musicman

HAAAAHAHAHA! That's awesome!

Not everyone drives a truck. ;-) Also, the importance and usefulness of a large towel in the vehicle at all times cannot be overstated. That's one item my Dad has taught me to always have in hand, and that has been invaluable throughout the years. In fact, whenever I get another car, I purchase a set of quality towels and handcloths specifically for that vehicle. Great for cleaning, emergencies, a clean place on the side of the road for fixing flats, and also concealment of valuables. You guys DO know that houses get broken into as well, right? I doubt that with any reasonable cost one can COMPLETELY prevent theft. We choose our perception of a given reality and make our decisions based on that.

Fellas, git yerself a padded electric guitar gig bag. Perfect for a rifle and you can fit 7 or 8 mags in the front pocket of most of them. You just look like a rock star, not a paranoid gun nut. Appearances are everything. That's all I'm gunna say.

What I will point out is that the correlation of firing pin pressure required vs cost of ammo is not something that necessarily relates. And actually, the idea above that cheaper ammo may need less of a whack often turns out to the be opposite. A round's "power" as mentioned above comes from the powder charge (type and weight) in correlation to projectile weight, not necessarily the primer. It is the hardness of the primer cup that can lead to misfires with light strikes. Some brands of primers are consistently harder than others. This does not have anything to do with the priming charge, though that is another variable that CAN have an effect on overall "power" of a round, but generally much less of an effect than the powder charge. Just wanted to define those distinctive differences as that may help in understanding the situation. As Dolomite said, cleaning the firing pin channel is the absolute #1 place to start. Good luck!

I've always wanted a J frame, but have never had one. I bought one last week for "Her." ;-) I just got a j frame :-D

I had an AR blow up in my hands (thanks, Ultramax) at On Target years ago... about a month later I was in there and one of the guys says "I got something of yours" and hands me my dust cover. They found it down by the backstop. Haha! Unrelated, but I still get a chuckle every time I think about it. :-)

Just bought my second Shield... wife wanted one and I wasn't giving her mine! She also has a Smith 638 (that's the j frame with the enshrouded trigger) coming that she doesn't know about. Love the Shield, and I'm just a Smith fan in general. Yes. I'm biased. :-)

Haha! Awesomesauce. I'm of the mind that there is no such thing as too much of a valuable, durable good, as long it doesn't disproportionately cost you in terms of other necessities. I have an office cabinet drawer full of empties/new, a go bag full of loaded, and a maybe another dozen loaded in other locations. I usually buy another 2-5/month in general just because. They make for great trading equalizers now, and it's nice to be able to just give a few to help out someone who just contracted EBR disease without worrying about my own stash. My favorite mags are the Israeli E-Landers steel mags. Mako Defense just ran a great deal on them Thanksgiving week and I couldn't resist. They're stupid tough, but a littlw heavier than standard GI mags. I'm starting to have second thoughts about PMags and other poly mags in general. For some of mine that have been stored for a long time I'm seeing a round popped out every now and then, and I don't like the swelling feed lips making mag insertion a little more effort. I seriously doubt the E-Landers will EVER have those problems. Nope, they won't bounce back after getting run over by a truck, though. Whatevs. Mags. Cuz Freedom holders.

Gunna look into the pool shock! Never thought of that. And the pencils are a great idea, too. Great list, thanks!

Yep. There can be a whole 'nuther thread... nay, another FORUM dedicated to that discussion! I pray it never comes to that but if it does, I hope I'm more Rick and Carol and less Dale and (recent) Morgan, lol! I guess I want to refine a point in my OP. I guess my mind in this scenario is a few months past the intial collapse/chaos time frame. Did anyone watch Revolution or Jericho? (Revolution was terribly hokey, sorry I brought it up!) I'm working hard to hopefully get where we can be as self-contained/reliant as possible for roughly a season. My thoughts were about after that... what kind of stuff would be cheap now but valuable in the future if the traditional economy changes from what we know now. I think about this because as it stands now I don't know that I have many valuable skills when there is no longer a service industry economy in the US. I've never farmed, never hunted, just do basic mechanicing (izzat a word?) very little construction, etc. I'm looking for other ways to increase my value on hand, as I work to learn more skillsets. And the points about keeping home base unknown/hide the stash are well taken. Something else I've thought of... cheap pocketknives. I think I'm going to just keep an eye out for anything that looks half way decent that can be had for a couple bucks. Heck, who can't use a pocket knife any time now, much less in a zombie apocalypse, lol! And no, no ProTechs will be up for trade!

We've shot them all... just gave my wifey another Shield (I already have one for myself) today for an early Christmas present. She likes the slimmer singlestack of the Shield and it's comfy shootability. I don't disagree and figured it'd be nice that we both had the same carry pistol. Now I have a bunch of Shield mags, lol! The value proposition of the Shield vs the XDs or XDM2 is nothing to be sneezed at, either. In the XDs favor, I believe there's some factory promo for free extra mags and case or something via mail-in certificate with purchase right now.

