Bighanded

same here. It's the only reason I've made any ammo purchases since the covid panic kicked in. most big box stores in my area have zero ammo, what little they get (Cabellas for example) is stored behind the counter, with very tight box/customer limits and the prices are as high as any gunbroker rates i've seen. Best my local shop has done is a 1 box limit of 9mm plain box for $27. my cop shop 2 months back had 13 cases of PMC brass 9mm. Their retail on the shelves was $27 with no limits. A bit of friendly conversation and they told me I could have as many of the cases as I wanted for $16/box of 50. Had my retired LEO bud with me. I bought a case, he bought a case and we took a third case to break into smaller lots for several friends that we met at the range 2 days later.. all was spoken for immediately. no, $16 is not a good price by old standards, but it's a fair price in today's climate and it allowed us to do some more , much needed, trigger time without dipping into the reserves. my 45acp stuff is pretty much still shuttered as it's just too pricey. Did run a couple mags through one of the 1911s last weekend. But most drills we still run just 22lr and then step up to 9mm for a half dozen mags. My Sig M18 is a 21rd, but I also have the 17rd for it. Either way, I typically only take 3 boxes of 50 to the range with me. When that's gone, it's time to go home. I was a bit disappointed last month when I pulled the Sig into play. The gun was fine, it was me that had lost ground due to lack of practice. Couple mags later I had corrected my trigger issues and groups were getting tight again. so, yes, painful as current prices are...it's important to keep the skills up best we can. Also did a small amount of 100yd bench with an old 1995 Colt AR15 (yes, post ban bolt and block) but still a sweet , quality rifle to shoot. Not my grab n go AR, but a fun piece of history, that makes 100yds stupid easy. In fact , setup as a service rifle, I had to adjust the scope cause the handle sights don't even get started below 200. Anyway, talking ammo... it was an enjoyable morning to be tossing rounds down range and not fretting over inventory. btw: WonderMonkey...if you are LEO (in whatever form)..you have my thanks..my support. My daily wear ball cap has a thin blue lines flag patch proudly displayed for my locals to see. I'll likely get sucker punched one day for wearing it, but if that's the price..then fine.

I don't currently hunt...so I've not paid attention to the calendar..but it was obvious hunting season had begun by the number of trucks hauling ATVs around this past weekend. You woulda thought there was a convention or something (grin).

we have a mated pair of yotes...very aggressive...they took out the geese nesting on the pond this spring, they put a lot of pressure on the rabbits (as seen in this pic). Cooler weather coming, I'll have to sit out in the tree stand and call em in.

naw...difference is, they'll loot n riot and destroy if they don't get their free stuff. But yeah, I know I'm not prepared for every possible disaster, and at some point I'll be reliant on the grace of others..but in general, I take a small bit of pride in my efforts to be self sufficient when things get stormy. on the rare occassion when it's gotten dicey here, me and a couple other neighors are out making the rounds, either on horseback, or ATV with chain saw strapped to the rack ,making sure folks on our street have what they need and that our roads are clear...snow n ice, the trucks never get out here to us. Power is pretty stable, but the amount of outages in our area is tiny compared to more populated places, so they get the attention long before we do...and never mind a call to a deputy..they can be 40 minutes on the other side of the county.

yep... I try to just use my EU2000..it's a sipper compared to the larger unit. my deep freezer is in the garage, so I can cycle it with the honda there, and then easily move it to get it close to the kitchen window and cycle the fridge. we use battery banks for things, like radio or TV during an outage..and more practical experience with both these power solutions has been used many times for camping trips when we are off grid. We can watch movies for hours on the 32" flat screen on a single charge. I keep a half dozen of the propane 20lb bottles and the camper has the larger tanks on board..so we can cook, enjoy a hot shower, etc...but also I can pull those into use for the larger genny....so when gasoline pumps might be bagged, I've got the propane option which stores a lot longer than gas.

same here.. I used to keep more than that, but I had to admit I was lazy about rotating and so over time I've let my can count dwindle to where a spare 20 gallons on the ground is all I really keep. the chevy 3500 diesel has i think a 36gal? and I keep 2 spare 5gal cans in the truck bed plus 2 more on the ground. and the cargo van is a 26 gals gas...the commuter car is only 18 gals all are near full. I have 3 cases of can/bottled long term fuel...pure gas that doesn't go far, but lasts long...can at least keep the motorbike rolling and feeds the smaller honda eu2000 the larger genny is dual fuel and has only seen propane it's entire life.. the 60gal boat tank got topped off last night so I can pull from that. I'm expecting bags on the pumps around here by Friday..and just in time for holiday travel...so yeah, it'll get crazy here soon enough. we've literally had em get into gun fights around here as folks waiting in line for the pumps get cut off, etc..temper flare far too easy.

hey...good to hear from you Fish... I was honestly expecting it might be a couple more days of dark. and yeah, Wilson, good point to retain (sticky) the weather thread.. I know it starts to make us look more like a zombie survival board, but there's so many great lessons to be learned and Honda ATV boys tend to be pretty self reliant...so plenty of experience to share.

