Mark A

Premier night at my house is about as safe as it gets, the food is better and no screaming kids. Someone shows up in a costume better bring a real light sabre...

Do you like duck? Their eggs are good and they are much easier on the land. Very trainable as well.   they are so herdish it is funny. Get one going where you want it and the rest will trample you to join the first one... they also have  a bunch more eggs in them than chickens do...

4 in a month? Last week I had 4 in one day... Today on the way to the airport my destination twice and I ended up in Daytona Beach instead of LaCrosse. At least that one ended well for me. Tomorrow I'm off to Portsmouth VA.   Today was a new one. They swabbed my hands before I got to the regular TSA checkpoints...   Love to fly, hate flying commercial...   Still may end up in Lacrosse before turkey day...   And this time I didn't get to check a pistol as I didn't have time to check a bag. I don't even get asked why I buy hand tools in every city I visit anymore...

I ran through several boxes of their various 180 gr offerings when I was picking what ammo to take to Alaska. It all fed well and was as accurate as I am. I would buy more especially if I found a good deal.   I ultimately chose Buffalo Bore in both JHP and hollow point to carry up there. Didn't have a chrono but if "felt" 10 - 15% hotter and accuracy was the same. I don't know if that is a valid way to choose the ammo but it is what I did.   Cannot report back on effectiveness on bears as they pretty much left the entire state while we were there.  2 days after we got back a hiker killed a bear on the last trail we hiked on before leaving. Maybe I just smelled bad and the bears stayed away...   Mark

This summer I bought a 1500 gallon poly tank for harvesting rainwater. It took a couple days to come in and when they called it was already evening time. I backed my trailer up to the loading dock and went inside to let them know I was there. A young lady (guessing 18-19) verified my receipt and told me she would get the manager to help load it. About the time I got to my truck I saw the tank rolling inside the fence towards the gate. I quickly pulled my truck up to the gate and asked her where the forklift was. She said the manager was in the restroom with the key and didn't want to hold me up so she went out, tilted it on its side and headed to the gate. We pushed it up on the trailer and I thanked her for her help. I know these things don't weigh a ton but they are ungainly to move around by oneself. This young lady was maybe 4'10" and if she'd been wearing 2 sets of thick wool clothing she might have weighed 100#'s when standing in a hurricane. She had a problem, resolved the problem and thanked me for my business and went back to work. Every time I hear some crotchety old man like me make a comment about how worthless today's kids are I think about this young lady and smile to myself. There is at least one young adult bopping through life totally deserving to be here... Mark

Why be stingy? Show them how generous American can be...

This is interesting to me. A few years back I took a 1 day shotgun class from TN-popo I think. He suggested we bring some different types of ammo to profile what would work best in each of our guns. I searched the net high and low. If a brand sold 00 buck I got it. If the same brand offered 01 or 02 buck I got a box of them as well. And if they offered it in 2.75" & 3" I added all those options as well. I must have shown up with at least 20 different kinds of buckshot and 10-12 different slugs. After we ran through various drills he ask us to pick 1 or 2 of the best performers for some serious pattern testing. By then, Hornady Tap 00 light magnums was shooting head and shoulders above everything else out of my gun. So everyone got done and he handed each of us a few rounds of this new stuff called federal flight control. It was like shooting a laser beam... for everyone except me. The Hornady was still best in my gun. I spose I should get some critical defense and give it a whirl.... Mark

Well, I worked on the worlds smallest greenhouse again today. I'm also trying to set a world record on how long it takes to build one... Pretty sure it will be done before 2016 gets here... BY then, I may need to armor it instead of sheathing it in clear plastic...

  I have JP reduced mass bolts and springs in all my 308 ar's. Using adjustable gas blocks I've been able to get the recoil way down. It was mostly an exercise to see if I could but I was really happy with the results. My wife is recoil sensitive and she likes shooting them a lot. They also wear surefire brakes which I think helps a lot.

