I Cannot Tell A Lie - Well Not About This Nugget Anyway!

It seems someone found a chicken 'nugget' that looked a bit like George Washington's profile that is on the quarter dollar. Instead of looking at it and getting a laugh out of it before wolfing it down with some honey mustard sauce, what did she do with it? She put it into the freezer, where it sat for three years. Then recently, she put it up for sale on eBay. That alone would seem like crazy behavior to me, not seeing the image of Washington in the chicken nugget as the resemblance is there, but to think it would have enough value so that someone would want to buy it from you. Well perhaps, crazy is as crazy does. Yet, the craziest thing of all is, in my opinion, that someone reportedly bought the darned thing and paid $8,100.00 for it. Yep, you read it right, they paid in the high 4 figures for it. Start looking more closely at your chicken nuggets, they just may be worth much more than their weight in gold. It simply amazes me as to on what people will waste their money.

All the best,
Glenn B

Big Day Tomorrow At High Noon

Tomorrow, at High Noon, I go to see the chemo oncologist and I find out if they got it all out of me or not. The it being the cancer. I am hopeful but I am also pretty anxious. My feelings are not as bad I had thought they would be considering all things. I would bet though that there will not be much sleep for me tonight, I just don't see that in my stars for this particular night.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Problems With Press Checks

 
Press Checks are, in my opinion, mostly a waste of time and effort. Yet, many firearms instructors teach them as being very important aspect of shooting that give the shooter an edge in being ready for combat. They do so because, by their reasoning, if you see a shell casing in the chamber, you know your gun is loaded and combat ready. That reasoning is flawed and I will show you why I think it such. Before I continue, I will say it outright, this is a very long piece, about 9 typed pages of size 12 Times New Roman font. Yet, I think it worth the read, so read it at your leisure. I may go on to edit it, to make it shorter, but for now I am including a lot of detailed examples of what I have witnessed going wrong, either directly or indirectly, completely or partially, because of shooters doing Press Checks.

Law enforcement academy students, law enforcement officers on the job, private training school students and folks taught firearms instruction by friends are often taught to do Press Checks. They are taught to do them to assure their weapons are fully loaded and combat ready. Throughout the many years that I was, and am again, a certified firearms instructor, I have witnessed some of the problems associated with Press Checks and also foresaw some other problems arising out of that practice. The potential for disaster, either directly or indirectly, partially or fully, caused by a shooter performing a Press Check, was also there. The problems that I witnessed, and other potential problems I can imagine, have convinced me that Press Checks are little more than a reassuring waste of time and effort, a dangerous one at that.

Think about it. What does a Press Check accomplish? It allows you to peer into the action of your semi-automatic pistol, rifle or shotgun (pump guns too) - mostly done on pistols though - to see if there is a round loaded in the chamber. (I will keep this limited to pistols for the remainder of this post)? How do you accomplish that? You keep the weapon pointed in a relatively safe direction, finger off of the trigger and retract the slide slightly while turning or bringing in close the pistol so you can peer into the chamber. What is there that is required to do this beyond yourself and the pistol? If done in good lighting, well that light is about the only other requirement. In poor of virtually no light, you would need to supply a light source. Do you really want to light up yourself and your pistol in a low light situation? Do you really want to ruin your night vision in a low light situation before you get off at least one shot if it comes to the legally justified need to do so? I think not. So, are Press Checks then only worth doing under good lighting conditions at best? You would think so; yet, I have seen instructors teach shooters to do them with a flashlight held in between the shooter's teeth or under their arms to illuminate the pistol. Count me out on that.

Even in good lighting, is a Press Check ever really worth it? Say that you are home, up in your bedroom you hear glass breaking somewhere in the house, then glass crunching as if underfoot. You turn to your spouse and say "Call 911, tell them our house is has been broken into and an intruder is in our home". As you do so, you grab hold of your pistol. As you go to secure the bedroom door (only you and your wife are legitimately in the home and you do not have children) you have a thought: "Is there one in the chamber"! You are uncertain, maybe your pistol does not have a chamber loaded indicator, you were trained by a firearm's instructor, in your a home defense course, to always do a Press Check before using your pistol to be sure it is ready to go. He seemed like a great instructor, he worked for a legitimate firearm's instructional outfit, he was a member of several well known gun rights groups, everyone in the class was impressed by his seemingly professional demeanor and his extensive subject knowledge. Do you do what he taught you, what you have practiced now for the past year since taking the course? Do you do a Press Check or not. Me, I would opt out.

The reason I would not do a Press Check, even if uncertain as to whether or not my pistol was loaded, would be because I believe a Press Check only accomplishes one thing other than letting you know a round is in the chamber. That one other thing is that it makes you feel good. You feel good because you think your pistol is combat ready but you may be in for the shock of your life if you wind up in a situation where you need to actually defend yourself with your pistol. Think about it (I will probably tell you to use the little gray cells again and again). What could be wrong, after all you just did the Press Check, so you know your pistol is loaded and combat ready - right? Of course, you know I am going to answer "WRONG"! While your pistol may indeed be ready, the truth is that all you may have accomplished by performing a Press Check would have been to have falsely reassured yourself that your weapon was ready to go if needed. How can that be? Let me give you some examples that may seem far fetched but that I know for a fact, after having experienced them first hand, do happen. By the way, when I say I experienced them first hand, I mean I was there and observed them. These things did not happen to me because I usually shy away from doing Press Checks.

Here is what I have witnessed, while at the range, observing other shooters doing Press Checks doing Press Checks:

A shooter is loading during a low light shooting course. He has pistol and flashlight out. He turns the light on and places light between teeth. He then goes to do a Press Check and drops his light which rolls around on ground until it stops, precisely pointed right back at him and it lights him up better than the Las Vegas Strip on a moonless night.

Another shooter, also in low light training scenario, takes his light and places it under his arm, does the Press Check or tries but does not have the light under the correct arm and has to twist pistol around to be able to see into chamber - the pistol is now pointed at the shooter next to him. The guy attempting the Press Check is also lit up more than enough to make a good target.

A shooter, in daylight, is finished shooting for the day. He has finished cleaning his pistol and goes up to the line to load for the street. He took out a mag, inserted it into the mag well by way of a combat load - eyes toward a perceived target. He then did a seemingly perfect Press Check and the pistol sure looked loaded to him but not to me. In fact, despite him thinking it was loaded for the street, or that it was in a combat ready condition, I was sure it was not loaded with one in the chamber. The shooter then removed the mag and loaded a round into the mag to top it off to make up for the one he thought he just chambered. There was not a live round in the chamber even though he did a Press Check and saw a brass colored casing in there. You see, the shooters that day had been doing malfunction clearing drills. That meant that each shooter had loaded three snap caps into each of their magazines, one snap cap between two live rounds and two other snap caps together in succession between live rounds in each mag. This assured that on one malfunction they could tap, rack, reengage, but on the other they would have to tap, rack, reengage (in this case, while at the range, they would still see a threat and would fire but this time the gun would not go off because there had been two dummy rounds back to back). In the even of two misfires in a row, they had been instructed to do an additional set of moves consisting of essentially stripping the mag, racking two or three times while visually inspecting to see the chamber was empty if possible, then inserting a new mag and reengaging.

Now with the shooter in question, we will never know why but he wound up with at least one snap cap in the magazine from which he was loading for the street. Maybe he never finished going through three magazines during the drill or maybe had a fourth also loaded with snap caps or maybe he emptied and cleaned his mags, after the course of fire, and when reloading them somehow put a dummy round into one of his magazines. The result was the same no matter the cause, at least one dummy round, a snap cap with brass base, was loaded in that magazine. That magazine just so happened to be the magazine with which he had just loaded the pistol and I got to see it all just because I had been intently watching him because he was a bit of a problem shooter as far as I was concerned.

