m gardner

Now that's funny! Mark

Here's a video of what happens when you trust me to walk your baby carriage.

Here's a news article from Az about the guns being illegally purchased here and taken to Mexico. Seems that the ATF is letting the known gunrunners buy guns and take them to Mexico to study the flow and develop a plan I would assume. Some estimates are that nearly 3000 have gone through Project Gunrunner so far (over 700 just from this one guy). So this is why we see questionable people passing the NIC checks andpurchasing firearms regularly here. The ATF is letting it happen endangering everyone here. Problem is that then they blame this on responsible gun owners and gun shops and want to take our guns away. This is pretty bad. http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/2011/02/17/senator-grassley-struggles-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-border-patrol-agent-brian-terrys-death-and-the-role-of-atf/

I think the issue with police and the Springfield XDs is safety and training. It's pretty easy to inadvertently discharge it if you were scuffling around and/or under great stress. Lot's of people use them with no complaints. Watch Rob Leatham's videos on youtube. He shoots them well.

I listen to it on the weekends when I drive the truck. Ride the motorcycle to work and back all week. I need to know what they say and how they feel. You need to know your enemy as well as you know yourself to have victory. Listening to NPR just firms up my belief that we are to the point in this country where liberals and conservatives are down to their core beliefs and there will be no compromise or peace possible. Each side is trying to destroy the other lately. I'm hoping that if this country splits it's somewhat peaceful. Mark

I carry a SIG P220 in 45 ACP. It's the carry model with the single action only trigger. It feels just like my 1911's did but it's much more reliable in the sand. Here's a short video of me practicing on steel plates with it.

Another little problem is rearing it's ugly head too. The 1/4 million illegals we deport yearly (just from Az) ,many from other Latin American countries, are just dumped in the towns just south of our border. They have no means to get what they need and usually can't get back to where they came. There are huge ghettos in these towns now after years of this activity and with Mexico being a failed nation they may have no choice but to move north. There's been lot's more traffic lately as these desperate people try to escape the violence. It may just pop and they'll come en masse. Many ranchers and towns along the border have evacuation plans in place now because the feds won't do squat to help secure the border and if 4 or 5 million come across the border this year (instead of the usual 1 million) they'll be like locusts. Quite a sobering observation. Mark

I actually carry the Beretta concealed (I'm a fairly big guy and can hide it) but it's out of the price range you're looking for. The Taurus is a pistol that you would buy then shoot several hundred times to be sure it's going to work when you need it. A reconditioned Glock is in your price range. Many ploice depts. turn them in regularly and they get put out for sale by Glock. Same with SIG but they are pricey. Mark

Glock in 9mm is always a good choice. It's easy to learn to shoot and control. Use 147 grain Hydrashocks. It's a pistol you can buy and load and carry and be confident in without testing it for a few hundred rounds to see if it really works.

Wife and I put in for archery deer and I put in for 4th season elk again. Easy to draw uncrowded units that we can hunt yearly. Lots of big 2 and 3 point bucks that no one wants to hunt because they don't score well, but they eat just fine.:eat: It was a really easy way to part with $1230.00. Mark

Janet Napolitano keeps saying that the border is safer than ever but those of us who travel it know better. One of the sherrifs I know says they've recently found Quarans and Literature on how grand it is to be a suicide bomber in the trash left in the desert. In January the DPS and Sheriff did a four day sweep in the desert just south of Phoenix and arrested 110 people (drug mules and traffickers), confiscated 7500 pounds of drugs and took nine stolen vehicles. The news link to this has been mysteriously pulled. Should have been national news. Here's a link to the latest atrocity. Read it before it disappears. It should be national news too. The really astounding data is that 900 Border Patrol were assaulted in the Tucson sector alone and that the Cartel has erected sophisticated eletronic listening posts to monitor cell phone and radio communications on U.S. soil. http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/02/mexican-drug-cartels-hold-12-year-old-ransom-new-mexico#ixzz1DgpKjRhb Mark

I made an investment in an unusual SIG P226 in 9mm I found tonight. It has "Don't Tread On Me" in Gold on the pistol and the snake logo on the wooden grips. It was on sale so I had to have one. Here's the "woman" giving me a hard time in a short video of it. Mark

It looks like alot of our customer's stock has gone to zero. They want it yesterday when they order it. If they had cash on hand and felt good about the future they would order sooner and feel good about a little inventory. I see more small business going under in the next couple of years as the 5 year (useing 2007 as the last time a marginal business venture could get a loan) business loans come to an end and even though the busines has met it's obligations it doesn't have enough cash to bankroll itself and doesn't fit the criteria to be able to refinance. I don't think things are going to get better because so far the recovery is a hoax. It's like losing your job but not telling your wife and maxing out your credit cards to keep up appearances while hoping a miracle happens and you win the lottery.

