Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Unemployment

CBS news is reporting that unemployment in Detroit is 10.3%, which makes Yuma AZ (31.8%) look bad by comparison. Anybody believe the unemployment rate in Detroit is really 10%? Detroit used to have about 2M people in it and an unemployment rate around 3%. That was then. By now some 1.2M people have given up looking for work there and moved out. Had they stayed, the unemployment rate would be 60% on top of the current listed 10% rate for an aggregate rate of 70%.  The only thing that keeps the rate down is the rate at which people flee the city and are no longer counted.

Much like the way that people leave the workforce in despair and are no longer counted in the national unemployment rate. Counting discouraged workers and adjusting for the national workforce decline, the national U.S. unemployment would be somewhere between 15-20% ,on a par with the Eurozone.

Yuma, BTW seems to consist of 45% retired snowbirds, 45% itinerant fruit pickers, and 10% actual people with jobs and businesses.  At least that's what it looked like when I went to visit my snowbird father there.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Colorado Recall Elections OpenTo Everybody

As of Sept 10, the date of the recall elections for Senators Morse and Giron, if you've been in Colorado for 22 days at some kind of address, you can vote in either of the recall elections.

Directions:
1.  Visit the a Voter Service and Polling Center in the appropriate county and tell them you intend to move into the district you wish to vote in within the next week or two.
2. Register to vote in that district. They have to let you.
3. Your mail-in ballot will be sent to your current address. Fill it out and send it in.

If you change your mind about moving later, say after the election, that's O.K. We all know that job offers can fall through and the like.

On election day you can show up at the Voter Service and Polling Center, tell them you plan to move down there, register, vote, and drive back home. Same day service, and you don't even have to tell the home precinct about it. Did I say drive? With gas prices so high? Take the bus! I'm sure at least one party will be providing free bus transit both ways on election day.

The election is the only game in town on that date, meaning that voters in other jurisdictions wouldn’t be missing the chance to vote for their own local officials if they cast ballots in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
As a result, it’s not hard to envision a situation in which the election turns into a statewide free-for-all, with Democrats busing in anti-recall voters from Denver and Boulder while Republicans truck in pro-recall voters from Parker and Greeley.


They say it's legal as long as you vote only once. I'm looking forward to seeing a 200% voter turnout in these elections.
Under the newly passed Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act, “the only residency requirement for voters is that they have to live anywhere in Colorado for the last 22 days,” said Arrowsmith, now serving his seventh year as county clerk. “It poses some interesting questions.”
The law was passed early this year. Guess which party was behind it.

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Future of Transportation - Bedliners

USA today is reporting that some truck owners are taking the spray-on bedliner to its last logical limit and having the whole vehicle done in the stuff. It's not cheap, but the thinking goes that the rough, tough surface should last the life of the vehicle with no maintenance at all.





The flat finish is very tactical, no?


A couple of flags come to mind here. Flag one is aerodynamics. The rough finish of the bedliner may well act like the dimples on a golf ball at the modest speeds most vehicles travel at. It might be interesting to compare a bedliner finish to the standard paint and wax in a wind tunnel.

Flag 2 is radar. Stealthy aircraft have been coated with stuff that partially reflects incoming radar causing the reflected energy to at least partially cancel itself out.  The test for this would be to drive 2 otherwise identical vehicles towards a radar gun and mark the spot at which the gun registers the vehicle. If this trick works, the driver of a coated vehicle would get a few extra feet to react to the sight of a radar trap. The reason it might not work is that the biggest reflector on a pickup is the radiator which sits like a billboard at the front of the vehicle and does not benefit from the coating.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Big Brother

Sometimes a story is not in the initial appearance of something like the NSA collection metadata on everyone, or the DHS demanding everyone's passwords from their ISPs, or an older story of hackers spoofing a known e-mail source to send a malicious attachment containing something incriminating.

Sometimes it's what can be done when we consider the combination of these things.


Range Reports

This is plural because there were 2 ranges involved. First off I was shown a nice place to shoot in the Pike National Forest near Monument CO. As you enter the area, the map shows areas off limits, Non shooting, and shooting permitted along with the rules on that.

On the weekends the best spots, on the little dead end roads off the dirt roads are used as campgrounds and tend to be full of campers. Places to shoot are necessarily rare. During the week the place is pretty much deserted. Where we were shooting, we saw 1 bicyclist and heard 2 cars pass, all well behind us.