This is what I saw. As he loaded, I saw the mag come up, and just as it was about to enter the mag well, I saw a flash of red at the top of that magazine. Not a flash as a muzzle blast, just a quick view of the color red and then he loaded. To me, it meant only one thing, he had just put a snap cap into the chamber, had done a Press Check and was incorrectly assured that his pistol was ready to be used against an armed assailant if need be. I asked him if he was satisfied that his pistol was loaded and he told me he had done a Press Check and he was certain of it being loaded. I asked him if he would mind going over Press Check technique for me. He stepped up to the line and demonstrated the Press Check for me. Then I asked him to do one more thing. I assured the line was safe, made the line hot, and told him to draw and fire a single round for me. He tried it. There was a click, no bang. He hesitated only for a moment, and he did a perfect tap, rack and reload. He never noticed that the round ejecting was a snap cap and he tried to fire again. It went click again, no bang. The next round had been the second of the pair of dummies that he had placed back to back. I called a cease fire. He cleared his weapon and had a slightly befuddled look on his face. He asked me what had went wrong and I told him to look for the two rounds he had just ejected from the pistol. All he could find were the two snap caps. He was embarrassed and that was because the light had come on, he knew what had happened. Because of that mistake and the embarrassment, he listened to my differing opinion of Press Checks and decided to try and then go with an alternative to Press Checks. I don't think I ever saw him do a Press Check again.

Another shooter, an experienced and usually very competent tactical shooter, was at the range one day and loaded up with a combat load from behind cover during a combat course of fire. Guess what he did next - he did a Press Check. So did she, and her, and that other guy and him too, all on different days over the years. I have seen it numerous times at the range. Think about the outcome of doing it at the range. Maybe, someday, you are in actual combat, you have been defending yourself by shooting at someone who has been trying to shoot you, you run dry, you are behind cover, you combat reload, always looking toward the threat, then you take the time to take your eyes off of the threat, pull the slide a bit out of battery and look into the chamber to see if it is loaded. Yep, it only took a split second. but think again about what you just did and what could happen in a real life situation like that because you did a Press Check. You look up and do not see your assailant! Where did he go? Had you only kept your eyes on him and scanning for additional threats you would have seen him run over to the other guy who has a shotgun and now you are being double timed by assailants who are in an unknown hiding spot. Think it cannot or will not or has not happened, think again.

Why did the shooter, who just combat loaded during simulated combat do a Press Check? Was it because he realized he was at the range and he was following range procedure that he had learned at his academy or at a private training course? Is it that he would only do it at the range and never do it in a real life combat situation? The truth is that, during a real life encounter, shooters almost invariably resort to things they learned too do in training; that happens about 85% of the time. You can very safely bet that he, or you, would revert to prior training and if it was to do a Press Check to make sure your pistol was loaded, well there you have it, there is a good chance you would do it on the street just as you did in training and just as this shooter did during simulated combat.

This was not limited to one shooter. I have seen at least 15 to 20 different shooters do this repeatedly during simulated combat training. Sometimes they would do it and every now and then they would not. Even after being reminded not to do it by an instructor on the line during a given firing exercise, by the time they ran dry again and were reloading during the same exercise, some of them did it again. That was just moments after being told not to do it again. Why did it happen again? Were they dumb, hard headed stubborn fools, or was it because they had been trained to do it and old habits die hard? If you chose the last choice, there is hope for you.

What else can a Press Check accomplish for a shooter? I have seen shooters do Press Checks between courses of fire during a qualification. They reload on the line, do a Press Check by very carefully pulling back on the slide so as not to unseat the loaded round then allow the slide to creep back forward. What is wrong with that picture? They have been shooting, the gun is fouled, maybe it was fouled before they even came to the range (a check for clean guns has been performed by ranger personnel at the range where we shot in recent years but some dirty chambers can get through even today especially if fouled with copper). They have pulled the slide out of battery and possibly pulled the round back out of the chamber just a tad. They allow the slide to go forward and holster up. They draw to fire at the next step in the course of fire. Most of the pistols fire but now and then one does not. It goes click - not bang. They tap, rack, reengage. It goes bang but that took a split second or three and a bad guy (if this was on the street) could have been firing back during that time.

Why did the gun not fire? Probably because the round was unseated during the Press Check, pulled out of battery, and never completely went back into battery. This can happen because of fouling in the chamber. Even though the pistol will go fully into battery, placing a round fully into the chamber, when the slide is allowed to slingshot closed, the fact is there may not have been enough force to put the slide back into battery after a Press Check. This can be caused by built up copper from copper jacketed ammo that was not properly cleaned out of the chamber, it can be caused by excessive unburned powder, it can be caused by brass shaved off of the shell casings. These things all happen at the range so they can happen in the field too. If you then do a Press Check, with a gun fouled like that, you may be in for trouble. Even a push on the back of the slide, either with your thumb or the heel of your off hand may not be enough to reseat a round that was pulled back just enough to cause it to come out of battery. This is one of the reasons you are taught to slingshot a pistol slide and not to ride it forward. Well, there is no way to slingshot it during a Press Check.

Yet another shooter, this one a gal, loaded on the line. She then proceeded to do a Press Check. I am not quite sure how it happened but while doing the Press Check, she somehow managed to hit the mag release button and while the mag did not fall out, it did drop down enough to be useless unless first reseated properly. She did not notice it either. I did but sometimes you have to let the shooters learn by making mistakes so I said nothing at that point. She was firing a pistol with a magazine disconnect safety, I think it was a S&W 6906 if memory from over 20 years ago serves me right. With that type of safety, if the mag was not seated properly or was out of the pistol, the gun would not fire. She holstered up and thought she was ready to go after having been reassured by the Press Check. For the next step in the course, she drew, fired - well she tried to fire. She made a decent recovery with tap, rack and reengage but wasted time after having been assured that the Press Check meant her gun was loaded and would fire.

Now take this another step, take it into your home - that same scenario that I spoke about at the beginning of this article. You pick up a gun to defend yourself and loved one. You are not sure it is loaded or have a momentary doubt. You decide to do a Press Check. There is one in the chamber. You know your pistol is ready to fire because you do not have a magazine disconnect safety and you do not even own a snap cap to mistakenly load into your weapon. Your pistol will fire with only a round in the chamber whether or not a magazine is in the gun. Do you see where this is going? Think about the situation in which you find yourself, use those little gray cells

Your house has been broken into by someone unknown. There is definitely an intruder in your home. Your spouse is calling 911 and is speaking to the 911 operator. You have armed yourself. You have secured the bedroom door. You have taken the best cover and or concealment you can find. Your heart is racing somewhat so are your thoughts. Adrenalin has pumped into your system, you are pumped. Your body has readied it self for the possibility of mortal combat in defense of your spouse and yourself. You are pretty calm, but you are also pretty scared - you have the strangest comical thought at a moment like this - you hope your sphincter factor is strong. As I said, your thoughts are racing you push that thought away and have another - that you are prepared for this. Yes, you have trained for this - you think you know what you need to do and it is all based upon your training. Then you realize that somehow your senses, in some regards, seemingly have dulled. In others they seem heightened. How could that be that some senses seem dulled and others heightened. You see everything clearly but have tunnel vision, your eyes locked on the bedroom door. You listen intently but some noises like your radio in the bedroom and your wife talking to the 911 operator seem miles away as you intently hear another piece of glass crunch loudly underfoot somewhere in your home.

