OldIronFan

Unfortunately my elderly parents still live in the Memphis area. I got out in the 90's and I have tried for years to get them to move but they have remained set in their ways. They seldom drive at night any more but I have at least convinced them that if they can not easily identify the vehicle as a marked MPD or Shelby county sheriffs patrol car they should continue driving, not pull over, drive toward the nearest police station, and dial 911 on the way. My father does not speed and I doubt he has been pulled over in better than 50 years so if someone tries it is likely they are up to no good. He also won't travel armed and does not even own a firearm anymore for home defense so I worry about them even when they are at home. If anything less than murder charges are brought against the officers involved before the video is released I imagine the unrest, riots, and mayhem are going to spiral quickly out of control.

https://www.agcomposites.com/ You can get one for your chosen action if you want to spend the coin. They were from AG Composites.

I do not know any details about availability here at this point though. I would guess if they can get the production number up high enough to have a surplus over the Australian/New Zealand market demand they might make them available here in the US again. I do know they will not be using the same stocks as those were carbon fiber units produced out of Alabama and were a significant portion of the cost of production. They would likely find a more local source or possibly even produce their own furniture.

My wait was a little less than a year but that is likely based on when I submitted my request and when they brought on new members, as HanSolo mentioned above they used to do that once a year in the summer I believe.

Some actual facts about this whole deal rather then grumblings and conjecture, -Nioa is a privately owned company and a family owned and run company. The largest in Australia. -Nioa started as a small business, a single retail store, and grew into the the defense contractor for the Australian military. Their story is not that dissimilar to Barrett's -They supply everything from fighting knives to 155mm armillary munitions, many items sourced from other small independent companies like ZU Bladeworx. -If it is Firearms or ammunition related in Australia or New Zealand it was probably sourced, imported, and distributed by Nioa. They are already partners with numerous firearms related companies including Glock, Ruger, Remington, Marlin, Savage, and Colt. -Nioa is not just a military contractor. They supply firearms for sporting and hunting markets in both Australia and New Zealand. -They have been direct partners with Barrett for more than a decade as the importer of Barrett products into Australia and New Zealand. This includes the recent partnership with the Land 159 Tranche 1 contract when the Barrett M107A1 was selected as the anti material sniper rifle. -Nioa previously purchased the Fieldcraft product line from Barrett and will begin producing that product line again in the near future. -Nioa already had a presence here in the US and connections/partnerships with both the US Gov and US military. The purchase of Barrett expands that presence and gives them a production capability in the US they did not previously have. Australians citizens can and do own firearms even though they do have restrictions. Their current gun laws are probably less restrictive than California, Illinois, New York, and a few of the other North Eastern states here. They are certainly less restrictive than many other developed nations in Europe. Nioa, like Barrett, looks to have always been on the side of protecting and/or expanding gun rights in Australia.

Not sure how that would result in enemies being able to purchase .50 cals. Who owns the company does not change ITAR and who they can sell to. The US government already has control over who they can sell and export to. Yes the purchase would have to have been reviewed and approved through the US GOV. Again ITAR and all. Probably the State Department and the GOV entities that Barrett currently is under contract with.

Chris Barrett does. I do not believe it was involved in the deal for the separate Barrett Firearms Manufacturing company. AFAIK they have always been separate entities.

The largest privately owned Australian company and Southern Hemisphere firearms juggernaut Nioa has purchased Barrett Firearms Manufacturing outright. Ronnie and Chris Barrett both to stay on in and advisory capacity for the immediate future. Current President and COO promoted to CEO and President respectively. Press releases below. https://barrett.net/2023/01/16/nioa-acquires-us-manufacturer-barrett-firearms/ https://sporting.nioa.com.au/latest-news/nioa-acquires-us-manufacturer-barrett-firearms

