Newtonian

$1200 was bandied about around the time I wrote that post. I was just commenting on the wait, the cost, the paperwork, the fact that they're not originals, and that there are so many other great milsurp rifles out there. Of course the Mosin and M1 are totally different guns. Again, pointing out that you can have a piece of history in an authentic gun -- albeit a commie gun -- for a lot less. If you like it by all means go for it. This is a hobby (money sink). I'd love to hold an M1 in my hands again after 49 years.

Yes there are many choices but don't take too much advice (especially from me) other than that you should be comfortable shooting the gun, the ammo should be inexpensive enough to shoot a lot of, and after a crazy day at the range you should not need wrist surgery. My suggestions were 100% my preferences based on my experience. I don't like heavy-recoil guns and I'm not ashamed to say it in Boy-Land. I don't shoot them well and I don't feel the need to undergo the unpleasantness involved in shooting enough to get good at it. You don't need a .45 ACP to have fun at a range or to send two ne'er do wells breaking into your home to the ER or, hopefully, to the morgue. You don't need a self-defense gun with a 1.5 lb trigger or laser sights unless you're in a combat situation. You don't need anything stylish or too expensive to get started. Just something that's fun -- by your standards, not anyone else's -- to shoot. You can have all that stuff when you are ready but you should not let anyone tell you that there is a "best" gun, even for one particular situation. I used to believe my Makarovs were the best guns on earth. Then it was the S&W 617 in .22lr. Now it's my S&W 686. Tomorrow who knows? If you feel like sticking with .22s for now that's perfectly fine. Like I said, the revolvers are awesome

Short, non-fixed barrels (the aforementioned SigP30, which I owned) tend to be less accurate than long fixed barrels. The worse the shooter the bigger the difference (pointing at myself). That's why I'm all smiles after shooting my 686 snubnose (even w/ magnums) but sometimes missed the paper entirely at 7 yds, and very often at 15 yds, with the P230. Maybe I got better but saying it's a matter of experience and skill doesn't change the fact that I sucked with the Sig and it hurt to shoot. When I sold the Sig ammo for it was >$20 a box. Too expensive for real practice, and as a NJ resident I had no need for a pocket gun. Edit: If I ever get another set of permits I'm getting a Rhino and a Mak-style gun in .380.

Is this topic still relevant? Also a relatively new shooter. My font of knowledge spilleth over, however. What do you want the gun for? Oh right, we live in NJ: * forget pocket guns unless they're in .22lr, which everyone will tell you only girls buy (I have three, and 3 rifles in that caliber. Please pass the rouge). Hard to control, lots of recoil (even in .380), not very accurate. Good for shooting someone at very close range though. Do you have such a person in mind? * forget J frame (is there an "i-frame"?) revolvers for any round larger than .38 special. Too much recoil * CZ82, Makarov, or the .380 CZ versions are wonderful, inexpensive, and in my experience 100% reliable. BUT the 9x18s (Makarov) have a bit of bite to them. Never actually shot the .380 (I believe CZ83?). I'm guessing those would be very pleasant for me, perhaps less so for you. * If for casual (i.e. home) self-defense and you're not well trained I'd avoid anything with a safety or without a safety in single-action only. Of course all the glock and 1911 guys here have trained for thousands of hours and can rack the slide on a Desert Eagle with their, er, how can I say this? * If it's a fun gun you want to have fun with it so make sure it's pleasant to shoot. My faves: GP100 and S&W 686 (.357 magnum), anything in .22 caliber, large heavy steel 9mm (eg CZsp01) and in a pinch E. German Makarov (9x18). * I shoot 300-500 .22lr every time I go to the range. Revolvers in that caliber are awesome. Watch with the semi-autos though. My Browning Buckmark is a bitch to take down and eats only gourmet ammo. I strongly suggest the Ruger Mark IV: 1 button takedown and after the first day and cleaning 100% reliable.

Then bring him a box of donuts and he'll pass you on your extra.