You have a strong firm grip on your pistol, you are pumped up and feeling good even though you are scared. Suddenly something seems to be terribly wrong. You look around, your wife is still on the phone, the door is still secure, you still hear the bad guy walking through your home but there is something else wrong - you just know it. What else is wrong? You think - my gun is not fully loaded but you have no idea why you think that. Then you have a thought that calms you again. Didn't you just feel so uncertain about whether or not your gun was loaded that you did a Press Check. Seeing the shell casing in there gave you the reassurance you needed so you try to stop worrying but something you cannot pinpoint is nagging you.

No time to think about it now though. Your bedroom door is hit and hit hard, it gives way, the intruder confronts you and as he does so another intruder, never heard by you until that moment, smashes in your bedroom window from outside. One has a pistol, the other a shotgun. You come up and fire at one, he goes down immediately. You turn and point the gun at the other, who is still a threat, and you fire but it only goes click. You mind is racing at about a thousand miles a second. You think: "Why did it just go click and nothing more".  You pull the trigger again and it goes click again. You hear yourself screaming inside your head: "Tap, rack, reengage". You revert to training, you now tap, rack and just as you are about to reengage it hits you, you know what happened, you know what is wrong and you feel helpless unlike anything you have ever felt before. Heaven help you now because your gun will not. You just realized that when you tapped, there was no feel of a magazine in the mag well. Your gun is empty. That was what had been bothering you; you must have subconsciously realized the weight was wrong for it to have been fully loaded but it never reached you consciously. Sometime, maybe when you first picked up the pistol, or when you maneuvered it to do the Press Check, you somehow hit the mag release and the magazine fell out and you never realized it in your altered state of perception; believe me - your perception does change and markedly so.

Luckily for you, the second bad guy saw your gun pointing at him after you shot his buddy. He turned to flee as soon as you pointed it at him. Then he heard something you did not, the distant wail of sirens and that sealed it, he was outta there and so was the third bad guy, the one whom you never saw, the one still rummaging through your living room. If that is not how it turns out, then how else would it unfold once you realized your gun was gun was empty. Maybe that your loved ones would miss you dearly.

Do you think things like this cannot happen - then think again and again and again and again - use those little gray cells. Bad stuff happens. I have seen all these malfunctions or accidents at the range, all related to the false sense of security that a Press Check instills, all either partially or completely, directly or indirectly, caused by Press checks. They happen with inexperienced shooters as well as with experienced shooters. The one coomon link between them all has been the Press Check. Thank goodness they all happened at the range and not in a real life do or die situation as just described. When they happen at the range, we can learn from them and correct bad habits before something bad happens to us in a real life bad situation. When they happen to us in a do or die setting it is all to often that we wind up the loser.

So what is there that you can do to avoid using Press Checks and at the same time be pretty much assured that you have at least one in the chamber of a weapon that you want to have at combat ready. It is pretty simple although I cannot guarantee it is foolproof; fools just have a way of screwing things up badly and even competent folks can have the brain fart now and again. The potential for calamity is always with us. Still, my method, is one that works. Note, I don't call it my method because I claim to have created it; I did not. I call it my method because I use it. It is a method of making your weapon combat ready that was taught long before the Press Check was even a thought that passed through someones head. While it is a method to assure a weapon is combat ready, aspects of it also can be used, at least to some extent, even if you do not keep your weapon loaded at all times.

In a moment I will describe the method that I use when I want to assure my pistol is loaded to be combat ready. Before I go further, please note: I said to be combat ready! You need to realize that keeping a weapon at combat ready may be totally against all reason dependent upon certain circumstances. Some of those circumstances can be if you have children, or mentally incompetent adults, in the house, or if you have been drinking or are the influence of narcotics or other mind altering drugs. The decision is yours to make on when to keep your firearm combat ready. I will not discuss that here in this piece. It is your responsibility, not mine, to determine when you can safely have a loaded weapon at the ready. One last note, by at the ready or by combat ready, I mean a fully loaded weapon ready to be picked up or drawn and fired in a moment if need be. In the case of a double action only, like a SIG DAK, or double/single action semi-auto, such as a Beretta 92 series pistol, that means with the hammer uncocked, without the hammer drop being engaged, with the gun fully loaded and otherwise ready to go. In the case of a pistol like a Glock, with the pistol fully loaded. In the case of single action automatics like a Colt 1911, it can either mean with the gun fully loaded and hammer down or also mean with the pistol loaded, hammer cocked, safety engaged. It does not mean with the gun cocked without the safety engaged.)

Okay, now that I said that last, when I want to load my pistol, well ahead of any potential self defense situation, to be combat ready, I make sure to completely inspect the pistol to make sure it is clean and functioning properly. I also inspect my magazines likewise. Then I inspect my ammunition to make sure there are no obvious defects and that only the proper rounds for the pistol I am loading are nearby. I then load my magazines, each to full capacity. I load from a box of ammunition without dumping the rounds onto a table. I do this to assure I can easily count how many rounds are missing from the box when I am done loading the magazines. If three magazines would take a total of 45 rounds, then 45 rounds had best be missing from a full box of 50 for the mags all to have been loaded fully. I then physically and visually inspect the magazines to make sure each is loaded all the way. I give them a physical double check by trying to get an additional round into each of them. (This does not always work with new mags with very stiff springs or if a bullet is somehow loaded vertically instead of seated horizontally above the follower.) Then I look at the numbered holes on the mag to make sure a cartridge can be seen through each hole. If for any reason, I do not think the magazine was fully loaded, I empty it and reload it. Then I load my pistol from one of the full magazines with no empty or partially magazines nearby. Note, I said from one of them because I virtually always have more than one magazine available in case a reload is needed. I insert the mag with enough force to seat it properly and I listen for the click of it engaging the magazine catch.Then I slingshot the slide to assure it moves forward with full force to properly seat the first round. I then holster up and take out the magazine while the pistol is holstered, or I can take out the mag from pistol in hand, then holster it or put it down on a table. Remember, the mag I am now taking back out of the pistol just had been fully loaded a moment before. I now replace the missing cartridge, the one that went into the chamber, by placing another round into the magazine. I then load that magazine back into the pistol again with enough force to seat it. The magazine is now again fully loaded and the pistol is fully loaded too, including one in the chamber. If I am distracted, for any reason, I do it all over again to make sure it has been done right since my life or the lives of my loved ones may depend upon it.

As for doing a Press Check, I do not need to do one because if the magazine was fully loaded when I first loaded one into the chamber then, by simple logical reasoning, if the mag could take another round, one must have certainly been loaded into the chamber to allow for the free space now in that magazine. Unless I somehow unloaded the pistol along the way - it is definitely loaded with one in the chamber at this point and is fully loaded once I replenish the magazine and replace it in the pistol. I try not to be quite that foolish. Yet, people, both firearms instructors and shooters who are not instructors, argue with me that my method does not assure the chamber of the gun is loaded and only a Press Check will do so. I can only tell them this: "Get it, the gun was empty, the mag was full, you loaded one into the chamber from the full mag, you took out the mag without unloading the cartridge from the chamber, and were able to top off the mag with one round meaning that the room created in the mag was created by a round leaving it and going into the chamber, so when you top off the mag and put it back into the pistol, the pistol is fully loaded. Why on earth would you ever need to do a Press Check if you reliably made your firearm combat ready in that manner every time you made it combat ready?

Now if you want to tell me, "Well, I keep my gun unloaded in my night stand, with a fully loaded mag in there next to it, or I keep it up on shelf like that, or even in my safe like that, so how will I know if my gun's chamber is loaded after I get to it and attempt to load it unless I do a Press Check". You will not, at least you will not until you attempt to fire it, check the loaded chamber indicator, or do a Press Check. Remember though, I said even in such a situation you can partially follow my method. How - by keeping the magazines that are next to the gun fully loaded.