It is pretty simple really. They can be extremely effective and useful tools. Just manage them appropriately like you should any technology tool. Have a well established data management plan that includes time and event based triggers for automatic purging of data and strong cyber security protocols. Much like a good dash cam system, data is retained for a set time period and then overwritten or erased unless a trigger occurs. If a stolen or otherwise flagged plate is picked up by the system it gets retained for for review but all other data is purged after an appropriate time (24 hours, 5 days, monthly, whatever is judged as appropriate). Also put in place an independent audit and review of the use and management of the system for outside oversight, possibly civilian. As mentioned above by others you need to have a LEO to respond to the data provided so there is a built in human review process, the reader can't act on its own after all. You would need to have appropriate penalties in place for abuses. Say a LEO flags the plate of their spouse or the person they think is having an affair with their spouse so they can track them. That is an obvious misuse and should result in criminal charges and the loss of their job. There is no expectation of privacy, in my opinion, with a license plate. It is on display for the world to see by its very nature. My travels in public may have a bit more expectation of privacy but still not much of one. If someone wants to follow me going down I-24 I don't have much recourse to stop them. If my plate is read at a time and place where a crime has occurred I do not see an issue with the police reviewing that data and contacting me with a question or to make a statement. I may or may not have information that could help them solve the crime but I do not see it as a violation of privacy for them to have that location information about me if the data was retained due to the occurrence of a crime.

Yeah I would rather be on the road than anywhere else. I missed my chance in my younger years. I was all set to leave a few keepsakes with my folks, sell everything else, and live/work on a boat for most of the year. Instead I got married and thought a house was a good idea. I don't think there is anything I would prefer to do more than travel. When I discovered the joy of riding in my 30's it woke up that wanderlust again and has not subsided much in the 20 years since. Still have a fair bit of commitments and a career plus I still have that house and the wife but I hit the road as often as I can reasonably do it. I have the the quote "Not all who wander are lost" tattooed on my calf along with some travel/navigation artwork.

You should see what I have up my sleeve for next year. I have 3 weeks of vacation rolling over to go with my 3 weeks for next year. I will be checking off 1 of my 4 bucket list rides if all goes according to plan. It will be the easiest of the 4 most likely but it is a start. 1) Trans Labrador Highway, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia 2) Tuktoyaktuk, Dawson City, and Prudhoe Bay 3) Ride the entire lower forty eight plus Alaska 4) Ride the entire perimeter of Australia. ok five dreams if I am being honest but this one is becoming a bit of a long shot. 5) Prudhoe Bay across the Darien Gap to Ushuaia Tierra del Fuego

I will take the compliment and thank you. I have had the opportunity to put about 10,000 miles on this bike since I got it right at the first of June this year. I pale in comparison to some of my riding acquaintances though. I know folks that regularly put 10,000+ miles on in a month or less and easily clear 100,000 miles a year. Granted most of them are retired and have that level of free time.

