Patrick Sweeney

I take a zen minimalist approach to door-to-door sales/petitions/religions. I simply give them a cold, blank stare and shut the door. No arguing, no playing word games, no recriminations.

Those sound OK, although of the two you'll have less control over the headspace.

Firefly got us into the whole buffyverse.

The wife and I bought the set because, bundled with "Buffy" it was cheaper than dirt. We finished the last (5th) season recently. Man-o-man, when the episodes were on, they were funny, engaging, moving and gripping. Even when they weren't "on" they were not boring. Joss Whedon is a god.

Exactly how I built my first 25-2, off of a police trade-in 28. Work from the back, forward. As in: fit the cylinder to the frame, adjust headspace and endshake, fit the cylinder lug, then go about fitting the barrel and adjsuting the gap.

You don't have to make the team to go. The more, the merrier. And as a general rule for IPSC Revolver, if it was ever in the catalog, or available cusotm-order form the factory, it is kosher. Otherwise, no-go.

No Duane, no airborne for me. The only perfectly good aircraft I ever jumped out of were civilian. 5 static line and 17 freefall jumps, though. I don't like to use "instinctive" to describe human behavior, as I believe we're all a tabula rasa. Instinct is what birds do, to fly south or not. Subconscious is the cognitive behavior that goes on behind the obviously conscious thought. Reflexive is the behavior we exhibit without conscious thought. One does not instinctively reach for a spare mag, when the reload goes awry, one reflexively reaches, based on experience or visualization. You can consciously drive subconscious patterns, and thus reflexive responses. You don't have to physically go through the steps to ditch your main and deploy your reserve, if you've done it faithfully a thousand times in your head. There are limits to that process. For instance, you can't visualize your way through dealing with recoil. That you have to do. But you can manage sight alignment and trigger control a lot better while you learn recoil, if you've visualized them ahead of time.

And as "kit" lenses go, that Nikon is rated rather highly. If that's what they bundle with it, go for it.

G10 vs. G11: noise control and low-light capability. The more you crowd photosites onto a sensor, the smaller they get, and the more noise you have to deal with. Canon is primo at controlling noise, but the fewer photosites on the G11 means the individual 'sites can be larger and thus have less noise in the final image. That's the two-minute explanation. More than that can take an hour, an optical engineering lecture, and a quick brush-up on the mathematics of noise control at high amplification rates. Nik, I've got a kit lens (the 18-55 off my DR) that doesn't match my 17-40L, but is well above average. Unless someone is a working pro, I really think kit lenses take a big undeserved rap.

Kit lenses are built to a price point, not a performance spec. You can get good ones, and average ones. However, for family snaps, and sunsets from the deck, you're probably going to have to spend as much on another lens as you did on the camera body, if you want significant performance over the kit lens. In most instances, if you elect to get a body only, you save $50 from the body plus kit lens price. and until you buy the other lens, you can't take photos. So, take a look in the shop and see if the lens does what you want. If so, go for it. And macro lenses (not zoom with macro) are for extreme closeups. Like, the smeared primer for a reloading thread question.

Oh, and don't let the megapixel wars lure you to spending more money than you want. My first digital was the Canon Digital Rebel, in all of its 6.3 megapixel glory. I shot a photo for an article, which the Editor saw fit to run on both pages. (Known in magazine circles as "double-truck.") As soon as I saw it, I could have slapped myself. There, on the slide of the pistol, clear as day, was one of my thumbprints. So, if someone says "this is better because it has more" don't be spending more money. If you're going to be making prints larger than 11"x17" you may, may need more than 8 mP.

Bigger is better, and faster, but bigger also needs more "elbow room." Do not, repeat DO NOT think of using something as core-fill, besides more dirt. Rocks, concrete, tires, etc. will only lead to future headaches. Taller is better, but plan ahead, tall means wide at the base. If you plan to shoot at it regularly, 20" is good (as in: the back wall). Sidewalls of at least 12" are necessary for safety. Plant it with grass and brush ASAP. Better yet, get it hydroseeded. Otherwise, the first hard rain will wash out your hard work or spent cash.