Also bear in mind that I just wrote about your senses being heightened and some being dulled. I spoke about you body being pumped full of adrenalin, about you being pumped, excited, scared, ready to go. I did not speak about fine motor skills versus gross motor skills. A gross motor skill would be akin to you slingshotting the slide when reloading as opposed to the fine motor skill required for you to hit the slide release with your thumb to allow it the slide to go forward. Doing a Press Check requires fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are often decreased markedly, to the point of failure, during a very stressful situation. Gross motor skills usually prevail throughout. When you try to pull back the slide, just enough to take a peek, while doing a Press Check, during something like a home intrusion, you may be so pumped up and excited that you perform a gross motor skill rather than the fine motor skill required to do the Press Check. The outcome is you rack the slide, extract and eject the round in the chamber and are now a bullet down. Again, think about what, where, when, why and how you are apt to do something. Do you really want to do a Press Check then, in the face of a potential threat to your life when you are shot full of adrenalin and may not be able to do it properly? Do you want to do one at any time if any of problems mentioned above can be the result?

For me, I just see no need for a Press Check once I have loaded my weapon to be combat ready when done the way I do it. Your situation may be different. You may not keep the gun loaded because of young kids in the house, or because grandpa lives with you and he has mild dementia, or whatever, I am just giving my take on it and I think Press Checks are little more than foolish reassurance at best. Of course, most of my pistols, if not all, that I would choose to have at combat ready have a loaded chamber indicator which negates the need to ever do a Press Check. When it comes right down to it, you need to decide for yourself, are Press Checks worth the potential risks they can incur. Now you have been made aware of some of the potential problems that can be directly or indirectly, fully or partially, caused by Press Checks. Are you still willing to perform them? The decision is yours to make.

All the best,
Glenn B

Nasty Leftists Showing Disrespect For Breitbart and His Family

As for the loony libs celebrating at Breitbart’s death, well I guess, his memory is getting some of what he gave. I am not saying it is good on either side but he did reportedly did in essence call, or Tweet that, Ted Kennedy was a pile of human sh--; and that was supposedly on the day that Kennedy died. That was less than respectful - it was , in my opinion, disgustingly tasteless at such a time. That being especially so when you consider that the family of the deceased probably saw what you said (or in this particular case, what you tweeted).

I do not necessarily disagree with Breitbart on that point about Kennedy. In fact, I probably tend to agree with it but it is just that I would not Tweet it, or in my case Blog it, almost immediately after an opponent's death. I think that doing so showed little of the ethics we should hold dear if we are truly conservatives. One of those would be respect for the family of the deceased even if you did not like or even hated the deceased.

I am not surprised that Mr. Breitbart was hated, for saying such things, by those disrespectful types on the left who somehow, beyond my comprehension, also adored Kennedy. What with human nature being what it is, it seems to me to be expected for them to curse Breitbart's memory now that he has passed on what with how he sometimes reportedly spoke very disrespectfully of others.

Don't get me wrong. I am not excusing the current mudslinging by the leftists. I find it appalling to my ethics even though I most certainly have not been a saint with regard to such matters. I do try though to show respect to the families of the fallen, at least close to the time of their loved one's passing, with no regard to political agenda. That is not out of respect for the deceased but out of my upbringing, out of my ethics out of my beliefs that such is due to them, to the families as they are not the target.

As for the name calling right now, I just expect it to happen. Why? What goes around comes around is all I am trying to say, whether it is right or wrong. Mr. Breitbart reportedly dished it out in no uncertain terms and often with apparent vehemence and now his memory is getting much of the same from his opposition. It happens, I don't let it bother me. I imagine though it may bother Mr. Breitbart's family, especially his children at this time. I will remember Mr. Breitbart as a true American Patriot, they should remember him that way too and should know that millions of us on the right admired and respected him as such. I imagine that is true of even some of his opponents on the left, they maybe did not agree with him but they respected him for his patriotism. I hope his family can find some small comfort in that thought.

My condolences to his family and loved ones. They are in my thoughts and well wishes.

All the best,
Glenn B

Breitbart Gone

They are not saying much except that Andrew Breitbart has passed away of natural causes early this morning in Los Angeles. I imagine more will be posted on the news sites as the story develops. He will be missed, we have lost a truly outstanding American Patriot.

See: http://www.breitbart.tv/in-memoriam-andrew-breitbart-1969-2012/

Also see: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/01/andrew-breitbart-dies-natural-causes-website-reports/, (Update at about 11:15: The story at Fox has been updated, since I first saw it, to say that Breitbart collapsed while walking near his home around midnight. It goes on to indicate that he had previous heart problems but does not go as far as stating that heart problems caused his death.)

and http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/01/andrew-breitbart-well-known-conservative-blogger-dead-at-43/?hpt=hp_t3

With regret,
Glenn B

Comments Require Word Verification

As far as I recall, I usually had word verification turned off for those wanting to leave a comment. Someone else, on another blog, made a remark lately that had me check to see if word verification had been turned on for my blog by Blogger or Google. I was surprised to see it had been turned on by someone. Who knows, maybe I did it.

Well, a few days ago, I turned it off. Within only two days, I received 17 spam comments relative to everything from hot sex sites, to dating services, to what appeared to be communist propaganda. While it was turned off, I also had an attempted attack on my computer. Luckily, Norton caught it and dealt with it right away. Now, I am not certain that the attempted attack or should I say the repelled attack was caused in any way by me shutting down the word verification but it seems odd to me that it came just at that time.

Another thing I noticed is a marked increase in spam emails I have begun to receive. his began the same day I turned off the word verification on my blog. I can only guess that when the bots send out spam they also collect your email address from your blog if you have it linked there (and I do have it linked so readers can contact me).

I have since turned back on word verification. I have not received any further spam blog comments since having turned the word verification back on. I also have received fewer spam emails today. So, as much of a pain in the neck it may be to have to read those crooked and often blurry letters to verify that you are not some type of an automated program looking to leave spam, it is a necessary evil as far as I am concerned. 

All the best,
Glenn B

Wednesday Already...

...and I am as pooped as if I just worked an 80 hour week. Of course, I am retired, not working at all, so why the fatigue! I have not been sleeping all that well, in fact about as poorly as I have done ever. All related to the Big C in one way or another, mostly due I suppose to the effects from radiation therapy.  I get so dry after only 15 minutes to a half hour that I keep waking up that often to drink something. Drinking something while you are supposed to be sleeping only goes to more waking-up, this time to get rid of all the fluids. It is a never ending cycle and I figure I wake up at least 20 times a night for one reason or another, either the drink/wizz cycle or because the furnace turned on, or because I am freezing and need to get another blanket (intolerance for cold seems to be a side effect of the cancer treatments) or because someone up early for school or work just slammed the door on his or her way out or because one of the dogs, usually Pepe, is licking my face or doing the I need to go out dance on my chest, or because I have to yank the CPAP mask off of my face because it is annoying (I have both obstructive and Central Nervous Sleep Apneas so really do need the darned thing) or because my arthritis is acting up and I am in pain from laying on one side too long in one of the few spurts of more than an hour that I m asleep, or because the edema on my neck has ballooned making it a bit uncomfortable to breath, or....

