mikka1

Aaaand I just mentioned it only yesterday and here it comes! http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_30/Microsoft-Oracle-Symantec-and-HP-to-join-US-sanctions-against-Russian-companies-7256/ "American IT companies, including Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec and Hewlett-Packard (HP) cease cooperation with banks and companies, against which the US government has imposed sanctions, sources in the IT departments of the two banks, which previously fell under the US sanctions (...)" I am curious to see how those banks will operate now with a huge share of their business purely dependent on foreign software, hardware, technologies etc.. Probably they will be processing payments the old school way, with pencils and large ledgers...

Okay, thanks, so now I have another proof of the fact that my most recent route to FL was actually a right one - I drove on I-78 to the west, then took I-81 to the south, then I-77 to Charlotte NC where I spent a day and then I-77 and I-26 to finally get to I-95. It's only a little bit longer than directly on I-95 (1020 mi from me to Jacksonville compared to 930 miles directly), but it's almost entirely free (compared to lots of tolls around DE and MD on I-95), definitely "gun-friendlier" (no DC, whole NJ and only a little of MD) ... so I'd really say this is a way to go south from Northern NJ. Just IMO obviously I liked that route very much and I am definitely taking it next time (I tried I-95 directly as well on my trip to SC last year and I didn't really like it, especially MD and DC areas - very congested, lots of construction areas etc).

Well, that's what I pretty much wanted to say in message 16 above, but you clearly put it in a more explicit way, LOL )

Thanks, finally ordered a couple of mags for my CZ75. Will hope to get them by Saturday so that I'll be able to shoot my CZ at Shongum USPSA for the first time

(complete offtopic) Scrap, not really thinking of getting you into credit burden, but if your credit score is good and if you are not planning any significantly important transactions anytime soon (like financing / refinancing the house, a car or similar large-ticket purchase) it might make sense to look into 0% APR offers from credit card companies. I have to warn you that it is a slippery road for many and you need to clearly understand what you are doing, but if you have a good sense of self-control it might be worth taking this shot For example, if you open a Barclays Arrival card, you will be getting a $400 of $3000 promotion for a new card if you spend $3000 in the first 3 months and more importantly you will most likely have 0% intro APR for at least 6 months or so. Many other banks have similar offers with those 0% (like Chase Freedom). That's a nice game to play (called "card churning") if you can control your spending very well and you actually can save a little bit here and there and get what you want without a huge hassle of waiting, layovers etc.. (okay, I stop as I start to sound like credit card marketing rep and clearly I'm not, LOL).

