Murgatroy

While I like the idea's fundamentals, I fear it's repercussions. Most welfare families have at least one person 'working' to keep the welfare. Most likely the mother. She will have drug addict children and a drug addict husband/boyfriend. All leeches on the state, but the applicant, the mother in this example, is drug free and passes the screening. No change. The more dangerous one is that this works. Suddenly have have +1,000,000 plus drug addicted criminals without a government subsidization for food, shelter and so on. The crime rate will sky rocket. I think it is bull**** that many of these able bodied folks are too lazy to work for what they want and demand handouts. But I think it is dangerous to cut them off and hope that they suddenly change their stripes.

112 in a 45. 3am. Headed across 411 Bridge. Vonore City Police. I got a free ride, three hots and cot. Lost my license for a year and made a rather large donation in a sum of well over a grand to the great town of Vonore. The officer asked me why I stopped. "You hit the lights, I was caught." That was over fifteen years ago. Last speeding ticket I ever got.

No, Ice Pick Nix is still alive, he was hit upper right. I read an interview somewhere that says he is done for the season, but may come back later as the producers were impressed with him. The episode was a little slow for me, but it had some great spots. Raylan and Boyd at the beginning was great.

I think the OP was asking about the guy that is asking for advice, but is being fed bad advice. I don't think this is about the guy not talking to anyone that is looking at a gun in the case and someone walking up to him and saying "XXX is better, and has a better trigger pull." It is about the guy holding the LCP and asking "What is the trigger pull like on this thing?" If the counter jockey answers "Short and super light," are you telling me that just walking away is the honest thing to do?

It may be wrong, but I often attempt to interject myself into the conversation when I hear comments that are off base. I am not an expert on firearms by any means, especially compared to some on this site. However I own quite a few, and I study up on them frequently. I spend a fair amount of time shooting and I am always eager to try something new. At work I have garnered the reputation of "the gun guy." Whenever someone at work is interested in a gun, or an opinion on a gun they come to me. I try to be as informative and unbiased as possible. I have taken several co-workers to shoot, and have helped a few more buy their first guns and given tips as they take the HCP class. There are no less than six folks in my office that have HCPs. I am often at a gun counter and I will overhear either a counter jockey or a customer giving advice. Most of the time it is simple stuff that is close enough to honest that I don't pay any attention. Sometimes it is complete bull hockey and I can't help but to interject. "No, a Glock 19 isn't too big to conceal, as a matter of fact I have one on right now." Other times I just have to walk away shaking my head because someone is beyond help. Like the guy who wants to buy a Taurus Raging Bull in .454 Casull for EDC. Most of the time I will find an easy in on the conversation, such as commenting upon the recoil or such of a certain caliber, and just join the conversation casually and offer a different point of view. Often I will be at a store with a friend explaining a few of the details of guns and a customer who is being ignored by the counter jockey will ask me the questions they have. I try to be as honest as possible, and if they ask me something I don't know, I tell them I don't know, but I also tell them where to look. With the advent of smart phones this becomes even easier, as it is possible to pull information up from the manufacturers website and give the facts that they might want to know as well. I understand it is not my job, and some folks might find it pushy to do that, but I have seen too many folks pushed into buying what the counter jockey wants to sell them, as opposed to what they honestly want to buy. Of all the counter jockeys I can think of in town, there is one that I really like, Steve, who works for Academy now, he used to be at Gander Mountain and Dicks before that. He is a good guy, will listen to what you want and offer up options and experience to help your decision. And I will also admit that sometimes my advice is biased. More of my coworkers have bought Glocks than any other gun.

Safety, and I am sure the cost isn't as extreme as some would think. I honestly believe that the thousand or so dollars it costs to outfit the cars like a rolling KISS show is well worth it to keep both the officers and the citizens they pull over safe. Given how folks drive, or should I say, text, eat and otherwise while operating a motor vehicle, I feel more comfortable with the disco lights going on the side of the road.

The only time I expect something factory new is when I buy it in a sealed box from a dealer. If I am buying something from a private seller, it is used. Either lightly used or heavily used and the price I pay will depend upon that. Sometimes when you are selling something it is just easier to say "As New" and then explain to an interested buyer that your cousin's neighbor's best friend's aunt bought it, looked at it and then put it back in the box. If you get into all of that on the first date, folks will easily forget that they are buying a nice item at a nice price, and instead think of a way to jew the price down since someone else's dirty fingers fondled the prize. Does it really make a difference that two people touched it? I can understand going to look at something advertised "As New" and then discovering that it had been handed around the locker room after a football game and being upset, but to discover that someone else took it for a test drive before you? No.