"Holy shit" was my thought and my out loud murmuring to myself this morning when I looked into a mirror to check on the edema right after I crawled out of bed. It was bigger than yesterday, now in two distinct bulges on my neck instead of one but that did not cause me to say what I said. What got me to say it was he fact that there was a huge bag under my left eye and the makings of one under my right. Man, if I don't get a few good nights worth of sleep soon I may just age from the mid-fifties to mid-eighties overnight! Crap, I look somewhere halfway between now. I am going to see a doc today, a new Internist - she is not newly a doc, just will be a new one for me. I have not seen a regular GP or Internist since I was diagnosed with the cancer last August or maybe in September. Decided why would I want to go to the same office where the doc, whom I think was responsible for me getting such a bad case of cancer, is located. Hell, she just turned me off on internists altogether. Still, I need to get a complete check-up and the cancer docs want me to get checked for a couple of specific things that they will not check on, so I am off to a new doctor this afternoon. My daughter goes to this doc and says she is a good one, I hope so.

I am hoping she can help me find a suitable way to get a good nights sleep at least a few times a week, if not every night. By suitable way, I mean as in without me drinking a few shots each night or something like that, I would hate to add becoming an alcoholic to my list of woes. I also mean without me taking sleeping pills if at all possible. I was going to ask the new doc for sleeping pills until I heard of the recent study that concluded that even users who only occasionally take sleeping medications have a significantly higher death rate than those who do not take them and that those who take more sleeping pills have an even higher death rate. I have to wonder, is that because of the sleeping pills or because they are not sleeping well in the first place? Now that I just had that thought, maybe I will ask for some sleeping pills after all. If they kill me at least there will be a good chance I'll die peacefully, in my sleep (only kidding, I think). Another finding was that there was up to a 35% increase in cancer diagnosis for those taking sleeping pills even though their risk factors were no greater than the control group who did not take the sleeping meds. Nope, maybe I had best avoid them after all.

I am pretty sure that this recent bout of me not sleeping all that well will be over soon, just another turn in the revolving door of the cancer experience. I had been sleeping pretty well for awhile, hopefully that will soon be the case again.

By the way, keep your fingers crossed for me, this coming Monday is Pet Scan and CT Scan day and my next visit with one of the cancer doc's and his staff is next Wednesday. I am hoping that they do not call me on the phone on Tuesday, that is how I got the bad news the first time round and just feel a phone call from them would be almost sure to bring bad news. Likewise, I am hoping that come Wednesday, they are all smiling from ear to ear when they see me because they have only good news for me. I have been scared before, maybe even worse than this, but I can tell you, it is some scary stuff all this waiting and wondering. It is hope inspiring too and I am trying my best to go with hope right now.

Enough of my rambling on this subject, I have places to go and things to do and interesting people to meet.

All the best,
Glenn  B

New Blog Added To The Blog Roll

I don't know what took me so long, I have been meaning to add this blog to the blog roll for a few weeks now but kept forgetting. Anyway, here it is An NC Gun Blog by Sean S. It is listed over on the right side of my page. In case the above link did not work, here is the address: http://ncguns.blogspot.com/.

All the best,
Glenn B

Rangeward No!

I actually got to the range early this afternoon, maybe around 1:30 or so. Walked in and saw three oher guys who had just walked in ahead of me leaving almost as soon as they got there. There were at least a dozen, maybe 15 folks waiting inside to shoot. One of the range guys told me I would have at least an hour wait so I just said "See ya next time" and I drove to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a visit. Maybe this coming weekend, I'll give the range another try. Never saw it crowded like that before, not even a team day. Oh well....

All the best,
Glenn B

Rangeward Ho! It's Beyond Time To Get Mine Arse To The Rifle & Pistol Range

Hell, I have not been to the range since, I guess, October or maybe it was September, and that was for work not all that long before I retired. I cannot remember when I last went to the range for leisurely shoot. Maybe I went sometime over the past few months but I sure cannot recall. I don't think I have been to the range since last summer for a fun shoot of any sort but then don't hold me to that because the memory is a little foggy about the events of the past several months since I was diagnosed with the big C. I know I have kept on saying I need to get my butt to the range and I have meant to have gone a few times but each time I have had the urge it seems that either fatigue slammed me down hard or that something else needed to get done and I just could not make it.

Well, today is going to be a bit different. My wife and son are both at work and thus the two cars are not here right now. My wife ought to be home within the half hour and I should be showered, shaved, dressed, with rifle case in hand by just about that time. Yeah, I know, its already 1249 on a Sunday morning and I am not showered up yet - I mean hey, it is Sunday after all so give a fella a break.

I have to make this quick so I can get ready by the time she, who must be adored, gets home. So, let me just say, I plan to grab the Marlin 25MN, maybe the Mossberg M44 U.S. and a few hundred rounds of ammo for each and get my butt to the local county indoor range for some fun. If I am really feeling up to it, after that, I may go to visit my brother who is in worse health shape than me. Saw my mom on Friday for the first time since Christmas and that was nice but I digress. I am off to get ready, and soon thereafter will be rangeward bound!

All the best,
Glenn B

More Apologies Over Afghanistan - A Must Wach Video

I saw this video over at The Feral Irishman. He saw it somewhere else. I lifted it from his site, well actually got the embed code from YouTube, almost as soon as I finished watching it, so I could embed it here. Please take the time to watch it, it is truly worth the few minutes it will take out of your day. Do not start watching it and then shut it down only part way through - watch it all the way. This video is destined for Internet fame!



All the best,
Glenn B

Good Old Boy Shoots Body Armor While Wearing It - OUCH

A report in MailOnline was emailed to me by a friend, the report also contained the video which is also on YouTube. It was just recently entered into YouTube, so seemingly it is fresh material for you to behold. When it comes to nuts, I imagine we have no shortage of them. Then again, I seem to remember when, many years ago, the head of a body armor company used to shoot himself while wearing his company's vests. If I recall correctly, that was the president or CEO of Second Chance Body Armor and as I recall he used to shoot himself while wearing various models of Second Chance body armor and I think he used a .44 magnum revolver to do so. If that was not the ultimate endorsement of one's product then nothing was!

The guy in the video uses a Glock in 10mm shooting a Hornady round or so he says. I would not recommend anyone try this, in fact I strongly recommend against it. There are just some things in which I think you need to have faith and that body armor, in good condition, from a reliable manufacturer, will work for the threat level for which it is made, is one of them - or so say I. I have had enough pain in my life and don't need what this guy put himself through so I am not about to emulate him.



Considering how much it seemingly pained him after the shot, you have to wonder why he does not lift the vest to see what if any damage was done to his body. Well, at least I have to wonder. Then again, what did it say on the label on the vest - Vikingsson (or something like that). Tough like a Viking - maybe so. Brainless like an arsehat - I would bet so!

Hat tip to Deb H. for the heads-up on this one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Self Perception Versus A Liberal's Image Of Me

You guess which is self perception and which the Liberal's image of me! Except for the 'veteran' one comes pretty damned close.

Hat tip to Richie M for sending me this one in an email!

All tbe best,

Glenn B

If This Guy Does Not Deserve A Darwin Award...

...I would guess that no one deserves one. I am pretty sure he will get one though because I think you have to be pretty much a stupid fucking asshole an idiot to have done something like sit on a couch while it was being towed at high speed by a motor vehicle down a highway.

After reading the article at this link: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/21/man-dies-in-couch-surfing-road-accident-in-canada/?test=latestnews, I can only hope that the driver who was arrested was the one who had been towing the couch and not the driver who hit the couch killing the potential Darwin Award winner. I see no way to hold him to blame for that tragic event if what was reported is true. Actually, I just looked further and found out it was indeed the driver of the vehicle towing the couch who was arrested and charged, then released. See: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/02/20/couch-surfing-death-charges.html. What a friggin shame, the guy who died was only 22 years old but then again, maybe as a potential Darwin Award winner he has helped clean up the gene pool.