Nope, no joy there. Unless the Feds use some other, the Michigan State Police are the lead agency in "disposing" of confiscated firearms. A while back (like, a couple of decades ago) they laid down the law: any agency that wants the MSP to destroy it, has to turn in the whole thing. Not parts, not a bare frame, but the whole thing. If a department doesn't like it they can take care of the disposal hassle themselves. I know of at least two gun shop owners who got their start from the sales of years of parts collecting while "on the job." In case you;re wondering: It's for the children, don't you know.

Either will work. Both have fans and detractors (brand and model) and unless you already have a stash of lenses, which doesn't matter. You might look at the "consumer" models of the two. The Canon Rebel (I think the Ti1 is the current one) and the Nikon might be the D3000. Either would save you some change form the higher-end 90 and 50.

I'm almost afraid to ask what was going on in the case on the right.....

Hey, before he turned himself into a self-parody of a movie-making manatee, he'd have kicked your ass for saying he runs like a girl.

I can't speak to the issue of trigger re-set, much. Even before I started shooting revolvers a lot, my idea of a "short" reset was not letting my trigger finger crash into the forward part of the trigger guard. Just talking about "short rest" and "feeling the reset at speed" makes me scratch my head. I imagine there are a few GMs who can feel, and use, a short-rest gun at speed. But unless you are one of those GMs, it's like asking if a Hollywood starlet is a fun date: theoretical knowledge only. P-35 hammer bite is from the base of the hammer unlike the 1911. There are a number of 'smiths who can make it not bite you. As for the trigger, there are a few, and they are all very busy. I have not found the Hi Power "twisty" in recoil. But I use Navidrex grips, or similarly sculpted grips. As for the IDPA proscription against removal of the magazine disconnect, if I ever find a Nazi-marked gun that is beyond collectors use, I'll have it mildly built up just so I can have some fun on that point.

And kinetic energy does not square with reality, at least not before expanding bullets. If we use Ke, consider the following: 7.63 Tokarev, 86 gr @ 1500 fps, 430 ft-lbs 9mm Parabellum, 115 @ 1150 fps, 338 ft-lbs 45 ACP, 230 @ 825 fps, 348 ft-lbs All hail the mighty 7.63 Tokarev.

Oh trust me, you want the round-nose bullets. As for weight, it is all a matter of what you and your gun like. If your revo won't shoot 158s accurately (god, is that even possible?) then try the 200s. Or, if you like the felt recoil of the 200s, go for it. Do what feels good. Wheelgunners are a very accepting, inclusive group.......

It isn't as if new G17s are rare and expensive. Or even used ones.

The son of our club's VP shot Limited Minor with Dad's old Springfield P9. He worked his way to Limited champ in the Michigan State Sectionals a few years ago. You have less recoil and more bullets, but you get punished more for C and D hits. Hey, you're having fun, getting in trigger time, and the ammo costs less. Just shoot lots of A's.

A 158 needs to be going 800 fps to make Minor. Every loading manual ever made will have data to get you there. For reloading, make sure your chambers are properly chamfered, and work on technique.

Careful guys, much more gushing and we'll have to organize a group hug. The last time we did that, someone groped me. Thank you, whoever it was.

My LWC was my regular carry gun for nearly 20 years. I bought it used, and took it to Gunsite four times. Its had maybe 5,000 rounds through it from me, and one auto accident. It is cracked (where they all crack, at the dustcover) but otherwise soldiers on. Fun to shoot? Not so much. Fragile and unable to take the load? Not at all. Easier to carry than an all-steel gun? You betcha.

Quick answer: because you don't need it. If you shoot to slide lock, when you reload your left thumb (assuming you're right-handed) will be perfectly positioned to drop the slide. That's if your right thumb can't reach. And the problem with an extended stop can be more subtle: the extra mass can cause the stop to bounce up and lock the slide open before you run dry. Swim upstream if you want, but there's a reason we dropped them decades ago.