Nostrum Damus SASS #110702

Robyn, check your email spam filter -- I sent you email last night, as requested.

Sending PM about the rest of the bullets and stuff. TRIED TO PM, IT SAID YOU CANNOT RECEIVE MESSAGES. ODD.

According to one recent article: "The Air Force has tried to retire the A-10 for more than a quarter-century. The service has consistently argued that the A-10 cannot survive on the modern battlefield and that A-10 funds are better invested in newer planes such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon — and, now, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Under pressure from the A-10's fans in Congress and the military, the US Air Force is keeping the planes, for now anyway, seeking to manufacture new wings for more than 100 A-10s. This will ensure that at least 280 aircraft will have the structural improvements necessary to keep a viable force of A-10s in the Air Force's inventory." The author continues: "Against low-tech enemies with poor air-defense weapons such as ISIS or the Taliban, the A-10 is still a capable platform. Against other, more modern threats such as Russian or Chinese air defenses the A-10 cannot survive on its own." That may be true, but the A-10 was never intended to fight "on its own." US warfare doctrine was, and still is, to pair A-10s with US Army Apache attack helicopters in a so-called Joint Air Attack Team (JAAT) to kill advancing Soviet armor. JAAT doctrine called for Apaches to suppress enemy air defenses, identifying and killing threats to the A-10. Suppression of ground-to-air defenses was always necessary before sending in the Warthogs to destroy ground armor.

If I had to watch one more Western before departing for good, and wasn't permitted to do anything else (which is what I think the OP was asking), it might be something more personally meaningful, like Unforgiven.

18" is legal minimum. I cut mine to 18 1/4. Make sure you know how ATF measures barrel length, then measure twice (using their method), cut once.

I read so many posts here and on other forums about the difficulties and trials and tribulations of folks trying or succeeding or giving up buying and selling at auctions these days. I buy and sell a fair amount, so I think I know what I'm talking about. Yes, buying commodity items like primers and ammunition via auction is not the best use of your money, unless you move up into near-commercial quantities (with corresponding prices) to weed out the newbies, shills, and casual bidders. A good example is buying powder. You will overpay for a pound or two of anything on any auction site today, but if you only bid on 16-lb or larger lots, you'll do just fine, generally -- you will have no trouble selling whatever you don't need or want to the rest of your club members at your cost per pound and everyone will be happy, or at least relatively happier than had you paid $80-100 per pound of anything plus HAZMAT fees Likewise, if you are a collector and are looking to acquire truly rare items, you probably know at least some of the other serious bidders who share your collecting passion, and everyone can easily spot when a shill (or an agent for an undisclosed buyer with WAY TOO MUCH money and WAY TOO LITTLE common sense) enters (and leaves) the bidding room. For everything else, while buying "regular" items has certainly gotten more expensive, and a LOT more caution about potential fraudsters is absolutely needed if you are going to deal with individual sellers, persistence generally pays off in my experience. Stick with the commercial auction houses -- any of the hundreds of them all across the country. (GunBroker used to be good but is now the home of shills, noobs, and fraudsters, so a great deal of extra caution is required. These days I prefer combo internet/live auctions instead of "internet only" ones because you know the item actually exists and that you'll get it if you win when it is auctioned off live, by a real human, with other real humans in the room.) Just bid the maximum amount you are comfortable paying (don't forget about the auctioneer's vig, sales tax, and a sometimes outrageous shipping charge, plus your receiving FFL's charge if necessary) and many times you'll miss it, but on other occasions you'll win and pay less than you thought you would need to pay. And every so often, you'll win an auction for what seems like an impossibly, shockingly low price, and the item will be just as good or even better than you hoped or expected it would be. That's been my experience over the past 10 years or so. Recently, I bought a Browning B725 Sporter 12 ga O/U in a custom transit case and an older Belgian Browning (FN) High Power Safari Grade .30-06 that both turned out to be basically NIB even though the sellers wouldn't say other than "very nice used condition" -- which was very honorable of them -- and both were won for far below "market price." And most recently, I had another truly extraordinary auction win for an exceptionally rare item that I won for less than a third of the low end of its pre-sale estimate, after all expenses. While there was a ton of pre-auction interest and bidding, no one but me showed up on the day of the live auction -- I have no idea why -- so my opening bid of someone else's pre-auction high bid (which was just high enough to clear out the jokers) plus $250 was the winner. Go figure! YMMV.