Kids, don't do stupid shit like this, it really can get you killed. Think of it this way - no matter how cool it looks, is it worth losing your life to try it, or is it worth losing a friend by you being the driver! I think not, there is just too much in youth that makes life worth living, please believe me on that one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Why I Don't Shed A Tear When The Koran Is Burned

So some Korans got burned, apparently by mistake, at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, see: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/nato-commander-orders-probe-improper-disposal-large-number-islamic-religious/#ixzz1mzwTx0kD?test=latestnews. Now the locals, thousands of them, are up in arms and calling for death to the infidels. Well, all I can say is: 'I am not about to shed a tear for those Korans or for those who commit violence over the burning of them, whether accidental or purposefully done'.

So, why is it that this seemingly horrific offense against Islam does not offend me as it does others. Well first of all, I am an infidel. I will never be a Muslim, never. I abhor any religion that calls for the assimilation of people of other faiths by way of threat of violence, that threat being the deaths of those who do not convert. Then, there is another reason that I do not give a damn for the Koran. The reason is what is routinely done to the Christian Bible by Muslims. You see, in Saudi Arabia, Bibles and other Christian religious items are routinely confiscated from Christians. They are not held for any legal determination. The person from which they are seized does not get them back after a trial. Those folks are not compensated for their loss by the Saudi government. The seized Bibles and other religious items, taken from Christians by the Saudis (who are radical Islamists by my estimation, and remember most of the 9/11 hijackers/terrorists were Saudis) are dumped and or burned, see: http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=175&sid=2.

I have never heard of Muslims staging violent protests over that, not even peaceful protests, and the Bible is supposedly as sacred as is the Koran under Islam. I also have never once heard of a violent protest by thousands of raging Christians calling for the deaths of the Muslims who have desecrated the Bible or other Christian religious items. Yet, if you so much as draw a cartoon depicting Mohammad, you need to fear for your life. Why? Because Muslims will want to kill you and apparently not the radical ones alone; remember the hundreds of thousands who protested when cartoons about Mohammad appeared in Dutch (or was it Danish) newspapers! They went wild just as thousands are now doing outside of the airbase at Bagram over what appears to have been an accidental burning of some Korans. All in all, it is just outrage inspired by a religion and its leaders and followers who really just want to either control us or kill us all. The "us" being the infidels, or in other words, we non-believers in the Muslim faith and not just Christians either but Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, agnostics, atheists and on and on. If you are a non-believer in the Muslim faith, and choose not to convert to it, then you essentially are an enemy of Islam, that is about as plain and simple as I can state it. They will use any excuse they can to justify killing infidels, it has been and is their way - let history show it - in almost any country wherein they have established themselves to be a majority or even a strong and numerous minority of near half the population.

No, I won't shed a tear over the burning of some Korans but a thought about burning Korans has crossed my mind lately. Imagine if almost every American Citizen, heck even only half of us, decided to do just that, to each burn a Koran, altogether at a specified time. I think it would send a message that we are united in our opposition to violence committed by Muslims against those of other faiths (or even against atheists) and that we are not ones to be fucked with. You can bet that Islamic leaders would hear that message loud and clear and change their acts accordingly. Of course, if they then choose instead to commit violence upon us, well we have the means to squelch it and I believe we should use those means to defend ourselves should we ever again be attacked by Islamists as we were on 9/11.

Outraged but dry eyed,
Glenn B

Hermann's Tortoises - A Little Size Comparison

Here are a few of pictures (all clickable to enlarge) of my Hermann's Tortoises just for size comparison. First, all of the babies together in a watering tub. The smaller ones, all 5 of them, are less than a week old and all measure in at about 1.5 inches from end to end of carapace (top shell) straight across (not following the bend of the shell). The larger of their 2 siblings is about 2.75 inches long. I am not sure how much the larger one weighs compared to the smaller ones but my guess is that it probably comes in close to the combined weights of at least 3 of the latest additions. The bigger of the two larger ones was hatched on July 29, 2011 and the other on August 9th. They have grown pretty nicely since then.

The second pic simply shows one of the newest babies and the larger of their 2 older siblings. They grow pretty fast considering that the larger of the 2 older babies was born only 6 1/2 months ago yet is so much bigger than it was back then. 

Compared to their father and mother though, all of the babies are still very small as can be seen in the shot of: the both adults, the largest of the babies and one of the recently hatched babies. Then again, even the adult male seems small when placed next to the adult female. She looks huge in comparison to the others. I imagine that the reason for the size disparity between the male and female is not the difference in their ages, the female being about a year or two older than the male, but the fact that the female produces eggs. Carrying around 4 to 10 eggs about 1/2 to 3/4 the size of a ping pong ball requires more space that could be allowed in that male. It even seems a tight squeeze for the female. She laid 4 eggs in her first two clutches (only one egg fertile in each of those clutches, resulting in the 2 larger babies pictured). Then laid 5 eggs in the third clutch (all fertile and producing the 5 of the youngest babies pictured). Then laid 2 huge eggs in her final clutch to date (both of those infertile or only discovered too late for them to have survived not being in an incubator).

If you are wondering why the female has her head pointed down as she does in the photo, it is not because she is ailing. She is trying to eat the strawberry colored dewlap of the anole that is part of the print on the tablecloth. Many tortoises, if not all, are attracted to certain colors and find them almost irresistible. Those colors are red, yellow and orange - the colors of many fruits and flowers. They are also attracted to other bright colors as might be found in flowers. If you allow a tortoise free roam in your home, it will be attracted to and attempt to eat, the toenails of any woman wearing sandals (no socks) who also has painted her toenails with red nail polish. It is always an amusing sight to behold especially if the lady is not expecting it and the tortoise too small to hurt her toes. (Never allow a large tortoise to even get close to painted toenails, especially those of a young child, the tortoise could possibly bite off a toe.)

Naturally, most tortoises love to eat fruit and flowers. One of the favorite fruits of my Hermann's Tortoises and my Redfoot Tortoises is the tomato although they love strawberries, cherries, red raspberries, banana, blackberries, cantaloupe, squash, pumpkin and so on. Except for tomatoes, which they may get a couple or a few times a week, they don't get other fruits all that much, maybe once a week or two. Mostly they eat green leafy vegetables like various lettuces. They also eat a good amount of other vegetables such as string beans, snap peas, peas, carrot greens, mustard greens, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (both green and red), broccoli and on an on. In addition I feed them tortoise pellets and some vitamins and mineral powders, all specifically made to promote a good healthy tortoise diet when fed in addition to the above foods.

All the best,

Glenn B

THE HONEST GUN OWNER'S MEME

I have never seen or heard one like this before although Heaven could probably attest to the fact that it has been done before, somewhere at sometime by someone else. I am going to go ahead with it anyway and here is how to play along. I will write down 5 things that indicate, to me, that a gun owner or shooter maybe is an honest one; I say 'maybe' because I have known some seemingly honest gun owners to tell some really tall tales. Then I will tag 5 other gun owners who are also bloggers and I hope each will play along, each listing, in their blogs, at least 3 things that are indicative a gun owner is an honest one, then sending the challenge of this meme on to 5 other gun owner who are also bloggers.

YOU MIGHT BE AN HONEST GUN OWNER IF:

1) You admit, not only to yourself, but openly to other people to whom you talk about firearms, that you have broken just about every rule of firearms safety more than once.

2) You explain to your child, when teaching him or her to shoot, that you do not know everything about guns, nor are you the best shot in the world (although maybe you are the coolest mom or dad at least as far as you kids are concerned).

3) You readily admit to others that while you are a fair to middling shot, you are far from the best and maybe just a bit closer to the worst.