Before you guys start whipping yourselves and eating locusts, please read Roubian's thoughtful explanation of what happened today: https://goo.gl/1URMXa

Looks like it will take three more Trump appointees for the Supremes to recognize that the 2nd Amendment exists. Big disappointment. From the way it's stalling doesn't look like the Hudson bill will even get through the House, much less be approved by the Senate or withstand legal challenges. Back to Plan A: move.

I have a full sized Kenwood (100w), a very nice Icom 703 mobile (10W) that I used last year as a base, and an LNR 5-bander, also I believe 10W. All in very nice shape. I'd take whatever they're selling them for. I'll dig up the full descriptions and post them here.

That's around the time I was on 20m. Definitely not me though. But say hi to Sid anyway, whoever he is

Did you hear anything on 6m? I was listening for 2 hours from noon to 2pm on Saturday and all I heard was noise. It was too uniform across the band -- sounded like something was wrong with the radio but nobody was much interested in 6m. It took me 45 years after I got interested in radio to get my Tech license, and 3 or 4 months more to get my General. I have a strong science background so it was more laziness than difficulty. I have some nice simple HF rigs for sale, two with built in antenna tuners, plus a simple external tuner, if you're interested. You can basically get into HF for less than $500. The HF bands are the real magic of the hobby.

Our daughter and hubby were over so I got a late start on Saturday. So I decided to bite the bullet and attend the field day event held by the dreaded Sussex AR Club, which was just 5 miles away in Lafayette -- instead of driving to Matamoras. It was my first "real" field day. Last year's event in Matamoras was just bring-your-own, unstructured. The Sussex club takes this seriously. They had a huge tent, YUGE generator, about 15 computers networked, 8 or 9 radios (although they were officially 5). Two huge beam antennas. I helped set up then left shortly after the contest began. I returned at 11:00 pm after everyone here went to bed, and stayed until 3am. It was fun but I decided that contesting is not for me. It's too robotic. Sort of like shaking hands with everyone you see and bragging about how many friends you have. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed BS'ing with the guys and I was there for like 8 hours total, but as far as operating is concerned I had more fun w/ my family at High Point yesterday with my KX3, trying 2m simplex and 20m voice on a crappy long wire. I'm not knocking the contest guys at all but to me the appeal of the hobby is simplicity.

My opinion: If you're serious about working at home, about the business you do, and you're not living in a cardboard box stay away from those "boxes" that give you lifetime free calling. Depending on the call one screw-up and that's two or three years worth of billing for Vonage. Especially if you're working for yourself. Also think customer service. Don't be a schlemiel and try to save a few bucks.

Hey Pete can you give these guys a hand? Depending on where you live you could drop in on the Sussex County Amateur Radio Club, Splitrock R.C., or the one I'll probably attend near Matamoras, PA, which is actually at a gun range. If you have a NH or FL carry license you can QSO and carry.

As I've said before they take credit for changing laws so Oklahoma girl scouts can carry to church picnics on Thursday between the hours of 3:00 and 4:30 pm. Meanwhile in Sussex County, NJ...

Wonderful topic. I'm in the same boat. I'm finding it difficult to operate some of my favorite guns. Even the revolvers with heavy DA pulls (I must be more "advanced" than the OP. Will try one of those gizmos.

Not a big fan of NRA here. One thing they could do in NJ is help organize those alleged 1 million gun owners into a voting bloc, something I've advocated for years. Another is to invest a minimal amount of resources towards un-electing NJ legislators in vulnerable districts. I have outlined a plan to do that several times in this forum. Not much interest. The other thing they did which annoyed, it seemed, only me is not inviting Christie to their Republican shindig last year. "YEAH CHRISTIE #$)#( RINO #$@#$(" blah blah blah." WTF is NRA to decide who is in a position to help NJ gun owners? And for something Christie ran on like 20 years ago! Meanwhile Christie has been the only bright spot for us as the legislature has tried again and again to pound gun owners into irrelevance. You yahoos don't like Christie much? Wait until Murphy is governor. Finally, NRA pissed me off most recently when it did not stand up for that poor guy in Minneapolis, a licensed CC guy, who was executed by a cop for following the letter of the law. The cop was acquitted of all charges, of course, because he felt he was "in danger." Poor little snowflake. NRA has written NJ off. Their relations with us consist of 1) collecting dues 2) collecting dues 3) collecting dues 4) providing certification for training that is for the most part irrelevant to NJ residents and 5) "sanctioning" organizations like ANJRPC, to which I belong, again for reasons that have no relevance to me. It's a free country. Send them your $600 if you like. Expecting something in return is sheer madness.

