mav

I have no problem with that. In regards to a national sales/consumption tax in lieu of an income tax, I could support it only if the 16th was repealed. I wouldn't want to pay both of them.

Anyone want to take a guess on who said the following: That was from Senator Obama's giving his floor speech on March 20, 2006. Ya know, I have heard from a lot of conservatives who I respected cry that the Boehner bill has got to be passed. You have to compromise. We can't default. Sheesh . It is like I am stuck in the Twilight Zone. All of this hype reminds me so much of the TARP debates during Bush's term.

Very nice. Congratulations.

Sorry to hear about that. I think quality issues can be brought up from time to time with every manufacturer. I can only speak about my Mark III, and it has been fantastic.

When regulations (or organized labor) become so onerous, one or two things eventually happen. The company or business leaves the country in search of more a business friendly government, or they simply say the heck with it and close up shop. You have to remember that a business owner operating under these conditions is still having to compete with countries that pretty much have non-existant regulations. It is hard enough to run a small business, and when you force them to operate under strict rules and regulations and then compete with similar businesses that do not have those restraints, it can become overwhelming. To make situation worse, the government then taxes the crap out of the local business. Eventually it can push some business owners in certain sectors, such as manufacturing or energy, to just close up shop. The stress just isn't worth it. With the unemployment rate around 9%, and the under-employment rate hovering around 20%, we should be doing everything we can within reason to make the atmosphere more conducive towards businesses. The government is doing the exact opposite. More regulations and more taxes is all that they can come up with. The government is out of control. As I have stated in other threads, almost 50% of the working public do not pay any federal income taxes. That is a shame. If the government does not change course and further burdens those who are paying the bills, then I would expect to see a lot more of these type of situations to occur in the future. What I am ashamed of is there are so many people that will not recognize what is causing a lot of our problems, an overreaching and overbearing government. I am not an anarchist. I do not believe that governments should not exist. I do however, believe that governments should exist in a more limited capacity with greatly diminshed powers and authority. If the government would just get out of the way (not entirely) and not hinder individuals and businesses, I believe we would have unprecedented growth in this country, which is what everybody outside of the statists desires.

That's neat. I didn't even know Mossberg made those. When I hear Mossberg, I always think of shotguns. How many rounds does the mag hold?

Was anyone really surpised about this?

I recently picked up a new target pistol, a S&W Model 41. I wanted to give a brief review and comparison of the two models. What is being compared: 7" S&W Model 41 (no modifications) 7" Ruger Mark III Hunter (modified with a Volquartsen Accurizer and Volquartsen grips) Uploaded with ImageShack.us Every now and then I get bored with SD-type shooting. I sometimes want to see how accurate I am with any particular firearm. When testing for accuracy, I use a normal range target and put the target at the end of the range (15 yards). I then shoot 100 rounds and see what kind of grouping I can make. A hundred rounds is lot to get really small groupings using iron sights unless you are really good, which I am not. I just try to see how many I can keep in the x-ring. How they compare: Feel: There is no comparison between the feel of a Model 41 and a standard Mark III. The Model 41 feels much better in your hands in comparison to a stock Mark III. However, the addition of the Volquartsen grips improves the feel of the Mark III immensely. The downside to the Volquartsen grips is they do not work all that well when doing weak hand (left) shooting. When comparing against a stock Mark III, the Model 41 is much better, but the Model 41 is not as good as the modified Ruger. Trigger: The Model 41 is without a doubt a better trigger. I think the 41 feels like a very light high-end 1911 trigger. The stock Mark III trigger sucks. The Accurized Mark III while a tremendous improvement over the stock trigger, it is still not as good as the Model 41. Takedown (field stripping): I really don't have to answer this one. The Model 41 is way less complicated. It can be field stripped in 4 easy steps. The Ruger isn't bad once you learn how to do it. I have detail stripped my Ruger several times, and it is very easy to work on. Durability: Since I have only had the Model 41 for a little over a week, I can't really comment on the durability. I can, however, share what I have experienced thus far. The Model 41 I got was a used gun. While the gun is fairly old (18 years), overall, it is in fantastic shape. However, I did have quite a few problems with the first hundred rounds I fired through it. I had a bunch of misfires, failures to feed, and failures to eject. This wasn't a big deal, and it was an easy fix. I bought some new magazines, and changed out the recoil spring as well has adding an extra power firing pin spring. Problem solved. I had just one misfire (no primer strike) while shooting it today. The Ruger is an absolute tank. I have put over 10,000 rounds through it within a year using only one magazine, and I think it is just starting to break in. Ammo preference: The Model 41 very picky on what ammo it likes. There are some who have a 41, and it eats everything, whereas other have trouble feeding certain brands of ammo. From all of the forums I have read, the Model 41 seems to work best with standard velocity CCI. I have been using cheap Remington standard velocity for the last 200 rounds, and they seem to be okay. I can't give you first hand experience on whether with Ruger is ammo picky since I have only shot one kind of ammo through it (CCI MiniMags). However, I haven't read or heard anything about the Ruger being ammo picky, so I will give the nod to the Ruger in this category. Price: The Ruger is quite a bit cheaper than the Model 41. Even my customized Ruger is a little cheaper. Appearance: This is too subjective. You see the pictures, so you can make up your mind which one you like. Availablity of after-market parts: Ruger is hands down the winner. Accuracy: Here is a target that I did with the Ruger the past Sunday. 100 rounds at 15 yards. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here is the target I did with the Model 41 today. Same conditions. Uploaded with ImageShack.us I did have three fliers with the Model 41 (still getting use to the trigger). Overall, I think the Model 41 is slightly more accurate than the modified Ruger. After I shoot the Model 41 more and get comfortable with it, it may be a lot more accurate than the Ruger. Time will tell on this one. As it currently stands, I think the Model 41 is just slightly better. Conclusion: The Model 41 is a fantastic target pistol. When comparing it against a stock Mark III, the Model 41 is the hands down winner. However, the Model 41 costs quite a bit more over the stock Mark III, so that must be taken into consideration as to a person's needs or wants. My Volquartsen modified Mark III is almost as good as the Model 41 and is several hundreds of dollars cheaper. Overall, I would say the modified Ruger is a better value for a range target or plinking gun. Sorry for being so long with the comparison. I tried to keep it short, but I do have a habit of being garrulous.