4) You immediately fess up, when calling a gunsmith for help, letting the gunsmith know that ‘yes, you did take the gun apart and try to put it back together again and that is why it is so screwed up‘.

5) You openly bring up the fact that you have never owned one of those, or one of them, or any of that one when other shooters start talking about the really cool guns they own.

The five bloggers whom I have tagged are:

Wirecutter at Knuckledraggin my life away, Bayou Renaissance Man, James (aka: Zach) over at The Next Chapter, Gary at GreyBeard's Gripes and Jay G at MArooned.

Have fun with this one.

All the best,
Glenn B

My Son and The Military

Brendan took a physical yesterday. He ran 3 miles in about 24 minutes, did 10 chin-ups in an unknown amount of time, and did 40 sit-ups in 2 minutes. He has passed the preliminary physical fitness test for the United States Marine Corps. He has been thinking about joining up for sometime now. Showing some initiative, foresight and smarts, he is trying to get selected for Officers' Candidate School. He told me he has not signed anything yet and I asked him to also consider the Navy, Army and maybe even the Air Force. I am not too sure he will give any of those others serious consideration as he has had his sights set on the Marine Corps for quite the while now but I figured I had at least best remind him of his options.

I asked him, that if he is going to sign up, he does not do so until at least after we get the chance to take a road trip together once he graduates from college this spring. I just thought that one more of those together before he goes off out into the world by himself would be wonderful. He agreed that sounded like a great idea.

All the best,
Glenn B

And The Winner, of the Nation of Rifleman T-shirt, is ...

...none other than the person who came up with the answer closest to being right on the money. That, even though I drew the name from a hat that contained the names of all three (yes, sadly only 3 people were interested in my contest) contestants because none had actually told me exactly what was the item AND exactly what it was meant for. ParatrooperJJ did come very close when he said: "Looks like a cleaning rod guide for a bolt gun". The fact is, yes it is a cleaning rod guide for a bolt gun, so he was right on on what was the item. He would have been right on the money had he then said 'for a Polish WZ-48 Trainer'. Does not matter, for him though, since his name was pulled from the hat anyway.


So ParatropperJJ - let me know to whom and where to send the shirt. You can reach me via email at gbarthgwt at aol dot com or you can leave your info in a comment to this post - which I will see but not publish. Once I get that, I'll try to have the shirt out in a few days at most. Hope you like it.


Thanks to all for participating.


All the best,
GB

Gun Show Report - Middletown, NY

My buddy Pete A. picked me up at around 9 or 9:30 this morning and we headed up to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Middletown, NY for the gun show up that way today. When we got there I could not believe the line was from the hall entrance out to the fairgrounds' main entrance, probably over 150 yards long. So much for not going early as I usually do so as to avoid the line, to get to see good deals first, and so on. Next time, I head up that way early.

Luckily for us, while we were waiting on the line, someone came by and said that if you get to the front of the line and do not already have a ticket, they make you buy the ticket and return to the end of the line. Never heard of anything like that before, heck I always get there early. So, we went up front and got out tickets but before doing so made sure the guys on the line just behind us would allow us back in the same place relative to them. The line moved pretty quickly, I figure we had a ten minute wait at most. Inside, it was pretty crowded but not packed. They were only allowing folks in once others had left. Several people walked out and then the guy at the doors said, something to the effect, 'okay, another 6 can go in'. It was a good thing because the last time I was there you could barely walk down the aisles once it got crowded. Today they kept it fairly comfortable even though somewhat crowded, as it was not like being in a Japanese subway car at rush hour in Tokyo - the last time I was there, it was pretty much just that.

We walked around and before we got through the first or second row, I spied my buddies Charlie K and his brother-in-law Rob. Then their friend Dennis also came into sight. Next thing knew, Charley came around to greet us and we had a nice chat. Pete, Charlie and I used to work together. Then Pete and I continued on when Charlie went off to reunite with Rob and Dennis. We went down each row, looking at guns or this or that (and as usual I think there was a bit too much this or that but there seemed more guns overall that we had seen at the White Plains gun show recently). Sadly for me, those guns did not include a Remington Model 8 although I did see one gent carrying around a Model 81 in .35 Remington. It was not in all that great a shape, which could be seen at first glance, so I did not bother to even inquire about it. I just kept looking for the elusive Model 8 in .35 Remington or even the one in .30 Remington that I had seen at White Plains but I did not see the dealer who had that at WP at the show today.

I looked at several other guns, with an earnest eye toward buying but alas there were none that pleased me enough to pay the inflated prices being asked for them. There were Yugoslavian SKS rifles for $400 and they were in none to great a shape. I can find them offered online at Classic Firearms in excellent condition for $299.99, and even with shipping they would be about $70 less than the $400 they wanted at the show. Remember that the $400 does not include the sales tax they would charge at the show. I also saw a Mosin Nagant 91/30 I was thinking of buying but it was $159.00. You can also buy these for a lot less from an online dealer and with shipping would still pay less than at the show and I can have them shipped directly to me, with no need to pay an FFL transfer fee, because I hold a C&R FFL (same goes for the SKS rifles). I looked at a bunch of .22 rifles also, all in .22LR. It really made me think, maybe, just maybe, I should have passed up the Buck knife I bought at Dick's Sporting Goods yesterday with a gift card I had gotten from my son and I should have used that card and another he and my wife gave me toward a .22 rifle. oh well, the gift card I still have is worth a hundred bucks and it may yet go toward a rifle.



Note that the big can has two smaller
.50 caliber cans in it, one sitting atop
the other. The 3rd .50 cal. can is on
 the floor. That third can almost fit in
the big can too, narrow end down, but
there was just not quite enough room.

I did find some nice, pretty clean, .50 caliber ammo cans at 2 for $20 and got two of them and also got a much larger, probably foreign military, ammo can from the same dealer for $12 instead of the marked $15. That can easily held the two smaller .50 caliber ammo cans and while it is just shy of being able to hold a third, it could easily have fit one or two .30 caliber cans in there with the two .50 caliber cans. Later on I found another dealer with .50 caliber ammo cans at only $8.00 apiece and I got one of those too. He only had one in really nice condition, otherwise I would have taken one or two more of them. They come in handy not only for ammo but for gun cleaning supplies, gun parts, tools and whatever.

The only other things I picked up were some long, wooden stick, cotton swabs for gun cleaning, a small examination mirror on a telescoping handle, a magnet also on a telescoping handle (both great for when you drop something like a gun screw and it bounces behind a piece of furniture or the furnace) and a box of 10 count Cyalume 8 hour chemical lights (great to have in the house, in the car or to take on a hike for emergency illumination).

Pete did not buy any guns, he was not looking for any. He did buy the examination mirror I bought and another without a telescoping handle and maybe one or two other things I cannot remember right now. After the show we stopped at gander Mountain in Middletown. I picked up some night crawlers and trout worms for my turtle and two Redfoot Tortoises and got another portable, battery operated, aerator to add to my collection (my others are probably close to their lives' ends). Other than that we just looked around the store a bit. I was disappointed to see they rearranged their firearms displays, not placing the handgun counter up as a barrier between customers and the long guns. used to be you could walk right over to the long guns and examine whatever you wanted to look at. No more. I guess the corporate lawyers figured it was not a good idea to allow folks access to the rifles and shotguns like that even though each was secured by a cable to the display and each had a trigger lock. My guess is that some arsehat of a customer, who was unsafe with the firearms, ruined it for the rest of us but that is just my guess.

After that it was off toward home with a quick stop at a Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a donut (I had a crumb cake muffin). Then it was on the road and homeward bound. All in all we had a swell day, got to spend some nice time together and met up with some other friends at the show. Not a bad day at all, not by a long shot!

