usmc0332

It is on consignment. I am interested, but would throw a lower bid at it. Fun to tickle the mind with, or lead to a future project if nothing else. Thanks.

There is a like new synthetic/stainles Ruger .350 Rem Mag at a local gun shop on consignment for $600. I am curious to hear about this caliber. Ballistics look good, but there is not a lot of bullet selection in .358. Not that that matters as I usually only use one bullet in my Turk.

Thanks for the advice and prayer. I have to go, I cannot stay, myself. I don't know how she will work the kid thing out, being that she is gone at 6pm to work most nights. I am gone before 6am, usually earlier so I am not able to get them off to school. I guess she will have to figure her part out. We haven't been fighting. I have never raised a hand to her and only yelled at her once in the 15 years we have known each other. God is at work here, not for me to figure out. I am not choosing to run my life around bars and booze. He has broken thru with me, and I need to stay in the Spirit and connected with good friends that are good for me. I need to be as good of a Dad as I can, and be there for them. I am not going to lament on the future, my big Brother Jesus has to take care of that. Many details to work out. Moving my stuff out makes for a lousy time. I am not looking forward to telling the kids. Everything always seems to work out some way. I am glad I know I am not big enough or strong enough to go thru this alone. I am really grateful for you fellas. I am reaching out in all directions, and I am glad I could do that here. By myself I can't get it right, in Jesus anything is possible.

Thanks Az. I am surrendered. This is business for HIM to deal with. I am released. Sorry but I stopped off and had 5 beers. My wife is now Gods business. Tomorrow we tell the kids and I move out. I am ALIVE with HIM. I would rather be alive in Christ than depressed and with her. Negotiations were not open on this. It takes two to work out problems. I am one but not two. All is well. I am not in charge of this. All is new after 12 years with the woman I love, but bad things do happen to good people. My wonderful children will be better off with us apart, than they were before, when I lived a depressed defeated life. I have already learned that you can't drink problems away. I just couldn't be at the house tonight. I went and spent time with close Christian friends, but left before i ruined their whole nights sleep. She is not working(this used to be what i looked forward to). Tomorrow dawns a new day, and a new life. I didn't mean to draw others in, but I was hoping for different results. Times may not be the best, but I know that my strength will not carry me through this life. There is no blame in me. Sometimes life just doesn't work out as you planned. Thanks.

Thanks for the prayers. I am so grateful to have the Lord. His strength has lifted me up now that mine has finally all been expended. Hope!

We have had a couple of years that we have gotten blasted from every direction. I have struggled during most of my 15 year Christian walk. I have a beautiful wife of 12 years, that I love. Three beautiful children 6, 9, 12. I have been down in a funk for a year since she went back to work nights, and see her very little, and I miss her. We need the money. Sunday I finally "GOT IT", the missing piece to the surrendering to God, His will- not my will, my strength finally ran out. I got my hope for the future back. I am ALIVE with Jesus, not the dead man I have been. Monday my wife asked for the big D. We have had issues and the struggles of life has beat us up. This is not the route I would choose. She is the best friend I have ever had, even if I have been a lame friend for a while. I want to keep my family. But I don't want what I want. I want that HIS will be done. Please pray for the 5 of us in this time of need. Thank You.

RGRWJB are you of Finnish decent, or is this an interest you developed? My sister and I are the last to have only lineage to Finland. My family has been here since the early 1900's, but there are still remnants of Finland to be found. My aging Grandfather, and Aunts and Uncles still speak Finn. Northern Minnesota is filled with this heritage. I have relatives in Finland, but have only passed a few letters years ago. Our family records are in the basement of a church in Kestila. I know enough of the language to know what I am listening to, but only a few speak a few words. My wife is also quite interested in this Finn heritage, which is kind of funny as her lineage is 1/2 Russian, and only Finn by marriage. One of my Great Grandfathers left Finland ahead of the law. He had been involved in a knife fight(very common around the turn of the century). Both sides were sharecroppers and it was common for sharecroppers to come to America. They figured that they would rather starve to death on their own land than starve on someone elses. That was how my 90 year old Grandfather explained it. The Marine Corps has a correspondence course program for enlisted that works towards promotions. They have an interesting course on Winter War. I find it all interesting. I enjoy the study of people and culture. Wish I had been with you on your tour. I hope to go myself some day. In the 1930's Whitetailed deer were captured in N. Mn and exported to Finland. I have heard that they now have a healthy population of them there.

