peejman

This is gun forum. We, as gun owners, tend to be very passionate when someone infringes on our rights. Some folks are more passionate than others. Look at all the threads on restaurant carry, etc. Bicyclists are the same way regarding use of public roads. We, as gun owners, get pissed when the general public sees what lunatics like kwik do and then think all gun owners are just like him. That cyclist who rides down the middle of the lane and won't move over for anyone is the "kwik" of cycling. I had a similar discussion with my mother when I bought a sport bike. No Mom, I'm not that idiot weaving between cars and riding wheelies down the interstate while wearing shorts and flip-flops. He's just the only one you notice. No one notices the other 95% of motorcyclists who obey the laws and generally act like they've got some sense.

How is this different from everyone else on the road? In a word, yes. As the overtaking vehicle, it's your responsibility to pass in a safe manner.

Amen. (with minor edits)

Greetings!

A friend's mother nearly died from a broken tooth that didn't hurt. It got infected, the infection got into her blood and ruined a heart valve. She collapsed and had emergency open-heart surgery to replace the valve. They pulled the tooth too. So she got to see both the dentist and cardiologist.

The inset box on page 8 says the caliber is 40mm Luger. It really is a hand howitzer!

I enjoy it too when I can find the time. I grew up in Hixson, my Dad is still a member at Creeks Bend. I can't imagine how many rounds I've played there. Once upon a time I could shoot mid 70's. Lack of practice time has pushed that up to mid 80's. But I still enjoy it.

+1

+1. I can't say I'm ATGATT, but almost. As for not wearing the full face.... Wait until a june bug or rock from a tire tries to occupy the same space as you at 70+ mph. As for the claustrophobia, try focusing on something further away and/or wear the helmet around the house to get used to it. I feel naked without it.

I have similar experience and I think it's related to eye dominance. "Front sight" shooting for me requires left eye shut. Close range point shooting with both eyes open works reasonably... groups are big, but not unreasonably so. What I've read on this topic says that while I have a "dominant" eye, it's dominance isn't very strong. Hence, using the sights with both eyes open just doesn't work very well. I've read that you can train eye dominance by simply taping the lens in your shooting glasses over your non-dominant eye. You can then keep the eye open but it can't see anything. Practicing like this helps your brain learn to disregard the vision from your non-dominant eye when shooting. Eventually you won't need to block it and will be able to use the sights with both eyes open. Or so I've read.

Take the course. It's worth the $200 if your skills are rusty. Enjoy the insurance discount. One friend got a ticket for riding to the DL station to get his license. Another friend loaded his bike in his truck, hauled it there, unloaded, and then simply had to ride across the parking lot and back. I took the course. It's silly in some respects (as any government class is), but otherwise worthwhile.

You might try yet another assembly. I've gotten two bad ones before. After messing with one for an entire day, I don't replace piece-parts anymore. I get the whole "innards" kit and replace everything. Just make sure all the connections and sealing surfaces are very clean. Hard water deposits can cause all manner of leaks.

+1 I'm a bit surprised that there's not any huge roots in the ball. Seems like a tree that big would have some really big roots as well.

Interesting. I also went to my local DMV and got my renewed permit in 2-3 weeks (I don't remember exact days).

I've no personal experience, but I've heard good things about this place... Volunteer Vette

Amazing what a little context can do..... Amen. Amen again. People who don't live with a teacher have no idea how hard they work. They don't see the nights spent grading papers, the weekends spent at various school functions, the frustrating phone calls with clueless parents who don't give a damn, and the stress of dealing with 100+ kids all day long. All they see is the 6 weeks off in the summer and 2 weeks at Christmas and think it's a cake job. My mom taught high school math for 30 years. I made more at my first job out of college than she did after teaching for 20+ years. There's something wrong with that.