Took advantage of an extra day off for Veterans day and did an IBA Veterans Day Gold ride last Friday. Goal of the ride is to visit at least 4 veterans related sites such as VA Hospitals, VFW posts, National or Veterans Cemeteries, or other Veterans memorials. Each site must be at least 150 miles apart and you must travel a total of at least 1,111 miles which is a nod to World War 1 and the origins of Veterans Day, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. You must do this all in 19hours and 18minutes or less, again a nod to the end of WW1 in 1918. I set out at a bit after 5 am Friday morning in the rain and stopped by my first location in Smyrna, VFW post 8422. I made my way around 840 headed West toward Memphis. The rain was heavy at times but began to clear once I passed Dickson and the Duck river. The cloud cover delayed the sunrise though so I was nearly to Jackson before I saw much sun. I reached Memphis and the Memphis National Cemetery where I got off the bike for a few minutes to walk around a bit. It was a really pretty morning so I made a slow lap around the grounds enjoying the sunglight coming through what remained of the leaves on the tree canopy before snapping a photo at the gate. From there I set off further West toward Little Rock and the Little Rock National Cemetery. Really pretty grounds here as well and another slow lap around through falling leaves was done. I got back on the road and made my way into Oklahoma where I filled up at the 570 mile mark of the ride just over 9 hours into it. I began my trip back toward home and Tennessee from there. My next stop was the Fort Smith National Cemetery back in Arkansas. Seemed like a nice little town and I think it would be worth a trip back to explore it and the hills north further. Made my way back through Memphis and to the outskirts of Jackson. I was well under my time limit at that point so I decided to get off the interstate for a bit and stop at another location. I quick GPS reroute and detour to Hwy 70 had me rolling right on by the Jackson VFW Post 6496. From there it was familiar roads and a short sprint home. I made it back to my chosen finish location at 11:55 pm covering 1126 miles in 18 Hours and 29 minutes. I did run into a few traffic related problems, namely two significant vehicle fires. The first was in Arkansas where a tractor trailer was full engulfed in the east bound shoulder which had closed I-40 east bound and significantly slowed the West bound lanes. The second was another significant vehicle fire. This time in Tennessee and a bus on the East bound side between the Tennessee river and Dickson. I saw the brake lights from a good ways out and began slowing. We came to a stop and sat for about 15 minutes. I guess they opened up a couple lanes at that point because we began inching forward and I covered about 3/4 of a mile before I saw the bus and the firefighters rolling up hoses. There was not much left of the bus so I could not identify it but a couple hundred yards up there were 2 to 3 dozen poor souls wrapped in blankets with some bags and luggage so I assume it was a greyhound or similar. Hope they did not have to stay out there long because temps were in the upper 30's at best. I was thankful for my heated jacket and grips. It was an enjoyable and memorable ride to honor our Veterans sacrifices. If you are a Veteran thank you for your service. The cemetery grounds are always sobering. To quote a line from a TV show I heard recently, "The best of us don't make it home".

if you are talking PRS / Benchrest / or just long range target style shooting 6mm is the hot ticket. Several chamberings available with good barrel life and great ballistics. Has a virtually endless variety/inventory of .243/6mm projectiles from ~60 gr to ~110 gr as well. I don't have experience with 6.5 PRC but have run a bunch of .300 PRC. While I am sure it makes a great hunting round it would not be my pick for precision target shooting ~1000 yards.

Best value in reels in my opinion is Pflueger. Just skip the low end Trion line. I have 7 or 8 of the President and Supreme series and they are all rock solid and smooth. Never had any issue out of them. I do have Penn stuff I use in the salt, primarily surf casting, all solid as well. Side note Penn and Pflueger are both owned by Pure Fishing (and Shakespeare following the merge). My rods are all over the place so I can't offer a lot of help on them. Some I bought new, some I have because I found a killer deal on them used. I do have some older Penn Fierce stuff for salt. I have some Okuma and Trout Magnet SLS ultralight stuff that is solid. I have some St. Croix, Abu Garcia Vengence (low to mid range rod), and some Lew's. I have some Diawa and Okuma travel rods as well. I do not have any complaints about any of it. If it is a known quality brand and not their bottom of the line offering it is going to be solid in most respects. It is more about picking the weight, length, and action to match your target, conditions, and bait type. Probably my least favorite rod is the Abu Garcia but even it is not "bad", it just has a little less "feel" then other offerings. For fresh water I lean toward the ultralight stuff more than the heavy or fast work covering lots of water like the bass guys tend to do. That is mostly because I Kayak, wade, and shore fish almost exclusively. I am just fine catching pan/sun fish or trout on 2lb line especially when I am catching 10 to every 1 of the 2+ lb bass a bass fisherman might catch. I do like a good smallie fight though. I have even lightened up my surf and salt gear a bit. Now it is rare that I use anything over a 2500 size reel when casting bays or intercostals flats for reds. I even run 2500's and 3000's in the surf for pompano. That goes a bit against the conventional wisdom of 4000 and 5000 size reels with 30 ~ 50 lb line but it has never stopped me from catching fish successfully. Just renewed my Florida annual and am itching to get back down for a trip. I have not fished nearly enough this year, there or here at home.