Here's some video of my Beretta 92A-1 after 7000 rounds. It was a surprise to me that it went that long before getting anything but a Bore Snake dragged through the barrel occassionally. It's proven to be quite a nice pistol. mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrfrU3ru33Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klvik7RjkhQ

It looks like an old "Sodbuster" style knife and I believe they still make them for $50.00 or so. It's made of carbon steel so of course there's some rust. Clean it up and use it. Nice knife. Here's a link to some new ones. http://www.jaysknives.com/germaneyeknives.htm

We stayed in a wilderness campground recently while hunting. It's winter so no one is usually there and the rancher turned his cattle loose in it to get what good feed was there. Can't blame him, things are pretty desperate here. They seemed to like our camp for some reason and I've had them make a mess of my tent camps before so I ran them off. Yes, senior citizens have fun too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxU9_NEg6hE

Firearms are usually a bad investment. Just get what you like most. I'd go with the Mark V.

The law does not allow anyone that has been deemed mentally unstable by a judge to purchase a firearm. If they begin to keep firearms from "mentally unstable" people who gets to decide what constitutes "mentally unstable". If you realize it or not the federal govenment can now access your medical records so if you have any history of mental instability like depression, sleeping disorders, ADD, etc. you may be deemed unstable by a standard as yet undetermined. Lot's of the U.S. population is on some sort of meds for some behavioral problem like Adult ADD or depression or has been. This opens quite a can of worms. If you are a crazy Tea Party member or Libertarian or militia member ( they have been toying with the idea of confiscating all the active militia member's high capacity magazines under the Patriot Act because it's a threat to Homeland Security) or somehow too radical by some standard, look out. Basically in order to have your Constitutional rights taken away your citizenship needs to be revoked. Right now the government is running wild and illegally in many ways. They can only continue if we cooperate.

I live in the Phoenix metro area and when I came to this neighborhood crime was out of control but now you can actually leave stuff on your porch and it won't mysteriously disappear because I made it clear it wouldn't be tolerated. After the first one went to jail it got better then when the community saw there was no retaliation towards me and only fear from the criminals, everyone started helping and many of the scumbags moved. I always carry and it's obvious I will use it if I have to. Cheerfully bad attitude I guess. One of the cretins asked me a few weeks ago if I was going to shoot them. They had obviously had a change of heart over the last few years and they looked happily relieved when i laughed and said "not anymore". I believe that as police protection gets less because of budget cuts crime will go away, because it seems to terrify the criminals to have to deal directly with the victims. All the police ever did was tell us that we'd get hurt or put in jail if we took matters into our own hands. It's a lie. Mark

The carry concealed classes here actually teach this as part of the course. They suggest factory personal protection ammo and one guy that teaches, who worked for the DA, says to call the police and ask what they use. You will be painted as a kill crazed cretin otherwise and may be jailed. You may not escape civil penalties. The anti-gun folks have made sure that you will be severely punished somehow and civil penalties work just fine. The cost of a lawyer will hurt too. When someone speaks of hitting an 8 inch circle with their carry gun they are referring to being able to put shots in the vitals of a human 7 yards away that desperately needs stopping. Usually in under 1.5 seconds from the holster. Not bullseye shooting. Any ammo will do. Here's a video of one of the best in the world missing an 8 inch plate occassionally. It ain't easy, especially if you and/or the target is moving.

There are places you find where it is posted that you cannot carry and must leave your pistol in your vehicle or secure it in a lock box at the entry of the establishment you are entering. Many of us have lock boxes in our vehicles because of this. Mark

Nice!

You need to remember that college courses are designed to train people in disciplines that others did with God given talent and commonsense. Basically there are people who were and are great engineers that are self educated. Colleges try to create this by offering coursework that will mass produce this on a large scale. It's like baking cookies with a recipe. Sometimes the cookies are good sometimes not. Good ingredients bake the best cookies. That's why the areospace shop I work in has no engineers. Just grumpy old guys that know what to do. Mark

You just have to love that. Good story. Mark

I don't get any hunting on T.V. but have some DVD's I buy when I have Cabela's bucks. Eastmans is my favorite. Especially one I have of Cameron Haynes suffering for days then shooting what amounted to a raghorn bull elk. Love that one! Real hunting.