The brand new Marlin .22 with the Tasco 3-9 scope shot just fine. Very little adjustment was required to get it properly zeroed. The problem was the trigger, which seemed to me to need both hands and a foot to pull, and the mag release which seemed sticky. Here is a great set of videos showing how to soften up the trigger on a Marlin 795. There are 9 of them as the author covers all the details one small item at a time. I watched them once and did the whole job without having to go back for anything. I don't have a trigger pull scale, but I'll tell you it's a whole lot lighter now than it used to be.

The magazine is hard to extract as it fits overly tightly in the retainer. The retainer is cast zinc and can be polished on the obvious wear spots, and the mag has a strip on the rear side with a retainer feature on it. The strip has a ripple where this feature was added on either side of the retainer bump. The ripple can be smoothed out with a file. Leave the bump alone. The mag goes in and out much easier now.

I built a rail and mount set that fits the Hi Point 4095 that attaches directly to the barrel rather than the action shroud. It mounts the scope rather far forward, but using a pistol scope with its greater eye relief allows it to work. This eliminates all the loose connections between the existing rail and the barrel of the gun. I got 2-1/2 MOA groups at 25 yards out in the woods. It seemed to be working well at the club range on Saturday as well, but it certainly doesn't help to forget to bring the spotting scope. No matter how much I wish it were so, neither a 4X scope nor my cheesy binoculars can accurately distinguish a .4" dia hole at 100 yards. Most conservative estimate is that the gun is shooting 3 MOA at 100 yards.
Parts have not been painted/anodized yet. The white part is to replace the barrel shroud which locks into the forward part of the stock. Accuracy/repeatability is greatly improved. Further info as it is developed.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Economics - Detroit

The Mises Institute is proposing a Libertarian solution to the Detroit bankruptcy.

Somehow I'm having a problem seeing this working out. Let's assume the full Monty here; Free Detroit. First the City government devolves into a crime syndicate competing with the pre existing groups to sell protection.

Businesses may thrive, but outsiders would squeal about unfair competition and begin to impose duties in one form or another.  Absent environmental regulation, Detroit 2014 would quickly enough devolve into Detroit 1950 complete with smoke-belching stacks. You wouldn't want to live down wind of it.

The Hong Kong model had regulations, just not too many of them. Perhaps in stead of unbridled Libertarianism, we should go for Hong Kong Libertarianism.

FWIW, a similar solution (HKL) has been proposed for Italy. Would it work? Certainly. All you'd need would be a large enough army to impose it and keep it. After 10 years, you could probably remove the army. After 30 years, it would be back to where it was in the first place. That or Genoa would be the capital of Northern Italy, economic power house, Rome would be the capital of Southern Italy, vacation spot and backwater, and Atlantic City would be the capital of Sicily famous for having no extradition agreements with anyone.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

July E-postal - Tips

It occurred to me that a really clever shooter could get a perfect score on the Venn diagram target by placing all his or her shots in a fairly tight group. I pulled up the target and modeled 12 hits in the smallest group possible.
Here's a close-up of how to do it. The circle for the centers of the .22 cal holes is .905 dia. The driver is getting the 1's at 12, 4, and 8 o'clock. The white holes are clearly (barely) in the 2's, but the remaining 6 holes are on the line and count for either 2 or 3.

A real show-off would tag the 3 apexes, put 3 rounds in a single ragged hole in the center, and the last 6 on the arcs. Without using a shotgun.

Colorado Gun Law - Unintended Consequences

The new background check law the Dems whooped through this year is having unexpected consequences. It seems that the proposed gun buyback in Boulder, and any other buybacks, can't be held as all buyers, whatever their association or intentions, must go to an FFL and get a background check. I had originally thought that potential alternative buyers could drop by a gun shop, get a check, and bring the process number with them to the event. Not so:

A stricter law that went into effect July 1 requires buyers to go to a licensed firearms dealer and undergo a background check. The InstaCheck systems used in the checks are not mobile, which means they couldn't be used at the sheriff's compound where the buyback was planned.
"It's not a portable system," Pelle said. "It can't be done at the site."
On the one hand it means that rusty junk can't be traded to a well-meaning nanny for a gift card. On the other it means that perfectly good firearms won't be turned over for destruction. It also means that those functional firearms won't find a new home where they will be appreciated.