There are just so many scenarios that a single "plan" will never be feasible or sufficient. Just a quick survey of all of the doomsday movies or TV shows will highlight that fact. An off grid sustainable property or community is virtually worthless in the face of an extinction level event such as a meteor strike with the subsequent atmospheric effects even if the strike was many thousands of miles away. They are also fairly useless in the face of any significant nuclear war without extremely robust and costly hardened shelters. In the face of all out civil war, world war, and societal collapse virtually any shelter, off grid property, or sustainable community is going to be overrun by marauders eventually unless you have the means to create something completely isolated and unknown to the outside world. Even then you could never leave it for fear of being discovered. The likelihood of being able to remain unfound, secure, and supplied is slim in my opinion long term. Extremes in our climate, either due to naturally occurring cycles/shifts of the planet or the effects of mankind on the planet, are a real threat. The increased intensity and frequency of significant storms, heat, drought, wildfires hurricanes, tornados, flooding, and sea level rise could easily make large chunks of the planet temporarily or permanently unlivable. They would impact resources like power, potable water, and food for a not insignificant portion of the population. This strain on resources will push the displaced into smaller and smaller less affected areas concentrating the population. You can try to predict where the zones that will be safest from such natural elements or events might be but it would be impossible to predict with certainty so your planed and prepped bug out location may be worthless in the end. When it comes to biological events or a significant global pandemic with no cure or vaccine in sight and with high mortality initial isolation may be the best bet but if the event is significant enough it will eventually lead to societal collapse. If COVID taught us anything it is that a massive portion of our population is not even remotely prepared to handle short to medium term isolation. Most people have such limited supplies even a week isolated at home would stretch their resources. It also taught us how quickly our emergency response systems and medical facilities can become overburdened. I foresee again that any shelter, sustainable property or community would, over the long haul, not be able to remain isolated or keep something like a virus out, maintain its resources, or remain secure from potential marauders. Personally I have no illusions that I would survive long term in a significant event, long term meaning multi year here. My tiered plan has always been to have enough supplies including food on hand to survive in my home for at least 30~60 days at a relatively normal comfort level. Have a means to evacuate by vehicle with enough supplies separate from the household supplies to last another 30 days with a slightly reduced comfort level (roughing it / MRE / camp food / camp equipment). Finally that proverbial bug out/bush craft /survival phase where I have the supplies I can carry in a pack to survive a couple weeks. All of that includes the tools for personal protection, basic first aide/medical, hunting, and gathering for longer term survival but this would honestly be a stretch. The reality is, at my age and health level, I would probably not make it past a year in the face of any real threat. I would likely succumb it illness, injury, or a hostile threat. If whatever befalls our world lasts longer than a year or two I am probably not going to be around to rebuild things, and that is ok. Honestly I would probably not really want to suffer, claw, and scrape along in misery just to prolong my life a bit longer. It would not be much of a life at that point and I have had a pretty good one so far. I simply don't need to be the last man standing. The far more likely scenario is much less extreme than all of the above and that is significant political and societal issues causing more isolated conflict and resource strain. I think in that more likely scenario it will not be about how much you have prepped or how many supplies you have stored but how you can adapt that will determine your future. If the market and dollar collapses and society is in turmoil but not truly collapsed (think great depression) how will you handle having no financial means? Can you adapt to a lower standard of living. Can you adapt to self sufficiency and things like a barter system. This may be where the self sustaining/off grid properties and communities would actually be a smart idea. No illusion of doomsday survival but establishing self reliance with a reduced dependence on modern infrastructure, food distribution, and municipal/government resources. This is where the linked article really hits the mark. The ultra rich preppers are not only potentially contributing to that most likely of scenarios with their manipulation of markets, acquisition of extreme wealth, and driving the population toward dependence on their technology they are going about "prepping" the wrong way in my opinion. Sure the author may be a self proclaimed Marxist but they do make a few solid points and astute observations.