All the best,
Glenn B

Not Passing (Up) The Buck...

...the Buck knife that is, especially since I have had two gift cards for Dick's Sporting Goods in my wallet for what seems like forever now. (Now for that last sentence being yesterday as now today, I only have one of them remaining). For my birthday, several months ago, my son and wife gave me a $100 gift card for Dick's SG. Then for Christmas, my son gave me another one for $50. Between my birthday and just a couple of weeks ago, I really did not feel all that much up to going to Dick's to do any shopping. I tried once, in that time frame, maybe a month and a half ago but did not really feel up to shopping once I got there. So I left, back then, empty handed.

Yesterday, I went there after getting a few other things done. I went to the bank to have an amendment to my pistol license application notarized. Then I went to the police department to drop off that amended paperwork. Then I went to a doctor's office to drop off some other paperwork. After that, I was still feeling spunky enough to do something else, so I figured why not go to Dicks and spend those gift cards that were still burning a hole in my wallet. When I got there, I noticed they had done a rearrangement of much of the store and had moved many departments around including the shoe department and the hunting and firearms departments that I wanted to visit. no big deal,. just through me off for a second or two. I looked through the hunting department, then looked for 2 3/4" shotgun slugs (none there at all except for Sabot Slugs), then looked at some rifles and almost asked to see one or two of the rifles in .22LR. I figured an inexpensive toy rifle might be just the ticket to cheer me up and to take to the range with myself and Brendan, Then I thought, heck I am going to a gun show tomorrow (meaning today) so why bother with guns now. Now that I have been to the gun show, I wonder why I did not buy a .22 at Dick's yesterday when I was there but the gun show is another story. As it turned out, I turned away from the guns and too a gander at the knives. I recently lost a Buck bantam, maybe it is out in my back yard and hopefully I will find it before it sticks someone (yes it is a folder but is probably open) like me. So, as it was, I needed a new folder as I really do not like the Gerber I have been carrying in place of the Buck bantam. The Gerber I have is not terrible but I do not like partially serrated blades and it has one. I got the knife from work years ago, and free is free, so I really cannot complain. I carry it when I need it as when I lose a knife I prefer more.

I looked at this knife and that in the counter, under and behind glass. None of those caught my eye. Then I looked at knives on the shelves sealed in plastic packs and one of them did catch my eye. It was a Buck Boone and Crockett Club Collector's Series 110 Folding Hunter. Basically what that translates to is that it is the old time classic Buck lock back folder with wood handle, brass bolsters, brass and nickel pins, with about a 3 3/4" steel blade that is (laser?) etched with a Boone and Crockett Logo.

It is quite the bit bigger than either the Buck Bantam that I lost or the Gerber gator that I used as a temporary replacement. One other thing about the new Buck knife is that it was made in the USA. The Buck bantam I lost was not so patriotic but I must admit my Gerber Gator was also made right here in the US of A. I was pretty surprised to see the Buck 110 Hunter was made here. I note, that on the packaging it showed a small American flag and said: "KNIFE MADE IN USA".

I am guessing though that the packaging, and the nifty metal collectors box, which was included with it, were not made here; that probably also goes for the belt sheath that came with it. A close examination, in a moment I just paused from typing, revealed a tag on the back of the sheath that had this on it: Buck 110-BK. A closer exam revealed a stealthily concealed second tag, sewn on so as to be completely covered by the tag I just mentioned. That concealed tag had this on it: SHEATH MADE IN CHINA". Was the brass at Buck to cowardly to let this be seen up front since the knife that went into the sheath was made here? I have to wonder. Regardless of whatever reason, they can come up with, for having that tag sewn on under and completely concealed by the other, I find that despicable and cowardly. If you are going to have your products made foreign, then at least show it up front. My guess, that the tin collector's box, blazoned with the Boone and Crockett Club logo and with a picture of and a quote by Theodore Roosevelt (founder of the Boone And Crockett Club), was also made in China, was upheld as right on the money when I found a small sticker on the back of the box indicating just that. Oh well, at least the knife was made here, one out of three is not the best but not the worst either and the knife comes with a lifetime warranty.

As for the knife, it may be part of a collector's series, I think third in issue but I am not going to keep it in the package as a collectible. As you can see it is already out of the package. I will be carrying it in my pocket and using it as a day to day tool as needed. If it had been labeled 1 of 1,000 or something like that, I may have considered buying it as a collectible. As it is though, all the collector's stuff seems to me to just basically be a marketing ploy. I paid $40 for it, not because it was marked " but because I liked it and because it was made here. Now maybe $40 was too much but it seemed a decent price, then again maybe the regular Buck model 110 Hunter is less expensive than that but that's okay by me. After all, I did get the tin box into which I can throw ammo for which I no longer have any additional empty tin boxes. What ammo? You know - the ammo you pull out of your pockets after a day at the range or a day afield hunting for which you already tossed the cardboard ammo box. I have a couple of full tins already and a full cardboard 9mm case box too. So this other tin will come in handy and will look good sitting on a piece of furniture in the man cave.

The best thing about the knife, out of everything, is that it was in essence a gift from my son. I showed it to him a little while ago and he liked it. Someday, if I do not lose it first, it will be his.

All the best,
Glenn B

Off To Another Gun Show Tomorrow...

...this show in Middletown, NY at the Orange County Fairgrounds. I am hoping it is not a dud like was the one I went to a couple or few weeks ago in White Plains, NY. That one pretty much sucked although it did beat the most excellent day I ever had at work (well maybe the second most excellent day ever at work, the first one truly was excellent). I am driving up with my good friend Pete A. We will only be leaving my place at about 0900 so we will miss the 0900 opening of the show by a long shot. I hope that the dealer I hope to see there will be there and that he will still have the Remington Model 8 I saw on his table at White Plains, too bad I did not buy it there. I want one in .35 Remington and while that one was in the now defunct .30 Remington caliber I still should have bought it as a collector piece. I could probably easily make more on it than he was selling it for if I ever decided to sell it. If I do happen to find a nice on in .35 Remington at a good price, well then, I will buy that one instead.

If I am really lucky tomorrow, I will get Pete to buy a gun. I kind of doubt it but who knows, he may pick up something like a .22 rifle if I talk to him right. He is not much of a gun guy but I think I can turn him into one. Time will tell on that, I suppose.

This time, I think I will remember to take along the $1 off coupons for the admission fee.

All the best,
Glenn B

Heaven Or Hell (Your Choice) - A Tale With A Moral

I got the following in an email from a friend today. There was no attribution so I am using it here. If it turns out to be copyrighted, then I may have to take it down, yet something tells me this was meant to be shared (the italics are mine). Anyway, read it now, it may not be here later. It is not just all in fun, there is a moral and a very important point being made.

" While walking down the street one day a "Corrupt" Senator (that may be redundant) was tragically hit by a car and died.

His soul arrives in heaven and he is met by St. Peter at the entrance. "Welcome to heaven," says St.. Peter.

"Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the Senator.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from the higher ups".

"What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity".


"Really?, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the Senator.

"I'm sorry, but we have our rules." And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.

The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They played a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and the finest champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who is having a good time dancing and telling jokes.

They are all having such a good time that before the Senator realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens in heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him, "Now it's time to visit heaven...”;

So, 24 hours passed with the Senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."

The Senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell." So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell...

Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls to the ground.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulders. "I don't understand," stammers the Senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"

The devil smiles at him and says,


" Yesterday we were campaigning, Today, you voted.. "


Vote wisely on November 2, 2012........! "

A hat tip to Jim McK. for this one.

All the best,
GB