Doc

Ok, that all sounds real good, but let's have a little reality check for a minute. Suppose the confiscation laws were backed up with a statement that simple possession of certain firearms that you currently own was going to be made illegal to own, and the penalties involved some significant jail time. Also, suppose you had made a recent purchase which these days involves a solid paper trail right to your doorstep (we talk about not wanting long-gun registration.... as far as I can tell, we already have it). So anyway, some of your guns may very well be "on the books". So when a trooper or whatever shows up in your doorway asking where that gun is that you recently bought, what exactly will your response be. Also, what good is a gun that you have to keep boarded up in your wall or buried, rusting away under your lawn? These threats of resistance all sound real good, but the better action is to simply support pro-gun organizations, and assist them in their fight against such confiscations politically and through the courts. That is a much more responsible and realistic response than implying some kind of armed resistance.

Do not use the "re-stocking" rate at Gander mountain as any kind of measure of what's available. They are notorious for poor stocking of ammunition and reloading components. I have stopped going there because of that. So, if you are seeing empty shelves, that is no surprise. They have never worried about running out of stock before. It's just the way they are doing business. Also as an FYI, I was told by the guy behind the gun counter at the Henrietta store that when their re-loading stuff (Components and equipment) is gone, they are not going to re-order any of it.

You might want to look into buying a powder trickler. Set up your powder dispenser so it is about two or three tenths under the desired charge and trickle in a few pieces of powder to bring it up to exactly what you want. It's a very accurate and kind of quick-ish way of getting every round exactly to the same charge.

Just started using Hodgdon H4350, and have been impressed with the consistancy of dispensing. But still, I dispense just under and trickle the rest. I don't want any excuses for bullets not hitting in the same hole other than my own shooting .... lol. I don't load great quantities, so I can take that extra little effort.

It is hard to imagine exactly what she knew, but one would think that she must have known he was legally ineligible to own a firearm or else she wouldn't have gone through with the straw purchase including lying on the purchase application. I would not be amazed if it is found out that she was more than just a neighbor. That is a pretty huge "favor" she did, just being neighborly and all ..... lol.

And the reason he wants "Quick Action" is so that he can immediately capitalize on the deaths of those children. He recognizes that emotion is riding high right now, and those kids supplied the opportunity to push his anti-gun agenda. He doesn't want any time to pass where people can begin to actually think about the issue. This is an issue he wants to quickly use public emotion in order to accomplish yet some more worthless gun legislation.

This sounds identical to the situation I was in a little over a month ago. My wife wanted to buy me a deer rifle for Christmas and my birthday combined. So I went on the great quest to find the perfect rifle. On the Rifle and Gun Hunting forum of this site, there is a thread entitled "The Deer Rifle" that covers this subject very nicely (10 pages). The gun that I finally settled on was the bolt-action Ruger American in .270 caliber. I have not regretted that purchase. I did get a chance to shoot my son's .270 just to ensure that the recoil was acceptable ....... almost no recoil. That probably decided the caliber choice as much as anything. The Ruger American does not have a wood stock ..... you mentioned you wanted a wooden stock. However, the accuracy is exceptional. One feature the Ruger American has that is not all that easy to find in a low-cost gun is a fully floated barrel. Judging from what I've seen in terms of accuracy, it seems to be a feature worth having. The action is real smooth, and with the free cheek-pad, cheek weld and target aquisition is excellent. If you intend to reload, I calculated the cost at $.60 per bullet which comes out to $12 per box of 20.

I have to wonder how much of his plan she actually knew about. If she had any knowledge of how he was going to use those weapons, it sounds like possibly she is a full-blown accessory. My feeling is that she was more than just a "neighbor".

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone gets convicted of the entire scope of the crime anymore. It seems that plea bargaining is just a standard way of doing business these days. Frankly, I don't see any reason for someone that uses a hammer on another person should ever see the outside of a prison again. In fact, a death sentence probably would have been appropriate. I think that all these people worrying about clips and evil looking guns should spend their energy on thinking about how this guy with this background was ever allowed to walk among us again. But then, I suppose that new gun laws require less effort and investment of intellect.

Do you have any other criteria such as varmint hunting (saving hides), or extensive target shooting (super accuracy), or re-loading costs, or other features that you are looking for? When you say "good for a solid long shot", what kinds of distances are you looking at?

As I look at any of these recent tragedies, I just keep asking anyone who will listen, "Which one of today's favorite new gun laws would have prevented any of them"? It's a simple question that any of the anti-gunners should be able to immediately answer. How many of the favorite existing gun laws were blatantly broken? Anyone getting the picture?

Which new gun law would have prevented this? What could we have banned to keep this from happening?