Mossberg Maverick 20g youth model. Under $200 brand new. Heck, I'm tempted to get one myself. Nice and small, that'd make a heckuva HD gun!

Ditto. My other favorite source is primaryarms.com I've finished my last two builds with stuff from them. PSA mostly carries their own line of stuff. Nothing wrong with that, but not the greatest variety. Primaryarms.com has tons of stuff, from basic to crazy expensive. Lots of neat dress up/customizable bits that PSA just doesn't fool with. Also, I find their shipping charges more reasonable, and I've received every order exactly two business days after placing it. That NEVER happens with PSA! Ha!

To add: I'd be happy to help with an oil change too, but I don't have the proper stuff for the coolant or transmission flushes. You're on your own if you want that! ;-)

Lol! @Raildog :-) As for the tuneup, honestly vehicles today don't need them in quite the same manner as decades gone by, for a number of reasons I think may be a waste of time explaining to you, haha! (No offense meant... just seems like you aren't a technical person when it comes to cars, so I would venture the details may be lost upon you.) Most spark plugs, coils, and wires (ignition system) are made to go 100k or more without problem or maintenance. Mainly just keep up with oil & filter changes, air filter, and coolant system. Depending on the vehicle a transmission flush and fill may be recommended by the manual around now, but I kinda doubt it on that one. Sometimes that can cause more trouble than it's worth according to some folks. If you're itchin' to do pkugs and wires as well, that's not hard either, but may take an hour two if the back ones are a pain in the butt to get to. I've got a bazillion swivels and joints, though. The back pair on my old Lincoln LS were a nightmare, and due to a crummy valve cover and coil design needed replacing often. :/ Anywho, if you wanna do that stuff too, I'm still down to help. I would recommend just getting the Motorcraft plugs that are original equipment for it. Don't try to get fancy, it never works out like one hopes. (Seriously.) If you DO want to do more of that work, I won't have time for all of that tomorrow, but might one evening next week. Just let me know.

Dude. Come to my house Saturday afternoon. I've been looking for a reason to buy myself the belt tool anyway, now I have it. Get your own belt and come on down. I'll be home around 2. PM for the address. I'm just off Sam Ridley behind Lowe's in Smyrna. Whatever shop you visit to purchase the belt, have your VIN with you. They can verify the proper engine/belt size that way.

Dude. Come to my house Saturday afternoon. I've been looking for a reason to buy myself the belt tool anyway, now I have it. Get your own belt and come on down. I'll be home around 2. PM for the address. I'm just off Sam Ridley behind Lowe's in Smyrna.

I'm a Nazarene, but in college I did visit Bedside Baptist and St. Mattress a few times.

Nope. No. Uh uh.

C'mon, you know you want them to put that brake on the Zombie 30-30! Hahaha! Maybe adapt it feed from modded AR mags, and put a light/laser combo in place of the tube magazine!

I don't really think they're that awesome. The bolts feel incredibly loose, and the whole action feels cheaply built and loose of tolerance. I've fiddled with a lot of them and have never been impressed. The ATR was not well received, and the Patriot just feels like a mildly revised doubletake. I'll say it again, like every other rifle thread, look at the Savage offerings in the same price bracket. Better build, tighter tolerance, greater value. :-)

Haha! Too true. But at least my house will smell good! :-D

I read an interesting article awhile back about the idea of becoming a trading center or shop in the event of a national destabilization. After initial turmoil things will eventually (hopefully) settle into a rudimentary trade/barter system. The idea of the article wasn't to go and buy a storefront and set up a 5 and dime, but to stock on some small, indefinite shelf life, cheaper (for now) things that will have great value in the future. Bar soap, lighters/matches, etc... anything that will be in need and can be traded. Having a fair/large amount of these items on hand can give a person/family a fair bit of leverage versus the unprepared as society begins to normalize, and can become a great profit center then for not a lot of cost now. Of course, the obvious con is that you may be killed for your stockpile of Irish Spring. What say you, folks? What are your thoughts about this idea as a whole, and maybe some specifics as to what you'd stock if you were to do so? This is not to be confused with a skill like carpentry, etc, ehere you can trade your work for goods. I am simply referring to the idea of stocking cheaper/smaller physical items specifically for trade.

It is a tough topic. I have two neighbors (households) that we actually plan together a little, and work towards complementary stockpiling (I get A, he gets B, another gets C, etc) according to our individual strengths/abilities. We have also been spending a little time and money working on some basic farming, but that's a little hard in a neighborhood.

So I'm lying here in bed and cross this thread again... just checked the Pro in my night stand. It's nicely below flush/recessed just a bit when looking at it from both the top and underside of the slide. I bought the gun used and it's easily eaten over 3k rounds since then. I have no idea what it digested previously. I'll still check my other ones later, but I would imagine they're similar because I think I might have noticed if that pin was protruding while cleaning them, now that I see exactly what you're talking about.