Senseless Gun Violence

Yet another story of a white guy gunning down a member of a minority group.

Family of the deceased outraged that he gets away with it although the investigation reveals that he was in fact armed.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Ammo

Went off shooting with Paula today and was pleasantly surprised to find ammo available at the Wal Mart on the way. Federal .22lr, 325 count at $18/box, and CCI .22lr, 100 ct @ $8.xx. I'm probably the first person the counter man had seen in 6 months who only bought 1 box.

On top of that, there was no line to buy ammo.

So go ahead and shoot that $85/box stuff you bought at the gun show. There's more available at Wally World.

Sportsman's had .40S&W, 250ct @ $100, which is .25/rnd. Higher than it should be, but much closer to normal than it has been.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Fun With Science

Smarter Every Day has a large collection of videos demonstrating all sorts of things you didn't know about. Here's one (of 3) involving firing an AK-47 under water.

I was impressed by the "bounce" of the cavitation bubbles. I suppose any advanced submarine designer could have told me about this without even thinking about it, but that's a position currently vacant around here.

Unsolicited Endorsement

I picked up some tees from Feelin Good Tees and so far I'm impressed. The shirt quality is good, the printing is good, the delivery was good, and at $6/ea, the price was good as well. I ordered 3 of them and shipping was $8. Probably would have been the same for 4.

Signage

Dog days of summer I guess, with only 10-15 major political scandals going nationally and only 3 or 4 locally, what's to write about without sounding like a whack-o conspiracy theorist with a tinfoil hat. For the record, I do NOT have a tinfoil hat, so there. Still today's Mallard Fillmore
sort of reminded me of the sign in the trailer park: "We have gone [6] days without a tornado."

Perhaps some sort of variant is required in front of the headquarters buildings of the myriad government agencies:

"We have gone [X] days without a significant civil rights or ethics violation."

Sunday, July 21, 2013

QOTD

Big Sis is leaving the DHS to go manage the California college system. This from her proposed replacement:
“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret. I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and goes to the government … ” Ray Kelly, possible new DHS head.

Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling about both the government and the American public, doesn't it?

H/T to Daily Pundit for this gem.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Colorado Gun Laws

The recall elections are set for Sept 10, and the Morse/Giron camp has said it will not appeal to the Colorado Supreme court.

The Basic Freedom Defense Fund seems to be the group supporting the recall efforts. This will be an election just like any other, with Mike Bloomberg kicking in significant bucks to insure his people keep their jobs, and us local yucks chipping in nickels and dimes to turn them out.

Donate and/or join BFDF here, or just donate here at their website. Warm bodies and boots on the ground will also be required. Bloomberg spent about $1.8M in Chicago to make sure a pro-gun Democrat was defeated in a primary, and these elections will be seen as a referendum on Obamas gun control policies.

Every little bit helps. Let's take back our state.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Colorado Gun Law - Recalls

The judge has ruled that the recall elections may go forward, although this may not be the last word on the issue. The Colo constitution says that a recall election must be held within 60 days of the petitions being certified. Those petitions were certified on July 5. The governor hasn't set a date as he believes that shouldn't be done before all the legal foot-dragging is completed.

There is also the matter of getting replacement candidates on to the ballot, which must be done by petition. This can't start until an election date is announced, and calling an election to be held Sept 5 on Sept 1 would handicap opponents.

The Dems who are in a position to monkey wrench the process are doing everything they can to this end. An appeal to the Colo Supreme court of the district court decision is expected in spite of losing with the state A.G. and the district court.

The most important part of any politicians job is to get reelected. This includes avoiding getting unelected.

Update: More details on the ruling here from local (KHOW) radio. Judge says Governor was right to wait for the ruling. Judge also says the foot-dragging is OVER. Get on with it. Here's your lunch AND your head. Have a nice day. The first 10 minutes of the show are quite entertaining.

TSA Over Reach - Solution?

It is being reported that the TSA, being bored with groping passengers, has taken to searching their cars. Of course searching every car would bring an airport to a complete stop, so they just search the ones being valet parked, presumable because those would be the ones they have the keys to.