That is going to be a tough one in Tennessee. Lots of great trails, hikes, and developed campgrounds but there are just not that much expansive public land without restrictions. The ratio of private to public land is just not conducive to really remote dispersed/primitive camping and trails here. Out west you have a lot of BLM land that works better for that. WMA land is not a great idea right now with fall turkey and deer season starting up. Plus camping on WMA land is by permit with restrictions including no carry, even if licensed, unless on a hunt. Great Smokey Mountains National Park land is out since no pets/dogs are allowed, no fires other than in designated camps in existing fire rings, and no motorized vehicles in the backcountry allowed. Big South Fork is also probably out since they have leash requirements everywhere in the park including back country. Cumberland Gap has lots of backcountry options but they are established sites that require a reservation. I am pretty sure you can do day of or day before as traffic is not high but it is still probably not what you are looking for. I know that David Crockett State Park, Montgomery Bell State Park, Bledsoe Creek State Park, Cedars of Lebanon State Park, and Henry Horton State Park have primitive sites but most are a not that remote and some are hike in only so you would not be able to get a vehicle to anything other than the developed (and sometimes crowded) tent and RV campground sites. Pretty much any state park is going to have leash requirements. I know I have been out hiking at Henry Horton and seen off leash dogs so it is not always enforced but it is policy. I don't think I have backpacked, camped, or hiked anywhere in Tennessee that I did not see another person or group during my trip. Some places and times are busy, some are not but even off season or off peak I typically see others. I don't think I have had a truly isolated backpacking trip since Bankhead National Forrest in the early 90's down in Alabama. Went 6 days without seeing another soul other than my hiking partner. Good luck in your search but you may have to put some miles under the tires to find anything truly remote. (side note: with current drought conditions there are going to be be some restrictions on open fires in many locations as well. No real rain in the forecast for most of October either so that is not likely to improve.)

If they are transportation/car/motor people and Nashville ends up being the choice you can try the Lane Motor Museum. https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/ They have some really off the wall and quirky stuff there that is pretty interesting. Not just a bunch of muscle cars or high dollar super cars. They have planes, boats, micro cars, amphibious cars, motorcycles, and motorized oddities from all over the world.

I like my ribs dry rubbed, my pulled pork with vinegar base ( and a little spicy), my brisket heavily peppered with some Memphis style sauce on the side, and hate all you want but a good homemade (tangy) Alabama white sauce on some smoked chicken or turkey is great. Memphis is finally turning a corner with BBQ but for a long time they lost their claim as a BBQ Mecca in my opinion. In the 80's and early 90's things were great. Late nineties and well into the 2000's were a sad sad period of time. Any decent place either shuttered their doors or went the way of over commercialized/franchised corporate BBQ. Food costs skyrocketed and margins shrank so corners were cut like lower quality cuts and getting rid of seasoned wood. I left in the mid 90's but family still there kept me coming back 8-10 times a year and honestly we stopped going to get BBQ very often around 1998 or 1999. Anything left was just crap. The last several years (pre covid) were starting to be pleasant surprises. In contrast Middle Tennessee really saw BBQ take off and flourish in the same period with some real standouts starting up and gaining traction in the early 2000's. Sadly I am seeing some of the same downward trends in Middle TN that I saw in Memphis in the 90's with over commercialization. I will still choose several spots in Middle TN over anything Memphis has to offer but I fear the lines on the graph are close to reaching an intersection point.

Well the previous record that was broken was also achieved on the 69th attempt so it is in line with the accepted norm at those distances/records I guess. LRI Barrel, Cadex chassis, McMillian action, Timney trigger and a Vortex Razor. Rifle chambered in .416 Barrett. Just a simple low buck ELR build How about that 350 MOA mount/rail though? That thing looks crazy.

