Handsome Rob

I cast & reload for .45-70 already, which is one of the big selling points for me. Almost as cheap to shoot as .22 LR! Just out of interest, for my High Wall I load a .458", 405gn bullet over 50.6gn of Varget. I get about 1650fps out of a 30" barrel. ILP, What's your loading with 2400? I'd like to try something other than Varget. My load has plenty of pep, but isn't as accurate as I'd like.

I may be buying a Marin (pre-Remington) 1895 SS this week. Seems like a decent deal at $500 & I know I love the cartridge, but I've never owned or shot a '95. Can I get some opinions on the rifle please? I know there's a bunch of you that have them, so, what's to like, not to like & what should I look out for? How's the recoil? The only .45-70's I've shot are Sharps, High-Walls & Springfields. All heavy guns with 24"+ barrels. This model has the 18½" tube, I beieve.

Isn't the National Guard technically a militia? Civilians called upon to support & perform military duties as & when the need arises?

She just prefers the simplicity of black & grey. She likes simple things

Well, since we're bringing Wives into it.......

We'd need a campfire & a few beers.....

Here y'go..... The gauge in my right ear is now at 1¾" My left ear is at 10ga top, 8ga middle & 6ga bottom. The lobe itself is split after a stretching 'accident' (Also resulting in 3 lost teeth.....not mine ) Labret is 14ga as is my Earl. You may also be able to pick out the scars on my right eyebrow....used to be 7 12ga rings in there. I've also had both nipples pierced & had a few in m' junk, but they've all been removed now My tattoos don't mean a damn thing. My left sleeve was something I designed & traced out myself. The wrist piece on my right arm was done drunk at a bike rally, The right bicep done by a 16 year old (I was 15 at the time) in his garden shed & was my first. The rondel on my right shoulder was done after I plied the artist (also responsible for 90% of my sleeve) with class 'A' narcotics for 24 hours straight, a lifetime ago. We'd both been up & about & doing a lot of drinking & 'other stuff' for about 48 straight hours. The fact that it looks even remotely like it was supposed to is a pure miracle! *DISCLAIMER* I don't do anything like that any more. I was a whole different person 15 years ago!

I started on this particular build prior to the shorty Frankengun, but just got it finished this afternoon. It started off with a stock I found at the County dump. I think it may be from a Cabelas sporterized Hawken, but I'm not sure. I pursuaded an Investarms lock into the mortice, without too much hassle, which leads me to believe it's a Lyman/Investarms/Cabelas gun. The Barrel is another .50cal T/C Hawken I picked up on EBay, minus sights, rib & nipple. I had the Lyman globe sight from another gun & fitted a Skinner rear peep. Track of the Wolf supplied a suitable under rib & thimbles. The trigger guard is a Lyman Trade rifle. I fitted this simply because it was the nearest thing I could find to the correct pattern, without having to do too much chisel work which, as we've already seen, is NOT my strongest talent! The trigger unit started as a double-set set I replaced with a Davis Deerslayer on my GPR. I removed the set trigger & all associated gubbins, stoned & polished it to within an inch of it's life (along with the lock internals) to produce a creep free, clean breaking, zero overtravel, 2 pound break. It took a little re-inletting & maneuvering of the trigger & guard to get everything lined up, so the trigger wasn't right at the front of the guard. That was actually the toughest part of the entire build! Again, please forgive my sloppy workmanship. Wood confuses me! I still need to blue the rib & thimbles too. Once again, the total out of pocket build cost (not including the parts I already had) came in a shade under $100 & from my few shots today, seems like it'll make a FINE gun for the range!

I'm just getting started in Tenkara. So far, I've not even wetted a fly, but I'm hoping to this weekend. There is a TON of great info on Tenkara, plus some of the best deals I've found on rods, lines & flies, here > http://tenkaraflyfish.webs.com/ I've got the Fountainhead Caddis 330 rod with the 5:5 action. I am amazed at how delicate it is! I fly fish with furled leaders & I love their soft flexibility, so I decided to go with a furled Tenkara line also. I'll see how that plays out, I guess. Like you, I love the simplicity of the system. A rod that collapses to 21" & weighs about 2 oz, no reel, a simple line & a fly.

Okay, I just HAD to go & redo the under rib. I found another piece in my parts bucket & it now reaches from stock to muzzle. MUCH better!

'clips' *facepalm*

I thought it sounded hokey. Obviously Dick's are just making it up as they go along. Thanks guys. For those that don't know, I'm not a US Citizen, or Permanent Resident. I am a Non-Immigrant Alien, here completely legally on an investment Visa. I am legal to purchase & own (but not carry) any & all legal firearms, just like the rest of yer! The reason I brought this up, as much as my concern, was that the credit card machine asked automatically if I were a US Citizen as soon as the ammunition was swiped at the point of sale.