Still, there is a solution, if you fit this gizmo to your car alarm:

Of course you might find some severely hacked off TSA people waiting for you when you got back and even the valets might be wary of attempting to bring your car around for you.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Fun With Headlines

Headline:
"Weiner Campaign Benefits From Clinton Connection"--headline, The Wall Street Journal, July 17

Thought:
So Tony got Bills address book?

Colorado Gun Law

RMGO informs me that Mayor Bloomberg's bus tour is coming to Colorado. The gunnies, with 2 days notice and a rally time of noon on a work day will necessarily be there in modest numbers. Still, at other such events, we have managed to outnumber the antis:

Gun Rights Counter-Rally
Friday, July 19th 12:00 p.m.
Smoky Hill Shelter
Cherry Creek State Park (East Entrance)
4201 S. Parker Road
Aurora, Colorado 80014
For your information, there is a $9 fee per vehicle to get into the park, so please plan accordingly. There is free parking in a commercial area directly east of the park along Parker Road, but plan on wearing comfortable shoes if you plan on walking to Smoky Hill Shelter from there.
Smoky Hill Shelter is located on the east side of the lake and south of the swim beach.
Look for the RMGO Pinzgauer, and make sure to get one of our “I Will Not Comply” t-shirts too!
The “No More Names” event will feature readers that read aloud a list of the names of individuals who were killed by firearms.
If you have been following some of the news around this tour, then you know this is the same group that listed Tamerlan Tsarnev (the Boston Bomber) and Christopher Dorner (cop killer) as “victims” of gun violence. 

I believe that bicycles are allowed in the park for free, so consider bringing one to the free parking area and riding in.

Mayor Bloomberg currently owns the Dem side of the state legislature, as well as the governor. Hopefully this won't go on very much longer. 

Summer Reading

Peter Grant, one of my favorite African-American bloggers, has not one, but two books out. In the S.F. genre, "Take the Star Road" and "Ride the Rising Tide" are available in electronic and dead tree editions.

No, I haven't read them, but I read his blog, Bayou Renaissance Man, and like it.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Obamacare - The Return of the Chickens

The rubes self-identify, slowly but surely. Q&O has a post here reporting the big unions noticing thet the program is shaping up to not be what it was cracked up to be.

Just like a lot of people told them it would.

Despair, as you watch a catastrophe unfold, is mitigated somewhat as it overtakes you by seeing the prophets of utopia getting sucked down along side you.

Good article.

QOTD - Sourcing

We see all sorts of QOTD stuff of one sort of deathless prose or another, variously ascribed to everybody from Thomas Jefferson to Caligula, all too often wrongly. This one is from a commenter, Sam, at Legal Insurrection.
I first encountered that saying online in the 1990s and the man who said it was science fiction writer L. Neil Smith. I asked if I could borrow it and he said yes. His original quote was about Handgun Control Inc. but it applies to all gun controllers. “Gun control: the group that would rather see a woman dead in an alley with her pantyhose knotted around her neck than see her with a gun in her hand.” It’s still true.
I had often thought that the way I usually heard that line seemed clunky and stilted and I was right.

Drone Shooting - Bounty

Expanding on Billll's ongoing drone e-postal match, the town of Deer Trail is considering selling drone licenses to bounty hunters to shoot them down. For $25 you too can have a lisence suitable for framing, permitting you to gun down any government-owned drone violating the airspace over Deer Trail.

There's a catch, of course, you are limited to 12 or smaller ga shotguns, and the range limit is 1000 ft., although if you bring one down, who's going to know how high it was or what you bagged it with.

"..or government skeet, as we call them around here."
                                          Kim DuToit
I would also like to remind you that the big blue and white one with "United States of America" on the sides contains a full flight crew and it definitely NOT unmanned, notwithstanding the empty suit in the passenger compartment.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Zimmerman Not Guilty

Now we get to see if life will imitate art:

"House Burning Down"

Update: I guess not. Aside from a few isolated incidents, nothing of any significance happened. I'm going to guess that more and more people are getting their information from sources other than the MSM. Outside of the NYT and CBS there was really little doubt as to the outcome.

Friday, July 12, 2013

The Future Of Humanity

We're all doomed, of course, but probably not right away. Here's Atlas, from Boston Dynamics:

He can walk, deal with small obstacles and remain upright when jostled. Of course the stated mission is to provide a very durable first responder. Like a fireman or a town cop. The patrol car will of course drive itself.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"I don't care, just give me the ticket and don't kill me!"