Made it.

Going Galt. Gotta admire the guy. It is unfortunate that it has come to this.

Congrats. I wouldn't mind shooting one of those myself.

Maybe or maybe not. During the Clinton administration, the gov was spending around 500 plus million per day, during Bush it was 1.7 billion per day, and under Obama it is 4.1 billion per day (numbers taken from O'Reilly). I don't think a bunch of conservatives were screaming during the Clinton years that the gov needed to spend more. From what I remember of the 90s, a lot were screaming we were spending too much.

Welcome. I am at Shooter's a couple of times a week as well.

I didn't even notice it. That is really nice.

That is a rather pessimistic view. While you may indeed be correct, I will keep my cynicism in check until next year's elections. The vast majority of people owning a 401K, Roth, IRA, etc... are taxpayers. The other 50% of the working population who do not pay any income taxes are more than likely not going to have a retirement account unless their company does one for them, so we can count them out of this equation. The taxpayers, as evidenced from the last election and the current debt ceiling debate, have awakened to the fact that Washington is out of control and has been for quite some time. They realize that Washington cannot be trusted to be a good steward with their money. If the government is struggling to keep Social Security solvent, what fool would think the government would do a better job with SS II? I know math isn't a lot of people's strongpoint, but I think it would take a lot more than a 1.1:1 promise to entice people to accept this new government retirement fund. I will admit that I could be wrong by placing my faith in the common sense of taxpaying voting public. I will either be justified by the outcome next year's election, or be shown that it is I who is the fool.

Did you decide on a bedliner? A truck that nice definitely deserves one.

I agree. However, I don't think the american people would stand for a confiscation of their private retirement accounts. If the government increases an individual's tax by 10, 20, or even 30% that is one thing. While it would suck, people would begrudgingly live with it until they could vote out all those who voted to raises taxes. The IRAs, etc... are a different matter. The average balance in a 401K is around $75k. To a lot of people, that is a fairly decent amount of money. I think it would be sheer stupidity on the government's part if they did not diasarm society before they tried such a stunt. There are a lot in society that would go bat s**t crazy if that happened. Anyway, I don't see it happening anytime in the near future. I could see the government eliminating the mortgage deduction, dependent deduction, charitable deduction, and the tax deferment on 401Ks long before they would even contemplate the confiscation of retirement accounts.

I could be wrong, but I think it will be a couple of years, if ever, before the government even attempts such a move. I think a more likely approach would be to eliminate the tax deferment on retirement accounts. It didn't happen when Pelosi, Reid, and Obama ran everything, and they are all pretty far left.

Super nice. Congrats man. Is the interior as nice as the exterior?

Unless I am really lucky and it gets repealed, we will have that here too in a few years. As a side note to the discussion, this country is almost to the point where 50% of the people working do not pay any federal income tax. Universal healthcare, which is the ultimate goal of Obamacare, is going to be outrageously expensive. Since the government does not have any money, where is the money going to come from? That 50% that currently pays taxes is going to have to pay even more in taxes. I'm just curious as to what some think the appropriate level of taxation should be on those currently paying it in.

Hear, hear. A lot of people would be shocked if they looked at the profit margin of a lot of big retail establishments. Walmart has a profit margin of 3.87%.

Don't know if anyone has mentioned these, but I like the Blue Water Grille and Big River Grille & Brewing. It is a little expensive, but good nonetheless.

As I was reading the following article, it made me think a lot about this thread. UAW wants bigger cut of Detroit's newfound profits - Yahoo! News

Sheesh OhShoot, you are so pessimistic. Unfortunately, you are correct as well. Most of my american-made items I own are knives, guns, and guitars. Everything else is pretty much made elsewhere.

I am attempting to create my first poll. I hope everything goes right. I would like to hear TGOers thoughts on the impending debt crisis. Do you think this is overblown media hype, or do you think it is very serious? Why? What should be done? I would choose the third option down, do not increase the debt ceiling and make serious cuts. I could live with option five until Obama is voted out of office. After he is out, I would expect some serious cuts.