Very nice rifle, good looking knife, and fantastic photography.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=315BY1tsnOE

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been looking forward to seeing more of those pics with socks in them. Good stuff. Glad you are back. Thanks for your service.

They did a job that was way more work than I did humping M2 .50 machinegun parts around. Not a job for everyone. Not a job for me. They are kinda top of the grunt heap. And they are my Brothers, God Bless 'Em. The Marine Corps is a Brotherhood. All parts function as a whole. They are Elite Marines, maybe a bit arrogant, but we all got the same haircut after hitting the "YELLOW FOOTPRINTS." Besides we all love Chesty. ((WARNING, this is an aside)) One of my personal Heroes was 3rd Recon in VN. He always kicks me in the ass, and lifts my spirits. I met him on a construction site due to my Eagle, Globe, and Anchor sticker on my lunchpail. He might be my Dads age, and seen what I can only imagine, but we were Marine Brothers before we shook hands and exchanged names. I was Honored to be invited to his Bronze Star ceremony 2 years ago. There were 4 of his teammates there. In my eyes I was in a room of Giants. They accepted me as an equal Brother. You can read about them in Never Without Heroes, by Lawrence C. Vetter Jr. They are the survivors of Team Striker. My friends name is Jeff S. I was around lots of Elite types while deployed. They all treated me well. Marines are family. The Marine Corps did a study about styles of covers around'88. They determined that the beret was a worthless piece of headgear. It didn't keep the sun out of your eyes, nor did it break up your outline. They found value in boonie type covers, but thought they lacked 'military appearance'. They stuck with what they had. I see they do use boonies some now. I also know they wear regular style covers with MARPAT cammies. I doubt berets are in their future. I felt bad for Army Rangers when the whole Army got the headwear they worked so hard for.

Never mention "never a cop around when you need one." When they load you into the car, they don't duck your head. Even though I was drunk when I got jumped, they saw no humor in my comment.

Marine Force Recon is used 300+ miles behind enemy lines, often long before an invasion (like Afghanistan). They are the Marines with SCUBA certification, and jump qualification in their job description. They go to places we never were, and do things that we had nothing to do with. They also cross-train with groups like the FBI, DEA, CIA, LA SWAT, etc. I did a little training with them as instructors. Good instructors also. It is true, every Marine is a Rifleman, and every Sailor is a Firefighter. Even clerks and cooks qualify on the riflerange every year.

I have said many times that I am surprised that there has not been more trouble. Marines are not the best at police work. Storming beaches, kicking doors, destroying the enemy with fire and close combat, that is their forte. They have generally been better at destroying things than maintaining peace. They have done a commendable job thru the PC curtain. My hat is off to them. Must be a far cry from our old saying,"There are no friendly civilians."

We were not accustomed to having collection calls 5+ times a day, one of which was at dinnertime every day. My BC/BS pays poorly for psychiatric care. One of my children had a 24 day hospitalised treatment. Our portion was $15,000. We paid it and shorted ourselves everywhere else. Paying the bloodsucking hospital has ruined us. I could swallow it a bit better if it had helped. There is a government program to help people in our situation. They backpaid to the day after her hospital stay. Thanks for little. She is eligable for Social Security. Try to collect that in a situation like this. It might have saved us. My wife went back to work. She is gone from 6pm until 4am wed-sun, then sleeps. I get home between 6pm and 7pm mon-thurs. A far cry from when she was at home, the life we lived for almost all of our 12 year marriage. Kinda makes me feel like a single parent to 3. Just yesterday I realised how sorry I was feeling for myself. I am done with feeling depressed and hopeless over these issues. I am done letting life kick my ass. Pick myself up, dust myself off, start all over again. I have probaly told too much, but I would never want anyone else to make the same mistakes we did. Pay the hospital last, even after taking your wife out for a nice dinner.