I wrote to my congress critters this morning about it. I do think it is a bit ironic they are after the First Amendment this time instead of the Second.

That will be a decent viral campaign.

I am excited, wish I wasn't so sick, but I will be staying up no matter how bad I feel.

Same here. I made it to the point where Eli and Bohannon have their fist fight, but I just couldn't keep excited about it after that.

I was raised in a family of loggers. I am the one that left and went off to college and starved for nearly a decade while they all raked in the money. Things have changed a bit now. Pulpwood is where the money is now, there is no money in lumber. Have you taken into consideration of how you would load and haul the timber? Granted, my family (we ran four different cut crews) had the money in equipment. We had skidders to drag it out with, we had front end loaders to load it with, and we had log trucks to haul it to the mill. We cut both lumber and pulp. It was nothing to spend $10k a month just in fuel. Lumber is what you build houses with, pulpwood is what you get paper from. I spent a good chunk of my youth learning to run the equipment, but sadly I never learned the business aspect of it. I do know that the bottom fell out of it, and the only reason my cousin isn't bankrupt is that all the equipment was paid for before is father passed. I honestly don't see where the money is to be made in it as a start-up hobbyist. To cut the timber to the point where you can haul it out with a 4x4 you just cut it too short to be used as lumber. A decent boom truck would run you over $8k to haul it out with, and that doesn't even take felling it or getting out to a landing into account. If you want to buy a few acres, sell the standing timber and then get a percentage of it back in lumber to build with, there are several outfits that will do that, sadly I have been out of it so long that I don't even have any contacts left. Just from a jaded point of view I don't see any profit in it at a hobbyist level.

Their policy used to be $25 for a transfer, but it was $50 if it was as stocked item. I am pretty sure that policy has changed in recent times, as I have been paying $25 for transfers. Also since we have a part time employee posting up that is what they charge, I am inclined to believe that it is $25 across the board now.

Nope, doesn't claim any composition. Other than being a damascus blade, there is very little information about it either on the box or the website.

It looks like Marble's split and sold the knife/axe portion and it became Marble's Outdoors. I never made the connection.

Pakistan. Ahhh, Marble's Sights, that is something I am familiar with. I just Googled the name.

The sheath is decent, it isn't anything to write home about. It does have the embossing on it shown in the photos. It is solid and doesn't feel cheap, but at the end it is just a leather sheath with a belt loop. After the coffee stain, which I will reapply in the morning, and later if I don't get the right look made it much nicer. I am spending the evening running my fingers along the rough edges to finish the sheath out and give it a more used look. I don't feel that it was a bad buy, I have often gotten great deals at SMKW, but honestly, Marble's is a name I am unfamiliar with. I am tempted to grab one of their machetes and folding camp axes now, I have shied away from them due to the low price, which often implies cheaply made, but after picking this knife up, I am rethinking that.

Not totally true. Still good though. snopes.com: Stabbed Marine

I went to Smoky Mountain Knife works today. I often wander around up there and see what they have, I am a skinflint, so it is hard for me to come up off a lot of money on knives, though I do own a handful of good ones. I have recently come to the conclusion that I have all the knives I need and as such, I will not buy based on wants. I am applying the same thing to my firearms at the current. There were two holes in what I consider a need. I picked up a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife Tinker/LED Flashlight combo to drop into my computer case which doubles as my EDC catch all. It has a few nifty things on it that I find useful on a day to day basis and will replace a plethora of screwdrivers things I keep in my desk at work. I have a nice skinner in the form of an old Schrade/Old Timer Sharp Finger I was given as a kid. I have used it for twenty years and it is very versatile and holds a great edge. I have a Buck Pathfinder that my father gave me when I was five. It was my first knife and it is a great all around utility knife. I have a little Winchester Stockman that I EDC and it works for most little knife needs. I have a Benchmade Bali-Song Type 44 with a half serrated tanto blade. I also have a Mora Cutter I picked up that has become a fast favorite, as the Pathfinder will soon be passed on to my daughter when we start camping this summer. The Benchmade has been my rough use/utility knife for about fifteen years now. Over that time I have come to value the tanto blade and I have used it for a multitude of things. A Bali-Song, among being easy to open/close one-handed, also works as a hammer, pliers, wire stripper and a pry bar. I honestly love this knife and I couldn't imagine parting with it. However, being a gravity knife, and considered a switchblade in Tennessee, it stays at home locked up now that I am older and more in tune with laws, regardless of the sense they make. The only thing I am missing from my collection (which is much larger, but as mentioned, I am focusing on need) is a fighting knife/rough use knife. The years of use of my Benchmade has convinced me that a tanto blade is my preferred style and the merits of it's strength are undeniable. That has steered me toward the Ka-Bar Tanto Fighting knife. But as mentioned above I am a skinflint. Today as I walked into SMKW, sitting in the first case I see is a Marble's Damascus Tanto. $24.99. Dammit, all I was there for was a Swiss Army knife and a new whetstone. And I left with the new knife. This thing is massive. 12" overall with a 6.5" blade. These are factory seconds, and when I looked close at the edge/point and finish of the leather stacked handle, I understood why. It was a little rough, but heavy, the blade was thick (over and eighth inch) and very solid. It has a lanyard hole on the buttcap, and best I can tell a full tang. I brought it home, took my stone to it and cleaned up the edge and point, took some sand paper to the handle and then stained the sheath with some coffee. It shaves, it balances nearly perfectly. I am pretty well impressed with this knife. I haven't used it for anything yet, but I have high hopes for it. I didn't intend for it to be a pretty knife, but that damascus blade sure does make it pretty. For $25, I don't think I got taken, but I hope it was a good buy and will last a while. Otherwise that means my Ka-Bar will cost me $100 with the lost cost of the Marble's. Marble's® Damascus Tanto with Stacked Leather Handle

