Brick Fight

Am I wrong in thinking that the BAR would have made a decent early assault rifle with weight reduction, caliber conversion, and other reasonable tweaks?

Is 600 a good price for a Springfield trap door?

I haven't checked if that one part of the bill to completely remove ammo from toxic substance control went through, too.

I'll give them a look.

In the top cases, I'm sure you know I make exceptions for certain conditions, but I do get your point. One place I went to was huge, and they had at least a few hundred rifles on display that you could pick up and sample. Unfortunately, it was a bit cramped in the store, and I'm sure they could have taken out a hundred of the deer rifles and 10/22s to remove a rack and give more space or something. I felt I should clarify that since I was pretty vague about it. I like Hickock because his guns go bang real loud and you can hear and see the targets, but his research seems to be random gun forum posts. I usually use the timeline preview to skip to when he's just shooting the stuff to see what it's like when the gun shoots. Nutnfancy's gun videos are bleh but his specialty seems to be around knives, and his videos have helped me buy stuff for my dad (who is a huge discerning knife guy). IV8888 is definitely bad, and I've never heard of the others. I've watched a lot of these and haven't enjoyed them, which hopefully speaks to TFB and Forgotten Weapons that they're the only channels I can watch.

I need to get a job that actually lets me afford all of this shit. I keep having to put major purchases off for another month or longer for every little unexpected charge that comes up.

1) Interesting long guns placed out front. Half the stores in our area don't put anything out front at all. This means that the 2 or 3 clerks working are always tied down if anybody wants to look at any gun, and nobody can look at any gun if three of them are talking to their buddy and ignoring the customers. The other half usually just precariously throw indistinguishably similar-looking deer rifles on one or two racks, while everybody's still tying up the clerks by actually trying to see everything else behind the counter. 2) Handguns arranged in some kind of sensible organization. My eyes just tend to glaze over when there are two Rugers, one .380 and one 9mm, each with a .45 S&W and a repro SAA between them (Everything facing different directions, too). Arrange by brands, caliber, used, milsurp, revolvers, whatever. It's just easier to decide if I can visually compare price/size/whatever of one 9mm auto next to other ones. If I'm comparing two 1911s, the clerk shouldn't have to be walking all along the counter just to pull a few out. 3) Shelf labels placed underneath well-organized ammo. Different boxes print their caliber size. The organization should be a no-brainer. I found PPU .303 150gr flanked by 12 gauge and 6.5 grendel yesterday, while the higher grain .303 was way over with the 54r. None of the shelves were labeled, and ammo boxes were stacked in a way that made half of them impossible to see the caliber written on the box. 4) Haggling. The guy I regularly dealt with in C&R was a bit of a fuck, but he always realized I came in with cash and knew what I wanted. I could tell he was desperate to sucker someone into paying $600 for that Enfield I bought, but it was easier to talk him down when I counter-offered with a common retail price with cash in-hand. Just realizing that 3 minutes of talking to me and answering questions meant a few hundred dollars for him meant he was willing to deal. Other gun stores let me look at something that's obviously over-priced, and will not hear a counter-offer, saying "take it or leave it." Well, I guess I'll leave it to sit on your shelf for another two years. 5) No politics. This is a no-brainer, but are you such a slave of the 24-hour news cycle that you can't stand to have any paying customer be comfortable, regardless of political affiliation. I know this just sounds like the leftie getting mad, but even my right-leaning father can't stand to hear some angry weirdo at the counter yelling about FEMA death panels (again, tying down a clerk). No other type of store really allows this kind of stuff, and for good reason. Your customers should not be scaring away other customers. 6) Little clutter. Why are there four very similar Ruger Redhawks in the display case in random locations while other guns you only have one of are barely visible beneath a bottom shelf? Why do you have a dozen of the same model and type of a Remington deer rifle all placed in a row with random .22s and ARs placed between them? Why is half of a gun rack hidden behind camo lingerie and Jeff Foxworthy books? I'd imagine product is best placed in a way where it can draw attention, and not clutter the aisle. A customer buying reloading tools shouldn't have to wait for the guy picking out a "Top 10 reasons to go deer hunting" t-shirt to get out of his way. Everyone has different experiences, but I see this kind of stuff enough that I can call them out when someone starts talking about it. edit: Watching Hickock45 talking about gun histories makes me sad. Suddenly appreciating John saying "I don't know" in his videos and leaving it at that.

