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You give him too much credit. Now I think this is just a Wag the Dog to take steam off of stuff like Epstein files and ICE killings, etc.

We have a local manufacturer (Spartac Manufacturing....Any Old school SERE survivors remember the name Spartac? ). Their production facility is amazing and they now have a contract with the Secret Service. I picked something close to the picture below (still waiting on Form 4 to process after 15 days), will post pictures and report performance soon. The handling was amazing, perhaps the most balanced gun I've ever held. The suppressor is integrated so it is very compact (hence the Secret Service interest). Doing some research on 5.7x28, some interesting characteristics. One the good, you can carry 1400 rounds for the same weight and volume as 1000 5.56. 5.7x28 typically achieves much higher velocities (1,700-2400+ FPS) comapred to 9MM (950-1400 FPS), resulting in a flatter trajectory and better armor penetration. While 9mm relies on heavier bullets (115–147 gr) for higher energy transfer, the 5.7x28mm (40 gr) excels in speed and low recoil. Garand Thumb did an interesting video looking at 5.7x28.

I agree with you there. Unfortunately...or fortunately...I still can't figure it out...he somehow has been managing to turn situations that are clearly look like blunders and somehow extracting benefits for our country. It makes no sense. Like all our tariff policies. No economist ever looks at what he's doing, but somehow he's managed to get multiple countries to cave using that tactics. TBD if it's good for our economy in the long game...I'm not hopeful. Still, he (and we as a country) comes off looking like and idiot, but the end state comes out better than I expected. My gut tells me that he, or his staff, is having behind the scenes conversations for the real negotiations and all the stuff in front of the cameras is pure theater. I hate it, but if this administration extracts some positives out of the situation, good for us I guess. I'll hold my judgment til his term is over.

AI doesn't do so hot at friendly vs enemy recognition.

I now have the 10mm (hardcast lead) for the back country pistol - know two guys who escaped griz death using those. Good enough for me. My father in law shot a charging black with a 5.56. Way less than ideal cartridge, but it was enough to stop the attack. So a 9mm with Barnes should do just fine!

TV cameras present, must grandstand. Party is irrelevant, both sides do the same. Should just ban any video inside the House and Senate chambers and I bet things would be far more civil. Although, then they might get more done, which would likely be bad for us, so grandstand away.

Dude, sounds like we need to hang out, that's pretty much my exact setup, minus the 45-70. My pred guns are both Ruger American; 556 for coyotes if they get too close to the house, and a 308 on the off chance a lion wanders onto the property (sitting in the dining room in case a kid sees it first). For hiking and archery hunting, I carry a 9mm for black bears and lions. Some may think that's under-gunned, but along the lines of the previous post on quality ammo, the 9 has Barnes copper bullets. Those things are legit. I recovered one bullet that went through the front shoulder blade (intentional shoulder shot as the vegetation was crazy thick and trailing would have been a nightmare) and the bullet was fully intact including picture perfect petals. Plus I'm probably getting 3 rounds into a charging animal with a 9mm vs 2 with my 45 (my sidearm for grizzly territory).

I don't know about the hate. I drove nails with that thing. Bigger and heavier than the .38 it replaced but I liked it.

"Tally 2"

I said what I said :) Miniscule chance but I'm prepared. I shoot for enjoyment and competition. My home defense weapons are the guns I use most as I'm the most comfortable with them. Have a pretty ideal setup house wise for whoever decides to enter the castle if that miniscule chance comes to fruition.

I also am 300BO in the house, 5.56 in the truck gun. A few pistols and a 45-70 (mostly for immediate predator issues) are also around the house. Big “2” on the mag marking between calibers. I use the rubber bands personally. Saw a guy put 300BO in a 223…ouch.

Daniel Defense 300 BO. 10.3. Handy "pistol". Also 5.56 upper 14.5 inch upper like my trusty M-4 from the military. My helpful household hint is keep all 300 BO in black mags and the 5.56 in the FDE mags so I don't mix them up.

Bro. No. There will be no agreement on meaningfully increasing military spending by any of the nations that have committed themselves to devastating deficits to fund limitless social program spending. The closest we'll get is printing a little more money to send to proxies like Ukraine. Anything that involves the participation of the civilian population, or God forbid a sacrifice by them, is completely dead in the water. Until people start dying, we are going to whistle our way into catastrophe just like Europe did in the 30s while Germany was obviously gearing up for war. Someone in the administration, maybe Trump, maybe someone he trusts, knows this and is at least trying to clean up the cheap victories in preparation. Unfortunately for Maduro.

Worse than my cynical self ever imagined

I bought a Ruger PC Carbine 5.7 a couple years ago and it’s an absolute blast to shoot. Probably not the most practical gun I own but sure is fun.

Ratner, a thought / suggestion related to using a pump. Make sure you add a bit of time pressure/stress into your training routine with that thing. The first three gun match I tried, I was using an 870. Short stroking the action under pressure is a thing.

