full-size 9mm. The M&P Shield was a huge step in the right direction for Smith & Wesson for those who wanted a slim 9mm for deep concealment. It also really put the spotlight on the fact that the 9c was, in my opinion at least, really not good enough at any one thing to make it a compelling option. If only S&W would just listen to their customers and build something exactly the same size as the Glock 19/23. We just wanted them to give us 15rds of 9mm in a package slightly shorter in the slide and grip than the full-size. Apparently someone at S&W has finally listened. The new M2.0 Compact scratches all of the itches in all the right ways. It is as if Smith and Wesson's lawyers finally relaxed and gave the engineers the green light to go ahead and build a better Glock 19 than Glock does. And boy did they get it right. And they kind of snuck it in on everyone. The M2.0 Compact version really doesn't seem to have received the fanfare or enjoyed the publicity blitz that its full size brother did. The release wasn't timed to coincide with any of the major industry shows. The internet wasn't ablaze with rumors of the new gun until it had essentially been announced by S&W. I only saw the "leaked" promotional slick for the new gun maybe 48 hours before the company published it officially. And yet the paradox seems to be that the lack of hoopla over the gun is significantly the inverse of just how good it is. The new M&P Compact no longer occupies a weirdly confusing spot in Smith & Wesson's lineup. It no longer tries to follow in the equally awkward footsteps of the Glock 26/27 platform. Instead, it has taken the Glock 19/23 platform squarely in its sights and blown the center out of that target with a better option. The new Compact gives a platform that is perfect for concealed carry, with superior ergonomics, a better feel and a sexier look than its Austrian competitor. And, just as the Glock 19/23 will fit into a holster made for the larger 17/22, the new M2.0 compact fits even better into holsters made for the larger M&P full-size. Carrying the M2.0 Compact in a TT Gunleather "Mike's Special" leather inside the waistband holster made for my M&P 9mm Full-size yields an extremely comfortable and potent concealment package. The shorter Compact fits the longer gun's holster as if it were made for it. The slide is only 1/4" shorter at the muzzle but otherwise identical in dimension to the larger gun. The trigger guard is exactly the same size. The grip is of course shorter in length at the cost of giving up two rounds of 9mm, but 15 rounds is hardly inadequate and the shorter grip deftly avoids printing against a t-shirt when concealed. So, how does it shoot? It was no problem at all to keep the first two magazines (30 rounds) that I ever fired from the gun inside the head kill zone of a man-sized target at 15 yards. The pace of fire was slower at first but I quickly ramped up the speed to my normal cadence for defensive shooting (2-3 rounds in rapid succession) with only marginal widening of the pattern. I found the trigger's break to be crisp and predictable. I haven't measured the pull yet with my Lyman gauge but i expect that it is somewhere between 4.5lbs and 5.5lbs based on the way it felt. I haven't bothered to check to see what S&W specs it at despite the ease of finding such information with Google. The trigger reset is no more exciting than any other M&P that I have ever owned. For those who like the extremely tactile reset of the Glock pistols, you won't find the M2.0's reset to be quite as audible or authoritative. It's a little on the limp and soggy side, but I've never found that to be a bother or to hamper my ability to shoot the M&P platform quickly and reliably. I tend to subscribe to Rob Latham's philosophy that if you "ride" the trigger you will find it hard to pick up an unfamiliar gun and cycle it reliably. As a result I've spent the past 20 years learning to keep my grip firm and sight-picture correct rather than relying on riding the trigger's reset to keep my groups small. Your mileage might vary and the soft reset may drive you nuts, but Apex Tactical Specialities has all of the trigger and ignition parts you need to make your M&P feel a little more Glock-like if that is what you are after. Another thing that I noticed with the M2.0 Compact is that, with mine at least, the slide lock seems to have been improved by S&W so that lefties can finally release it with their dominant hand's thumb and not pull a hernia in the process. I am not a lefty so I am at a disadvantage any time I try to do lefty-things, but the slide lock lever is no trouble for me to manipulate with my thumb left-handed. My hands are built like that of an ogre with shorter, stronger fingers, but I still think that almost any lefty will be able to release the slide with the lock lever and that it will only get easier as the gun breaks in. Final thoughts... None of us ever buy a handgun with the idea in mind that we are going to publicly tell the world how big of a mistake we made. I have read many glowing reviews of handguns only to follow up with the author's writings later to see that they had parted way with that new wunderpistol once the honeymoon was over. I guess it is just human nature to want everyone else to think that we always make good choices and aren't careless with our money. That being said, I have bought some real turds over the years. I have spent money on guns that were nowhere near as good as the magazine pundits or YouTube pimps said that they were. I've taken new guns to the range and immediately knew that I had made a serious mistake, and already had an idea of how I was going to sell them before I ever got through the second magazine of ammo. HOWEVER. This isn't one of them. Hands down, the M&P M2.0 Compact is a winner. It's riding my hip right now in that TT Gunleather IWB holster. It is replacing my Glock 19 for daily carry. It is going to cause a lot of other guns in my library to spend lonely days in the safe. It is really that good. I found it to be incredibly accurate and flat shooting. The size is perfect. The texture on the grip is perfect. The trigger feels just fine to me. The only thing I changed, and I did it immediately as I do with almost every handgun for which they are made, was to install a set of Ameriglo Pro i-Dot sights with orange outlined tritium front dot and simplistic black rear sight. In this case, the rear has the U-shaped notch that I prefer and a single dimmed tritium dot. Perhaps the most powerful statement that I can make about the new Compact is that I will be buying at least one more of them to have as a backup. And I am probably going to sell some other guns that I won't be shooting anymore.

Icom 4100A. Dual band VHF/UHF. It'll mostly be for chatter around town but also for comms during bad weather or when traveling.

Thanks! I dug around in my radio gear and found a Larsen NMO hole-mount that I had never used, so I think I am good on that for now. I was going to work on it some today but ran out of time. I may pull power to the radio location and run the control-head wire, mic extension and external speaker extension tomorrow if I get a chance to work on it.

You're thinking about this all wrong, man! Keep that 1.0 and give it a little brother!

Hey... with 7 to 28 in the 3rd quarter, the Vols have already done better than Vandy did. Got to look for that silver lining!

Nice! Congrats! The new Compact is honestly perfect. The trigger reset is still a little limp but everything else about the gun is everything that the Glock 19 Gen 5 should have been. It's as if Smith & Wesson's lawyers finally relaxed and let them build a better Glock 19 than Glock does. The dimensions are damn near identical, the capacity is identical but the mags are better, the grip texture is better, the ergonomics are better and it just looks better. I don't know why but I shoot the Compact better than I do the full size M2.0 that I have. It really feels as if it cycles shorter and doesn't have as much muzzle flip. I'm going to do a back-to-back comparison of them soon. I left the full-size at home today and only took the Compact so that I would be forced to run it. Seriously, my favorite handgun right now. I may buy a second one to have a spare!

Took the M&P M2.0 Compact to the range today. S&W has a winner with this one. First 30 rounds at 15 yards...

I got some new Ameriglo Pro i-Dot sights. Oh, yeah, and they were for this...

Obviously it is entirely up to him.

I needed three examples of people a Law Enforcement officer might encounter in a quasi-threatening situation and have to ask himself, "Am I justified in shooting this asshole?". Logical example.