peejman

You're lucky it didn't explode. Sucking up gas vapor with a shop vac is a recipie for a bad day.

In simple terms, TN is at its best in the far east and its worst in the far west, with plenty if nice places in between. The tri cities are is by far my favorite. As long as you're near one of the larger cities, I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding basic work.

We have an ipad2 64gb that I bought here for a very friendly price. I assume it works since my wife and kids don't complain about it. But they don't let me use it either...

A gun without one in the chamber is simply an expensive hammer. And they need to refilm those with a camera operator who can follow the action. Or at least try to stay in the frame.

Zero at 50 just gets you close at 200 if you can't zero at 200. If want to hit at 600, I'd zero at 200.

The Match Light issues was adding additional charcoal.  I generally have to add a couple hand fulls about every 3-4 hrs.  When I first fire it up, I let the charcoal burn for a good 30-45 mins before I put any meat on to make sure it's going properly and plenty hot.  The lighter fluid smell is gone in a couple minutes.    Interesting that you like cherry best.  I guess my problem with it is two fold... 1) it doesn't soak up water, and 2) Since i don't have good air control, I can't make it smolder so it tends to ignite.        You haven't tried beer-butt chicken on the grill?!?!  It's the only way I cook whole chickens on the grill.  Moist, and fall-off-the-bone tender in 30-40 mins.

Cool.  Love that kind of stuff.

    That's exactly what I did (other than the wife, she stayed inside).  Cup of gas in one hand, spray can in the other, rock next to the hole.  Pour, spray, kick the rock... over in about 5 seconds.  There were no escapees.  :)

Don't know how thick those sand bags are piled up, but it doesn't seem to do that much down range.  :shrug:

Wow.  Sounds like small town politics hard at work.

    I use charcoal for the heat with fist-sized chunks of wood (soaked) on top for the smoke.  I made a small grate out of expanded metal to get the coals up off the bottom of the pan, and drilled some holes in the pan so the ashes can fall out the bottom.  One of the initial problems I had with it was the fire getting smothered out by the ashes after 6-8 hrs of cooking.  I don't have a good way to control the temp, but so far that hasn't mattered.   I don't like much salt (don't need it either), so I've never brined a turkey.  The dark meat is my favorite so I like doing a whole turkey.  Plus I get lots of broth for soups from the carcass (turkey noddle soup, mmmmm...).  I have done just a breast a couple times, they're really good too and cook in about half the time, which is nice.    I do use the "water" pan, but I use a 50/50 mix of beer and apple juice.  So far, the type of beer doesn't appear to matter much so we just get whatever is cheapest.  There's two types of beer in my house, the good stuff for drinking and the cheap stuff for cooking.   My only "epic fail" involved using Match Light charcoal.... don't ever do that.  Pork roast with just a hint of kerosene... eeeww.                I've never found the type of wood to make a very noticeable difference in flavor.  It might with a wood fired smoker, but with charcoal + wood, I don't think it makes much difference.   I've tried a bunch of different woods (oak, hickory, maple, mesquite, apple, pecan, cherry, ash, ...) and so far, pecan is my favorite simply because it soaks up the water and smokes for a long time without burning up.  Cherry was terrible for that.

    This.   I work with guy who's a big bear hunter.  Dog season is terrible around here as there seem to be a number of irresponsible dog owners who's dogs get away and cause all manner of havoc.  But I'm not a fan of using dogs in the first place.    I feel sure that stalking one would be quite a challenge. 

      Good plan.  That's exactly what I did when I found a nest in exactly the same way last fall.  Thankfully I only got stung a couple times.   If it's reasonably cool out, the yellow jackets will be moving pretty slowly.  A few may get out, but that's about it.    Don't use a whole gallon.... 1/2 -1 qt should be plenty.  Bear in mind that the gasoline will kill most of the vegetation.  You'll end up with a big brown spot (if that matters to you).             Don't light it?!?!  Where's the fun in that?           Amen. 

I tried one and also hated the trigger.  And it's just got too many buttons and levers for such a tiny gun. 

  A byproduct of highly accelerated product development cycles.  The manufacturers are under such pressure to get the product to market quickly, they don't have time to work out all the bugs.  Been there, done that (doing it right now, actually).   Based on that description, it sounds like they've identified potential for there to be some molding flash or a burr on the lower trigger that could make it stick. 

Nice!  Love my K31 as well.  It's way more accurate than I am. 

    This is exactly what I have.  I've made a few modifications that make it work much better and I get good results with it.  I've never done anything that required a really long time (12hrs+).  The longest I do is a turkey at Thanksgiving which typically takes 9-10 hrs.  And yes, it gives me an excuse to sit around and drink beer all day.  :)   I'd like to have a bigger, wood fired smoker, but as you said, this little one is hard to beat for $50.          Agreed.  It works great on everything but the chickens.  Even when vacuum sealed, the meat still seems dry after being frozen for a while.  Don't have that problem with anything else. 

Best luck I've had with ribs on the grill is cooking them in the oven first.  225-250 for about 4 hrs, then put them on the grill long enough to caramelize the outside and add a little flavor.  Getting them on/off the grill can be a challenge.    I've got one of those small "smoker" boxes for my gas grill and can't tell that it does much of anything for the taste.    When I run my smoker, I pack it full.  I freeze whatever I'm not going to eat immediately.  The only thing I've found that doesn't freeze real well is chicken.  It dries out for some reason.  It's excellent when eaten immediately. 

I went up a saw it many years ago.  Pretty cool stuff.  Been wanting to take the kids to see it, but haven't be able to make it.  It's become so popular that you have to make reservations and they sell out fast.  There are other locations in the park where they can be seen, but Elkmont is by far the most accessible.    http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm

He who dies with the most toys wins.  If I had any money, I'd have lots of toys. 

    Not sighting in... building a FAL.  I'd like to have a bore sighter to verify the barrel/receiver timing is at least close before I set the head space.  I want a cartridge type bore sighter because there's a flash hider already installed on the barrel and I have little confidence that the crown on the flash hider is concentric with the bore. 

Anyone in the Maryville-ish area have a .308 cartridge type laser boresighter (as opposed to the muzzle mounted) they'd let me borrow? Yes, I know they're cheap, just thought I'd ask before buying one. This kind... Not this kind...

Kewl.

    :rofl:       In case anyone has ideas... the lodge is generally booked at least a year in advance.

$2000 a night to cook s'mores and spend the night in a tent on a 17th floor patio in NYC?!?  :stunned:    :squint:            :screwy:       http://news.yahoo.com/not-roughing-glamorous-camping-nyc-063114637.html;_ylt=AstKJ78E2c6pM681lhV5Ai8JVux_;_ylu=X3oDMTJhNWM1ZG5oBG1pdANBVFQgMyBTdG9yeSBKdW1ib3Ryb24gSG9tZSBDYWNoZWQEcG9zAzExBHNlYwNNZWRpYUF0dFdpZGdldHJvbkFzc2VtYmx5;_ylg=X3oDMTFkcW51ZGliBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3BtaA--;_ylv=3