I don't believe there has ever been a case where a policy of appeasement has ever worked on anything or anybody. Why would anyone seriously think that magazine limits would ever stop (or even slow) their march toward gun confiscation. Think about that for a minute. This is not a time for running in circles, wringing our hands, and cowering in the corner, begging the anti-gunners for mercy. This is a time to stand united both politically and personally. Unless you are personally sold on the idea that hi-cap clips are the cause for gun violence and thoroughly believe that banning them will have some meaningful effect, then handing them over is something less than an honest approach to curbing gun violence. In fact it boils down to simply giving away theh rights of other so that losing your own will be slightly delayed. Don't let the fact that you do not personally own one make you eager to give away someone else's. I don't own one of these modern sporting arms that they are calling assault rifles, but I will defend the rights of law abiding citizens to own them. I understand the realities that go along with the fact that when I am done giving away everyone else's guns and accessories and rights, I and my guns will then very quickly become the focus.

It sounds like something that is so ridiculous that most legislators won't dare sign it. However, it does show where the anti-gunners are headed. I believe that we have finally convinced them that there is functionally no difference between the evil guns that have them quaking in their boots and the standard hunting semi-auto. Nice that we made the point ..... not so nice that we have now broadened their focus. I loved the quote: “I have been working with my staff for over a year on this legislation”. She left out the rest of that sentence that should have included: "waiting for just the right tragedy to exploit".

Ok, so you're disturbed. Maybe it's time to "get out of the way" ...... lol. By the way, sorry to hear about your "loner" tendencies.

Sheesh! I'm going to sit back a little farther from my computer. I don't want to catch any of this stuff......lol.

Nope! I'm just agreeing with your reply and building on it a bit.

When does zombie season end this year? Also, what is the bag limit?

I think we are pretty close to 16" or so. I just got done plowing the driveway. 1000' driveway is nice to get me tucked away in the woods all nice and private and everything, but not so much fun when we get these big snow dumps. The ATV handles it pretty well ...... usually. But plowing for 3 hours is not fun. Also, the snow banks are so tall that I can't get to snow to fly over them anymore. Any more snow without some of this melting is going to make it impossible to get rid of. Could get ugly.

How many laws did the Webster weirdo break? And there are those that think just one more law will do it. Come-on people how many laws did those kids in Columbine break? How many laws did the nut in Newtown break? Anybody seeing a pattern here? How come none of the anti-gunners are talking about those aspects of their beloved gun laws? The high cap clip: ........ We keep asking, "Who really needs them"? I wonder if the victims of home invasions where some guy is trying to defend his family with his three round bolt action rifle might be able to answer that question, as multiple gunmen finally get his door knocked in? Not your answer to home defense? .... Fine, but for those who want fire-power to match the force that's coming at them, don't be so quick to give up their right to defend themselves. In fact, given the insanity around us, it makes me wonder if I'm not just a touch under-defended. Sure, it's appropriate to talk about defense against an out-of-control government, or about someday needing enough firepower to have a chance against some foriegn terrorist attack. But read the paper, there are even more reasons for heavier home defense that are going on right now.

As they say, "The devil is in the details". Most of the bill descriptions are too brief and vague to really form an opinion.

Yeah, hopefully before all the wood was cut and the nails and screws driven in.......ha-ha.

Just drop down that bipod or bench rest the crossbow on a fallen log. Shoot from a prone position or a sitting position steadying the crossbow on your knee. That should solve that problem easy enough and keep things absolutely rock steady as well. I have tried shooting my old 12 guage off-hand and that isn't a real good experience either (for the same reason). That's why all my stands have gun rests built into them for steadying things down.

Reloading bench: Build it strong. Some operations can require some relatively heavy cantilevered force. I used 2x6's for the framework all bolted together. Build it with adequate counter space. Regardless of what you have today, there may be other items added to your equipment that will require mounting or use on your counter space. It is a real pain to have to stop and put stuff away just to make room for the next step. Make the counter area out of smooth hard materials. An old kitchen counter top or a solid layer of masonite (no seams), fastened down firmly over a plank underlayment works well. Good for clean-up. Use plenty of overhead shelf space for strorage ...... plenty! At first, it may look like a lot of wasted space, but as your equipment and components grow you will be glad to have extra storage space. Try to arrange things such that you can perform as many operations from a chair as possible. For example, I noticed one of those pictures had the powder dispenser mounted up on a shelf that would require you to stand everytime you dispensed a powder charge. You'll be feeling like a jack-in-the-box. I did not do this, but it seems like a good idea ..... put a shallow lip around the perimeter of the work surface. Primers, bullets, shotgun pellets, and all kinds of other small trinkets have a life of their own when dropped or spilled. Once they are off the bench, they know exactly where to hide .... lol. Make sure that the lighting is exceptional. You have to be able to see every operation (from all angles) as it is being performed. Design everything for quick and complete clean-up. It's not good to have loose powder or other reloading components laying around. Be careful about under-counter shelves. Unless you are a fan of spending hours standing up (I can't do it), there has to be knee-space for when you are sitting up at the bench. Also, keep a sitting position in mind when setting up the counter height You don't want to have to work with your chin resting on the counter ..... lol. I'll bet I have forgotten a lot of things. Maybe others can add to the design requirements. The design of the bench is one thing you don't want to be doing over and over as the operation expands.

Funny, as I was reading these replies, I was thinking about the similarities with our hunting programs. They are all set-up, exaggerated, fake, depictions of hunting ...... lol. Maybe that's where they got the ideas for all these other reality shows.