Not sure why you asked us anyway. Seems like it would have been easier to ask your in house expert!

I don't know anyone with one of these but I wish I had a good friend with one. Can you imagine working with a 3rd friend who is out of sight and hacks only with the one shooter. First shooter complains, second says let me try and everything is perfect. Repeat until laughter can't be contained...

Like Mac I also built one on a CMT upper and lower. Fantastic gun but it was built sort of high end on purpose. When Aero Precision came out with their set I built a value version. Worst AR build I've ever suffered through. Almost every single component had to be hand worked to get it to fit decently. My upper and lower from them were early generation and they may have addressed the issues but I can't recommend them from personal experience. My M&P 10 is still one of my faves and can be bought at a decent price. I took the front sight off and installed a rail and am very happy with the gun and it is more accurate than I am. Mark

1) nice 20... when we went to Alaska 2 years ago I tried to find a gen 4 20 but they were nowhere to be found. Settled for a 29 which is nice and shoots well but I still pine for a full-size. Maybe one day. 2) growing up in Chattanooga in the late 70's you got used to seeing a lot of Michigan plates on cars headed south for vacation. Some enterprising sort had a bunch of bumper stickers made that said: "would the last person from Michigan please turn out the lights" 3) had several friends date and marry girls from the upper Midwest. You could always tell who they were at parties. The southern girls all had wine coolers or some fur-fru drink. The girls from up north? Bourbon, scotch, sometimes with a coke, usually straight up. I always found that cool... Have fun with the new toys, Mark

Hate PayPal with a passion

Phones went off right in the middle of a table saw class. At least 3 of the students jumped and the instructor leapt to the saw assuming something bad was happening. Once everyone's heart rate went back down it was kind of funny

He'd obviously made up his mind he wasn't going back inside. My preference would have been for him to man up and off himself but this outcome is a very close second...

And apparently he took a shot at a KSP officer. Those guys don't mess around. He has a pretty impressive rap sheet

Bah!!! You can get burgers and BBQ anywhere. Take them out for some Hot Chicken! Big Shakes in Franklin is good   If you gotta have a burger Drakes is pretty darn good.   I should probably give Jack's another try. The one time I ate there it was terrible.   Mark

I love how the article says to report any sightings of his vehicle but doesn't give any info or description...   Should I call the hotline every time I see a car or truck?

Daytona has a lake... nice source of freshwater and there are fish in it.   A little closer to home, the Music City Center has a living roof. But, you are locked in downtown...   A local hardware store or CO-OP might have possibilities as well...

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2015/10/19/brazilian-man-bites-passenger-on-irish-aircraft-collapses-and-dies-woman/?intcmp=hpbt3    

As would I... Congrats on that. I know how significant that can be. Mark

Creates enough pressure to cycle the action? Thanks,Mark

So Friday's food sucks, their service is typically awful and they are very anti-gun. How do you boycott a place you already refuse to visit? I just don't get it. I was a restaurant manager for 3 different chains for a bit over 15 years. I did everything I could to get officers to eat there as often as possible. If their departments allowed it the food was always free. If they only allowed a discount then they always got as much as was allowed. And, if the department had a no discount policy (a few of the larger ones did) I would donate free food and/or gift cards to their fundraisers etc... Restaurants have an unfortunate tendency to get robbed. I wanted as many armed friendly faces around as possible. In the smaller towns in East Tn and East Tx that I spent a fair amount of time in it was very common for the officers to learn what time we closed out and come hang out in their cars while we made night deposits. The last company I worked for was primarily located in malls. During the Christmas season our staff would have to park a fair distance away. Several departments would offer to escort the employees to their cars as the wait staff in particular would often leave carrying a decent amount of cash. Did they do that because of a free burger? Of course not. They did it because they were professionals. Getting a discounted meal or a free cup of coffee on a cold wet night just made it easier for them to do so... Mark