I really need to get in there. I keep meaning too. If they did the class I would be all over it.

Glock 19. Scored 100%. The shooting portion was laughable for anyone familiar with a gun. Sent from my lair with smoke and mirrors.

I will try and get a better picture of it, close-up. The pitting isn't horrible, but it isn't pretty either. It doesn't look as bad as some of the S&W Model 10s I see popping up for sale all the time, but it is extensive. It was surface rust, and I used some cardboard and oil to clean it up.

I wouldn't mind a black Cerakote or such of the nature. I am not going for a tacticool appearance, but functional. Something that isn't going to scratch all to pieces if the gun knocks against something. After all this is a tool. A well used one. I want to keep the traditional appearance, the wood I think would be nicely accented by the leather buttcuff; while being functional. CCA offers refinishing, their prices start at $200 for long guns, but I am worried that with the amount of pitting the gun has that it might take more to get it started, they have the footnote that says it only includes minor flaw removal during the media blasting. If I get a Cerakote or similar, would that normally include all the small pieces as well? The barrels, the lock, the hammers, the triggers, ect?

I have a much loved and used Rossi Overland SxS with 20" barrels. This shotgun has been in my family since it was bought new in the late 70s. It has served as the primary HD shotgun since then. It has seen varied use over the years, and unfortunately little care. I rescued it from my mother a handful of years ago, taking it from it's home of the last fifteen years or so next to her bedroom window hidden within the curtains. The shotgun is still functional, and kicks like a mule. However, upon getting it home and getting the dust and grime cleaned off of it, it revealed light pitting covering nearly the entire gun. The locks are less effected than the barrel, but the pitting is present nonetheless. The bores oddly enough are still clean and shiny. This has in no way effected the usability of the gun, as it functions just fine and I have put a box of Walmart bulk low brass through the gun since it came to live with me. I have oiled the gun and cleaned it, rubbed it down with cardboard and oil to reduce the unsightliness of the pitting. However, being as how it has sentimental value as well as still being a workhorse, I am interested in refinishing the gun. One to make it more visually appealing, and second to ensure that it is able to be passed down to my children when it is time. It is a blued gun, with the the standard wooden stock and forearm. Functional exposed rabbit ear hammers and dual triggers. I don't want it nickel plated or hard chromed, but I would like something a little more durable than just a re-blue. The furniture is in good shape and it needs nothing more than a slight bit of work to properly fit the buttplate, something that hasn't been done since it left the factory. I do not have the tools to perform this task on my own. What I am wondering is a) what type of finish am I looking for, what is a realistic price range for said refinish and c) what would the durability be? I am looking for something tough and forgiving. This gun has never been babied, and won't be. It will be cleaned after use, but may sit for extended periods of time between use and/or cleanings. It currently hangs in the open (kinda) on pegs suspended above a door frame. I understand that it is not considered an heirloom piece by some, however after handling and using this shotgun all of my life, it is to me. However, I am not keen on the idea of throwing several hundred dollars at a refinish. I would like it to retain some of it's old world style charm. I intend to get a leather lace up buttcuff to hold some shotshells that will fit it's old world appearance, while offering some modern convenience. If you took the time to read all of this, please chime in with opinions and options. Thanks! *Edit to add a picture*

Some folks never matured past the point of mocking what they don't understand.