Here are a collection of other 'bots more like dogs, and one like a large flying beetle that can land on a vertical curtain. The dogs have possibilities. Take one our for a walk. Meet an assailant. Tell the dog
"Sic him"

Dog sits and lets off a double tap through his nose.

The future looks entertaining, until they kill us all.

Sharknado

Just when you thought Hollywood couldn't sink much lower, they rise(?) to the occasion and deliver the goods. No I haven't seen it. It's unlikely I will, still there's inspiration to be had here:

Next up an Australian spinoff to be called "Sharkaroo" Tagline: "Down here mate, the shark jumps you!". Starring Studly Marrowbone, Australian beefcake du jour, and co-star Sheila Boobalicious locally famous for not being able to keep any costume completely attached for more that 2 scenes.

This one could be a winner.  If Studly performs most of the show shirtless as is his wont, and sufficient gunfire, gory explosions, and noisy vehicles being driven recklessly are included, there would be something for everyone here.

You heard it here first. I want a percentage.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Maker Faire

There will be a mini Maker Faire up in Loveland in October, so polish up that Death Ray or cold fusion reactor or whatever, and plan to take it up there. Details and entry form here. In past Fairs, the Denver Mad Scientists Club has been represented by fighting robots and the Pedal Air Gun which was featured here.

Other people have more socially redeeming items to display.

Health

Slow news cycle of late, so off into the trivial, if you consider imminent mortality (yours, not mine) trivial.

Certainly exercise helps, look how well it worked for Jim Fixx. Now that I'm retired and out from behind a desk, the daily bike rides have made the A-Frib symptoms disappear.

Eating carefully also helps. Moderation and wide variety seems to be the right approach, or you can take Steve Graham's approach: Not keeping a bag of chips and a can of honey roasted peanuts on the desk with the computer is also probably a good idea so I keep the chips on the printer, and the nuts on the bookshelf behind me.


I tried De-caffinating myself when I stopped working, but it seemed like I spent half the day napping. I'm back on the java, (half-caff) and only need to relax about 2 or 3 hours a day. The pot is an exercise in false advertising: It says it contains 12 cups, but I've never gotten more than 5-1/2 cups out of it.



Get your partner to help with the stress reduction. Hardly any honey-do's actually need to be done immediately as long as they don't involve rising water levels or some such.

Remember, monks don't actually live any longer than the rest of us, it just seems like it. and as one of my friends notes; If god had meant us to be vegetarians, he'd have made broccoli more fun to shoot.

Update: Yes. While coffee, beer and wine all have demonstrated health benefits, fish oil is now associated with prostate cancer.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Gun Blog Black List

Curiouser and Curiouser said Alice (and Billll) as North says the old GBBL is back and the replacement, G-B-BL is a fake or something.

Being a traditionalist, I'm putting the links back to where they were. I'm not sure what's going on, but GBBL did disappear for a bit with no explanation. It then reappeared with the hyphenated url and looked to be a proper replacement.

Absent a better explanation, I welcome GBBL back, and blame the kerfuffle on global warming/George Bush/the NSA.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Gun Blog Black List

GBBL is back with an ever-so-slightly modified url.

Still not sure what happened, but they are back.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Bleg - Colorado Gun Law

Here's a summary of an e-mail I got from ColoradoRKBA regarding the efforts to recall Senators Morse and Giron. They are fighting the effort very hard, probably suspecting that if it comes down to an election, all other things being equal, they will both lose. Mike Bloomberg, via some PACs is making sure these two have an adequate war chest, but our side is pretty much limited to local contributions.
 This is my little plea for all of you that are subscribed to this 
list to send a little money to the Basic Freedom Defense Fund.    These are the folks who are currently embattled in getting the Colorado Senate President (John Morse) recalled.   Morse's toadies are employing every little legal roadblock to short circuit this legal recall.   There have been more than enough signatures to the recall petitions.   The latest challenge has been denied.

     If you can spare a few bucks, please donate to the cause.   
President Obama is hoping to hold up Colorado (a previously freedom 
oriented state) as a blueprint to further infringe on our Second 
Amendment Right.  We absolutely do not need that kind of reputation.

