StPatrick

Well sh...ucks.

As I was making my way home from work earlier today, westbound near Cool Springs, I saw an airplane to the north of me.  It was quite a ways away, but something about the shape seemed different than the SWA 737s I'm used to seeing overhead.  Traffic was slow, so I was able to watch it, and decided it looked like a B-29.  My BIL is a fan of military history and lives in the area it was flying over, so I shot him a text to let him know to look for it.  As it turns out, he knew about the flyover and even knew the name of the aircraft - it was a B-29 after all, so I felt vindicated.       The name of the aircraft?  The Memphis Belle!  Finding out it was the Belle absolutely made my day.  That was a cool coincidence and a great opportunity to see a piece of American history in the skies, even if at a long distance.  Just Awesome.

  I got head-faked by FedEx.  I assumed when they tried to deliver something that required a signature from someone 21+ that it was the rifle.  Nope.  It was the ammo I ordered, so still waiting for the rifle.  Oddly enough, this was the first time I've ever had to sign for an ammo delivery.

I'd like to give a folding knife as a gift and am looking for some suggestions in the ~$50 range; the only things I'm set on are A) assisted opening and B) easily carried in a pocket.  I've got a Gerber Leek I'm very happy with, that's a possibility, but I'd like to see what more informed knife aficionados would recommend.   The gift is for a guy, so "cool factor" is worth considering, but function and form matter more than anything.   Thanks!

  That's the "big deal" part of the bill - it's not a tiny carve-out for Garands and Carbines in Korea.  ANY C&R eligible weapon would be importable regardless of the State Dept's wishes.  With the executive order language in place, this would be dependent on the administration in the WH at any given time, but it's an improvement over the status quo.  The entrenched 4th branch of .gov that is our federal bureaucracy is overwhelmingly anti-gun (among other things).

Dang...FedEx tried to deliver while I was at work today.  On the bright side, that means I'm picking it up tomorrow!

I look at gunbot.net to see how the market's moving, and thus far it's been in the right direction for shooters...of some calibers.  .223 / 5.56 is dropping as Russian steel-cased is becoming more plentiful, which will drive down prices on brass-cased plinker ammo like XM193 over time.  Additionally, I've seem PMC bronze 5.56 at <$0.50 per, so if a cascade of availability follows, we could realistically get down to 0.35 or so over the next couple months.  With as many rifles sold as there have been in the past 5 years, 0.25 per .223 / 5.56 seems unlikely to come back, but hopefully additional mfg. capability that's being added at the major ammo producers reduces the supply-side pressure on the market.   9mm will be more of a wait, I think.  It's the most popular handgun caliber after .22lr, its owners were afraid of a high-cap mag ban, and there were a ton of potentially "bad" guns sold between 2008 and the present,  which was the most active gun purchasing period in recorded history.  Everybody who had a 9mm and didn't have a pile of ammo seems to have gone and got theirs, and based on what's available, they're still working on it.  When we all go buy ammo, we're competing against a slew of new gun owners for the same supply, and will be until manufacturing capacity comes online, e.g. the new Remmy plant in AR.  Like 5.56 / .223, the cheap steel-cased stuff should start flowing in soon, which will abate some of the pressure, but I wonder if factory 115 gr. will be seen again at 0.18 / per.  Hope so.   7.62 x 51 has already stabilized, in that the basic range food is 0.75 or so and the good stuff still runs up to $2.00 a squeeze, just like it used to.  .30-06 has shown the same tendencies.  I cannot explain the market for .30-30 and won't try.   .22lr is still a hot mess.  My first guess on why this is so would be that every current gun owner has a .22 or six they love, so they stocked up when things started to go sideways, and the new owners needed rounds to feed new purchases.  Since we all tend to shoot a lot of .22lr, my guess is that it's the last to come back.   These are all my predictions, produced via the SWAG method*, so feel free to disagree.   *Scientific Wild-Assed Guess

Best next step is to PM Caster or Dolomite (Gordon).  .38 Super would likely benefit from the powder coating work Dolo's been posting about, though that's incidental.  Either should be able to help with powder and casting questions; the ultimate powder authority (and all other things reloading) on TGO is dlm37015.  You could contact him as well.

I tried linking a video in a recent post 2 x 2 different ways: as the youtube link or a tinyurl, both attempted as a "link" or an "image" based on the icons on the formatting bar.  Unlike what I'd seen in past posts, the images rejected the file type and showed a broken icon, while the link attemps just hyperlinked my original copy and paste job.  The previous were done in "preview post" mode.   What have I missed in order to get a youtube (or other services; vimeo et al) video to show a preview window in a post?   Thanks, David, for your soon to arrive instruction.

