I went to the gun show at the mississippi gulf coast coliseum today.  It was a good one.  I bought some punches and a really cheap sight.  I'm pretty sure it's meant for airsoft, but I thought I'd give it a shot.  I decided to try to do some vids on tactical gear for the financially challenged.  

Couldn't sleep, so I went to Walmart to buy a new webcam.  They only had 720i web cams, so I got a logitech.  When I got up to the register, there were only 2 lines open and they were really busy.  I stood in line for about 20 minutes and I only had 3 items.  there was a guy behind me with only flowers.  I accidentally overheard him on his cell telling his girlfriend that he was at Walmart getting her a present.  So, when it came to my turn, I let him go in front of me.  He ended up paying for my stuff too.  I told him that I couldn't let him do that, and he just gave me a look.  I still can't believe he did that.

Went out this morning and came back with this! Quite astonishing - LOL!

...Expecting to receive your CCP, that is :). Yes, folks. On 12/10 I took my Conceal Carry class with DES Training (www.safeshooting.com). BTW, awesome experience and looking forward to attend more of their classes.

I passed the qualification with a 98, which means that two of my shots were outside the body rings of the target. In my defense, those happened at 10 feet; but I truly felt I was going to do much better, so I was a little disappointed with myself for not being able to show off more. :P

Any how, with the craziness of the holidays, work, personal life mischief, I didn't call the sheriff's department right away. Yes, in North Carolina you have to call to make an appointment for your CCP application, otherwise they can't warranty that they'll be able to give you the time of the day when you decide to show up. When I finally called, with certificate and DL in hand, the lady never thought of asking if there were any particulars to my situation. Well, for those who don't know, I am a Naturalized Citizen. And since I already had to present proof of citizenship when I acquire my purchase permits, it never occurred to me that they would need to see it again (I got them 4 months ago). That was MY mistake. I ASSUMED. 

I had a run in with one of the sub-humans today, and it was one who wasn't even man (or woman) enough to face me, meaning my concealed carry gave me no help.

I logged into my bank's website to make a payment on a credit card that I haven't used in a while and was surprised to find it $200 over its limit.   someone in Georgia decided to take a cloned copy of my credit card out for a little shopping, and it appeared they were rather generous. They even bought gas for several different people at a gas station on Christmas day. 

Thanks to http://gunsafestore.com for this blog.

So, with an hour of sunlight left, on the last day of deer season, I sat, glaring at the squirrel that danced circles around my tree stand. I hadn't seen a single deer in 3 days of hunting, and was ready to admit defeat.   As any hunter can tell you, deer are stealthy creatures, they slink through the woods with only the occasional crinkle of a leaf to give away their position and they are a shade of brown that simply disappeaars into the colors of the autumn woods.  Squirrels on the other hand, are the woodland equivelant to an elephant walking through a field of bubble wrap.   So, when I heard a huff come from behind me, with only an hour of the season left, I kney that once again, the deer saw me before I saw it, and the squirrels have foiled me yet again.

So, I stood as slowly and silently as I could and turned, I was surpeised to see a small racked, but very large body buck with its back to me, huffing and stomping at another squirrel which was doing it's best impression of a 5 year old stomping on a pile of dry breakfast cereal.   I was sad to see the small rack, since in PA a buck needs to have atleast 3 points on one side to be considdered "legal" so I decided to get out my phone and take a picture instead....but as I zoomed in, I saw that this was not a little 4 point, but a 7 point, well fed to a good size, but poorly bred that it had such a small, yet legal, rack.

Is it just me or is it typical of every Walmart Sporting Goods department country wide ?

Not that I like buying guns/ammo etc from WallyWorld but the Federal 9mm and 40S&W prices can not ignored whilst this latest promotion is on - and thereby hangs the tale!

I had to travel to three different WalMart SuperCenters to eventually get 100 out of the 400 rounds of 40 that I was after - but even that is not the issue!

After a week of only seeing one doe, my brother-in-law invited me up to his house for 2 days of hunting fun. so Thursday night my wife and I packed up and made the 2 1/2 hour treck from Harrisburg to Caonton PA, now the last time I was there, this town made that town from the movie Dante's Peak look like a sprawling metropolous, and since then (about a year ago) the town has really grown up...they now have a traffic light!

Anyway, about 2 hours and 28 minuites into our drive, I realized I left my 2 antlerless licenses sitting at home, but since I still had my buck tag with me we decided to leave that for a later panic attack since it was Thursday night and Antlerless season didn't start until Saturday. So, off we went into the sprawling 120 acre plot of land they call Tick Hallow.....no really, I'm not kidding, that is what they call their place (the place my sister called a steal at the price they were asking...I'm still not sure if she knew it was called that before she bought it)

I don't watch much television and even less of this show called "House", but it was on last night and it was a little interesting as the doctors were trying to diagnose and treat the man with a strange illness.  The show really caught my attention when the doctors found a secret room behind a bookcase full of rifles & ammunition.

So, the guy's wife freaks out about the collection of guns (is it because the show is based in New Jersey?) but the guy uses an appropriate argument, reminding her that we all have spare tires in our vehicles and that he would rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it.  That was fine, but I wish the writers would have gone farther to include examples like fire extinguishers in kitchens, bicycle helmets, etc.

Then there is some game between two doctors where one believes the other owns and keeps a gun (even though he's a felon) and is on a mission to find the gun.  Once the gun is found, there is an AWFUL scene of playing and pointing  and joking about shooting each other with the 1911 pistol.

My normal Black Friday tradition is to barricade myself in our house and avoid any contact with the outside world.   This Black Friday, I ventured out of the house, down the street, and spent several hours practicing for hunting season (which started today), but I don't go out on the first day of the season anyway, I've been shot at too many times to risk the woods on the first day.

But Friday, I was burning through rounds fairly quickly, so after I shot through the rounds in the revolver and both speed loaders, I took a break to give the gun a quick cleaning, about a minute into my cleaning I heard something bounding through the brush and a very nice looking 9 point walked out onto the range and stared at me.   it wasn't skittish and didn't even seem to care that I was there.    so, there I am, gun, ammo, a clear line of fire at the exact distance I was practicing for, staring at a big, beautiful buck, and I couldn't so much as throw a stone at it for another 72 hours.  needless to say, it wasn't interested in sitting there until hunting season opened, so off he went, at a slow walk.  didn't so much as flick his tail at me.