ashamed to say that both of my bikes have sat in the garage for a month now...vacation, extra work, and the dang heat, has just made riding take a back seat to jumping in the pool. But I did at least crank the old Blue 93 Saturday afternoon.. I was out cranking up my generators for their monthly maintenance cycle given the reminder of hurricane Ida. So while they were running, I thought I best at least let the honda idle a bit...literally did not ride it.. I gotta make some changes.

yep....we come for information on hondas, we return cause we love to talk about our toys, we stay cause we enjoy the feeling of friends n family...thanks All

appreciate you guys providing the streams and updates. Doesn't look like any actual weather for us Carolina folks...but it certainly will impact our gas supply as we are on the butt-end of the colonial.. I went out late Friday night after the traffic had calmed and filled up the diesel truck, and the work van along with my various 5 gal gas cans. Worst case, I can opt to work from home later in the week when the gas pumps get bagged. it was end of month, so I also made sure to pull the generators out and let them spin for a bit. if I was physically healthy and strong enough, i'd add my boat to "than navy" and head that way..but at this point I'd more likely wind up adding to the headcount of someone needing rescue myself. sending our best and prayers for our honda buds in the path.

was just checking the weather folks...yeah...looks like a bad blow heading your way...sorry brother....lock it down! looks like they are thinking it might make cat3?..that's a bad storm.I need to gas up the spare cans etc cause it'll short us on the Colonial pipeline by early next week...but that's nothing compared to what ya'll will be faced with.

was just checking the weather folks...yeah...looks like a bad blow heading your way...sorry brother....lock it down! looks like they are thinking it might make cat3?..that's a bad storm.I need to gas up the spare cans etc cause it'll short us on the Colonial pipeline by early next week...but that's nothing compared to what ya'll will be faced with.

sad to hear...and yes, don't take your youth for granted. my dad, at age 49, got up on a Friday morning to drive to work as usual. Realized he was having a heart attack on the way, turned around and drove himself to the hospital with a myocardial infarction. 3 days later he was dead..and brother, 49 is way too young. I'm about to turn 65 and seem to be taking after my mom's side of the family, so hopefully I'll be around for a while yet to support my family and love on the kids/grands. All my adult kids have enough and reasonable personal/home defense tools. But ol Pop here is the official go-to for training, advice, etc. And they are all looking forward to inheriting the various items here when that time comes. No libs in my bunch. I've made sure they have all, including my wife, and my daughters, learned the manual of arms for the various platforms I have...be it a simple 12ga pump, or an AR platform. There will be some surprises though, as there are a few items here that no one knows about.

rural lifestyle here. We see our guns as a healthy part of normal life. Most households do a bit of hunting..mostly deer and turkey. I always wear a S&W revolver with snake shot when I'm out on the property to deal with copperheads. And on the occassional nights when neighbors have encountered burglars rummaging through the cars, or sheds, etc, we tend to call one another for "support" Through the many years I never felt like I needed anything more than a small 5-7round pistol, a shotgun for home defense and a decently accurate rifle for some hunting. Ammo meant that if you planned to do any plinking or hunting, you'd stop by the store and grab a box. The end. it was only because some politicians began telling me that I should not be allowed to have a gun, not allowed to have higher capacity, that I went shopping. Swear ta God, before they opened their mouths, it just wasn't an issue to me. They are the primary reason/cause for my current tool box configuration. I'm not trying to push this to a political post. I'm just saying that some leaders, be they a state governor, a senator, media, start spouting off, while allowing, even empowering terror on the streets from the likes of antifa, blm, etc. I find myself heading back to the store for the tools and supplies they make me believe I'll need to protect myself and family. and no, I'm not handing anything in. At my, age, I'll choose option B. I've trained under our local LEO, even advanced work under our SWAT Sgt. as a privilege of having 3 generations of LEO in both city and county service. But this familiarity has simply reminded me that I have no delusions that my one bitty cannon is any match for a professionally trained, equipped force - be it local, or federal. So, no, I'm not saying "come n take". I'm simply saying... I'm not going to comply. I have an AR15, simply because they don't want me to. I've done very little work with it cause I prefer the bigger cal. I have trained extensively with my AR10 platform and yes both platforms have about 30 mags in various capacity for them. I have civi versions of the military's new M17 and M18 platform sidearms with 21rd mags and optics, etc...plenty of training on them. But the reason I bought them was because of the higher capacity as a pushback to those that told me i should not be allowed to own them. but again, these guns otherwise live in the safes in hopes that that battle bags never need to actually be used. my normal life is a simple old 1989 colt mustang 380 just to help me stay safe from the one-off bad guy, not to go to war. I am a peace maker, a worship pastor on staff at my church, Faithful to the same woman for 44 years, Dad to 4, a Pappap to 9 grandkids and still hold down a full time day job. I'm the kind of guy that helps keep the machine going. They really should want to just leave me alone and let me keep pulling the wagon (Animal Farm reference). the fact that they don't tells me everything I need to know about their true intent for our nation...and that evil, I am pledged to resist.

soooo true!!