The full skinny on the recall: All Mark IV™ pistols produced prior to June 1, 2017 are potentially affected and therefore are being recalled. This includes Mark IV™ Target, Hunter, Competition, 22/45™, 22/45™ Lite and 22/45™ Tactical models. These models bear serial numbers beginning with "401" (2017 models) or "WBR" (2016 models). Firearms NOT subject to the Recall Newly manufactured Mark IV™ pistols will begin with serial number "500." Thus, if you have a Mark IV™ or 22/45™ pistol with a serial number beginning with the number "5," your pistol is not subject to the recall. Firearms That Have Been Retrofitted Already Finding Retrofit Marking Mark IV™ and 22/45™ pistols retrofitted with the updated safety mechanism are easily identified by the letter "S" in the white safety dot that is visible when the safety is engaged. Alas, my S.# begins with WBR and there's no "S" within the safety dot. I'm going to send mine in, reluctantly. Shot about 300 rounds through it last week without a single hiccup. So accurate at 17 yards I brought home a couple of targets to show my wife. The one-button takedown is awesome. No more looking for the right allen wrench. Perfect gun IMO. Anyone want to buy a well-maintained Buckmark?

Has anyone ever been asked if they were transporting firearms? Me never. Scrape the NRA and Grateful Dead stickers off your car.

Yes for just $600 you can help NRA take credit when legislatures in other states expand their citizens' gun rights.

I've been working from home, for myself, 100% of the time for 28 years. I've had Lingo, a couple of those "free" buy-once services, and Vonage. Vonage is far and away better than any of the others. Costs me about $33/month for worldwide coverage. My home has strange antique confusing phone wiring so I had to hire a service to set me up for Vonage, with an extension in the attic where I work and one on the first floor. Cost $150 and Vonage reimbursed me $125. Not sure if they still do that. You probably won't need that kind of custom installation. Except for power and/or internet outages Vonage is up and running 99+% of the time. Great voice quality. If you go with them PM me. I will refer you and get a prize of some sort. I do a lot of phone work, a good deal of it with people in Europe and the UK. I strongly suggest NOT using a cell phone or speaker phone with business calls. The quality of both is still quite poor. VOIP in general also gives you the perfect excuse if you're late or forget to schedule a call. "I had to reboot my danged computer." Works like a charm.

The fruits of Trump hysteria. Saw a video a few days ago of ANTIFA fruitcakes carrying rifles at a protest, in the style of Youtube Gun Ninjas. The logical progression of things. It's probably in bad taste to say this at this time but that's never stopped me: Do these people really want to get into a shooting war with the other side? He got off 50-100 shots and only hit two people, neither one fatally, with a rifle no less? Did his school rifle team hand out participation trophies or what?

We used to go to the drive in while I was still young enough to sleep in the "car bed," which consisted of a piece of plywood roughly the size of our '53 Pontiac's rear seat, covered by a flimsy sheet. My parents were sadists (as you can tell from my given name). I don't remember any of those movies. The three earliest ones I remember were The World of Suzie Wong and a movie about dead bodies underwater whose name escapes me. My parents also took me to Judgement at Nuremberg. I told you they were sadists.

C'mon I just named three that have not failed. Every country in the world uses fiat currency. Very few of those currencies have failed. You're saying that the only reason the US dollar hasn't failed is because it hasn't failed yet. There is no reason why an honest fiat currency, one based on value and not debt, must fail. OTOH on a 100% gold and silver standard you'd have seen massive deflation during rapid economic growth.

The dollar hasn't failed. Nor has the British Pound, or any number of other currencies. Countries, however, and their financial underpinnings do fail. You can argue that they're being propped up by low interest rates, or that inflation has wrecked the value of the dollar, but it hasn't failed in the sense of the Weimar Republic Mark or the currencies of some of the other basket case countries.

If anyone knows WTF the OP went please PM me.