And while I think the doll's head always serves an intended function, even if you assume that it doesn't do all that much under normal shooting conditions, what would happen when that one shell that you accidentally double-charged is fired and the chamber is enormously over-pressured? Impossible, you say? I won't bet my face or eyesight or life that I will never accidentally make that mistake, even though I've loaded thousands and thousands of 12 gauge shell and not made it yet. I've had a few duds that were primed but I didn't charge at all, so I can't say it will never happen that I would double-charge a hull when reloading, and fail to notice when inserting the wad, or shot, or during crimping. Sure, it isn't at all likely, and the error would require a number of failures on my part, but I never say never and act accordingly.

Around the house, under the porch, yes, that's a different matter entirely, though the fewer snakes you have, the more rats, gophers, etc. you'll have -- pick your poison, so to speak. Out in the wilds, particularly in designated reserves, WMAs, SNAs, etc., is another thing and the snakes there should be left alone when possible, IMHO. I was in Brazil a few years ago with my wife and some other folks, all on horses riding out in the wildlands. One of the horses was snake-bit on its face when the horses stopped to graze for a minute. Our gaucho took the rider on his horse, removed the saddle and all tack from the stricken horse, and we left her out there to die, which she did overnight. We came back the next day to see maybe two dozen or more vultures feasting on the carcass. It is all just nature's way, though it was sad to see that beautiful mare dying and dead.

I generally agree that bullets are more effective at stopping a snake, and you don't need to get nearly so close to make a kill shot. However, I don't see any reason at all to take a "long range" shot at a snake. Just avoid them -- they are part of the ecosystem just the same as every other plant and animal out there, and 99.99% of them won't bother you if you don't bother them. Killing a snake might seem like a macho thing to some; to me, it is pointless and done only in true self-defense. In fact, when I hunt in the NWRs it is specifically forbidden unless in true self-defense, and the wardens are serious about it and repeatedly remind the hunters to leave the snakes alone.

Let me know if you don't find what you're looking for. I may have a spare box of loaded 357MAG shotshell ammo I could part with. I load it every other round in my Colt Trooper when hunting in snakeville, which is pretty much everywhere here in Texas. The alternating other three rounds are Buffalo Bore's HEAVY 357 MAG OUTDOORSMAN - 180 gr. Hard Cast LFN-GC. That said, diamondbacks are harmless; if you don't bother them, they won't bother you. Cottonmouths, though can be "needlessly aggressive" as a friend of mine said, and they occasionally WILL come at you for no reason at all. We avoided this "inquisitive" little fella on Sunday ...

Doll's head extension of the rib.

Guns that do not have the doll's head feature have other features to strengthen the action. Guns that have the doll's head feature have it for a reason. Alter the gun's receiver at your own risk. Better choice if you don't like it would be to get a different gun, IMHO.

OK, here's the fotos to prove I didn't make it up.

Captained a foursome at a charity fund-raiser sporting clays shoot today. Great weather, shot ok, had a lot of fun. The event raised $68K. And then I won the raffle grand prize, a Savage Stevens 555 E 20 gauge O/U shotgun! First time I've ever won anything of any kind at any charity shoot. A great day for a great cause and I came home with more guns than I went out with -- always a great thing!

It is worth whatever someone pays for it, and you won't know that number unless you actually offer it for sale. In this current market, guessing the actual "value" of anything gun-related is a fool's errand.