Emul8

Yeah, right....

Hi FC -- Well, I'm far from an expert around LEs, but I have a No. 4, MkI that I enjoy very much, I got it from Springfield Sporters a few years ago, it was about $90.00...not unlike the AIM offerings. When I opened the box upon receipt, I was pretty horrified as the rifle was as covered with Cosmoline as any I'd seen, and the Suncorite, or whatever that paint on the metal of the rifle was had seen FAR better days! There was even a fingerprint in the Suncorite/paint near the magazine! However, the classic rule applies in that "you can't judge a book by it's cover"...the bore of this rifle was, and still is excellent and it's qualities as a shooter are beyond reproach. As with many/most LEs, the sights leave a little to be desired, but otherwise, I have zero complaints about these rifles. From what AIM describes in that there is some finish wear but otherwise these are solid rifles, I don't think you could go entirely wrong if what you need is a solid shooter! I personally believe that with most LEs, the quality is part of the package.

montea6b -- I know! That's exactly what littered-up cat poos look like! It's just SO disgusting! It'd be one thing if the doggy Almond Roca smelled like the real version...I might not gag over that! Well, then again, I might...Almond Roca on a dog's breath can't be a good thing!

ShooterTom, I think FC was mentioning that "it was a girl dog" as a correction for my presumption that the German shepard he had was a male dog. Thanks for the correction, FC...but I still think she was recycling and extracting full flavor enjoyment from her food! As for ShooterTom's wife's beagle...watching a dog eat another dog's leavings is pretty bad too. No way am I going to argue that point! Of the three dogs that currently reside here at my house, two of them will chow down on choice morsels from the cats' litter boxes...then they will come up wanting to lick me in the face with their disgusting breath. I practically want to throw up when that happens. Domestic animals are often some nasty creatures...but you know, I wouldn't give up my useless Greyhound for anything...well, except the proper amount of cash. Nah, I'm kidding...I think.

Why's it embarrassing, FC? You ought to give the dog some credit...he's recycling, and extracting full flavor enjoyment from his food!

I showed this to a friend and she said "Ewww, but the photographs are beautiful!". That's an endorsement if I ever heard one! Maybe I'll get one for her during the upcoming holidays! Wow, FC, you can sure find some weird stuff out there!

I watched the "Amazing Racist" videos, and frankly, I am amazed myself...in that this guy didn't get his scrawny butt kicked! However, I do think that the fact that this guy has managed to come this far with his teeth and glasses intact is more a testament to the restraint shown by the people upon whom he heaps his racism than his "talent" as an entertainer. I find it stunning that this guy can actually get people to sign releases after he inflicts his "comedy" on them! While what the "Amazing Racist" shows us about our own darker sides is unsettling and at the same time funny, what the people confronted by this clown shows is the very best of the America's common folk, wherever they came from originally!

"Feel my heart, dude!". Nice pick up line, don't you think? That PETA boy screamed more like a girl than anyone, ever! Pretty amusing.

Oh, my goodness! I didn't even know about that! What a great idea. Thanks roscoedoh, for the tip...I never would have thought of something like that, and I have the pinch scars, blood blisters and bashed fingers to prove it!

I have a number of friends from all over the globe, some of whom have come to the U. S. for a visit, and THEY will tell you that Americans are the least rude, friendliest, kindest people they have ever met. One of my woman friends from Australia and I were going into a shopping mall one day, and someone coming out of the mall came face to face with my friend, at which point they tried - unsuccessfully - to pass each other. After a couple of failed attempts, the person coming out of the mall did what many of us do, he said "Shall we dance?" to my friend...I laughed, as did the gentleman coming out of the mall, but my friend was completely astonished and silent! After she glowered for a moment, and finally passed the guy, I told her to lighten up, and she stopped and began to marvel at the event. She said that in Australia the guy would have just shoved past her. I shrugged at her and said "Isn't America great?". She enthusiastically agreed! After her return to Australia, she sent me an email detailing all the rude behavior she had encountered for around a week after leaving the U. S. I found it sad in one sense, and heartening in another. It was sad that people have to put up with such things, but it was heartening that Americans aren't as bad as some places! I guess it's all a matter of context. I DO see an unpleasant trend of overall rudeness, particularly in young people, probably for the reasons cited in that article. But I also think that some of the views in that article are a cop-out. It doesn't take any more time to teach a child good manners than it does to ignore their bad manners, or if it does, the amount of time is negligible, and the pay-off is worth it! Anyone who knows me really well knows that I cuss worse than anyone on earth. Yet, when I first meet people and ALWAYS around my elders, I do not cuss at all. I can honestly say that I have never said anything as benign as "hell" or "damn" around some of my relatives. This is what I was taught. My parents would have whupped my butt if I had been the slightest bit discourteous as a child, and as an adult I can see why! And now, as an adult, I consider it my "duty" to correct any child with whom I have the remotest contact if they are rude. From opening the door for them at the library and expecting a "thank you" to Halloween trick-or-treaters, from which I also expect a thank you (though, those are lessening all the time...must be the masks!). It simply isn't acceptable to me to allow my cultivated kindness and consideration to go unnoted by ungracious brats!

