Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619

He was reaching for a cellphone, which is enough to get you shot these days. After all, a cellphone looks like a gun.

That would seem to be basic practice. And the police do review the pawn shop records regularly for obvious reasons. If you borrow money from a bank, do they take down your name and address?

Both our mom, and our dad, died suddenly and unexpectedly; mom at 74, dad a couple years later at 79. We are six children; many grandkids among us. We had no unfinished business, no 'baggage' with our folks, none of us at all. Not one of us had regrets about what might have been said or left unsaid when the unexpected came; though the deaths were sudden; still, everything was always on the table. We grieved, but we did not regret. I have had many friends and acquaintances who were left with the sense that reconciliations hadn't happened, things were left unsaid, unexplained, hurts unhealed, estragements unrepaired, on and on. I think a letter is not a bad idea. But living a family life like ours is good-- we were lucky and blessed, and we owe it to our parents. Six siblings, innumerable grandkids-- we've never had an estrangement at all, however short. Most often, you don't have the chance to write a letter.

No.

Something to that, but the story has been told in many movies. Watched "Wichita" the other night, the 1955 movie. Not Tombstone town, obviously. Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp and Peter Graves as Morgan Earp. I wonder, how many actors have played Wyatt Earp, and in how many movies? By the way, if you haven't watched Wichita, it is a very good Western. It was a hit in '55. Quite a cast; besides McCrea and Graves, it included Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Edgar Buchanan, and Jack Elam.

Exactement! We never add liquid of any kind (not counting melted butter), including broth, to stuffing. The bird itself provides enough moisture. Overly dense or gruel-like stuffing is thereby avoided. With just us, our kids and their spouses, and our grandkids and their spouses, we add up to 25. Most of them will be at the table. A few will be at their in-laws so they can be ours at Christmas!

Probably.

The trunk is in the front!

Then there's the Marlin 1894 "Dark series", which I just heard of because it's on the cover of the October 2020 Guns & Ammo mag. Here's a pic: https://www.marlinfirearms.com/lever-action/model-1894/model-1894-dark-series A hideous thing, to me. You take a traditional cowboy-type lever action, paint the wood black, parkerize the metal black, and put on a rail and thread it for a suppressor. And the G & A article says this, one of the most confounding things I've read about guns: "...many consumers saw them as highly useful rifles that were legal to own in places where AR-15s were not." Hard to get my head around that. If you can't have an AR, buy a lever action of a design over 130 years old and make it black? Suppose you could do that with a pump, a bolt action, or any other traditional rifle. So it's not actually about the AR, it's about the....black?

Went down to the small shop. Picked up a couple more boxes of 50 of .44spl at $31 per. I said to the guy that I must be the only one in town buying them. He said, you and one other guy..... His .380 auto was $94 per box of 50. 94 bucks! He had several on hand. No .38spl or.45 Colt this time. I have had a recent interesting experience at Bass. Shelves have been bare for quite awhile. Except there has been a stack of about 20 boxes of Herter's .300 Win mag. Obviously, there must not be a high demand, because most of the rifle calibers are out. I have a .300 Win mag. So I've been buying them 2 at a time when I go into the store; couple times a week. $21 per box of 20; a good price. I went in a couple of days ago, and the stack was gone. Based on my experience, my guess, though I can't actually know, is that somebody bought them all. I wasn't mad, just low-grade annoyance. I don't like the idea of taking them all at once.

I have 'thousands of rounds', mostly because I've always had the habit of picking up a box or two every time I've been in a gun or sporting goods store. But as evil dogooder points out, if you go to the range a lot, you shoot a lot. I don't shoot matches anymore, but I like to go to the range frequently for regular target shooting. The shelves are bare here too of the main stuff, though there is a smaller store here that has regular supplies of stuff they're branding themselves; commercial reloads I believe. I've bought them and they are fine. The prices they put on them fluctuate wildly; even daily-- supply and demand before your eyes. The .38 specials have been at 49 bucks per 50; couple days later they are $32. .45 Colt similar. So I just wait for the lows. I won't buy undue amounts; it's a personal thing. One store has a lot of .44 special, which is getting hard to find. But his stack doesn't deplete; seems not too many are buying. I buy one or two boxes every time, but I won't buy the whole bunch at once. Let somebody else have a shot. I do have quite a bit in my 'pipeline'.

Nearly as ugly as the Mossberg 434 'techy' version of their levergun: https://www.mossberg.com/product/464-spx-centerfire-lever-action-rifle-41026/ A great gulf is set between those who would want to buy one of those and those who would buy the real one.

I bought a new Browning 'BAR' in .300 Win Mag in January, because I wanted to buy a semi-auto before our new BS restrictions took effect, defining all semi-auto rifles as 'semi-automatic assault rifles'. It is a walnut-stocked beauty, with the newer alloy receiver, so it has a 'modern' touch. About a month ago, I decided to buy a bolt-action .22 to introduce a grandson to shooting, and for myownself. I looked around, and decided on the new CZ 457. I bought the Lux model, with iron sites and walnut stock. I've shot it a couple of times now. It is so pretty I'm still taking it out of the case just to look at it!