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C64 was my first and I held on to it far to long until we got a Windows 3.1 machine, might have been a somewhat early Dell. I had that thing loaded up with the tape drive, two disk drives, the Koala Pad, joysticks, more than two dozen cartridge based games and probably close to 200 on disk (most pirated). Ahh the memories. I actually wrote a program in BASIC on the C64 for my final project in a civil engineering course in college. It was for calculating compressive failure loads in concrete core/cylinder samples if I recall.

I would not ride it. Looks uncomfortable and awkward. Hard to say how it will behave in the wind, especially a crosswind fully loaded. If you have a way to ditch the low (small) swing arm bag and get traditional side bags that is the route I would go. Then lower the rear bag to seat height as a back rest. I would loose the handle bar bag as well or at least scale it significantly down. Looks like way too much weight to have on your suspension and bars unless you have your down pillows stuffed in there. The above setup was 9 to 10 days including camping gear, extra cold weather gear, and rain gear. I over packed and should have left the tank bag at home. The passenger bag is simply a cover to hold a small 6 pack cooler for drinks and snacks. The left side case had tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, camp towel, tool kit, tire kit, camp knife, and spare light. Right case is a go bag of clothes that I can pull right out and take up to a room if I am staying in a hotel rather than camping. That bag has all of my clothes for the trip. Also in that right case is a spare pair of street shoes and a pair of flip flops if I need some for a camp shower. Finally there is rain gear in there as well. Rear trunk has spare riding gloves, ball cap, first aide kit, jetboil stove, coffee, tea bags, snacks, food, face shield cleaner and microfiber towel, spare camp towel, hoodie or pullover jacket, spare knife, spare flashlight, and plenty of space for road souvenirs. I ended up buying a few t-shirts and a hoodie for gifts along the way and they went in there. Like I said I could have left the entire tank bag at home. I could have left a few changes of clothes at home. All in all I could have dropped another 10lbs off the bike easy, maybe 15 or more.

Yes and no. From my limited research on the topic you have to get paperwork approved first but you can in some cases bring a firearm in with you. A traditional hunting rifle is fairly easy. Bolt action, lever action, single shot and Shotguns are not a major issue. You can pretty much forget about any type of semi auto long gun, especially anything that resembles an AR platform weapon. Handguns are extremely limited. Anything with a barrel length less than 4" is strictly forbidden which knocks out a bulk of what we in the US consider a carry gun. You could take in say a 6" barreled revolver fairly easily as long as you file the paperwork for approval first. Also take note that Canada has an issue with many knives as well. I did not take my normal EDC folding knife. Fixed blades are ok but anything that is spring assisted, has a pin/post/thumb knob to assist in opening, or can be opened one handed via gravity or flipping/inertia is forbidden. I took in two fixed blade "camp" knives with my gear. Valid since I was in fact camping and had camp cook gear with me. They are used to and good with hunting so firearms and knives that would traditionally used by hunters are not a problem. Stray much beyond that and you will not have a good day at the border.

Don't be jealous, join in. I did this (and many of my trips) solo but am always looking for riding partners to take part in my craziness. Next year is Trans Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. 2024 is Tuktoyaktuk, Dust to Dawson, Top of the World Hwy, and Deadhorse, AK. I may actually leave my bike stored in the PNW for a year and fly back out in 2025 for Vancouver Island, BC, and the Pacific Northwest. Get yourself one. They are soooooo comfortable. If you have the inseam to handle it or get a lowered version they make trips much more enjoyable. I actually bought this one because I had lost some of my interest in touring due to the comfort level of my other street bike. I have a sport touring bike, Honda VFR800, and I loved it for 200± miles but doing multiple 300 mile days was just not enjoyable anymore. I am actually going to take all the luggage and touring accessories off of the VFR and just return it to fun weekend corner carving duties. This bike makes even 500+ mile days easy. I would often find myself with the fuel light on (220 to 240 miles) before I was ready to stop. I could outride the tank if you will. Previous bikes I was looking for a stop and stretch break at 100~150 miles. It has renewed my passion for motorcycle touring. I had not even cleaned up my unpacked gear before I had the mapping software open planning my next multi day ride.