yep...folks just 30 mins north of me got hammered last night..we are dry as a bone... getting ready to try a vacation run down to Fla heading out this Sunday... I'll be scooting down the East coast and circling back up behind this lil Fred storm..so hopefully by the time set up the camper on Monday, the storm will be long north and maybe giving my home some needed watering.

yep...folks just 30 mins north of me got hammered last night..we are dry as a bone... getting ready to try a vacation run down to Fla heading out this Sunday... I'll be scooting down the East coast and circling back up behind this lil Fred storm..so hopefully by the time set up the camper on Monday, the storm will be long north and maybe giving my home some needed watering.

it's heat plus age factor for me. I can't take the heat like I did...oh...50 years ago (grin). I just tend to move slower and not keep pushing it when I realize the heat stroke is coming on. but our big issue right now is lack of rain. pond is about 4 ft off bank, creek is soon to run near dry...which seems to have happened more this past 5 or so years...when the neighbors who have lived here their whole life say they hadn't known the creek to run dry in over 35 yrs. I know , well, I believe, part of it is when they installed city sewer lines out here..folks are still on well to get their water, but with sewer utility, they are basically displacing water to the city. Anyway...pond is still healthy, and it lets me take the brush cutter to the pond edge to clean it up..but a couple hours with that big Echo 42cc on my shoulder and I'm ready to take a break. honestly, it's not hotter this year than in recent years past, it's just getting to me more.

I know there are a ton of old Hondas and other products out in the fields of our nation. It just feels weird to think that the ages of abundant supply surplus might be over for the balance of my functional lifespan. I sit with Mom (90yrs old) and listen as she tells me of days when she was a girl.. she showed me some leftover ration stamp books etc. But my generation and my kids, have never experienced anything like this....so yeah, gonna be some stormy weather coming for the generations who take it for granted that they can get anything, on line, shipped for next day arrival. makes my old, reliable, hondas even more valuable to me.

make em smile fer sure...number of years back I had to go in for some surgery...and i get the prep call from the hospital and the lady on the other end says.. Hey...aren't you my worship leader from church?! now I'm thinkin.. oh jeez...hospital gown, hair butt hangin out the back...she'll ever see me on stage quite the same. so morning of the surgery, I arrive in my M&M's pajamas and I wrote "PULL" on my finger. One after the other had to come in and see my finger..they were in tears laughing about it. if you don't get the joke, many surgeries involved them blowing you up with air and the post surgery off-gassing is a real party.

our big chevy dealer in town used to have at least 30 silverados in various flavors on the lot...they have 2 plain white trucks right now...and anytime I take my 2011 duramax in for any service, it's an immediate "hey..you want to sell?" used to be they'd try to get me to trade in..now they just want to buy...cause they've got nothing to trade me up to. but that was the last new truck I planned to buy when I did.. I'm coming up on 65...debt free from here out...so...new car shortages are not a part of my watchlist.

I hadn't thought about product shortages in our beloved ATV market..but makes sense. many of our local new car lots are extremely low on inventory on their lots. And new boat dealers have been complaining that they can't provide simple things like the bimini top/frame for new pontoons..etc. And with so many ATV products coming from Asia..yeah..makes sense. all the more reason I guess to hang on tight to my beloved old Japan/USA made toys. I treat them easy..mainly cause I'm old and need to treat myself easy (grin). But for sure I'll have to make these old vintage bikes last the balance of my years..and honestly, that's ok too. I love to old hondas.

have shared this before, but it was the only pic handy at the moment. I know that a 93 Fourtrax is far from rare with millions of them still in service. I expect it will stay with me until I'm too old to ride. the lil red wonder is a 1979 CT90...last year of the 90s in the states before they went to the 110 models. was just out spinning on it last week in fact....nice slow cruise on the country back roads...amazingly capable on the trails..and I'm about 40lbs over rating, but it doesn't complain...just continues to offer up smiles n miles.

First off...that pic in the GF's robe.... oh never mind... I got nuttin.. (LOL). and yeah, Monkey...feeling your pain. my hands, particularly the base of the thumbs are really feeling the arthritis. my days of 5 nights a week bar gigs are long over and my chops definitely show the lack of hours of play. I am still holding down the church thing...so 5 songs a week on guitar or bass is well within pain management, but nowhere near keeping me in good playing shape. I have midi on my studio computer so I can play along with all my old favorite top 40 songs from the past 50 years, but it's not the same as hangin with your buds in a live band night after night. good times, but it's ok that its in the past. Still , I would like, and plan, to keep playing long as I can. I did just make the change to light gauge on the bass strings and I'll load those up for this weekend and adjust the action accordingly...that'll help. as for drums...while my son makes it looks easy...he'll also be the first to tell you that Pop can't play! (grin)

for my part in stirring the pot, apologies. My thanks, one last time, to Fish for his great advice on keeping me healthy through the past year. Plenty of forums to wax long on politics, etc...so I'm happy to stay on topic on ATVs here with this great group of guys. now, if i can just make time to change that flat tire on the front of my '79 CT90 (grin)..got some ridin to do !!