Bambi Whack = $4000

Hey. less than last time! I'm sort of rebuilding the Boxcar a side at a time. The good news is that 3 more deer and I'm an ace!

To do some house-cleaning, Frank James is 100% right...since my 329 had an action job from Alpha Precision, if I sent it back to S&W they'd point a big ole finger at the gunsmith, who didn't touch the lock mechanism. Bottom line...the S&W lock is POTENTIAL DEATH in ultra-lightweight frames! Think about it...say it only fails once every 100,000 rounds...do you want to risk that one failure while you're trying to keep Ms. Bear from turning your 8-year-old into a yummy snack? And remember, a 1-in-100,000 doesn't necessarily mean you get to pull the trigger 100,000 times before the lock fails. The failure could occur on Pull #99,999 or Pull #3. Think about it.

Here's a bit from the Congressional Research Service on the M-4 and its challenges for Congress. Here's the summary:

The M-4 carbine is the Army’s primary individual combat weapon for infantry units. The M-4 uses a direct gas impingement system that blows carbon from the fired cartridge back into the weapon’s receiver, which can lead to weapon malfunctions. The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is replacing its M-4s with the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR), a modular weapon with a short-stroke piston system that eliminates carbon blow back, which theoretically improves reliability. Some have questioned why the Army has not adopted the SCAR or another similarly designed weapon. A series of studies and tests of the M-4 and potential competitors have added to this debate, and the Army has taken steps to begin evaluating other weapons to replace the M-4. This report will be updated as events warrant.

I can't imagine any drive to change the Big Army's small arms during the reign of Knee-Pads Barry, whose response to hostile nations is...harsh language! Oh, I suppose that if, say, there was a problem in a democratic nation that was a U.S. ally, say, Israel, Knee-Pads would consider using an American nuclear response to keep the socialist world government agenda on course and keep those craaaaaaaaaa-zzzzzzzzy Jews from ruining everything!

Also, check out VPC's Josh "SAD PANDA" Sugarmann's piece in the Huffington Post on Jan Libourel's editorial in GUN WORLD magazine, trying to stir up some nasty dookey among us gun folk. Here's a little of it:

Libourel's Quisling rating then ratchets up a few more points when he has the audacity to call into question the pro-gun myth of the modern-day 'citizen soldier.' You know, the heavily-armed guy who in his grandiose dreams is linked to a heritage that stretches from the Revolutionary War to the Wolverines of Red Dawn -- and is only seen by the rest of us when he snaps and his last "patriotic" act ends up on the evening news.

Noting the reported increases in sales of assault rifles like the AR-15 in the wake of President Obama's election, Libourel writes:

"I suppose the people rushing to buy up AR-15s 'before it's too late' are counting on the anti-gunners' being magnanimous enough to ban the future sale of such rifles yet leave existing owners in possession of theirs. Either that, or they are planning to hide them in anticipation of an armed uprising or social breakdowns. Although I was certainly no fan of the Clinton administration, I had to wonder about those 'patriots' and 'constitutionalists' who advocated arming themselves back then with an eye to overthrowing the lawfully elected government! Although I didn't much care for him, Bill Clinton was elected president under the United States Constitution, fair and square."

Libourel then goes on to question those who would follow the logic of "survival guru Mel Tappan," whose "shtick" was that they:

"should prepare for the inevitable social breakdown or nuclear war by acquiring a 'retreat' in a remote rural area where you could essentially live off the land and arm yourself to the teeth with state of the art high-firepower weaponry so that you could blow away any 'looters' who had the temerity to trample your Jerusalem artichokes! (I guess you would have to have a keen nose for trouble to effect a retreat to your retreat before the social blowup or the nukes started falling...) I suppose for defending an isolated ranch or farmstead from the concerted attack of a criminal gang one of these rifles would have considerable merit. The same would hold true if one anticipated in engaging in house-to-house fighting in some sort of urban warfare, as taught in the 'Urban Rifle' courses at the sundry shooting schools. However, being an old-fashioned, low-tech sort of guy, I always felt that a plain old short-barreled 12 gauge pump gun or autoloader was all the urban defense gun I'd ever need. In most urban jurisdictions, it would be pretty hard for a civilian to plead necessary self-defense if he engaged in a shootout at ranges greater than the 35 yards or so at which buckshot is effective."

In a world viewed by many of his readers in black and white, Libourel has staked out a little island of gray. It remains to be seen whether he's exiled to it.

Jan has always moved to a different drummer. Sadly, Jan's piece is not on-line, but Jan is certainly entitled to his opinion, even if IMHO it's stone wrong. A quick reality check...today the news was full of a home invasion in Florida that involved up to 7 assailants in two cars that left the 2 homeowners shot dead. I've gotten reports of some major gangs ratcheting up their home invasions for fun and profit business. I like the heck out of shotguns, but in those kind of cases, I'll take firepower all day long.

Second reality check...Katrina. Again, firepower works.

And Jan, before you spend too much time dis'sing Mel Tappan and SURVIVAL GUNS (and keeping in mind that I am diligently working on a new book with the working title of THE NEW SURVIVAL GUNS: FIREARMS AND TRAINING FOR UNSETTLED TIMES), these are in fact unsettled times. The economy is teetering on the brink of...something. H1N1 has "jumped" Tamiflu in at least 3 countries, including the U.S. Israel, which has no sense of humor when it comes to national survival, is eying Iran and fingering the sharp edge of the knife. Pakistan, which has far too many nukes, is only a "country" in the loosest sense of the word. The entire electric grid of the U.S. can be turned off with a few nukes popped way up in the air over Kansas. We have a committed socialist "community activist" in the Presidency, a Congress full of second-rate comedians, a foreign policy that involved knee-pads, apologies and groveling, and a public obsessed with a dead pedophile. We're about to confirm a Supreme Court Justice who is proud of her membership in the National Council La Raza, which, in case you've been asleep, means "The Race." The borders are as porous as yesterday's used-up kitchen sponge. A major American city was destroyed by weather and lunacy. The San Andreas fault has recorded more than 2000 "mysterious" tremors in the last few months. California, where you live with those velociraptor-sized dogs, is bankrupt, issuing IOUs instead of...what were those things called?...dollars and is trying to figure out which services to cut or curtail. And Ryan Seacrest makes $15 million a year.

If you feel comfortable, by all means, pass the the Xanex...if MJ left any!