TGO David

Day Four for me... I am thankful that, by divine providence, I was born in and live in the United States. We have our problems but we are still a great place to live and with God's mercy we will continue to be a great place to live for generations to come.

Day Three for me... Today I am thankful for my wife. She has an indomitable spirit, is incredibly talented and creative, as smart as they come and my best friend. I'd say the only thing wrong with her must be her eyesight since she made an assessment and for some reason decided I looked good enough to have to look at every day. She's the best mom that our kids could ever hope to have and sacrifices of herself daily for them (and me). I see so much of her in our daughter already, and am sure I'll see it in our son as he grows up, that I know they will do just fine in life and genuinely be good people. That's all any of us can hope for, for our kids, I think.

Day Two for me... I am thankful for having been raised by good, strong, God-fearing men. My father and grandfather are the male role models in my life. I learned about boundless, unconditional love and support from my grandfather. I learned about forgiveness and the value of presenting yourself as a humble, broken sacrifice to God so that He can do good things with you and through you from my dad. I learned about honor and service to our country, and about the value of hard work and the endless possibilities of what can be done with your hands and a little bit of knowledge from both of them. It is not bragging when I say that I can build or fix almost anything, teach myself or learn from others almost anything, and be a figure of calm and order in almost any chaotic situation. I say it humbly and with great thankfulness and some reverence toward my dad and grandfather for pouring themselves into me over the course of some 30 years. Were it not for them, I wouldn't be a fraction of who I am. I can only hope and pray that I am able to pass these things along to my own kids.

As we rapidly approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I am going to challenge myself to come back to this thread each day this week and post something that I am thankful for. I hope that maybe some of you will join me in this and post about things that you are thankful for as well. Even if you can't do it every day, perhaps try to do it as often as you can this week? To start off, I am thankful for the health of my wife and children. 2017 saw the addition of another member of our family. We've had more bad experiences than good with bringing children into this world, but God has been merciful and given us a beautiful daughter and son along the way. Zeke is the newest and he is a constant reminder of how amazing and precious life is. How about you all?

With a Technican class license, the starter license, the most common bands you are going to have access to are 2-meter and 70-centimeter. This puts you in the 140MHz and 440Mhz bands which are fairly well covered by local repeaters and local simplex traffic. This is where you'll be able to communicate with folks all over the mid-state area by using local repeaters, participate in local ARES nets, etc. ARES nets are activated during emergencies and severe weather, which can be both fun and useful. When you say you're wanting to go with a portable unit, that generally refers to a handheld walkie-talkie style radio. Is that what you had in mind or were you thinking about a mobile radio for your vehicle? Bear in mind that a portable unit generally broadcasts a maximum 5-watts and has pretty short range. A mobile unit generally broadcasts between 50-100 watts and has a much further range.

A sturdy purpose-built gun belt is mandatory for any concealed carry to be successful and comfortable. My go-to has always been The Belt Man (http://www.thebeltman.net) for gun belts but there are competing products of equal quality now too. With experience gained over time, I moved away from complete Kydex holsters and prefer either complete leather or Kydex/leather hybrids for quality and longevity. Comp-Tac still makes the Minotaur MTAC holster which is a really good Kydex/Leather hybrid but my preferred holster for IWB carry for the past ten years has been the Mike's Special leather rig from Tim Thurner at http://www.ttgunleather.com . When it comes to belts and holsters, you really need to buy once and cry once. Suck it up and buy the best you can afford. Don't skimp. Don't spend $500+ on a handgun and then expect that a $40 holster and $20 belt are likely to be up to snuff. Chances are good that they won't be, that your gun won't ride comfortably or securely, and you're going to be miserable and blame it on the gun instead of the gear that you chose to carry it with.