Well, I have very-very mixed feelings after Maksim's post... But I can say upfront what I am VERY uncomfortable about - ^^^^^ THIS For certain reasons I still pay taxes on my income in Russia AS WELL as in the US. Last year only in income taxes due to Russian Tax authorities I paid an amount far exceeding what some of my relatives have either in retirement benefits or simply as a salary working at state budget-funded positions (mostly in a field of education). And this just pi**es me completely off to know that instead of channeling those funds to support my fellow Russian citizens living literally next to me and working their a**es off to make a living, Russian government decides to freeze remuneration for state-funded jobs (no pay rise for school teachers, medical professionals working in state-funded institutions), freeze retirement benefits for Russian citizens, keep raising utilities / transportation / food prices at the rates much higher than the officially reported inflation ... and, at the same time, start paying out benefits to "Russian-speaking population of Crimea". Come on, those people are foreigners, they made their choice in exactly the same way Russian-speaking people in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and other countries did after the collapse of USSR. They either stayed where they were (for almost 25 years actually!) or moved. I just don't get why again I am taking the bill for politically motivated actions of the government and, this time, suffer financially myself as well... And frankly that just only pushes me to look for opportunities of getting rid of that tax obligation to Russia as I feel a little uncomfortable with paying for a party I don't like... I'd seriously prefer to pay more taxes here in the US instead of supporting Russian government... I'd say Putin has giant balls to fight everything he does not like and that directly threats his position at the same time doing nothing to fight the myriad of domestic issues country is sinking in (ironically, that is what is very much alike between Russia and the US - often getting their noses somewhere they have no business in and neglecting domestic problems at the same time). Corruption is on such a rise in Russia that I could have never imagined before. Just a couple of recent personal examples - when I was getting my first driver's license in Russia back in 2005 it was a complicated and bureaucratic process, I had to take the driving portion of a test 2 or 3 times, but nobody ever openly demanded any bribes. Fast forward to March 2014, a new driver comes to the very SAME place (kind of like MVC in NJ) to get a new driver's license... and is told (with a shining smile of an officer behind a counter) that the nearest exam date would be in the end of July. Big smile. No, we don't care that by that time your theory portion of the exam expires. We have a long waiting list. F*** o** ... or... go to that man and he will tell you how to get your driving license next week(!!!). Litigation system? Oh my, my worst nightmare lately. One of my close relatives is a defendant in an absolutely baseless and frivolous civil lawsuit right now. There is absolutely no credible proof on plaintiff's side with compelling proof on my relative's side. There have already been 6 or 7 hearings and after the last one my relative's attorney has been invited to judge chambers where he got told that "he should clearly understand that despite all the testimonies and all the proof the court ruling would NOT be in his favor ... just because it can't be... well.. you understand". He will clearly go up to the next judicial level and most likely win there, but here the message was VERY clear. Bravo, this is a great achievement of Putin and I love it! I can really comment on more of those statements above but I don't feel it would be interesting for the wider crowd and I don't really want to insult anyone, let alone Maksim, the forum admin )) I can only say that my wife, then-fiancee actually lived and studied in Ukraine for several years and being Russian speaking has not led her to any troubles at all. I have been flying back and forth to Kiev and Crimea for several years and never ... I would emphasize ... never encountered absolutely any issues with that. I can even say that people in Crimea (friends/relatives) seemed very happy with what they had at that time and nobody seriously thought about moving out somewhere. Funny thing - now they do, because they have absolutely no clarity on what would happen to them in the next year... As for the sanctions - I am personally very glad that US and EU started to punch Russian government and government-tied businesses with that. In fact, I will most likely suffer personally as I work for an international company with extensive Russian operations, but I will be extremely glad if US and EU finally grow THEIR balls at some point and start imposing sanctions against Russia. In the end of the day, it's a pretty much stone age country technologically - let Visa and MC cut their processing for Russia, introduce export restrictions on a couple of serious IT vendors and the whole country's banking system (!) will deeply collapse in a matter of days as there is NO national payment processing, no domestically designed & assembled hardware like in many other more developed countries, no needed talent etc etc.. And, as a final note, don't really get me wrong and consider me pro-Ukrainian or nazi or whatever. In fact, I don't seriously care about Ukrainians at all (Oleg, sorry, not to personally insult anyone) and I am confident that Ukrainians (same as Russians actually) are the first to be blamed for what is going on there now. They had plenty of chances to turn everything around over the last decade but they pretty much fu**ed all up. Amen. We'll see what it ends up with and clearly my heart goes to those who directly suffer from this now (regardless of their ethnicity / citizenship etc.), but I clearly don't want to be involved in it at all (especially financially, even indirectly). ** But what I would fully agree with Maksim is that the media coverage of the situation is not bad, it's simply terrible. This crisis is a unique situation that clearly shows how media can be used pretty much everywhere to manipulate people. Turn any Russian channel on and listen to how great it is in Crimea now, how people are happy etc. Turn any UK station on - and listen to how terrible it is in Crimea, how good in Kiev etc... I can't really tell where to look for truth, but it's definitely NOT in the mainstream media for sure... *** Um, that is most likely my longest post here. I promise not to post anything like that anymore, LOL ))

Buy 2-3-4 stripped lowers at once, transfer them in one go. PSA usually sells either "PSA blemished" or "Anderson" lowers for ~$50, they sometimes have free shipping promotion, but even without it it is only $7 to ship a lower to an FFL. If you want something more expensive, watch for promos for Spikes lowers - they are often sold for ~$90 (but beware of AIM Surplus store as they still seem not to ship any lowers to NJ). Some (or maybe even most of) FFLs will give you a significant discount for 2nd, 3rd and subsequent items in one transfer, so, if the first transfer is $40, second is $25 and subsequent ones (in one go!) are $10-$15, you lower your effective transfer fee per item pretty significantly (and remember that you only pay NICS fee once per transfer regardless of how many items you transfer). That said, you have a chance to get 2-3 lowers for roughly $70-$75 per item if you are lucky Other stuff like kits, uppers etc. are better to be shipped home. And the last note as long as you will probably go with PSA - prepare for the LONG wait. It is probably one of the slowest online retailers I've ever dealt with that has shipping times FROM 7-10 business days and more (I still have an ammo order from mid-April that is not yet shipped. I seriously don't get what's the issue with them, but if you are itchy now, might make sense to look for another place to buy.... Or, as I mentioned before, stock on lowers now, buy 3-4 of them, wait once and then use them one by one for your subsequent builds... That's just my 2c.