Left arm........tingly.........mouth........watery.......*nnnnnnnggggghh*

Anyone heard anything about a new law regarding ammunition sales? I got ID'd yesterday at Dick's in Murfreesboro, to buy 2 boxes of .270. They also demanded to know if I was a US citizen & refused to sell it if I couldn't produce my passport & Visa. I was told that it was a new law, recently passed in the state of Tennessee. I told the manager to go **** himself & bought it from The Outpost with no hassles at all. They said they'd never even heard of such a law. I'm guessing it's just one of Dick's stupid policies. I mean, I get the ID thing, just as proof of age, but when has it ever been illegal to buy ammunition as a non-citizen?All I know is, Dick ain't getting another red cent out of me.

As you can plainly see, my gunsmithing skills leave much to be desired! I know I could've fitted everything better & at some point I may come back & redo everything, but for now I'm happy with a small, light & ridiculously cheap ( total cost for the gun; $42.50) brush gun that I can drop, throw around & generally abuse without feeling the slightest bit bad! Horrible! Ghastly! Eeeeewwww! Previous owners Needs must! (couldn't think of a better solution.) Sub MOA? I think not!

Thanks guys! Dave, let's do it!

I just got done cobbling this together. It's a T/C White Mountain Carbine stock, rebarrelled with an Investarms .50 Cal, slow twist tube. I completely stripped the barrel & hacked it down to 18". Recrowned it & modified the under rib to fit, along with adding a second thimble with a sling stud. So far I've only tried 3 shots through it at 20yds but things are looking promising for it to be a fine, short range pork popper.

We've had Directv since we moved here & while they have their fualts, I wouldn't switch to Dish if it were half the price. Everything I hear about the company, their policies & their service sucks.

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=029625;p=1 I hope it's OK to post this link. It's not specific to any particular part of the country & it's not even gun related, but it contains some of the BEST hog hunting tips, tricks & techniques on the net. The hogs we have around the WMAs in east TN are particularly difficult to hunt, with any measure of success. They are VERY wide ranging & they don't really seem to have a home territory. I have a good bud, over near Maryville, that has some private land he hunts just outside of Pigeon Forge. The place is absolutely torn up by pigs & he has over 300 pictures of hogs on his game cameras. In 3 years, neither of us have ever actually seen one! They're almost exclusively nocturnal & it appears that they're constantly on the move.

I'm going to be picking up a brand new rifle tomorrow & as I've never owned a new 'un before I was wondering; Do I need to do any cleaning or de-greasing before I shoot the thing, or can I just slap on the optics & go nuts? Do new guns usually have a 'break-in' period (I've only ever dealt with black powder before & that needed more than 100 shots to get 'settled!') Also, now you're here, I need advice on ammunition. It's a .270win & I'm going to be using it solely as a deer rifle with my longest shot being possibly (although hopefully not) out to 300yds. I've read a lot of online opinions telling me that a 130gn bullet is about the ideal, but there are so many loadings for this thing (I'm used to, as I say, round balls or .303 Brit!) that I really have no clue where to start. I know the ideal would be to buy a box of each & see what groups the best, but I don't have a further $400 to buy 20 of everything! Those of you with hands-on expereince with the .270, could you please give me your opinions. It's a Weatherby Vanguard, if it's any help.

I'm going to be picking up a brand new rifle tomorrow & as I've never owned a new 'un before I was wondering; Do I need to do any cleaning or de-greasing before I shoot the thing, or can I just slap on the optics & go nuts? Do new guns usually have a 'break-in' period (I've only ever dealt with black powder before & that needed more than 100 shots to get 'settled!') Also, now you're here, I need advice on ammunition. It's a .270win & I'm going to be using it solely as a deer rifle with my longest shot being possibly (although hopefully not) out to 300yds. I've read a lot of online opinions telling me that a 130gn bullet is about the ideal, but there are so many loadings for this thing (I'm used to, as I say, round balls or .303 Brit!) that I really have no clue where to start. I know the ideal would be to buy a box of each & see what groups the best, but I don't have a further $400 to buy 20 of everything! Those of you with hands-on expereince with the .270, could you please give me your opinions. It's a Weatherby Vanguard, if it's any help.

Ooof! LOL!

Just post your comment here. You can piss me off first-hand!

Bony??? Where on earth are you finding the bones in Gar? If you fillet out the 'backstraps' for want of a better word, there are no bones at all. It takes a little practice & you need to forget everything you know about cleaning fish. You'll need a pair of tinsnips (yes, really!) & a knife. Punch a hole through the skin along the back of the fish, just behind the gills. Insert the tinsnips & cut all the way down the spine to the back of the dorsal fin. Cut down the fish behind the gill & down the back of the dorsal fin creating a 'flap' of skin, the full length of the fish. Insert your knife & skin the fish as you would a deer. You can now insert your knife into the meat along the spine & fillet out the two backstraps, just as you would a deer. You'll get a really nice, clean fillet of pure white flesh, without a single bone in it! The only further step is to clean off the light grey colored connective tissue on the outside of the flesh. There's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't taste too nice. When you're cooking Gar, you have to make sure to NOT overcook it. It can get very rubbery if overdone. I like to use Zatarain's crab boil or Southern Fish Fry on mine.

Ah, my apologies, I've just seen that you are in the extreme west! There's not much you can do to stop 'em hitting set lines really. They're voracious predators & they'll pretty much take anything you put in front of 'em.