DSA has uppers w/o bolt, carrier, charging handle for $275. DSA ZM4 Forged 7075T6 A3 AR15 Upper Receiver - DSZM4CBU-D S Arms

I am a mechanical engineer and have designed a few springs. They're affected by a few things... Design - the spring has to be designed "correctly". Most of the time, coil springs can be designed for "infinite life". They'll go more than 1,000,000 cycles before failure, with little loss of stiffness. Magazines are fairly long and aren't round, so I can imagine this might not be as simple as it seems. I haven't run the calculations on one to verify. Assuming the spring designer accounted for the maximum number of rounds in the magazine such that the max spring compression is within the "infinite life" range... leaving them loaded to full capacity indefinitely will not hurt anything. Even when designed to their optimum condition, some coil springs can be damaged by compressing beyond a certain point (before coil-bind). Some springs can be damaged by compressing them to coil-bind. This is why some mags have a spacer in the bottom or follower designed to prevent over-compressing the spring. Those are both one-time events and typically cause permanent deformation in the spring. A loss of pre-load is the typical immediate result. Long term, a stress riser is created in the wire and can cause it to break. So if you take your mags apart, don't mash the springs. Some springs do have a finite cyclic life. The stress level during normal use is above that "infinite life" point and so they will break eventually. That's usually in the tens or hundreds of thousands of cycles range. That's lots and lots of rounds downrange. I'd guess that only the military or professional shooters would approach that level of use. And they probably don't use the same mags for that long. Quality of the steel wire is very important. Wire that has not been heat-treated properly will reduce the life substantially. Any nicks/dings/dents/gouges/kinks in the wire can reduce life substantially. Those can be caused by dirt/debris or poor forming during manufacture. Keep your mags clean. If you do take them apart, inspect the springs and housing for signs of rubbing, look closely at the wire for damage. Brand new Chinese made mags, 60 year old milsurp mags, 40 rd mags in a gun designed for 20, aftermarket vs. OEM, .... all of these things may matter. So after all that... the answer is generally no but it depends.

I'd suggest you visit Gander Mtn, BassPro, or other similar "outfitter" type stores. Most have lots of packs available to try on and compare features. I have a no-name brand (Outdoor Products maybe?) day pack that I bought at the DayHiker in Gatlinburg several years ago. I think it was about $20 and has worked great. Big enough but not too big, drink pockets, nice padded shoulder straps and hip belt, sternum strap, etc. I hiked with it a lot and it's held up very well. The only thing I wish it had is a pocket for a hydration bladder.

I'm certainly no expert, but here's what I know... photography is all about light management. Lenses are more important than the camera (and tend to be priced as such). No camera can take good pics using a crap lens. If you're using the built-in flash on the DSLR, back up from the subject and use the zoom or digtally crop. Close-ups with the built-in flash tend to over/under expose and throw ugly shadows. Ring-light flashes or dual off-axis flashes work very well ($$) for close-ups. No flash can work too if you've got decent ambient light and a very steady hand or a tripod. If using the tripod, use the shutter timer feature so you're "hands off" when the shutter snaps. This allows the camera to stop shaking. Bland, non-reflective backdrops work well for highlighting the subject. That said, there's something to putting an object in a particular situation to highlight it (e.g., hunting rifle leaning on a fence post). Controlling the depth of field (area in sharp focus, related to aperture size) is important in those situations. Rifles are particularly hard to photograph because they're so long and skinny. It's basically lots of trial and error... move the subject around several different ways, move the lights around several different ways and learn what works best. Digital is wonderful for that since you get instant feedback and can simply delete the ugly ones. Here's some good info... Digital Photography Techniques

Get one of these and put it on your desk. It's more indicative of what you really do... In a past life, I had a sign hanging at my desk with a train engineer's hat and a firefighter's hat... In big letters it said "which hat do I get to wear today?" My boss didn't think it was funny.

Just try different ammo. Smaller guns tend to be picky with what they'll feed reliably. Google a bit and see what other TCP owners use. Lots of .380 people just use ball ammo for the (potentially) increased penetration.

You sir, have the single most sucky job in all of modern manufacturing. I mean that in the nicest way. While I've never been a Quality Manager, I've been an engineer in factories long enough to know that I'll never be a Quality Manager. Manual laborers have a direct outlet to relieve some stress, both in the actual work and in the environment. Us pencil pushers trapped in a stuffy office don't get that (other than on the fax machine...). I get far more satisfaction from spending a saturday working in my yard than most anything I've accomplished professionally.

I like my 552 as well, plenty accurate and fun to shoot. I had lot feed problems with non-jacketed HP's. Runs great on any jacketed bullets.

Flat back vs. Round back.... care to elaborate? Photos to illustrate the difference?