W2MC

Oh and .45 brass is NOT all the same. There's some out there that take small pistol primers, for example

Its simple. You can tell the difference between 230 grain hardball vs 185 grain semi wads, right? Same sort of thing

YES

Shot shells 101 http://blog.beretta.com/how-to-choose-shotgun-shells-shotgun-tips

"...live to make better choices".... an interesting way of putting it.

colt gold cup up for sale at Howell Gun Works. See their page on FB

Mainspring & strut were longer on the MK V; hammer travel is also shorter on the MK V

And fixed sights? Really?

If I remember correctly, the original king cobra was a trooper mark V; at least internally

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/794190961

Wow....so growing cash crop is going legit?

My wife spent a lot of time in the Boothbay/Wiscasset area when she was younger. All of Maine is beautiful, but 'a little too out there' ... which is why she and I shifted out focus to the pocono mt area.

Wife and I spent a week in Island Falls in 2016 and 2017; including time in/around Houlton...Aroostook county Maine is flat-out gorgeous.

From the Pennsylvanian forum back then: http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=211636 From the Maryland forum back then: https://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=126895 And comments from the locals: https://www.yelp.com/biz/millers-gun-center-inc-new-castle

When the local shop doesn't support us........we are relieved of any duty to support them.

Then go join the NRA! https://membership.nra.org/FAQ

Results from September VHF contest...I help with the unlimited multiop station W2EA - https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2018/Sep-VHF-2018-FinalFullResults.pdf

Maybe and it depends. Back in the old days, ham ops used to run phone patches for deployed military.....where they connected their radios to the telephone system so that they could talk to home. Now, with satcom and internet, there's not much call for that anymore. Generally speaking, the Military and amateurs are on different frequencies, and do not interact. There is a cross-band event held on armed forces day each year, where hams and the military do connect; by hams listening on the military freq and transmitting on the ham bands, and the opposite for the military contacts. http://www.arrl.org/news/armed-forces-day-crossband-military-amateur-radio-communications-test-is-may-13 As an amateur, you can get connected with MARS - not the planet - but the Military Auxiliary Radio System. I have very occasionally listened-in, but I do not operate MARS. More info at: https://afmars-msn.org/joinmars.php

1. Your local club. Ocean County has the OCEAN MONMOUTH AMATEUR RADIO CLUB http://www.n2mo.org/ Jersey Shore Amateur Radio Society http://www.jsars.org/ and the Holiday City Amateur Radio Club http://www.hcarc.us/ 2. Stuff to do. A good place to start is: https://www.jpole-antenna.com/2014/01/29/i-just-got-my-ham-radio-license-now-what-do-i-do/ and http://tomsmerk.com/radio/newhams.pdf 3. Repeaters are a good way for Techs to connect with other ops. Some of the repeaters are pretty lively, and some of them are pretty dead. I am usually on the 145.290 repeater in Medford during weekday morning drivetimes. We chat about everything under the sun. A map of the repeaters in NJ is located: http://www.levinecentral.com/repeaters/google_mapping.php?State=NJ that should get you started and give you a flavor of ham radio....or at least allow you to start framing the questions 73 de W2MC.

Sunday, March 24, 2019 SJRA’S 2019 Radio Conference Location: Hotel ML 915 Route 73 Mt. Laurel, NJ (on route 73 between the turnpike and route 295)  VE Session  Seminars  Vendor displays  Lunch included

I could go on for an hour about ham radio...if you're somewhat technically oriented, its a LOT of fun, and it's as expensive as you want to make it. Actually costwise, its a lot like shotgun shooting. You can start with a Beretta or a Browning and move-up to a hand-made Grulla, or you can also be very happy for years and years with a second-hand Mossberg Maverick. My club - the South Jersey Radio Association - is planning a Ham Radio Conference on Sunday March 24th down here in South Jersey...somewhere in the Mt Laurel area. Its slant is for new hams wondering..."I've got the license...now what?" with talks and demonstrations and more. All are welcome; there will be a charge at the door to cover the venue AND lunch...I'll post more info as we get closer. .

Careful.....You're starting to sound like Evan Nappen, and his "loaded magazine = loaded firearm" rant...

The SKS 'as-is' has a 10-round, non-detachable magazine. You have to physically take the gun apart to remove the magazine. The vast majority of them that were imported have this configuration and are NJ-legal. There were some SKSs built/imported that would accept an AK magazine, and there were kits floating around that would modify the SKS to accept a proprietary magazine....both of these are on the "NJ-bad list" by-name (SKS with detachable magazine type). From what I remember back in the day, neither of these worked very well. There's also kits floating around that change the SKS fixed-round capacity to either 5 rounds (NJ-Legal) or 20 rounds (NJ-Illegal). Both replace the entire magazine assembly on the SKS - the 5-round fixed magazine becomes flush with the stock and (IMHO) improves the handling of the SKS, while the 20-rounder extends the magazine farther-out than the 10-round mag. Both require the SKS to be disassembled in order to change-out the fixed magazine.