Saw this on TTAG today; here's the article: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/06/foghorn/bill-would-allow-importation-korean-m1-garand-carbine-rifles/#more-236181   Read it for the full details, but in a nutshell, WY rep. Cynthia Lewis has introduced a bill to bring M1 Garands and M1 Carbines home (with further implications): it looks like it would re-open the importation of C&R guns regardless of how State (which was Hilary!'s village, now Kerry's corral) feels about them.  I both wholly support it and doubt it has any chance of being enacted as law, but it can't hurt to make a phone call or six in support.  I want a carbine, as do many of you, and the CMP is out of them.  Were the bill to succeed, we'd all have a shot to get one.   Sure would be nice...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBKFoeDKJo   I'm missing something re: posting videos, so I'll tell you the above was the Beach Boys playing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" - Seemed appropriate.  Wish I could remember how to post easily-viewed videos as I'd done in the past. I'll save the details for the correct part of the forum.   EDIT: I caught the "KoreAND" in the titel after posting.  Sorry, TGOers.  Hopefully it's a happy accident that implies that other C&R eligible imports from countries other than S. Korea will be coming as well.

The Hornady manual has Garand-specific loads if you decide not to lock that rifle up in the safe. The CMP (thecmp.org) has Greek M2 for 0.49 / round if you're willing to wait 60 days or so to receive it.  Gunbot.net is showing plenty of Korean M2 available (0.59 per), but the word around the internets is that the Koreans used corrosive primers until the '70s, so that may be an issue to consider.  I haven't really looked into that, so take it with a grain of salt.

I purchased a Champion Trophy safe from the Nashville Safe House not long ago - good value / feature ratio in its price range.

If you'd rather go south than north, Tom Marker at Lock, Stock, and Barrel in Franklin has also been mentioned on here several times as a good gunsmith.  The store is just north of Mack Hatcher off 31.

  I didn't do any of the note writing or donating you did, so we'll see what I get in a month or so - I'm betting right now you end up with the better rifle, as those little things seem to make a difference in every other transaction...wish I'd done the same.  Now I may have to buy another one and be really sweet to them.  That's a problem I don't mind having.

  Or that one, which actually works.  I always get their .XXX extension confused with Numrich.

Heard back from the CMP - they're working on March 14 orders today, so it will be minute until they get to mine.  Looks more like 100 days for orders to be processed by the sales department at this point for those wondering about how long the process will take.  For those who have already gone through the process, are ammo purchases taking the same amount of time as the rifle itself?

Looks about right based on your portfolio to date.

  I'm sure you're already aware, but the Lyman manual has a section dedicated to loads for T/C firearms.  If you don't have a copy, I can loan you mine - I bought a couple manuals in anticipation of reloading, but will not be buying any gear until primers are available again.

First handgun was an XD(m) right after they came out...I had owned a shotgun prior, but no pistols.  Sometime around the time the XD(m) was released, I had gotten the idea that every man should be able to load, fire, and clean rifles, pistols, and shotgun of various designs just like he should be able to change a tire, etc.  It's still my nightstand gun, and I can do the load / fire / clean with pretty much anything that comes my way now, so mission accomplished.  I can even reassemble a Ruger MkIII on the 1st try sometimes.

I had this exact issue with a 1911, replacement of the recoil spring fixed it.  The nice thing is they're cheap compared to other fixes.  Wolff is generally regarded as the go-to for gun springs of all types: http://www.gunsprings.net

  You lucky dog...this gives me hope.  Go Irish.

  Sell some...anybody who's willing to pay 0.17 per round might as well give the money to you - your lack of selling isn't preventing those buyers from purchasing.  Heck, if you really want to ameliorate the guilt factor, sell some off for less than the current going rate.

  No kidding.  I'm at about 70 days right now and haven't heard a peep from CMP yet.

  Please share wheres and whens for those of us who might be interested in attending.

  I have a P229 by way of a 239.  I bought the 239 as a lark because a member on here was selling one at what I thought was a good price, and the only other pistol I had at the time was an XDm, which isn't very carry-friendly.  I ended up with the 229 because it wasn't much larger than the 239, but had a substantially larger capacity.  I'm a fan of Sigs because of the ergos (they don't fit everybody, but they fit me), the brand reputation, and the absolute reliability I've experienced over several thousand rounds.