Slightly off topic - it's the first time I actually hear/read about someone receiving a speeding ticket by mail on the East coast (I heard about things like that in Cali, but not anywhere around here)... Do they do this in NJ/PA/NY as well? I still remember my speeding ticket from Cote d'Azur region in France last year - 77 kmph in 70 suburban zone (!!!). Apparently their radar is set to 72 kmph threshold, so if you are doing 73, you've just lost EUR 45 I never heard about such a tolerance (or actually a lack of it) before so was quite confident doing "limit + 10-15%" pretty much everywhere...

I personally don't like imgur for quick picture uploads - it's more a "sharing" service in itself with flashy front page design, social networking elements etc etc. At the same time I found http://postimage.org/ to be much better for my purpose. I don't even think I can write a manual for it even in one chapter - so simple it is. Just choose a file on your computer, click Upload It and then copy a direct link for an uploaded image. No ads, no annoying stuff, plain and simple, as it should be

I'd also work on updating your stock info on accessories :-) I was searching for CZ75 mags locally for quite some time, so you could imagine my happiness when I called RTSP 2 hours ago to check if you had any in stock and was told that one cz75 mag was in stock. I specifically asked to reserve it for me, a person went somewhere and got back telling me something like "No worries, nobody will buy it if you come today". An hour later I am at the store... and Michael tells me that "Having 1 in a system does not really mean that it is in stock... it might have been stolen or so"... Probably, so it was, because he found no CZ75 mags :-( Absolutely no blames on Michael, he did his best, even tried several other mags to see if they fit and took my phone number to give me a call if he could order more... But still a pity for a wasted 30-miles trip ... Okay, agree, not completely wasted, I handled G34 and now I want it ))))

(upfront for the full disclosure - I am Russian national by birth, moved to the US several years ago) I doubt it will improve anytime soon, I believe will just get worse. Russian politicians needed some "grand national idea" to gather support from HUGE parts of population and apparently this situation in Ukraine worked not just fine, but great. Some agencies recently reported a huge spike in a level of satisfaction that respondents (based on regular surveys among Russian population) expressed towards the actions of the Government and the president personally. I have not been following this closely, but apparently president's rating is at highest ever seen levels. Now Russian president has another ~2MM of supporters from Crimea. And apparently nobody really cares that Russian taxpayers will have yet another burden financially supporting a depressed region (and there is actually no doubt it will HAVE to be hugely supported). There are even jokes spreading around already from some of the other Regions of Russia, like "Dear Mr President, we heard you support people in Crimea, increase their wages, build them new roads and new infrastructure... Please annex our region as well - maybe this way you will support us too. Your fellow Russian citizens from XXX"...

I had a similar goal, so here is what I came up with... From left to right: 1) Safety Glasses from Harbor Freight - $1.59. In fact, they seem to be better than my other glasses i bought @ Cabela's for around $10. They are quite large and they have kind of extended plates on sides that might help against flying shells and pieces. 2) Safety Glasses (smaller ones in a photo) that I bought in a Tools section off my local Walmart, I can't remember the price, something around $7. They are made by 3M, so not a complete junk supposedly. 3) Disposable foam plugs - sold in different quantities, I think a dozen goes for ~$2 in Walmart hunting section or so. I always carry a pack of those, because one of my friends has pretty sensitive hearing, so sometimes she prefers to have both larger earmuffs and those disposable foams used together. For outdoor activities (like shooting clays) those plugs are sufficient enough, in my view. I would personally (purely from my own feeling) not recommend using them at indoor ranges... 4) Champion Ear plugs (I think, made of some silicone or so) - my latest find. Cost like $3 in Walmart, but they seem to be better than anything else I tried so far. I only regret that the last time I was at Walmart in Nazareth, PA, there was only 1 left there. 5) Large black safety headphones branded as Winchester. Cost like $10 at Walmart, can also be in pink color, if I remember correctly. Those were my everyday headphones until I found Champion Ear plugs, but I still have them in my range bag just in case...