LOL! I just told one of my friends "Go ahead", and it wasn't permission! LOLOLOLOLOL!! OK, you got me...most of those are correct, except the 5 minutes...I am SO on the spot and almost obsessive about time. I also don't really do the "fine" or "nothing" stuff either. Otherwise, I can't complain about this...it's funny because it's true!

*Loud sigh*

TLynn -- Your S&Ws are great looking! I would be envious if I didn't so admire your "horse trading" skills! Given the age and condition of these revolvers, it seems that your $700.00 deal, really was a good one! Congratulations on your wonderful acquisitions!

I would offer something in the way of useful information, if only I had some. I just cleaned up a very nasty Turkish Mauser with baby powder and a curling iron. Do you people really think anyone is interested in THAT? All I am good for is reading archives, stealing ideas, using them and not giving credit where it's due. I have evolved just enough past being a complete newbie to where I don't have to ask questions, I know the information that I want to extract from y'all. But if you insist on advancing this challenge, I guess I can tell you all how to clean a gun with baby powder and a curling iron...it's just not for the squeamish! Of course, I am kidding...except for the part about lacking any useful information, in that regard, I will shamelessly rip off an Oscar Wilde quote, ostensibly stated as he visited the United States and was going through customs: "I have nothing to declare except my genius.". And THAT is all I can truly offer to you all here, and I am even kidding about that! LOL!

Waaaaahhh! Now I am crying like a sensitive man! flaco is hurting my feeling. I'm not confrontational? What the heck do you mean by that...and what's with that tone of keyboard? Who do you think you are, black-mask man?

Doble Troble -- I understand your point, but your analogy is bad...the pendulum, by necessity will swing back, but no, we don't want it to! In all honesty, I don't know what the answer is as it relates to the questions raised in this thread, beyond the question of investing in pharmaceuticals. As far as that goes, I would invest...despite the occasional risk -- and what doesn't have risks -- the benefits should far outweigh them.

I'm not sure, but is this an insult or a compliment? Maybe I need a man to decide for me. NOT!!! LOL! I like it here. Sure, I miss the old stuff from the other site, particularly information on the creation of Twedes...but I figure that good stuff like that is bound to come around again, so, I will bide my time here, griping, snivelling and squabbling like others of my ilk until it does. If and when I don't like it, I will just move on past the general discussion forums and get into the gun stuff. If I am really lucky, I may have learned something that I can pass onto others, whether in Restoration, Sporterization or the Archives. Believe me, there are many times when I have signed onto boards with Cosmolined fingers, in a panic because something unidentified just flew off of my Mauser bolt...I don't care where I get the information, as long as it's out there somewhere. And it will be here again, in time!

Good points, all. However, there is, in my mind, a significant difference between DTC advertising a medication to aid a man with "erectile dysfunction", and all the advertising that catapulted Celebrex and Vioxx to the front of the American consciousness, then started contributing to heart attacks and/or strokes. Resulting in those drugs being removed from the market. Yes, at the onset and under heavy marketing from advertising, pharmaceutical representatives and copious sample drops to physicians, some medications appear to be virtually miraculous, and with the clamor by consumers for better, more effective medications that do more things, the FDA has rushed medications through the process to get them to the market faster. But in the end, when projections for the class-action suits in the Celebrex and Vioxx fiasco could top $18 billion dollars, not to mention the lives lost, or that have been impacted by the "magic" wrought by the pharmaceutical companies in these cases alone, just who is being served the most? An informed public is great, tempered with sense, and yeah, it's preferable...it isn't so much that which bothers me...it's the way the the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA rush from A to Z, bypassing some critical areas along the way in their zeal. That's where lives are lost, reputations are shattered and credibility is sacrificed. Thankfully, Celebrex and Vioxx are the exception rather than the rule, but then again, exceptions usually best serve to prove the rule.