I watched it, which I almost never have done. My worry is that the Pres doesn't know when he's ahead.... Oh well; it's going to be fun....

It's a beautiful revolver. A friend of mine, who has done a little shooting over the years but not too much, bought one a few months ago, and I was just able to take her to the range as a guest with a 'covid rule' relaxation at the club. It was the first time the gun had been shot. Beautiful, such a fine finish and smoothness. Nice to see Colt back in the revolver business.

You only see what impinges on your eye, of course. With a beam of white visible light, you see the source if you are looking at it, or the reflection of something it strikes. This includes dust or vapor in the air which allows you to see the beam from the side, which is just reflected light. Can you see something reflectively by red light? Of course. You can see where your laser dot impinges. You can read in your tent by the red light of a headlamp that has that feature, and you can see by it if you step outside in the middle of the night. Just not all that bright, naturally.

You couldn't see the glowing red light bulb unless it was emitting 'actual' red light.

Of course. Red is part of the visible spectrum, after all.

I chose not to have a vanity license. This would compromise my visits to my mistress, the Countess of Monte Cristo, as the car might be identified outside her shabby but genteel apartment. As an emigre', she is in reduced financial circumstances, but her nobility is unaffected. It might be compromised by her entanglement with a commoner, wealthy and handsome though he might be. Plus, someone might report it to my wife.

Dan, you've got it down! If I were you, I'd look for an agent now... Oh, sure...we know the Bigfoot thing. And the alien thing is old hat. But the Bigfoot Alien thing is brilliant! The beauty is that it's not fiction!

It's not fake, it's fiction. Besides, how do you know it's 'all fake' if you don't read it?

A great man. I've read all of his writings, except some of the later Narnia novels, and most things several times over the years. He was writing 70 years ago of many of the very things that have come to bedevil us in our contemporary society. He has had a huge influence on behalf of Christianity in the English-speaking world for 80+ years now. Every time you read him, your faith is strengthened once again.

My sons are middle-aged; we did a lot of bird hunting when they were growing up. I have 12 grandkids, 5 boys amongst them. My senior son-in-law raised his 2 boys and his 3 girls to learn how to shoot. Mostly at the range, some bird hunting. Now amongst others I have a grandson who just turned 14. His dad, my youngest son, as I said was raised a shotgunner but in the activities of life has done little shooting in recent years. So he and my daughter-in-law are enthusiastic that I should introduce him to shooting; marksmanship in general. Especially now with schools closed for 'in-person', we'd like to make it part of a 'curriculum'. Unlike maybe when I was younger, at 72 I'd like to make it organized, rather than ad hoc, so to speak. I went looking for a bolt-action .22 to start him on; I want a smallbore, and a traditional action. My research led me to the CZ 457. I bought the Lux model; it's a beautiful, accurate rifle. I already love this rifle. I'm going to introduce him on it (I ain't saying I'm giving it to him...). This 14-year-old is already 6' 3", a tall and rangy guy. He's a real athlete, to boot. What I'm looking for is a good printed firearms/shooting 'primer', so to speak. A booklet or pamphlet that is real good for firearms handling and safety. This will be the 'book work'; obviously, it has to be concise and interesting enough to engage a (mature) kid of 14. I was casual in early years. Now I'd like to be more methodical. Also interesting, which is really needed with the school situation. Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The old ones are best!

The stories some of these men could tell! When I met Sir Archie, then a knight, an extra equerry to the Queen, and the former Captain of the Queen's Flight (the branch of the RAF that was responsible for the air transport of the Royal family), he frankly told me that the custom in Britain for many years was that it was bad form to talk about 'one's war'. This was both because of Brit reticence, as well as the fact that everybody had suffered greatly, and so, there was little point. He said it was easier to talk freely to a Yank 'gatecrasher', like me; but, as was true in the States also, men became more willing to talk as the decades went by. He was shot down twice behind enemy lines, and evaded capture twice, one of very few men who were known to have done so. The first time was over northern France, during 'Circus', when he baled out, was picked up by the Resistance, and was among the first taken down the 'Pat Line' to Marseilles. From there, they ultimately walked over the Pyrenees into Spain, where by established protocol they were arrested, and expelled to Gibraltar, and thus home. After that, he could not fly over France, because possible capture and torture could lead to reveal of the Resistance escape lines. He was shot down a second time during Torch, in North Africa, and exfiltrated through German lines to the British army. War stirs the pot. He began the War as an unemployed railroad staffer. He ended his life as a personal friend of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, after having served as Captain of the Queen's Flight for 14 years, and having overseen the flight training of Prince Charles, among other things. So many great men. So hard to see them all go off the stage...