Please Take the .22 Pledge

On November 12, 2016November 12, 2016 By Tom LindsayIn Ammunition, Pledge5 Comments

On Monday before the election, I was doing what a lot of gun owners were doing, buying ammo. I don’t have to tell you why.

I was chatting with another fellow about the Olde Days, before Sandy Hook, when .22LR ammo was $5 a brick. I was making an observation that, should Donald Trump be elected, maybe we could relax and stop hoarding.

He smiled at me and agreed. Then he admitted he had 6,000 rounds at home.

And he had a brick in his hand.

I smiled and put my ammo in the cart, and we headed out.

And I thought to myself, you wonder why there’s a shortage.

People.

Please stop hoarding .22LR!

I have a brick and a half, but it’s what I shoot (when I can).

So I am asking, now that (it seems) the threat of the repeal of rhe Second Amendment is gone, that we all pledge, especially for .22, to only buy as much ammo as we shoot.

Let’s say you shoot a brick of .22 in a month. If you have twelve bricks at home, don’t buy any more .22 for six months. Then you’ll still have six months in reserve.

Then, buy a brick a month. No more. Buy what you use, no more.

You know what will happen? In those six months that you don’t buy, the price will go down, provided everybody else does the same.

Do the same for the other calibers you shoot. Keep a reasonable amount – for me that’s three months, but you decide for you.

So, Dear Reader, if you agree to take this pledge with me, please say so in the comments. Then come April, we’ll see where the .22 price is.

Agreed?

Moving Along

On November 11, 2016 By Tom LindsayIn Blogs, Competition, Goals, Leukemia, Moving Along, Projects

Now, I know that’s the kind of title I might use if I were announcing I was closing down my blog.

On the contrary. I mean quite the opposite.

Those who follow me here, or on Twitter or on Facebook or my other blog, Plumb Mad Dog Mean, know that since last March I have been fighting leukemia. Between that and keeping life going, it’s about all I have had time or energy for.

The last USPSA match I shot was on February 27, 2016. I looked at this match as the last one I would shoot before qualifying for Senior in March. I was right, but it was also the last match I would shoot before being diagnosed with leukemia on March 15.

I must confess, thanks to a suppressed immune system, and not really feeling like going to the range, I haven’t fired a gun since that match. But all of that is going to change.

I have come to realize, the hard way, that life is short. There are things I enjoy in life, and I owe it to myself to devote some time and energy to those, and to enjoy them to their fullest.

So, I have put together a set of goals that I want to reach, before the anniversary of my transplant on June 28:

Post to this blog at least once a week, preferably more.
Post to Twitter and Facebook at least daily.
Devote time each day in my office dry firing. (This is one advantage of working from home!)
Work on my physical strength and endurance so I can compete decently. After all, I have lost quite a bit of weight, and I need to take advantage of that, and regain my strength. I may even try to find a coach or other training so I can get my stamina back.
Start competing regularly in USPSA and GSSF.
Move up from D class to C class in USPSA Production.
Look into other aspects of shooting sports to see if I want to give them a try:
- Reloading
- Open shooting
- 3-gun
- Sporting clays
Attend the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
Be more involved in GeorgiaCarry.
Renew my Glock Armorer certification.

So, look for more posts. The ones involving these goals will be tagged Moving Along.

Take What I Can Get

On August 23, 2016 By Tom LindsayIn Concealed Carry, Leukemia1 Comment

One of the side effects of my leukemia treatment is that I have lost about 30 pounds, and about 4 inches on my waist. As a result, I can actually carry a pistol in a shoulder holster without having to do some kind of sick judo move on myself just to get to it.

Now, if I decide to, I can carry my father-in-law’s old Beretta. Nice.

Who knows what’s next.

EDC as a Lifestyle

On August 16, 2016August 31, 2016 By Tom LindsayIn Be Prepared, Concealed Carry, Flashlights, Knife, Planning, Safety

I was reviewing my blog, and as it turns out, in the years I’ve been writing this, I’ve never done a post on my everyday carry. This seems strange to me, since most of it hasn’t changed in a long time.

To start with, I’ve carried a pocket knife for as long as I can remember. Starting in about the 7th grade, I carried a Boy Scout version Swiss Army knife, up until about the time I graduated from high school. Yes, in those days we could carry a knife with no comment from anyone at school. I even had a teacher borrow mine once or twice.

I changed knives in college, and then went back to the Swiss Army knife you see above, in 1992.

I added the Leatherman tool a few years ago after I received it as a gift. I particularly like it because it’s got tools I can use, like pliers and a file. But the thing I like best is that it doesn’t have a blade, so the TSA lets me take it on an airplane, and so when I travel without checking bags, I’ve got something, at least.

In the same vein, I’ve carried a flashlight for my whole career. As a chemical engineer, there are many times every day when I needed to be able to see something in a shadow or in the dark, and I started carrying an explosion proof flashlight. I still do, only this one is 200 lumens, and uses AA batteries. I keep about 6 rechargeable batteries in rotation, and when the last charged set of 2 go in, the other 4 go in the charger overnight. When I travel, I always carry a spare set of batteries, and I keep a set of 4 in the Get Home Bag.

Next is my wallet. All I carry in there is my various ID – driver’s license, Weapons Carry License, insurance cards, and the like – and my credit cards, and a few business cards. I haven’t carried cash in my wallet since I was in college, and when I do I carry it in a different pocket than the wallet. This has to do with avoiding pickpockets.

In fact, I always carry these things in certain pockets, for a reason. Here’s where:

Right front: cell phone, knives, car keys, cash, and a pen.

Left front: wallet, flashlight.

Left rear: a handkerchief.

Note I don’t carry my wallet in a back pocket, so I can avoid pickpockets. I also carry my wallet on the left side, so if I’m asked by a policeman for my ID, I’m not reaching on the same as my pistol.

I also carry my flashlight in my left pocket, so I can draw it and go to a Harries or other flashlight hold.

On a similar note, in my car I keep my insurance card and registration in a folder on the back of the driver’s side sun visor, since I can’t promise that I haven’t just been to the post office, which would mean my pistol is in the glove box. Again, no sense drawing attention to anything I don’t have to.

Now we get to the most recent addition – a pistol. In the summer I carry Liberty, my G19, IWB at 3 o’clock.

In the winter I mostly carry Bruce, my G17, on my belt OWB at 3 o’clock, with an open shirt or jacket or fleece vest over it.

Year round I carry a G17 magazine with a plus-2 extender on my left side at 3 o’clock.

So there you have it. Nothing that isn’t part of my life, for quite a while.

Having said that . . .

I will likely add a medical pack in the near future, now that Linoge has shown how to put it all in a cell phone case. Stay tuned.