Mark Lee Express Blue is what I used on my 98/22 Czech Mauser, it came out SO incredibly good that if I decide to ruin another gun's collector value, I am going to use it again! I had a lot of fun using it as well...particularly trying to figure out how to boil the barrel. The resultant blue is consistent and durable, even in the areas that get lots of wear. Of course, using the Express Blue isn't a true slow rust bluing, but it was a compromise between that process and cold bluing. I recommend it! You can get it from Brownell's. I would like to try Gun Goddess too at some point...I have heard great things about it.

I play with compasses for amusement as well...I like map compasses the most, I like how you can start in on place, plot a bearing, stroll over, take another bearing and so on until you end up in exactly the same spot where you started. It seems like magic. I once considered a career as a cartographer because of my love of maps, directions and the like...it seems silly in retrospect. Like becoming an astronomer because I like the night sky...of course I conveniently forget that I hate math! LOL! It is beyond me how so many people can be geographically challenged. Of course, I know that I am not infallible in that regard, for example, I can almost never easily find J&G Sales in Prescott, AZ even though I go there at least every six months or so. I don't know why, except that I got hopelessly lost the first time I went looking for it, and that was without a map. I called the store for directions, and got them according to the cardinal directions, but of course it was about noon, and I had a devil of a time figuring it out! I was also very tired and had been driving all night, so that could have had something to do with it. Well, that's my story anyway. I haven't been truly "lost" finding the store since, but it's always in the back of my mind....

Even I miss TYRVR, and believe me, that's saying something considering how snippy we got with each other on another board! He has an excellent, rapier wit that absolutely astounded me sometimes.

Doble Troble -- That's a cool project! From what I can tell, the wood looks like it's going to have some great figure once you get it stained and finished. I think that projects like these always take much longer than we anticipate, but then again, when one moves through such a project slowly, I would think that the likelihood of accuracy and proper fitment of the parts increases greatly. Taking the time to do things right on this gun will pay off for you down the line in most anything else you do with other guns...like you said, though I'm paraphrasing it, getting back to Mausers will probably be a cake walk after this! I would like to try something like this myself one day, only not a flinter, and not with a right handed lock...the whole idea of being One-eyed Emul8 isn't appealling to me! LOL! I think the only choices of kits for left handed percussion cap rifles are the Hawken type, and I don't find those very interesting...certainly not as interesting as those longgggg rifles! Anyway, I wish you luck and good progress with this gun! I am looking forward to the photos when you get it all finished and ready for shootin'!

Ah! Directions...now there's another area where I tend to diverge from most women as a group. I am not remotely geographically challenged...maybe it comes from my Indian side as my Mother never had problems orienting herself wherever she was either. I get SO frustrated with my female friends when they don't know where they are going or where they are. Even with something as simple as the cardinal directions! I can read a map, and in fact routinely read atlases for amusement! Now, of course I have been lost a couple of times in my life, but never too far off course and I have always been able to get my bearings in a matter of minutes...thank goodness! I know that it's unusual for women to have a good sense of direction, but I have always considered myself fortunate in that regard. As for the toilet seat thing...there used to be some internet joke thingy that made the global circuit and it said something about how women complain about men leaving the toilet seat up but it answered this by saying "You're a big girl, put the toilet seat down yourself.". And that's my philosophy...besides, most women that I know check the seat status before they plant their butts on it, just so we can avoid left behind droplets, a$$ gaskets or other, unspeakable things -- most of them kind of gross -- a seat left up is the least of my worries...and, in fact, I should be thankful that men are putting the seat up anyway...speaking of droplets, ewwwwwww!

Thanks, Doble Troble for the explanation of the first down thing. I think I have it now. Just one question, what do the players do with their rackets while they're advancing in their yards? LOL! I WAS being facetious about this stuff, BTW. However, I don't care for football or most sports, so I don't really pay that much attention to the rules. Whatever I picked up about some sports, I picked up by contamination!

Well, you know...good for her! It's not up to me to even suggest how people who have nothing should allocate their nothing, but that's not the way I would spend my own personal nothing. If she hadn't won, I guess that her almost nothing would have looked like a whole lot of something. Despite my "good for her" comment, there is, in my humble opinion, something wrong with people allegedly that down on their luck to choose to entertain themselves at a casino....