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Zell959

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Posts posted by Zell959

  2. Posted

    Lets not forget the best defense is a well trained firearms owner with a good set of eyes and ears

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    Eh, as important a piece of the puzzle as I'd consider that, it's a last line of defense & has a lot of short comings as a primary strategy.

     

    1) Completely ineffective against burglary attempts that occur when no one is home

     

    2) Expensive & time consuming to maintain, compared to more passive measures for hardening one's home.  Sure, the firearms themselves aren't too needy, but remaining effective with them requires regular practice & ammunition for said practice.  If we really want to optimize our effectiveness with firearms, formal training is called for, which is additional time & money [well spent, certainly].  Luckily, many of us enjoy that and don't find it too challenging to do that at present.  But, if life suddenly throws a lot at us and we can't make it to the range as we'd like to, our effectiveness is going to gradually erode.

     

    3) Even if we're home & have done the prep to make ourselves effective with firearms, we're not always 100%.  What if you had a cold & took something over the counter to help you sleep?  What if you recently had knee surgery and need crutches to walk?

     

    4) Keeping firearms secure, yet accessable in an emergency isn't the easiest balance in the world for a lot of people.  Most end up having to favor one or the other, depending on their circumstances.  Favoring accessibility makes them more susceptible to theft when you're not home & presents potential safety issues if you have children.  Favoring keeping them secure makes it more likely you won't be able to get to them efficiently in an emergency.

  3. Posted

    Why buy a propane powered generator. You'd probably be better of buying a regular generator that is what you want and then doing the tri-fuel conversion to it.

     

     

    Funny you should mention that.  Not long after putting up that post, I had done a bit of googling & research that had led me to discussions about tri-fuel generator conversion.  I'm not super confident about my own ability to install such a kit, but I came across a website where they offer Yamaha generator's with the US Carburetion kit's already installed.  They cost enough that I'll probably have to plan on making it my new primary generator & selling my current generator to offset the expense a bit, but I'm thinking it'll be my next step when I can afford such a purchase.

  4. Posted

    Did a test run of the generator & manual transfer switch this past weekend.   Have a Briggs & Stratton 6200 watt generator that runs on gasoline.  If we got a crazy early snow storm again this year, I think I'd be just fine, but I'd still like to give it an oil change next weekend and bump out my gas supply a bit further.

     

    Have also been looking to get a 2nd generator, a la "two is one, one is none".  Would like to diversify the fuel I'm reliant on by getting one that runs on propane, but I've been a little dissapointed with how much more limited the market is for portable generators that run on propane & feature the output/features I'd be looking for.  I tend to come across the same handfull of models where the collective feedback available averages out to a collective "meh", at best.

  5. Posted

    Thanks very much for responding with your thoughts, Banka871

     

    However, if I go at your sliding door with a bat, ill be in within 15 seconds or so.

     

    I would still consider it taking roughly 10-20 seconds to smash through my windows a big improvement over the [essentially] instant access of the window breaking instantly from a single hard smash, unless the price to benefit ratio is completely out of wack & it'd make more sense to start from scratch with windows designed to excel at 'security'. 

     

    You mentioned that you install films of this sort as part of your trade.  In general, what kinds of scenarios and/or purposes are the films a good solution for?

     

    Thanks again for any insight you're able to offer.

  6. Posted

    Anyone have any experience with "security film" products for windows? I've got some big windows that always sort of make me grimmace when I think about the overall security of my home.

     

    I've read some accounts that seem to indicate the films can make a shattered window behave like a windshield, in that the shattering casues the glass to spider outward and lock itself into the frame, meaning it takes many additional hard strikes to actually smash through. I.E. Providing tons of audible warning that someone is smashing their way into your house.

     

    However, I've also seen a few posts on random forums where guys say that the majority of films will simply make the glass fall out of the window frame in a single piece held together by the film, because it isn't really possibly to create a strong enough bond bewteen the film & the window frame.

     

    Thoughts?