The people are going to begin, if they haven't already, expecting their churches to provide security to prevent a shooting from occurring. What I am hearing is the churches that are stepping up to this expectation are establishing "Safety" Teams. The duties of these Safety Teams generally include the provision of First Aid as well as response to any other emergency situation that might arise during church activities, such as fires, tornados, earthquakes, and yeah even active shooters. In my opinion, there is no certain size of a congregation that begins to necessitate the establishment of a Safety Team or at the very least safety protocols. If you are gathering people together at an appointed place and time on a recurring schedule each week, you have essentially told all criminals when and where they can find a group of people to do bad things to. To be frank, this applies to any organization, not just churches. Scout meetings, fraternal meetings, council meetings, and so forth all have the same inherent problem. A person who wants to visit violence upon you knows when and where to find you, so you should have a planned and well-trained response for that. I predict that the churches and other groups that either ignore this problem or willfully refuse to do anything to prepare for it are going to begin to see a decline in participation. People are going to start looking for the presence of "Safety" Teams or asking whether the group has established protocols, before deciding whether to put themselves or their loved ones into the congregations. Should these people be carrying their own guns and first aid as well? YES. But some folks will always rely on others to carry their slack and the desire for personal safety is no different.

I'm going to leave fundraising for assistance for the victims' families to the organizations closer to them where it makes the most sense. I do respect the desire to do something for them, though.

I dislike the look of the goofy magazine base pads that marry up with the notched grip. I am curious to know the reason behind that as the Israelis are not known for putting form over function. I see elements of HK (slide release and overall slide profile), CZ (P07/P09 trigger guard) and Sig (P250/320 takedown lever) in this. Maybe some Beretta APX in the trigger appearance. The design language looks like someone shook a Babblefish until it threw up.

Interesting. http://iwi.net/masada/ http://projectarms.com/2017/11/03/iwi-announces-massive-addition/ ABOUT MASADA IWI MASADA 9mm polymer framed striker-fired pistol was developed in order to provide an advanced solution to the modern battlefield requirements. Much more than just another striker-fired pistol, the MASADA features a low profile barrel for reduced perceived recoil. Fully ambidextrous controls and enhanced ergonomics which provide a natural and instinctive pointing grip angle. Three interchangeable wrap around back-straps coupled with the deep beavertail enabling the MASADA pistol to fit a wide variety of hand sizes. Masada’s frame is made of high strength, impact resistant fiberglass reinforced polymers. Like all IWI firearms, it is built to withstand and endure all types of military use and abuse in extremely harsh environmental conditions, MASADA utilizes a modular serialized high grade steel trigger mechanism housing that can be easily removed, allowing simple and easy disassembly and maintenance. MASADA’s trigger is designed to enhance the shooter’s accuracy and safety. The MASADA trigger has an average pull from 5.5 to 7 Lb. with a clean and crisp break and a positive reset. Featuring a built-in trigger safety, the pistol will not fire unless the trigger is pulled. The shooter’s security is further enhanced during cleaning and maintenance as there is no need to pull the trigger in order to field strip the weapon. MASADA comes with a polygonal rifled, cold hammer forged barrel with 1:10 RH twist rate. MASADA magazines offer a generous capacity of 17+1. Optimized ergonomic design Clean and crisp trigger reset with a built in trigger safety Fast, easy and safe disassembly without the need to pull the trigger components Combat-style sights, optional: fixed 3-dot tritium sights Low barrel axis for reduced perceived recoil 3 Interchangeable wrap around back-straps – S, M, L Large trigger guard for use with or without gloves Enhanced grip texture which enables faster follow-up shots in all conditions Fully ambidextrous operating controls: Slide stop lever, Magazine release, Manual Safety (by special order) FEATURES Striker-fired pistol Easy racked slide with improved front and rear cocking serrations External extractor integrated with a tactile and visual loaded chamber indicator Cold hammer-forged polygonal rifled barrel Integral MIL-STD 1913 picttiny rail 17+1 rds. black magazines with visible round count Fixed 3-dot Tritium illuminated night sights (optional) 100% interchangeability, with an interchangeable trigger mechanism housing that reduces maintenance and life cycle costs TECHNICAL DATA Caliber: 9X19mm Barrel length (mm): 104 (4.1″) Total length (mm): 189 Weight (approx. Kg) (w/o magazine): .650

Email sent last night. Sorry about the delay. The healthcare industry (my day job) is not very predictable, so this was the earliest possible chance to send it. Just respond by email and we can go from there!

I'll get in touch with you guys by email tomorrow @SpringValleyArms

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/