In reading many gun blogs, you often run across individuals who feel as if police are overreaching and out only for themselves. The seem to feel cops are out to deprive them of liberty.
I have seen a cop stop someone with a gun in their car, for a traffic violation. The gun owner notified the cop that there was a gun in the car, the cop shrugged, ran the driver's license, wrote the guy a warning, and said "have a good day".
I have also seen convicted felons with drugs and guns on their person get arrested. The cop issued property receipts to the felon for both the "leafy green, vegetal substance, packaged in 9 quarter-ounce baggies" and for the "Ruger, 40 caliber, handgun, obliterated serial number".
I have seen these things go to court. The cop testifies that the firearm (the one in question had an intact serial number) belonged to a relative of the individual who committed the crime, and the judge ordered that the firearm be turned back over to the relative.
I have also seen fine guns destroyed, because they belonged to someone who committed a crime with said gun.
I have heard cops lament that such a beautiful gun (a Belgian-made Browning A5) had to be destroyed.
But you know what I haven't heard? Of a cop taking a firearm from someone and not turning it over as evidence, or not logging it in properly, or "losing" it.
Oh, it used to be legal for a judge to order a gun be turned over to a police department or cop for "the furtherance of law enforcement" if a legitimate owner could not be located. I'm not talking about that. It has fallen out of practice most everywhere. I'm talking about theft of property.
I've seen many cops lament that a nice Colt, or Remington, or Smith & Wesson had to be destroyed. But I've never caught wind that one was "saving" a nice gun from the cutting torch.
And that makes me happy. We cops are no better than criminals, if we stoop to criminal acts... even though I have lamented myself over a seeing a few guns getting torched.
I like a good pair of cowboy boots. I bought a pair of Justins boots about a year ago from Tractor Supply. Normally a $130 pair of boots, they were on clearance for $70. I guess no one liked orange uppers. But, hell, the uppers are always covered by pants legs, unless you are one of those urban-cowboy, fashion-ista types. And a good pair of Justins for under $100 is hard to come by. I pulled the trigger and bought 'em.
Thing is, in boots, you can get leather soles or bonded soles these days. I grew up on a small-town farm, where you tried to get all the usefulness you could out of EVERYTHING. You can't replace bonded soles. The sole of the boot is literally bonded to the rest through vulcanization, the same process that your car tires go through to bond the rubber to the steel belts in the tires. It's durable, but once you wear out the rubber sole, you can't get them re-soled.
Leather soles can be replaced by a good cobbler, for less than $30.
It's time to get my boots re-soled. Many people, after wearing a hole in a boot would throw them away, and look for a new pair. Truth is, you can re-sole a good quality boot about 4 times before they wear out. So, in effect, you get 5 times the service, for little money.
Call me old fashioned, but I'm going to be stopping by my local cobbler next week.
One of my buddies from work has been harassing me to make meat pies for several months. It's an onerous process, but this weekend, I relented, and we invited about 10 friends over to eat.
We had a great time, and the meat pies were awesome, but inevitably, I forget to take pictures when enjoying myself. I will just have to leave you with a picture of meatpie filling cooking, about 6 pounds of meat, and 4 pounds of vegitables. It made 44 meatpies.
Nothing like hanging out with friends, good food, and good company.
Grilled deer steak, that was on the hoof last month, home made garlic and parsley mashed potatoes, sugar snap peas, and Sam Adams Winter Lager.
I am in food heaven!
I saw a blog post on the Gun Blog Black List by Keads ( http://keads-anotherday.blogspot.com/2014/12/whats-in-your-closet.html?m=1 ) with this title. His concerned toy trains and nostalgia, but I immediately thought "a lot of damned guns" when I read his post title. The Mossberg and Taurus are not loaded, as I do not use them every day (the Mossberg will likely be riding in my unit after the first of the year). The Glock is my duty gun. The 638 is my office/court/dog days of summer carry gun, and so gets worn 3 or 4 times a week. The Kahr is my daily concealed carry gun, and gets worn almost exclusively on weekends, as well as most days after getting off work. The bobbed model 60 is my wife's daily carry.
What's in your closet?
Took my son with me. Civic duty done, and my son has now seen one of the cornerstones of out governmental processes.
I went hunting this weekend with my good friend, Greg. His family has been leasing the same acreage since 1982, and they have quite the camp. They graciously gave me a place to hunt on a well-traveled-by-deer piece of pipeline. I didn't see anything, but I had a great time.
We sipped cheap whiskey, told lies by the fire, and ate like kings. Saturday, one of the guys shot a 4 point, and watching lifelong hunters process and skin a deer was very cool. In a total time of about 4 hours, the deer was completely processed, and all the waste could fit in a 5 gallon bucket. They were very efficient in using all the meat possible, and soon had piles of steaks, roasts, loins, and burger.
I also learned that my target gun is just not very friendly to hunting. A 14 pound rifle is a chore to carry, and doesn't shoulder quickly. Unfortunately, we were hunting a pipeline, so 200 yard shots are common. This made my rifle choice for me. A lever action chambered in a pistol caliber with iron sights just wouldn't be up for those shots. One day I will fill the hole in my gun collection left by a sensible, no frills hunting rifle for making 100-300 yard shots, but in the mean time, I will make do.
I made no meat, but had an awesome weekend, nonetheless.
I have been kicking around the idea of a paddle holster for a while now. While on the job, I don't like them, because they aren't very secure to your body. At least not as secure as a good belt loop and a top grain leather belt are. In my normal work attire, the least secure part of my holster-to-body contact is my belt loops.
I like IWB carry, though. Problem is, I have some pants that fit my body in such a way as to make IWB carry impractical/uncomfortable. I have been thinking that a nice paddle holster would be great for those quick trips to the store, as it can just be slipped on without any wardrobe adjustment, except for perhaps throwing on a light jacket or cover shirt. In that vein, I built a paddle holster. I have a few paddles from various bits of gear that have belt/paddle mounting options, so I bought some Chicago screws, hauled out my leather working supplies, and Googled up some paddle holster images.
Of course, I stitched a Fleur-de-lis into the holster, because if I decide to open-carry, I want my holster to look nice. I also added a tension screw with a rubber grommet, so I can adjust the tension level on the firearm. You can see it behind the trigger guard.
I like how it turned out. A few months of use should tell the story of if I got it right, though. I will keep all informed.