  9. Posted

    • 9mm handguns- Once per week. Generally 50 rounds per session. Sometimes all 50 through single handgun, sometimes split 25 & 25 between my two 9's. Make the session last a bit longer by only loading 2-5 rounds per mag & giving myself plety of reloading repetitions.
    • .357 revolver - Work it in with the semi's every couple of weeks when the mood strikes. Usually shoot less than 25 rounds with it.
    • AR 15s - Back when I was reloading regularly, at least once a month. Mostly bench shooting for 20-30 rounds with goal of tight groups. Since some mishaps with my reloading set up, haven't shot it in a couple months. Usually get 1 - 2 chances a year to do an action-shooting style competition with an AR, but that'll probably have to wait till ammo supply normalizes.
    • Shotgun - Try to get buddies together once a month to bust some clays. Usually go through 30-50 target shells each time we shoot clays. Sometimes, if I haven't gotten to shoot clays for a while, I'll take it to the 50/100 & put a few slugs through it.
    • .22 Lever action pistol - Maybe once every two months since I got it. Fun to shoot, but the tube magazine is slow to reload and I generally get tired of repeating the process by the 30 round mark or so.
    • SKS - Maybe 4 times total in the entire time I've owned it.

     

    On the whole, I wish I did get to shoot more often. On the upside, since my default habbit is already to keep the total round count low, I haven't had to change my shooting habbits too dramatically because of the ammo shortages.

  11. Posted

    The shortage is pretty much entirely explainable by exponential growth in demand. Pre-crisis, most gun owner's ammo buying habbits fell in 1 of 4 general categories

     

    1) Regularly buys ammo by the case for the purposes of stockpiling or maintaining supply for high-volume shooting pursuits (Competition, training, etc)

    2) Regularly buys ammo by the box or periodically buys by the case for the purposes of stockpiling or maintianing supply for moderate-volume of shooting

    3) Regularly buys small amouts of ammo for shooting at the range, but generally shoots what they buy and doesn't keep much ammo on hand at a given time.

    4) Seldom buys ammo and only goes to the range a few times a year, if at all.

     

    I won't claim to know exactly what percent of gun owners fall into what category, but I'd be shocked if more than 1/3 of owners had the buying habits of those in category 1 or 2. I'd also be shocked if those in groups 1 & 2 accounted for anything less than 60% of total civilian ammunition sales. I.E., I believe the majority of pre-crisis ammunition supply levels represented an equiplibrium where the majority of gun owners weren't buying all that much ammo.

     

    Now, things have changed and virtually all gun owners have the level of buying interest that was previously limited to the minority of category 1 & 2 buyers. That's an absolute explosion of demand from a numbers standpoint. Think about it this way: Many owners previously content to just have two boxes of 9mm on hand are looking to buy a case or more whenever ammo becomes available, which is a 1,000%+ increase in their demand for ammo. And that level of increase in demand is not uncommon at all. It's virtually impossible to adequately maintain the supply of ANYTHING with those kinds of spikes in purchasing habits.

  15. Posted

    I respectfully disagree.

     

    Just In Time inventory works great - as long as everything is humming along normally. Throw a curveball and your whole supply chain comes crashing down.

     

    There is a term in investing called a "Black Swan Event" which is basically an event that is difficult to predict and deviates from what is normally expected in any situation. Now I would say that Newtown was a predictable event, but what company is going to plan their inventory around a mass shooting of children? I can only picture the looks that manager would get if he brought up that possibility in the boardroom. "Hey, guys. We need to plan for a mass killing of kids so that we can scale our supply chain more efficiently."

     

    #1. Copper is the key to dragging China into the 21st century. They are consuming about 40% of all of the world's copper right now.

     

    #2. You can't transmit electricity without copper. Yes, you can use aluminum and silver to some extent, but their is no substitution for Copper.

     

    #3. People don't want big stinky coal plants in the backyard. That means the coal plants have to go someplace else. That means more high tension wires and more copper.

