In for a penny, in for a kidney

Remember I said “I have a ‘favorites’ list at one of my vendors websites. Its a list of things I want to buy when they eventually become ‘in stock’. I check that list several times a day. As of late, I have noticed that around 2-3am they are adding stock to their online inventory and it sells out almost instantly. But…sometimes I sneak one past the goalie and get lucky.“?

So…this happened:

:::sigh::: I don’t know whats worse…my trying to time the market, or my trying to time the magazine market. (Although to be fair…I did really, really well in the market this year.)

Two hundred more for the Deep Sleep. No, I will not sell you any, don’t ask. Normally I’d say go hit your local FFL and have them contact RSR and order them but I’m fairly confident these will sell out in the next 24 hours.

Edited to add:

Did I just spend a buttload of money that I didn’t need to spend? My neighbor thinks so. We were talking and I mentioned that I foresaw a magazine ban on the horizon. My neighbor, a learned man and retired military officer (though a Biden supporting Democrat) said that a magazine ban had been ruled unconstitutional. He was, of course, referring to the Ninth Circus Circuits decision earlier this year that struck down Californias magazine ban as unconstitutional. (And, yes, who would have seen that coming from the Ninth?) So, as I understand it, states within that Ninth district should be free from any onerous magazine capacity ban (on a state level. Federal level is a different story. Federal law usually supersedes state law. We kinda had a war about that). But on a federal level it is still an undecided thing. Same for states outside the Ninth. Is California going to appeal it to the Supreme Court? If they do, I hope that the legacy Trump has created there would smack any ban down without even blinking. I suspect California knows that and might not be willing to push the issue further, but rather bide(n) their time for a leftist court-stacking as opposed to risking creating a nationwide precedent that they really don’t want. In short, they might be content to live with a ‘maybe’ instead of pushing the issue and getting a ‘no’.

So, back to the question at hand… should I be spending money on magazines like this when there might be enough legal juice out there to preclude another magazine ban? I really don’t know. Historically, .gov does what it wants and when it gets smacked down on constitutionality it takes some time. California’s mag ban, for example, has been around for decades and only now is it finally getting threatened. Additionally, there are probably several ‘loopholes’ that .gov (state or federal) could exploit to give a de facto ban. Registration of magazines with high registration fees, expensive enhanced background checks….basically a tedious and discouraging NFA-style process that doesn’t strictly limit your ability to own a magazine…it just makes you wanna throw up your hands and say ‘screw this’.

Note that we’re just talking about magazine bans in this case. The other elephant in the room, “assault weapons”, are a different story. My neighbor says that he does foresee that one coming. I agree with him on that one. But the magazine thing….hmmm… I hope it winds up going to the Supremes and gets decided in my favor but until it does I have to operate on the assumption that a magazine ban could stand. So….I wish I didnt have to spend this money on magazines, but I’m not sorry I did.

Adventures in self control

Went to Murdoch’s the other day to pick up a 16-gallon ‘blue barrel’ for rice storage and as I walked down the aisle I beheld….this:

I know it doesn’t seem like I have good impulse control, but I actually impressed myself by not just buying the bloody thing right then and there. BUT….I had a long, long talk with myself basically talking myself in and out of whether I should buy it. Fact is, it ain’t cheap at around $2800~. But I can freeze dry my favorite foods that may be unobtainable elsewhere and get myself a nice stash of FD meats without paying the crazy prices that they normally command. I actually should fab up a spreadsheet to calculate just how many pounds of chicken and beef I’d have to FD before the thing hits the break even point.

But…I already have a pretty healthy (so to speak) stash of freeze drieds. Sure, more would be nice and being able to get exactly the foods I want has a pretty nice attraction as well. And I suppose I could get a couple of the LMI to come in on it with the expectation we could all take turns using it. But..but….expensive. Although people pay more money for far stupider items….jet skis, expensive living room chairs, Manolo Blahniks, etc.

To my way of thinking its the same financial equivalent as:

  • 4 mid-tier ARs
  • 5 Glocks
  • 1.5~ oz. of gold
  • 150 oz. of silver (hey its a 100:1 ratio)
  • 1/3 of a decent used pickup
  • 13k 9mm ball ammo

What I really need is a friend who has one of these things. 80/20 ….. get 80% of the usage for 20% of the cost.

But, dang, it would be kinda fun to see what does and does not come out well.

Moar Ruger

This time, though, not another 9mm.

Something a little different from the run-of-the-mill cataloged pistol…if you know what to look for.

ETA: It’s a Ruger #5058… a .44 Mag Redhawk but with special grips and a full-length barrel underlug that is unique to this model. Basically, its a scaled-up GP-100 in .44 mag. Special run for Lipsey’s Distributing. I beame aware of them a few months back and found that they were doled out to Lipseys in dribbles and drabs…I found this used one online. It’s been a while since I had a .44 mag wheelgun and I wanted the Ruger for it’s end-of-the-world durability but really disliked the aesthetics of the usual Redhawks. This guy, however, appealed to me. I need to swap the fiber optic sight for something more durable, but otherwise the only other thing that might happen to this is a trip to Bowen for a little tweaking here and there. Finding a holster might be a trick since no other 4″ Redhawk has the full underlug but I suspect a 4″ Anaconda holster will fit fine.

Guns guns guns

I’m starting to wonder if the guy who texts me the messages about new guns that have come into his shop for sale is really doing me any favors when he does that….

I get the usual “Some guns came in. Come on down and take a look” message.

What I didnt get were two 1940’s era Model 70 Winchesters. One in .30-06, which was nothing remarkable…zillions out there, and the other was a .257 Roberts. Hmmm. I would have bought them with an eye for resale, but the prices were higher than I felt comfortable gambling on. What did I get?

  • A Marlin 39A which I am hoping to trade to a buddy for a very clean, very pre-Remington 336 in .30-30
  • Yet another Remington 870 12 ga.
  • A lovely 6″ S&W 17 K-22 from the 70’s
  • A 6″ S&W 686

Price? Well, I think its a good deal. $1100 for the lot. The 870 goes in the rack with the rest, the 39A gets traded for a .30-30, the K22 is probably going to GunBroker, and the 686 will get flogged around to see if I can trade it for a GP-100.

:::sigh::: I was so sure I wasn’t going to make this as gun-heavy a year as last year.

Article -10-story missile silo for sale outside of Roswell

“It might be the safest home for sale in all of New Mexico. I say come out and look, make an offer, and you can have your underground castle right away,” said realtor Jim Moore.

40 feet underground lays an old missile silo in Roswell with a lot of history. It’s a home where you don’t have to worry about curb appeal.
All you can see from above ground is a door to the stairwell. From there, it’s straight down four stories in pitch black.
“If the lights happened to go out, you can’t see anything beyond your nose,” said Tom Edgett.
Once at the bottom, there’s a series of tunnels. Then, it finally opens up into a big room – an underground cave.

Its my understanding that these things are, in the unfinished stages, a mass of stagnant water, toxic byproducts, and endless hours of repair and restoration….but there is still something just really, really cool about them. How cool would it be to have your quaint and cozy ‘tiny house’ of 200 square feet and trapdoor in the floor leading to your zillion square foot basement?

But, yeah, unless its already been done for you, turning it into habitable space is gonna be an adventure.