wileecoyote

[quote name="Oh Shoot" post="1125032" timestamp="1394910557"]It's using a temp designation for a shopping cart and its contents "retrieveShoppingCart.cmd?cartId=dd211d919332cd3e7eff14d1cb86e9de". I imagine that sort of thing works on many cart interfaces used by various etailers, wouldn't expect Cabela's to be unique in that regard? - OS[/quote] Correct. Shopping cart functionality is indeed common on nearly every retail website. The difference is that most properly functioning websites still verify stock levels before you checkout, and do not allow you to pay for and complete the checkout process when the item is out of stock. If they do not inform you of a backorder or out of stock condition and they let you complete the order, then you naturally expect your order to be filled, only to find out later that it was canceled.

[quote name="Oh Shoot" post="1125007" timestamp="1394907497"]Yup. Lots of places charge shipping by cost of the order rather than weight. Sportsman's Guide is good example. - OS[/quote] I order from Sportsmans Guide all the time. Their shipping cost is indeed based on total order price, however it is capped at $19.95 no matter how much you spend, unless you order something excessively large or heavy which is marked in the catalog as requiring a special freight charge. I have received many orders from them which spanned 3-6 large cartons and weighed hundreds of pounds, yet never paid more than $19.95 for shipping, and I often get free shipping by using their many discount codes. I strongly dislike sites with high shipping costs, especially when they are not proportional to the actual shipping costs. I rarely order from MidwayUSA for this reason. Love their selection, but most of their prices are moderate to high, and their shipping is always high.

[quote name="serbu50" post="1125019" timestamp="1394908613"]I just called Cabelas and the lady said No blazers were in stock today. Strange. What has me curious is that ALL of those links show "in stock" until you click on it and the. It shows OOS... Something strange there. It is a hot link, so you'd think it would show OOS.[/quote] These links (there have been numerous ones in recent months) take advantage of a bug in the website code that bypasses the in-stock check whenever certain promotion code or shopping cart codes are used. Cabelas needs to fix it, this has been happening for months and disappointing many people.

Nice simple design. Thanks for sharing

[quote name="serbu50" post="1125015" timestamp="1394908374"]See, .08-.10 a round for a family day or nice spring day shooting is ok... It's the .17 a round that you might as well shoot 5.45 at .16 a round and move back to 300 yards.[/quote] 0.08-0.10 per round is NOT ok in my books, not when the normal non-panic price was 0.02-0.03 per round. If we all start accepting 0.08-0.10 per round as the new normal then it will never drop back down. Sure, I've purchased a few bricks for friends and students at $40 per box during the panic, but this was only to allow them to shoot when no cheaper alternative existed, and I only purchased this from private parties. If buying from a store or dealer I would never spend more than $30 per brick delivered, otherwise we will cause inflation.

[quote name="mcordell" post="1124996" timestamp="1394905402"] and BTW it just let me checkout again with another brick of blazer so maybe it's back in stock[/quote] I have been burned at least 4 times by these links in the past few months. The link apparently allows you to order a product which is otherwise out of stock. In most cases Cabelas will subsequently cancel and refund your order several days later. I have heard from several Cabelas reps that they will always cancel your orders if you place more than one order for a product with a limit of one per customer, so by placing multiple single orders you are increasing your already-high chances of getting nothing but cancellations. My only beef with Cabelas is that they need to fix their system not to allow and accept orders for out of stock items.

[quote name="Oh Shoot" post="1125003" timestamp="1394906579"]Rubber, nylon, polymer, plastic -- whatever --- all are "not metal". - OS[/quote] I agree all are not metal. However there is a huge difference between the various non-metal materials, and a big difference between the function of a plastic Glock guide rod and the nylon or rubber end of an AR15 buffer, which is why I replied to your post.