     

    #4. Every new car you buy has about 100 pounds of copper inside of it. Over 8.26 million new cars were sold in China last year. That's a lot of Copper.

     

    Right now, you have ammo companies bidding with Korean Car Companies on raw and recycled copper. The only problem is that US companies are chasing copper with devalued dollars.

     

    So Copper prices are on their way up (due to currency devaluing) and and BAM! Something like this happens. Now the ammo companies get together and start screaming for more Copper. They can add more capacity and add more workers, but there is simply no Copper to fill the increased demand. I think this is why companies are "backordered" out to 6 months. There is just not enough copper out there to buy .

     

    I have some skepticism with your thoughts, but won't claim I can say for a fact that you're wrong. It's just that,

     

    1) I'm not aware of any ammunition manufacturer having cited copper availability as a significant contributor to the shortage. That doesn't prove it's not happening, but what would be the manufacturer's motivation for sitting on that information?

     

    2) When in doubt, I try to fall back on an occam's razor thought process. To that end, your copper-specific explination relies on assumptions that I myself haven't witnessed first hand. By contrast, I've absolutely seen a change in how much ammo the average gun owner is interested in purchasing, when given the chance to buy ammo. Guys that were normally content to just sit on a few extra boxes are suddently desperate to buy as many cases of ammunition as possible.

  16. Posted

    Theoretical questions

    1) how much does it cost to buy a legislator? Looking at Mainor's funding, he was his biggest donor, followed by NJEA ($2500), and then various individuals ($500.) That's not so much compared with the price tag for a federal legislator

     

    You know, you have a good point. We could probably buy his corrupt a$$ for $5K or so. But, after yesterday, the idea of donating $10K to any future political rival has more appeal, since it appears that such a donation would be significant for an assembly race.

  18. Posted

    Missing my favorite:

    AR15: Your rifle is used by elite forces worldwide to fight two bit nations' most illiterate conscripts.

    AK47: Your rifle can be used by any two bit nation's most illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide.

    Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has fought against itself and won every time.

  19. Posted

    We're boned. But honestly, did any of you guys think it would be any different?

     

    I guess I honestly hoped we would see at least a few of these bills die here. From the start, I had it all wrong. I was worried there were too many for all of them to die in committee, so many would make it though. I honestly never dreamed it'd be the case that every single one of them would get approved so easily.

  20. Posted

    I swear to God, if these bills pass I'm going to move out of this state

     

    Others will follow you. Then, the area you move to will start to build up and become a desireable place to live for people who are tired of how broken NJ is. Eventually, the voting base that keeps putting these clowns in power will start to move their as well, in order to flee the mess they've made with their idiotic ideology. When they join you in your new area, they will show they've learned nothing from the past and will start to voting for the same stupid ideas that have made NJ what it is. Consider how the blue from CA has started to spill out into their neighbors.

  23. Posted

    I'm afraid to say that most of these politicians have their minds made up and have an agenda to follow. I, like you, have voiced my objections to the bills before the Assembly but I have my doubts that I have changed anything. Keep bombarding them I say, at lease we feel better. We will not change anything if we don't speak up.

     

    I think that, with a lot of them, it isn't really about changing their minds. It's about forcing them to ask themselves "are these bills important enough to have the office phone, fax & email exploding for weeks to come?". I.E. Making it cost something for them to keep towing the line on the anti-gun offensive.

  25. Posted

    Sent e-mails to entire committee. Going to start with phone calls tommorrow morning. I can't really do calls from work as I'd like to, so I'll make the calls from my car when I arrive in the morning.

     

    Also going to write my local Assembly reps again. When I sent out my first wave of letters in January, they had written back voicing strong support of the 2A. It was nice to hear, but I'm gonna write them again and ask them to make good on their words and lend active support to our opposition of these bills. I know they aren't members of the committee the bills are in right now, but I have to assume that doesn't stop them from voicing opposition of the bills to the committee members.

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