+1 to RTSP. Nothing against Ottomanelli's, but as far as I remember, their selection is waaaay smaller than @ RTSP. If, as OP mentioned, pricing is not an issue, then RTSP is definitely a way to go.

Bob, that's just an amazing description. Frankly, I started putting what I know together as well (thinking about publishing it somewhere at some point), but I have to admit that my "manual" is nowhere near yours in terms of how comprehensive and how concise it is! Everything up to the point, all very precise and nothing extra. Very good job!

Drez, some of the online retailers *sometimes* can not advertise prices of *certain* brands if they are lower than MSRP - that might be a condition of their agreement with a maker (not only in firearms), but that still does not explain local forum vendors not revealing prices for the whole set of guns they offer :-) For me it just screams "Ahhhh my price is so bad compared even to your closest LGS, so I can't write it here, as I will be LOLed all over it a minute after I post it" )) Just j/k of course, maybe some of the vendors would chip in and explain what is really behind this "call for price" thing ...

I regret that I can't really share full results of one of the surveys the company I work for has done for several of our clients. Nonetheless, I can easily share in my own words what the main conclusion was ... Essentially speaking, Google & Amazon changed the way customers think these days. Period. You can try to argue with this statement, you might not like it, but I guess the easiest thing is to recognize this fact and do whatever is feasible to cater such a "new age customer". And the thing is that it's not about price level itself!!! It's about the whole experience. Why do you think Amazon allows marketplace sellers to offer same goods on the very same page with their own merchandise? "They will be shopping around anyway, let's let them do this on our website while we still can "see" them instead of letting them go to Google.". Another example - what I often see here and what makes me laugh for a second. Some (not all!) vendors here sometimes post their offers with "Call for Price" instead of actual prices. I am not speaking on behalf of others, I am just speaking for myself now, but I can tell honestly what I do when I see such a post ... I just laugh and close it. And don't get me wrong - I do it not because I have something against these vendors - I only do this because in 2014 it is reasonably expected by customers that the price of non-individually tailored / customized merchandise / service will be announced upfront. I still can understand a vendor offering some rare vintage firearm to act this way, but what's the reason of offering Glock 26 Gen 4 and asking to call for the price, c'mon?! I know average price for this gun from Slickguns trend charts, I know Glock Blue label pricing upfront, so why should I call someone and spend even extra 5 minutes for something I can literally get instantly now? So, this "shopping around" habit will not go away now. That said I see two main advantages of LGS compared to online stores: 1) It is "here and now" and not "2 weeks later" 2) Customer service - you see your client, you can help him to find a holster, ammo, scope, mount, sling, magazines, case, safe or cabinet (and have a bigger markup on those "value adding items" than you can probably have on the gun itself). I actually experienced the similar thing myself when I was in the market for a bike - my local bike shop charged me a very reasonable price on a bike (only ~10-15% more than other bigger stores would have charged me for the similar model), but then literally ripped me off on brake pads, flashlight, bell and other accessories :-))) I will be unhappy if I have to spend $400 on a thing that I can order online for $350 (so, ~15% difference), but I might happily buy a bell for $10 here and now that I can order off ebay for $2 (400% difference). If you fail any of those 2 components - ("Sorry, it's not in stock now, we can only backorder it and get to you in 2 weeks" or "No touching guns without FID"), then you probably just lost a customer no matter how good your price is... And speaking of my experience - so far I bought ALL my guns but one (Blue label Glock) online and transferred them all through one of the forum dealers that I am absolutely happy with (and nothing - even ~1 hour drive to his place - can spoil my happiness :-) ). Partly this was because my experience with several brick and mortar gun stores was ... eh... quite far from what I would have expected ideally... Not everything is about price :-)

Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check it. One of the reasons I mentioned that I am not seeking some specific certification is that I had an experience of UT/FL firearm training with one of such "pure certification-oriented" institutions - I doubt I got anything new off that course, but I got my completion certificate that eventually got me UT and FL permits, so mission was technically accomplished. Here is quite a different story - I don't need any specific paper (though I am not against one if it is some well-developed curriculum), but I am rather after high-quality training...