I have worked on, cleaned, shot, and inspected literally thousands of guns over the years. I have seen at least 6 Glock guns with defective or malformed plastic guide rods. The defects varied in severity but typically did cause functioning problems and made the guns less reliable. I have also seen quite a few guns which use plastic parts in many areas. Whether this is practical or reliable depends on many factors including the type of polymer used, location and function of the part, type of cartridge fired, and volume of cleaning and firing. But in general I have found it to be an unacceptable risk for a carry gun, at least for all the high-function high-stress parts, so all of my defensive arms tend to be all metal with only a few high quality polymer exceptions and even those guns must have metal parts in the right places. For my casual shooting Glocks which get moderate to minimal use I tend to leave the cheap factory plastic guide rods in place, not because I like them but because I dislike spending $30+ to replace them, and because a failure is unlikely to cause anything other than mild annoyance. For any Glocks which I shoot a lot or carry for defense, I always upgrade to a stainless steel guide rod. One other thing to keep in mind: most polymer parts can be weakened or ruined by various cleaning solvents and even some lubricants. I suspect this is why some Glock rods fail... I have seen more than a few well-meaning but uneducated owners using all sorts of chemicals to clean or lube the plastic guide rods, which may not damage them immediately but can weaken them gradually over time, thus my second-hand purchases are always closely inspected and often upgraded.

[quote name="Oh Shoot" post="1124845" timestamp="1394858025"]Oh yeah, AR-15 has partially plastic "guide rod" (buffer, which does mostly same thing) - OS[/quote] That's not true. The vast majority of AR15 buffers use a rubber or nylon bushing at the end of the buffer which does not contact or guide the spring, it only absorbs recoil when the buffer makes it to the end of the tube.

Well we can't really accuse them of price gouging unless we knew for sure how much they paid for this ammo, but 2 scenarios seem to come to mind... 1 - they got it reasonably cheap and are indeed price gouging. This seems at least a little unlikely, however, as so few of the smaller local shops have any 22 in stock at all, you would think they had to sell their first-born child to get 1000 bricks delivered under current market conditions. 2 - they had to pay a steep premium to get that much ammo, and are just selling it at a reasonable profit level similar to their other products. If scenario 1 is the case then they risk offending a lot of folks and losing business in the future. Thus they would be trading short term profit for long term loss, not a very smart business decision. If scenario 2 is the case then at the very least they are guilty of a terrible marketing decision, as they should have realized how bad the high price would be perceived by most, resulting in long term loss. A much better marketing approach would have been to explain their higher cost and offer to sell the ammo at or near cost, or perhaps even a little below cost to inspire other purchases and long term loyalty. So no matter how you slice it, they seem to have made a bad business decision. And they seem to have a special connection somewhere to have even received that much ammo to begin with. Unless the supply is starting to recover, in which case we should all be rejoicing soon. Hmmm....

I tried 4 other times to buy 22 from cabelas on similar sales in the past few months. Each time I would get through checkout, email confirmation, my card would be charged, and then 3-4 days later I get an email saying order canceled, out of stock. Pissed me off, especially because others who ordered after me got theirs.

...

At that price I'd sooner shoot spit balls or blow guns. That comes out to about $0.16 per round after tax, even more if you have to drive out of your way to get there. Crazy. I can reload 9mm for about $0.08 per round, and buy new 9mm for about $0.21 per round.

[quote name="TerryW" post="1118772" timestamp="1393734620"]Someone else said it already and I'll say it again. [u]Get one twice as big as you think you need.[/u] You won't regret getting a big safe but you WILL regret getting one too small. [/quote] I've researched and studied safes in depth for over 20 years. I have purchased, delivered, installed, customized, upgraded, and repaired dozens of safes. I have seen, used, and worked on nearly every major brand and some cheap brands too. I'd highly recommend getting several medium size safes instead of one really big one. Easier to locate and move, would take a thief double or triple the time to mess with them, and allows you to spread the collection out in different areas to maximize security and convenience. Any safe which weighs at least 400-600 lbs empty will weigh closer to 600-800 lbs when full, maybe even over 1000 lbs if you upgrade the fire lining which is easy / cheap to do and highly advised for valuable collections. Not something your average uneducated burglar is going to move anywhere too easily, even with a helper. There are also many ways of securing safes as well, to ensure they are not just carried away. It's often cheaper and better to get a medium safe from an average maker and upgrade it than to spend twice or even triple the amount for a single big safe from a high priced brand.

