MacGyver

Oh, I popped a lot of rivets in my misspent youth. Grummans. Colemans. Old Mohawks. As don Rumsfeld was always fond of saying, "you go to war with the army you have." Interestingly, I've made some big runs over the years in an old strip planked, canvas covered boat. It's amazing how resilient a lot of those old boats are. In my mind , the use of aluminum to build canoes is a bit of an abomination. Really, it's not been until the advent of the modern roto molded boats that we've gotten boats that rival the performance of wood. And even then they're kind of soulless. Combine wood with modern fiberglass and Kevlar and you've got a great boat. I'll give the roto boats some credit, though. Someone folded one of my SUPs in half around a rock last year. I pulled it off, made sure the drain plug was tight, put it out in the sun and watched it pop back into shape.

Timestepper's right. There is a big difference between a flat water, keeled canoe and a whitewater canoe with float bags. There's a lot a power in running water. Always ensure that your equipment and your experience match your expectations. Anything less is asking for trouble.

Depends on what you're going to do with it. But, as a general rule sit on tips are probably a little better suited to fishing, as they're self-bailing. SIt ins are fair weather craft without a spray skirt, and fishing is a wet sport. If you're ever going to fish out in the surf, you'll want a sit on top. Sit ins are really for whitewater where you want the low center of gravity and closed cockpit, and for flat water where you don't plan to get wet.

Truthfully, I'm really quite the Luddite. But, there are cases where it just makes sense to let the tech work for you.

I personally needed a way to keep up with a bunch of stuff for insurance purposes. It provides a convenient way to keep up with receipts, pictures, dates, etc... I don't use it "in the cloud". I use it to create an inventory, export it to a CSV and encrypt it for storage in case I need it later. I could have put it together myself, I guess, but this is a really easy way to keep up with it.

Since you're local to Nashville, it's probably worth stopping in at Hook1 up in Hendersonville. All they do is kayak fishing. www.kayakfishinggear.com HOOK 1â„¢ - Kayak Fishing Gear 699 West Main Street Ste 206 Hendersonville, TN 37075

Unfortunately, the TSA is nothing but a government jobs program disguised as security theater.

I use the iStorage app by KiWi. I've found it very versatile. It fits my needs almost perfectly.

That's sweet, Craig! My build list has lengthened yet again.

I like it!

Water was about 350CFM, so it was in low Class IV range. I was on a YOLOYak, which is a heavy duty rotomolded board without a skeg. It has so much flotation, that I shot through there like the devil was out to get me. I can get so far back on the board that by the time I went over the jump, the front end of my board was already out of the rapid. The other benefit of a SUP is that the paddle is 7 feet long. You can really get some leverage with such a long moment arm.

I took my SUP on a three day trip down big south fork last fall. Devil's Jump was the biggest rapid I ran. Caught a bunch of small mouth and a monster brown trout.

Ugh...That's awful, Steve.

It's pretty stable. Once you get your legs under you, you can jump up and down on it. I'm an active canoeist and kayaker, and still busted my share of times out in the waves.

Yep. A great big surf board with lots of flotation. I can ride on it with a couple of kids or my dog.

I fish from a stand up paddle board a lot. It's good simple fun. You can get a lot of places other boats cannot.

When I was first married, I travelled 50 weeks a year. It's hard. After about two years, I made a move and started my own firm. It was tough starting out, but 7 years later I can definitely say it was the best decision for our family. We'll keep your family in our prayers.

They're completely legal. You could even make it, shoot it for a while and then decide you want to sell it. So long as you aren't mass producing them for sale, there's no issue. The thing I like about the Select Fire receivers is their quality. Put one next to a cast factory receiver, and you'd choose the billet machined 80% one every time. For anyone who wants to do it, I've got all the bits you'd need and a drilling jig that makes it almost foolproof. I'd be happy to loan them out to anyone who wants to try it

I've got a Kidd bolt, too which ships with light, medium and heavy springs. With the medium or heavy spring installed I don't get much. It seems to slow it down enough to make the difference. I'd like to try one of the toggle bolts, though. I like the capacity of a 10/22, but have no issue with being required to actuate the bolt.

Let me know if you want to meet up and shoot one of these days. I'm happy to bring the 10/22 I did from an 80% receiver last year specifically to shoot suppressed SSS's, and I'm also glad to pull my Kidd trigger if you'd like to try it on your rig. Gordon and I talked about a project I'm contemplating the other day. I've got a couple of projects in front of it, but I'd like to build out another 80% receiver in .22WMR but experiment with making the equivalent of a SSS round in .22WMR. I'd have to talk to David about bullet choices, and expect I might even have to make my own mold. But, it has potential to be a lot of fun. I'm really interested to see how you like that toggle bolt. Edit: adding this so I can find it later - http://www.gun-tests.com/performance/apr96reloading.html

This really surprises me out of one of the Talo models, though this isn't the first report I've heard of the flaking. Seems like they would make good on it, though. Since their whole business is built around their customizations, it doesn't serve them well to have substandard parts out there.

Yep. And most of them still are.

Kidd trigger group is the best out there. Hands down. I've got a 8oz./1lb that's adjustable down to 3oz./6oz. Even at 1lb, it seems like after you take up the first stage, all it requires is a thought to fire the weapon. Tony makes the only trigger I'll use in a 10/22. I'm excited about that action. Be sure to post a review.

One thing remains consistent about the DNC...They've yet to meet a sure thing they can't screw up. Maybe we have hope, yet.

My kids were getting ready for bed tonight as I read this the first time. My oldest daughter, who is five asked me what was making me sad, and we talked about your niece. I can't even fathom losing one of my children. Life is so fragile...