Tiramisu just doesn't have any stand-out flavors in my mind. There's not enough coffee for a savory bite. Not enough cheese for fragrance, and certainly not an appealing texture. I've just never figured out a reason to eat it besides "It's sweet and has sweet things in it." The basic premise behind most dishes is that there's this great flavor you want to show off, and then you do what you can to enhance or compliment that flavor.

It's to be expected. I'm sure if I were to ever get this cooking blog off the ground and Global were to send me a knife or something, I'd be excited and show the necessary gratitude. I'd also use it like any knife and assess it. There just aren't a lot of writers in the industry willing to call bullshit on vendors, because it usually results in the "well he's a businessman, he can price it however he wants!" Well, yeah, but I can call it stupid and point out they're the reason they don't sell anything. My father and I went to Philipsburg (Typical PA shit-hole town) and Clearfield (surprisingly decent PA town) today on a tour of gun stores and found nothing. Even Grice, which advertises as one of the biggest stores in the state, had the exact same lines of overpriced 10/22s and boring hunting rifles as everyone else, just more of it. I just can't really bring myself to go to any more stores after today. On the plus side, I'm now browsing slickguns and it's way too late and ugh.

Alright, I have to say that although I'm not a big fan of James' videos on TFB, he actually made me laugh quite a few times on this latest one. It's rare to hear Youtube gun guys flat-out admit they don't something (like reloading) or throw such a harsh burn on wackos with the doomsday water carriers. I think retailers need to take an occasional blow for their gouging and pseudo-sales (also fuck Gander). Good stuff.

It is confusing. The carbine had quite a few advantages in that it meant support personnel, officers, technicians, etc. weren't stuck with pistols, and anyone who needed small, light rifle that could fire 15 rounds from a detachable mag had one. It's kind of the same argument I make for the BAR. Sure, the thing was a giant, heavy mess, but it was one soldier on the field operating on his own who could fire twenty .30-06 rounds when you wanted him to. And he also didn't have to worry about soldiers charging him because he made a pinging noise every time he reloaded.

Speaking of myths, is there anything to back up the accusations that certain American bullets had trouble piercing Chinese coats in Korea? I've had a lot of trouble believing in that confidently. I just got through Clay Blair's monster book, and don't remember it being mentioned.

Well, either way, I finally knocked a gun off of my to-fire list. I finally got to shoot a BAR. Ever since I stopped patronizing my local gun stores, I've made friends with one of the further-away shops I've been going to. I told him I wanted to fire a BAR really badly, and he invited me out to the range with some friends to shoot it. It felt weird at first, but Christ it was fun to shoot. I felt a little shaken up by the recoil, but I love that monster, and I had a blast shooting it despite its well-documented historical issues. My list is getting smaller, but I still think I may have to pull volunteer personal chef duty in return for getting range-time with a Johnson M1941.

Good food tends to depend on local culture and demand, as well. A bad restaurant doesn't last long in a place like New Orleans because there's already the premise for a good variety of local culturally-produced dishes. You can't do a half-assed jambalaya because someone can just get a better version from friends/family for much cheaper. Japan's big thing is obviously fish (though it is more varied than people give it credit for. Every edge of Japan's borders touch the ocean, so there's no excuse to be using poor-quality fish. There's enough fish that's affordable, so it's hard to advertise on the premise of having a better price to any meaningful extent. It's sort of like the owner of a bakery I know. He's a mixture of the businessman who knows demand, but often makes all of the mistakes of the average restaurant owner. He started out making amazing bread which people bought hand-over-fist, but he eventually started to dabble in half-assed attempts at pastries built entirely out of prepared ingredients. He constantly tries to get into the local seasonal thing, but never uses any sort of local foods. The most famous incident we remember were his pumpkin cannolis. He threw butter, canned pumpkin pie mix (in a state where pumpkin costs literally almost nothing in the fall), and cream in a robo and dripped it into some year-old prepared shells. Within a few minutes, these cannolis turned into stale shells with orange baby food-like substance melted down inside. He seemed so proud of his cost-cutting, but it probably ended up costing him in the end while his bread (which showed up late because he decided to make these shitty cannolis) was still just flying off the shelves. Cuisine is most often controlled by the customer. If there is enough demand to hold a business upright, and you meet that demand, then there's no reason a business should fail. Even in cultural wastelands like the mid-west, if you can make a burger joint that makes the best burgers at a competitive price, then you can produce good quality food and support yourself.

