Displaced Texan

Hmmmmm wonder if that’s legal in this state...

Bad blow to the Taylor Ham folks....I sent it to Peel so she can hammer them with emails...

I love the RAS. It’s a little heavy, but I worked out more. Lol.

The ‘musket’ A4 clone. All Colt lower, PSA Premium 20” CHF upper with R5 RAS, and TA31RCO ACOG. Smooth shooting, I love this rifle.

That is an espresso machine....

We use NJ Cure. Never had a claim (knock on wood), but we saved a lot of money when we switched over to them 15 years ago.

13 years on a water heater (the term ‘hot water heater’ drives me crazy...if the water is already hot....it’s a water heater, damn it! ) is running on borrowed time. Replace that puppy ASAP. My buddy just experienced a catastrophic failure of his water heater while he was out of town. HUGE mess in his basement. After our friend’s experience, we replaced ours with a 50 gal. Bradford White unit. I am told through a few plumber friends they are the best water heaters on the market.

Semi interesting sea story: While I served aboard my 2nd submarine, we were tasked to take Spielberg and some of his crew (writers, I think) to sea for a week. They wanted to get an idea of how real submarines operated at sea, to add realism to the tv show. Spielburg is an righteous penis. His crew were pretty cool. They spent a lot of time talking to everyone to learn how a boat works, and how life at sea really was. Spielburg talked down to his crew and most all of our crew...as if we weren’t worthy of speaking to him. Not very gracious at all. This was the same submarine that did many of the surface shots of the ‘USS Dallas’ in ‘Hunt for Red October’. We had a very nice picture of the Red October control room with all the cast/crew on it...signed by everyone. It was prominently displayed in the middle level passageway. They have since decommissioned that boat. I WISH I had that picture!!!

Yeah, don’t do a piston.

Ah, I misread it!! Lol

You mean, you can’t wait to see what Zeke’s new upper looks like....Mrs Z decided she deserved the LaRue more than her husband.

Mrs. Tex ALWAYS says, ‘your money is my money, and my money is my money’. My mother taught her that. Thanks mom.

That’s HER upper, too!!

Deadly force, also known as lethal force, is force that a person uses, that he/she knows, presents the risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to another person. It’s use is only justified only under conditions of extreme necessity as a last resort, when all lesser means have failed or cannot reasonably be employed.

What he said.

Funny. Years ago, my submarine pulled into Adak Alaska, and we were dressed just like that. Survival suits...we called them ‘pumpkin suits’, cause they were international orange in color.

Layers are the key. I wear a moisture wicking underwear and tee shirt as a foundation, and build layers from that. 2 layers of socks. Thinsulate gloves, and my trusty Navy wool watchcap. Cotton is a killer in the cold, as HE points out. Wind/moisture protection for a top layer. I don’t care if I look like a walrus when I go outside, (the protective layer of fat aside), as long as I am warm.

This. Likely an easy repair. As has been stated before, PLEASE unplug it before you open it up!!!

Salud!!

I think I got the packer at Acme. I usually like a 12-15 lb packer, but Mrs Tex talked me into the smaller one. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t listened to her.

From my family, to all of yours, Merry Christmas, y’all!!!!

Every roadside bbq joint in Texas serves sandwiches on white bread...more of a nostalgia thing for me. I bet it would be awesome on a Amoroso cheesesteak roll....hmmm, maybe a breakfast idea!!! Regarding cooker temp, 260 of so is about normal for the PBC. They tend to run a bit hotter than a traditional smoker.

Dinner is served! Brisket is very tasty, with a nice smoke ring. Next time I use a smaller brisket, I’ll keep more of the fat cap on it, as it wasn’t as juicy as mine usually turns out. Other than that, it was delicious! Mrs Tex grabbed and ate my ‘photo shoot’ slices before I had a chance to get pictures, but you get the idea. Lovely smoke ring!! I made a sliced brisket sandwich (almost) the way I grew up eating them. I forgot to pick up an onion when I was at the store today....but brisket, on white bread, with a little bbq sauce, and dill pickle slices. Damn tasty!! The rest will be made into brisket chili (unless Mrs Tex raids the refrigerator after I go to bed). T Bill, a smokefest sounds awesome! We’ll have to work that out! Ray Ray, Mrs Tex already has the position filled!! Come to smokefest, and you’ll get to taste some good bbq, between me and all the other bbqheads on here!

Well folks, after a quick overseas trip for work, it’s time to make Christmas Dinner. This year, we’ve decided to smoke a brisket. I started off with an 8lb packer brisket. I rarely see this one that small, but just for 2 of us, it’s plenty. I trimmed the brisket, leaving about 1/8-1/4” of fat on the back side. I removed all the hard fat, because that won’t render. Rubbed it down with olive oil as a binder, and my favorite rub, and left it in the refrigerator overnight so the rub soaked in a bit. I started the PBC this morning, and hung it. Bought a new thermometer (cause I hated the old one), this one has a probe to monitor the smoker temperature. The PBC settled about 260-265*. When the meat reached 160*, I pulled it off, and wrapped it in butcher paper moistened with a bit of beef broth. I sprayed it on with a little pump sprayer. Wrapped it back up, and stuck it back on the PBC (with the grate installed), until it hit the magic number of 203*. Once it hit 203*, I pulled the brisket off, wrapped it in a towel, and stuck it into an empty cooler...which is where it sits now. I’ll let it rest for at least an hour, probably 2. Total cook time was about 7 hours. After it rests, I’ll separate the point and flat, and slice this little puppy up for dinner. I’ll post pics of the finished meat after it’s sliced. We are saving the point for smoked brisket chili. Mmmmmm!!! For some reason the pics posted out of order. I think you’ll get the idea.... Merry Christmas, y’all!!

I don’t ‘routinely’ remove my optic once it’s set up, I did it more as a test of the mounts. I’d rather know it’s repeatable BEFORE I have to remove/reinstall it than have to find out the hard way. My tests were done with 4 LT100/ACOG combos, on 4 different rifles. No appreciable change in POA/POI that I can attribute to the mount being removed in any of them. Other than testing for my own purposes, as a matter of principal, I leave the optic attached once it’s zeroed.