Please, send whatever you can afford to this movement.   It is worth it.

https://www.basicfreedomdefensefund.org

They take Paypal or credit cards.   Just do it.   Thanks.
The latest challenge referred to above was a complaint that the boilerplate text of the petition for recall did not include language specifically calling for a replacement to be elected.  The A.G. said that electing a replacement was implied and upheld the petitions. The two of them are currently sending out mailers to everyone who signed the petitions asking them to reconsider and ask to have their name removed. Giron's people are going door-to-door and being pretty pushy about it. One got pushy enough to get the cops called who then found he had an outstanding warrant for domestic abuse and carted him off.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Gun Sales Declining

With the standard caveat that a NICS check does not equal a gun sale, I note that June NICS checks are 1.6% lower this year than from June of last year. OTOH, this fails to offset the enormous jump we saw in Jan. and Feb. so we're still on track for some 22 million plus checks this year, an all time record.

Now as soon as all those new gun owners have squirreled away the requisite 5,000 rounds in each of the standard calibers, 9mm, .45, .223, .308, and 12ga whether they actually own a gun in that caliber or not, we can expect to see normal inventories of ammo return to the shelves at your friendly local arms merchant.

Can't You Smell That Smell?

I love the smell of aftershave in the morning. The smell of victory!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Return With Us Now...

..to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the neighborhood by now sounded and smelled like the Battle of Waterloo was being fought house to house in defiance of local regs regarding bringing stuff like that back from Wyoming.

Of course this year there are 10-15 wildfires burning around the state and the air all over town smells of wood smoke so even the enthusiastic among us are more subdued than usual.

Not that hard actually.
 Have a happy Independence day and remember, Big Brother is Watching.

Fight Crime

Shoot back, as it were:

Found this at Ace of Spades. Too good not to pass around.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Lois Lerner

IRS spokesperson who famously told congressional investigators that she had done nothing wrong and then invoked her 5th amendment right against self-incrim8nation to avoid going into any detail about her saintly activities. Does she remind you of anyone?

Monday, July 1, 2013

Gun Blog Black List - MIA

The Gun Blog Black List has disappeared. The message left behind reads:
Sorry, the blog at gunblogblacklist.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.
Anybody know what happened?

Colorado Gun Laws

Happy July first. All those dumb laws the legislature whooped through at the beginning of the year are now in effect. I feel safer already knowing that the next mass shooter will not be able to legally buy a 100-round magazine to do his evil with. He'll have to use the one he already has. That or drive 150 miles to another state to pick up a new one.

At yesterdays gun show I heard* that at least one judge has reviewed the mag ban here and came to the conclusion that while any magazine assembly with a detachable floor plate, meaning all of them, would be illegal to sell or transfer, parts and repair kits are not covered. That means that a frame, a follower, a spring and a floor plate in a zip-lock bag are legal to sell. That line in the bill about "readily convertible" is going to cause unending problems until it gets settled in court.

I also heard* from one of the dealers with a huge supply of soon-to-be-worthless large mags that this trick won't work if you consider the magazine frame to be the same as a magazine assembly. I wouldn't and I make my living using those kinds of distinctions.

*I am not a lawyer, I'm an engineer. The judge in question is a member of one of the associations I belong to and her opinion at this point is her own. The dealers position came from his attorney.

I guess I need to write ProMag and inform them that my order should be shipped unassembled and labeled as "replacement parts".  I'll see if they'll bite. 10 round mags for the Marlin were non-existant.

Several dealers had large collections of hi-cap (>15 rds) mags available. I did not see much traffic in them. At this point I'd have to guess that Magpul has pretty much saturated the market. That and the buying season, Sept to March, is over. Speculation is that all those big mags will now be moved to other states where they will become a glut on the market. Look for 30 round mags in the $10 range soon.

On a brighter note, ammo prices are heading downward. 333-round Federal .22LR was available at $30/box with only limited takers, marked down from $40 at the previous show. Everyone suspects it was purchased at Wal-Mart for $14/box anyway. Reports are surfacing of Remington 550 rnd bulk packs at $22.50 at some retail outlets recently so look for more downward pressure. 9mm lugar was $40/100 and .45 acp was $55/100 which is way better than the .80 a round it used to be.

Political Jokes

The problem with them is that they all too frequently get elected. So Paul Miringoff is asking if Marco Rubio has a political future at the national level. The answer is obvious: Yes, of course.

Hillary will be needing a V.P.