Sturgeon's idea for an article got me thinking. It seems gun myths are rarely challenged, and if they are, they tend to either: a) Take one step forward and two steps back. As in they refute the main myth, but spout 2 or 3 more in the process. b ) Get drowned out by all of the myths' weird supporters with arguments usually starting about their "sniper grandpas in WWII" even if it's about M16s in Vietnam or something. c) Just get lost underneath the constant shoveling of more content by other channels propagating the myths. I honestly wouldn't mind a Mythbusters version of a lot of these. Show how impractical the "garand ping" myths are when you can barely hear the ping in combat, the ping barely happens when you bounce it against a helmet, gun battles aren't fought like a Call of Duty match, etc. But also try to do a setup that supports the myth to see if it can be recreated in any capacity. Forgotten Weapons does a good job of teaching and confronting misinformation, but Ian doesn't exactly make too many videos that will hold the attention of the average goober for too long. I guess the problem would end up being a big mixture of safety issues, cost, video makers' integrity (in lots of regards, including scientific), and resources (including time for filming and editing). A man can dream, though.

1. It would probably go above the commentors' heads in every capacity, but I'd like it. 2. The "Rochambeau Fallacy." The assumption all fights are on equal grounds with different equipment.

I've been noticing the VHS-2 snatched up by quite a few agencies lately. Anyone have info on its price or performance?

I'm talking about the type who will only complain about finger-on-trigger and nothing else.

Well, at least the type of dipshits whose only contribution to pictures of guns online is to whine about trigger discipline have nothing to say about those.

There is a point to limiting weapons specialization to an extent, especially in WW2. The toughest pill for me to swallow has always been the "I would rather have." Yes, if I had the logistics capacity of the US Army, I would rather have an MP 44 regularly fully-stocked with ammo, and allies with their fully-stocked weapons as well due to tactical flexibility. It's an unrealistic argument in every way that isn't a complete vacuum where the only question, "which is more useful in a straight combat situation?" is the only question to answer. Unfortunately, the MP 44 has a heavier load for less ammo and its own unique ammo to support, so whether you scavenged it/it was issued to you, you're not going to find much ammo for it anyway. So not only can you not feasibly carry as much ammo as a Garand, you cannot keep this thing supplied under any sort of condition in WW2 that's not some rear-echelon political SS unit or something. Under the real conditions of WW2, I'd have taken a Garand.

The first bits read like a bad internet forum post, but it gets weird. How is a self-propelled artilllery piece comparable to a static one? Then it lurches into insanity with the M48A5 vs. Abrams. I can't believe an adult made this.

I'll still never get the accusation that the AK-47 was inspired by/is a copy of the MP 44. Don't they use completely different actions? I could see it maybe being a inspiration cosmetically, but I haven't heard anything but circumstantial evidence to support that.

Wasn't there a study done in the '90s saying that constipation was mostly due to soldiers not eating the entire recommended meal, combined with outside influences and extra-curricular athletics? One of the best things about eating burritos in Mexico is no rice or lettuce or whatever. They're usually the same size as here, but packed 60% meat, 40% beans. You can usually ask for some queso fresco or avocado if you want.

A little late, but also keep in mind that a lot of us met on a game forum where users with avatars of literal Nazis could call our Russian friends here subhuman garbage for even minor critique of German military equipment and practice. They'd get off free while se would get temp-bans for saying "nazis were bad" or something. We tend to take the piss on German stuff mostly because of the mythic nature surrounding it, and there's lots of exaggeration when we do jab. I'm sure at least a few users here happily own something with Walther, H&K, Mauser, etc. written on the side, but god knows I don't want to give any weirdo nationalists any sort of validation.

Far as I can tell, it comes off of the cuckolding fetish that's suddenly popular. I went to 4chan for the first time since like 2006 a while ago, and they were obsessed with it, and it's now used interchangeably with "pussy" or "wuss." I know it's not the same situation, but it reminds me of the gun store owner weirdo in my town who loved to talk to himself online in forums: https://www.google.com/search?q=bellefonte+gun+store&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=hunters+warehouse. 71 Google reviews, most of them one or two sentences long. Grice Gun Shop, another semi-local store that's one of the largest in the country, has about 20. Oh well. Then you go in there and it's a collection of interesting, yet overpriced firearms all over the place buried underneath shitty used tools and electronics. The owner is apparently sitting on a doomsday stockpile of C&R that he's letting rust while he browses on his computer in his shop. Anyhow, back on to my main thought. Local gun talk pretty much loved to shit on this guy after his first store was mysteriously closed after alienating pretty much everyone in the county. Especially online. Usually bringing up his name or store could guarantee him and bunch of sock puppets to come in and defend him. So he would be there with his other fake accounts basically telling each other how great he is. Dude is genuinely unhinged.