[quote name="Spiffy" post="1118149" timestamp="1393630854"]I'd probably just replace the whole sight if mine finally gave out. I know there are some guns that you have to send in the slide for vial replacement since the sights are regulated to the gun. The HK P7 springs to mind because I'd have to send in mine to get it done. Considering the time and shipping both ways replacing the sights is probably cheaper anyways.[/quote] New Trijicon sights for my Glock were $97 plus tax and/or shipping, so call it $110. Having my old Glock sights re-lamped by Trijicon cost me $57 plus $1.50 to ship to them, they cover return shipping. So call it $59 total, which is just about half price of getting new, and the re-lamped sights are warranted for another 12 years. I'll take that deal any day. I have the tools to remove and reinstall them myself, but if you didn't have the tools and experience then it might cost you quite a bit to have new sights installed properly, so that's another plus for re-lamped. My newly re-lamped sights arrive tomorrow via UPS so I'll post a review with photos soon.

[quote name="tbenedict" post="1123358" timestamp="1394586653"]On a separate, but related note, I heard Cabela's might be coming to NE TN somewhere between Blountville and Bristol....so we'll probably have tax from them too.[/quote] Many years ago Cabelas was great. I loved their catalogs and ordered from them several times a year. But they changed a lot after their major growth and the majority of their prices are quite high. They do have nice stores and a massive selection, but I almost never find anything there that I couldn't buy elsewhere for significantly less. Even when they do run a good sale once in a while, their high shipping or quantity limits usually kill it. I haven't purchased from them in years, and the last time I tried to buy 22 lr when they had it for $30 per brick in stock, and they canceled the order 1 week later because they didn't have it, even though other friends that ordered after me got theirs. So it's not exciting to see these big box high profit high traffic stores coming in. At least with Walmart you can usually save some money.

[quote name="teecro" post="1123258" timestamp="1394573221"]You do realize that legally you are supposed to be submitting the sales tax to the state? Sooner or later the states are going to mandate that we pay our sales tax on internet purchases....[/quote] I am aware of sales and use tax laws. I am also aware that the vast majority of US citizens never report or pay tax on their out of state internet sales. This is not a debate about tax law or compliance. It is about Buds opening a new outlet in TN which will result in mandatory 10% price increase for the vast majority of TN residents who would have otherwise purchased from them and not paid tax (regardless of the law or their reasons for doing so).

This is terrible news. The ONLY reason I (and most other TN residents) shopped with Buds was their low prices with cash discount, no tax, and free shipping. Of course we still had to pay FFL transfer fees which average about $25 per gun after TICS depending on your transfer dealer, but the transfer cost was usually offset by not having to pay tax so Buds was still a little cheaper in the end. Now everything will cost TN residents about 10% more for tax, and even local Sevierville customers will still have to pay TICS so we are losing all the way around. Sure it's cool to have another store to browse in or a range to shoot at, but if they stayed out of TN you could still buy all their stuff for 10% less, so what is there to celebrate? If you are willing to pay at least 10% more (plus 3% additional if you use credit card), then you will likely find the same pricing available at many of our existing TN dealers. And it's safe to say that most TN residents will not benefit from the local store since they are locating on the extreme end of the state, so this is generally a bad thing for most of us in TN. I hope it falls through or I will quit buying from Buds altogether. Even if they were still a few percent cheaper than other local dealers, most TN folks would be better off buying from their local shops given the high cost of gas and the long drive to get across the state.

I didn't participate last time because they were already sold out. But I just checked their site now and it didn't say limit of 2 anywhere. Nor did it show pics or a detailed list with specific quantities of all the good stuff to be sprinkled in, and I didn't see a maximum number of bags to be sold. So the odds of finding a valuable item in any bag were impossible to calculate this time around, but I still purchased 9 kits, just enough to get free shipping, and I hope to get enough cool stuff to giveaway to friends, family, and students which alone will make it worth the investment. If I get more than that then it's a true blessing.

