MacGyver

I've got a 1946 model in .300 Savage that's been through a few folks here. It a great running, great looking rifle.

Man. A whole lot of lives changed in one stupid, avoidable incident. You owe it to society at large to keep your weapon secure.

Nice. Congrats!

I was afraid to open this thread - thinking they were somehow marketing a new membership level to evangelicals. At least it wasn’t that. I’m to the point that I really believe that the NRA may simply have too much baggage to continue to represent gun owners without spending at least as much time defending themselves. This wouldn’t be a terrible situation if there were other groups that could muster the resources to fight court cases while the NRA takes the heat. It’s clear that what got the NRA to this point won’t get them where they need to be in the future. I’d love to see an advocacy organization that’s as diverse as the gun community is. But, it’s also clear that anyone that wants to boot LaPierre and the current leadership structure better get up pretty early in the morning. Oliver North just found that out the hard way. There’s still a lot of money - and a lot of power at stake. They care about that more than they do the second amendment or anything else. They’re not going to give it up without a bloody fight.

While I’d personally probably give them a bit of time to make it right, if it’s recent, you’ve probably got options with your ban or credit card company.

A million dollars won’t come close to opening a modern range. The HVAC and air filtration alone run more than that.

Those are some pretty sweet specs for the price. Looking forward to a review.

Apparently the building that Shoot Point Blank is in is for sale as well: https://www.crexi.com/properties/155057/memphis-tn-shoot-point-blank This is curious - though I expect it's a pretty smart corporate play to recoup development expenses while locking in a low lease rate for the next 15 years.

Even the major players here in middle Tennessee have had a tough time making a go of it. The gun business is hard. You’re a brick and mortar showroom for people to go handle stuff that they’re then going to buy online. Inventory cost is high. Margins are low. Zoning restrictions abound. Someone walks into your range and shoots themself. It’s hard to do well. There ought to be a “basic gun store finance” class for anyone looking to open a shop. It ought to go into the horror stories in detail - because they happen more often than they don’t. I’ve seen more retirement accounts cleaned out than I care to think about. Even the big boys have looked at hemorrhaging bank accounts and tried to enter mergers to stop the losses. We need good shops. We need to support good shops. It’s a shame that there are so many bad ones.

I’d love to see the details on this - and especially know if their employees found out the same way the public did. But, I expect it’s a iteration on the theme of, “running a business is hard - and so are finances and taxes.” Expand your business in boom times and make dumb choices - it’s easy to run into the ground when things turn.

Yeah, it’s hard to say. I’ve increasingly thought that LaPierre should step down over the last few years. But it’s a hard call on who should replace him. It’s sure not Chris Cox. I’ve got some thoughts on what advocacy should look like in 2019, but I just don’t know that the NRA is ready to change much from what they already are.

He probably should have studied up a little bit on how Wayne and his friends engineered the original takeover of the NRA. It is interesting to consider that Oliver North is probably far more popular amongst the NRA faithful than is Wayne LaPierre or Chris Cox. I don’t see this settling down soon. Not do I see it being particularly helpful to the organization at large or the 2nd Amendment in the near term.

Oh, I like that.

It’s crazy that they’re airing their political grudge match in open at the convention: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/nras-wayne-lapierre-says-he-is-being-extorted-pressured-to-resign-11556314763 They don’t even need to anti-gun crowd to run it into the ground.

All of the above said, having the ejector on the mag is an issue for me. If you want to drop a magazine with rounds still in it and render the weapon safe, you're going to have to rack the bolt and manually remove the round that's still going to be attached to the bolt face. That's less than ideal.

I've got a Glock-pattern lower for exactly the reasons above. But, the weakness in all of those platforms is the jankiness of the bolt hold open - it's less than ideal on all of them. You should never have to read in a manual - "if it doesn't work, bend it until it works better." The fact that the BHO works as designed on this one is a big draw. Couple in the fact that you can use your same mag pouches, and mag changes, etc are the same as on 5.56 - it's a compelling feature set. If I was looking to move to the platform - I'd at least give this a hard look. At $30, I'll probably pick one up at some point just to test and play around with.

I’d like a short, blued .44mag, too. Cimarron makes an 1873 in .44mag, but they’re hard to find and expensive. I guess Marlin makes the 1894, too. But the fit and finish between it and the Henry should be miles apart.

Well...dang it. That’s a fun rig in 35 Remington.

Sounds like a fun Arduino or Raspberry Pi project with a couple of limit switches.

Paging @mikegideon and his Quickload license... Or @RED333 or @leroy - they’ve probably loaded more .44 mag than most of us will ever shoot.

Off topic - but if you ever get the chance to parse through the mail that comes to your church, you should. Truthfully, I regard the above flyer as “senior ministry is hard and it’s something not many feel called to do. If they like Branson, they’ll like this” But, some of the mailers that come through are truly bizarre.

I just found it a weird juxtaposition that I didn’t expect at all when I opened the mail. They can put red noses on the pair of reindeer and take pictures with Santa on the forecastle of the Ark for all it affects me. It’s just interesting that on one hand you have a group that goes so far as to sponsor scientists to “prove” young earth theory. But, on the other hand you’ve got a giant Christmas village... My kids have been. I asked them earlier what their favorite part about it was, and they all said riding the camels. If I was close by and had some time, I’d check it out.

To bring this down a level, I was going through the mail at church on Wednesday evening and there was a flier for the Ark/Creation Museum in the stack. Greg, there weren't any coupons - or I would have saved them for you Rather they were advertising for group tours at Christmas. Now, mind you, I come from a conservative tradition - church of Christ. While my practice has changed somewhat from that of my ancestors - I still worship in that tradition, and the faith of my family before me has been absolutely formative in my faith. As such - I did not have a bucket to put this flier in, as the things it was advertising simply wouldn't have mixed in the conservative tradition of my upbringing. I give you, Christmas Village at the Ark Encounter: Christmas trees, zip lines, ice skating, and a wonderland of lights. My ancestors may have lost their minds over something like this. I'll admit that I don't quite have a bucket to put this in - but find myself a little less than comfortable with this whole "commercialization of Christmas" sort of thing from a group that I would have thought more conservative than me. But, if you see the above - and you're like "heck yeah, that's better than going to see the lights at Opryland for the eighth year in a row," here's a link: https://arkencounter.com/christmas/ It's even free after 5:00.

Filter the first chapter of Genesis against the way the ancient Israelites understood their universe: Then filter that against our post-Copernican understanding of the universe with the earth orbiting around the sun. How does Genesis address the ancient Israelites, medieval people before 1543, and us today? Each of our cosmologies is vastly different. But yet, God still speaks to us. Looking at our understanding of the universe - and knowing how other peoples through time have understood it - I'm left to surmise that maybe it's in the story. But, I also try to read the story like my children do - and not get so hung up on things.

Something I've pondered a lot over the last few years is what if one day we get the chance to ask God all of those big questions, and the response we get it, "oh, you just weren't created to understand that."