I wonder if this is the beginning of the return of military escorts being required for most international shippers as Peter Zeihan has predicted? If there is something the US, Europe, Aussies, Japan, SK, etc… can agree on it is freedom of navigation / access to the global commons (at least for us), could we agree on growing our surface fleets for patrol and escort, agreeing to always protect each other?

Certainly chance for a spark, but Russia doesn't seem to want a fight over it - at least not yet. They were escorting the one we captured last week (referenced in the twz article) and just watched and asked for humane treatment of the crew. Maybe if we seize more than 8/1000 they'll start to fight.

So I saw an article about the latest shadow tanker being seized, this time by France in the Med. I did some quick Gemini searching, and that puts the seizure count at 8 in the last month, with European plans to ramp up this type of thing, and the Russian Navy beginning escorting tankers. The fleet size is substantially larger than I realized (estimates vary, but around 1000) so the overall impact is still small on a numbers basis, but military escort of tankers sounds like the portion of this story that matters. Lots of opportunity for a spark here. ReutersFrance intercepts suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker i...The French navy intercepted a Russian tanker on Thursday in the Mediterranean suspected to be part of the shadow fleet that enables Russia to export oil despite sanctions. The War ZoneShadow Fleet Tanker Seizure Operations Expand In The Face...Following America's lead, the boarding and diversion of the Grinch came as Europe is drawing up new plans to go after Russia's shadow fleet.

No. You didn't miss anything. I think straw men are the only arguments they can make anymore.

Ok, I think I'm tracking your line of thought. Here's what I'll say: -Scenario one is the president doing something I think is stupid, but entirely within his role/authority as the president. The one China policy was always a presidential policy. -Scenario two is highly dubious, with a president threatening a war with a defense treaty partner (and all the associated constitutional problems), which would obligate the rest of the alliance to go to war as well. I say all that, fully believing NATO would just fold. From a utilitarian/outcome perspective, the first one pokes a bear (maybe put them in their place, maybe start something), the second seriously impacts our future treaty negotiation position (maybe for the better, maybe not). Either way, what is in our nation's best interest is actually open for debate in both cases. From a rules/procedure perspective, the first one is in line with the rules, the second seriously threatens even more expansion of executive power if it goes unchecked by congress/judiciary. Thankfully, Trump has a tendency to throw shit at the wall and then react based on popular opinion. So he backed away from the military threat (without ever making an explicit threat), whether that was a polling thing, or a GOP reaction thing, or social media. Once you remove the military threat aspect, him tariffing and pushing to buy Greenland falls back into things I think are stupid, unproductive, and ultimately not in our best interest. But I have lots of political opinions that run counter to popular opinion, and he got elected so is what it is. All I can hope for is SCOTUS will slap down the "emergency" tariffs BS.

That is infuriating. I despise our acquisitions system even more now, which is a pretty large feat at this point.

It's a valid consideration. Granted, the pellets aren't going to spread that much, and they're going to go in the direction you're pointing it at, so I don't think it's a massive collateral risk increase compared to rifles and pistols, but it's definitely a real risk. I think I would still grab the shotgun first and rack it loudly, to make sure the threat is transmitted. At that point I can grab another option sitting next to it, and hand the boom stick to my wife. What did you get in 5.7? I got that wretched PR57 from Keltec and love it, so now I have to start looking at more 5.7 options. The PSA uzi-looking gun they are developing sure looks fun.

Because it is a flying pile of Poo! There are so many issues but the ABM community has been abused for so long they jumped at the first girl without a mustache who paid attention to them. Wedgetail is 20 year old technology mounted on a 49 year old design. The 737 has been engineered to the max extent of its potential thus Wedgetail will have a 20 year old radar flying in the mid 30's. Epically dump for SOOO many reasons. Boeing underbid to get the sole-source, within 12 months they announced they were $400M over and needed help from the govt. The Boeing 737 line has a 10 year backlog and even using National Defense priority, they can't retool fast enough to make Wedgetails fast...our Allies are SCREWED...they are at the end of the line, even behind purchases by other airlines. South Korea is divesting their Wedgetails which should tell you something...you should see their performance on a hot summer day. I can talk about it now...my previous company submitted the same time as Boeing with a proposal to put a brand new radar on a Bombardier that would start at FL47 and step climb to FL51, 12+ hours of endurance (unrefueled), the same number of crew stations as Wedgetail...the detection physics alone moving from FL33 to FL47 are staggering. We submitted an 800 page package with 400 pages of engineering documentation from tests and other work we had done on the Bombardier platform. We received a reply ONE HOUR LATER - not technically viable, they sole-sourced to Boeing the following day. I'm sure they reviewed in depth our input. The system is not screwed, it is corrupt and broken and the ABM community is going to get EXACTLY what they deserve...warm poo.