Just received my 20 knives in the mail today from China. Packed well, individually sealed. I opened and closely inspected one, it looked and worked great, identical to the more expensive Sinclair Cardsharp unit I had previously received from the TGO secret Santa. I could tell no difference whatever, and have concluded that they are the exact same. Quite a bargain, I highly recommend getting them for $1.99 and not paying any more for a supposedly better unit. The only difference appears to be all marketing and packaging.

I'm in for a 308 set if they do a batch for group buy with TGO logo, just like last time. In fact I'd get two sets, and I know several friends that would jump in as well, just like last time.

Sounds like the OP got some great deals, should be worth it for sure. One thing about the 22 upper though... it's probably cheaper for them to shoot the centerfire... ;-) As for battle worn guns, it's an awesome idea, but they've been selling them by the millions for years. AKs and Mosins from all over the world, various US military rifles through the CMP, and of course my latest favorite... the AR15 parts kits from Vietnam which you can get for $400-$450 But perhaps once the libtards ban all the surplus stuff, there will be a market for "replica surplus" including simulated import markings and old musty slings, complete with a thick coating of cosmoline... :D

[quote name="enfield" post="1117934" timestamp="1393597403"]As I've been saying for years, follow the manufacturer's recommendation. They should know about the quality of the spring and the system it functions in. If the spring will become a problem during normal use, including keeping it compressed for years, they should know that and tell you. If they don't have a recommendation, then I'd keep the springs compressed and learn for myself. I'd rather have them fail in the safe than in combat. Failure is not a bad thing in itself. It only become a problem when it happens at the wrong time. Springs are cheap.[/quote] Good points, however keep in mind that most manufacturers are not going to state an opinion in writing either way, and calling to ask will get you an uninformed operator who doesn't know the engineering details or only guesses. And more than a few manufacturers (especially the cheaper guns or aftermarket mags) will deliberately use lower quality parts to keep costs down, without necessarily admitting it, so buyer beware. When in doubt (or at all times when you may rely on the gun for your life), you should not keep them loaded forever... rather you should unload and rotate them, test and inspect them periodically, otherwise they will very likely fail when you least expect it. As you say, mags and springs are relatively cheap so why chance it?

[quote name="quickbiscuit" post="1116498" timestamp="1393354654"]I was under the impression that Trijicon offered lifetime free replacement on their tritium sights. Is that only with their optics? I'm pretty sure the ACOG and RMR has this kind if warranty. Supposedly tritium vials last about 12 years?[/quote] Depends on the product and how / where you purchased it. I sent them some old Glock factory night sights which I removed from a Glock 19. They determined the age of this specific set was > 12 years old so they said they were out of warranty, thus they offered to relamp them for a discount which would give me another 12 year warranty.

Props to peejman and others for their very insightful and accurate replies. Let me offer some practical advice, coming from someone who has inspected and worked on literally thousands of guns over 30+ years... As peejman explained, a "properly designed" spring will not lose function if it was also properly manufactured and maintained, assuming it was designed for a high-stress, high-quality application over a specified lifetime. The trouble for firearms owners is that every manufacturer uses different criteria for the design, manufacturing, and expected service life of their factory magazines... and even when they "get it right" there are variances introduced by the actual manufacturers of the parts (often subcontracted) and by the owners / operators of the firearm in question. So when it comes to the question of ultimate reliability, such as in personal defense, the firearm owner is well advised to let caution rule the day, and frequently cycle loaded magazines on a rotation basis over time, and replace any suspect magazines as needed. I do this myself by rotating my loaded mags once a month, and replacing my "used" mags every few years or sooner if warranted based on actual usage and inspection results. Bottom line: when your life is on the line, don't rely on the cheap way out or third party advice. Inspect, test, rotate, and replace as needed to ensure optimum results.