This would have been helpful in 2004. Hospital collections are the very worst. I shouldn't have paid them.

Is there weight savings with using a Choate stock with a blind magazine, no bottom metal?

My Dad made a small, one sided picnic table for his deck. It isn't a perfect shooting bench, but it works quite well. I just carry it to the shooting line, and put it back when I am done.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17538139/ Looks like the big fight may have begun. I sure hope we win. It would make me happy to win and have this issue settled. It is a bit scary also. What if it doesn't go our way?

That is absolutely amazing. What a beautiful animal! wow, are they big!

We got another 16 inches of snow since thursday, tho the temps have warmed to the 20's. Snow this late in the winter is not quite as bad as it is early. In a month it will all be turned into mud. I hope to go snowshoe a coyote area I know of tomorrow. I might get lucky and deep snow might tilt the scale in my favor. I haven't worn those in about 20 years. Should be fun. AzRedneck, If I could have made a living down there I would still be down there. I lived there for 4 years. Several times I worked 2 full-time jobs+ and still qualified for foodstamps. I knew I could do better in MN, so reluctantly I returned in '95. I loved it there, tho the winter smog and snowbirds were not my favorite. I drove a car with a full frame and expected to get into an accident. I was crazy back them and rode motorcycle in traffic a lot. It has grown too much since I left to really want to live there now. It sure is nice to visit tho.

The way I see it, they have added many guns at their own peril. Hunters that cared little about importation or high capacity magazines have been included. Their semi-auto duck hunting gun was added. Also their BAR deer rifle. In their short-sightedness many cared little about other people losing their freedom, in the past. To me, shooting pop cans in a gravel pit with Ak-47s or handguns, competing with military rifles at rifle ranges, hunting, or just having the ability to defend your own home, are all equally important. Many did not view all gun owners as a group. Ask Mr Czonka about that one. I would dream that this may change that. Unfortunately, most of this country is urban born and raised. Their view is that guns are bad. It would be a shame for many good citizens to become criminals over foolishness. Imagine a solid American, and Grandfather being thrown in prison or killed over this. I can think of many good men I grew up around being this type of person. That would be shameful of any government.

We got our first real snowstorm saturday. I had 14+ in my driveway. I live in East central MN, in SE MN they had 29.5 inches. Temps are not far from +30 degrees though. We have had a pretty easy winter. Over the last month we have had around -10 give or take in the mornings, then possibly warming to 20. In the woods we had a few inches of snow. It was enough to take more energy to walk in, but snowshoes were not needed. It has been pretty easy for a beginner varmint caller to move around. Yesterday, I wish I had a chance to go snoeshoe some trails. I bet those 'yotes would have taken an easy trail, even if it was more dangerous. Kenak, have you ever chased wolves around? I dream of Alaska. My wife is presently in AZ. That is where she wants to return to. Quick, somebody give me the winning lottery numbers so i can have both!!!

It is good to married to a beautiful woman that will put up with me. I see that I am not alone. My wife is 32. Two years ago at the local high school she was asked if she shouldn't be in class instead of wandering the hallways. Sure made her day.

I wish I lived in your neighborhood. I loved Arizona, I just couldn't live on the wages. Today it was 13 degrees and it almost feels warm in Minnesota. My wife is going to PHX next week to visit her parents, I am a little jealous. I figured for sure that somebody here was using these sabots. My Crossman 760 air rifle thinned the barn cat population frequently when I was a kid. I have heard that a small balloon over the muzzle works like a silencer.