Vlad, 10X, thanks a lot! This NOLS link looks amazing! This is pretty much what I was looking for. I am not sure that I will be able to do one of EMT courses there (1 month + ~$3500 + potential cost of lodging there is a really serious investment, both financially and timewise...), but even EMT 3+1 looks much more realistic...

Hi everyone, Can't really remember, if I already asked it here (if so, my apologies), but I am trying to find a "proper" First Aid course for myself. By saying "proper" I mean a course NOT to get a specific "formal" certificate / letter of completion or whatever might be required for security guards, those who work with kids etc., but rather a REAL course for those who want to obtain serious skills required to help a person in a potentially critical / life-threatening condition before help could arrive. I am not looking to engage in it professionally at all, but as an example my wife has a recent history of very serious life-threatening allergic reactions to bee stings, so with our love to hike in wilder areas a lot this might really mean a difference between life and death. My parents are also obviously getting older and might potentially require urgent help at some point when waiting for an ambulance even if it is only 10-15 minute drive might not really be an option... So, to summarize, I am looking for a First Aid class/course that would be: a) tailored to non-medical professionals with a potential of being in remote areas / almost on full autonomy for a prolonged period of time (like long hunting / hiking / backpacking trips) b) a real course, not just "please watch this movie and then form a line to get your completion certificate" c) rich and actionable in terms of contents and areas / types of injuries / problems covered (not just "this is an automatic defibrillator, stick it here, press this button and it will do all the rest by itself") I am not really constrained by specific time or other considerations, so if I see that a hypothetical week-long course for $800 will give me significantly more than a full-day course for $150, I will gladly consider the former and try to find some time for it. Any advice (especially from those related to emergency aid) is more than appreciated!

Not really trying to appear heartless or so, I always struggled with the whole idea of stand-offs. I still remember one of the episodes of NatGeo "Alaska State Troopers" about storming into the house after a whole-day standoff after filling this house with tear gas. In that case a) a guy was in the house alone - no hostages etc. b) as far as I remember, no single shot was fired by that man I know nothing about this particular situation in Pitman, but as long as there is no imminent threat to anyone (no hostage in a barricaded house) what's the reason of blocking roads, bringing the whole army to the town etc.? In the worst case scenario a guy will just blow his brain off. Sad, but not really tragic. Another bad outcome might be him setting the house on fire. Okay, keep one firetruck a couple of blocks from the place. What else can happen that would justify having dozens of heavily armed people, blocking roads and generally conducting full-scale "anti-terrorist" style op? My personal view - this just attracts unnecessary attention and this is exactly what those crazy people seem to seek. More people involved + more coverage of such an incident in media + Visible mess around it (blocked roads etc.) = Higher chance for a copycat to do the same thing a week later after he breaks up with his GF or so. I might clearly be wrong here, as usual

I ordered a kit off Rockwell Arms - they still seem to have five 9mm kits in stock for P226 and the price is better than directly from SIG unless you have 20% off coupon (and even with this coupon it might be only a bit better) http://www.rockwellarms.com/Store/productDetails/Sig-Sauer-P226-9mm-Caliber-Conversion-Kit-SIGLITE-Night-Sights-CALX-226-9-BSS

I still don't *really* buy it :-) When you buy a handgun in NJ you still go through "NJ-powered" NICS over the phone / online. ATF form contains all the data on the specific handgun you are buying. It is (at least from outside-in perspective) much easier to gather data centrally in a digital form than go through hundreds of P2P copies, sometimes with terrible handwriting, to compile what can be much easier compiled using NICS checks. I seriously don't get the point of "paper" P2Ps at least for sales through FFLs...

I just ordered a SIG Caliber X-Change Kit in 9mm and plan to order P226 22 Classic soon when my 30 days come closer to an end :-) SRT trigger must be great, I need to investigate a little more if it should work with P226 22 Classic with 9mm upper installed. If I like the setup, I might be getting .40 cal X-Change kit as well (will be 3 guns in 1 essentially...)

...and now it got EVEN better - $725 + $6 s/h Nice, very nice. If it keeps going down, I will probably consider getting H&K with my next set of p2p's... http://grabagun.com/hk-p30-9mm-3-85-bl-da-sa-sft-2-15rd.html

LOL, the issue is that I personally will not even know that a particular store sells it $150 cheaper now, that's my point. When a place falls off my radar, it ... kind of really falls, so that I don't go or call there anymore.