Comments

Episode-2376- Listener Calls for 2-7-19 — 15 Comments

  1. Jack,

    I have a pistol with a red dot and I had never considered the point that you brought up as a draw back – fogging.  I think it is likely to happen if you are open carrying but what if you are concealed carrying?  The pistol is going to be close to your body and under a concealment garment.  I may have to test this to see.

    One benefit for the red dot you didn’t mention is that it’s easier for older eyes to see the red dot than it is to line up front and rear sights.

    Roscoe

  2. Likely makes it worse.   Ever worn glasses?  It is instant at this time of the year, literally less then a second when you go in or out of a building or vehicle.

  3. I’ve worked several jobs where I wanted to identify tools. I’ve never engraved tools, partially because of the time and equipment needed but also because I’ve never had enough tools go missing to be worth that time and expense. Colored electrical tape is what I’ve typically used. You can easily use several colors to create a pattern to denote any meaning you might want. Paint pens are also useful for smaller tools, where E-tape might be too large. The fastest method is to lay out all of the tools close together and run spray paint across all of them. I just don’t like the slap dash look of doing it that way.
    Using colored anything over engraving has another big advantage. It makes it easy to spot your tools if they get mixed in with tools that aren’t yours. I would regularly keep from losing a tool by spotting it by the colors mixed in with shop tools. Can’t do that with engraving!

  4. Jack,

    I’ve been carrying a red dot sighted pistol for years in TX, FL, KS.  I’ve never had an issue with the sight fogging up.  If the sight fogs up, your glasses will already be fogged up anyway.  You would still be in a pickle even with an iron sighted pistol

    I had suppressor height iron sights installed on my pistol that cowitness with the red dot.  In my mind, this is an absolute must have on a red dot pistol.

    Thanks for all you do.

    • Well first I would then have both fogged. Next I don’t need glasses to shoot. Not buying that they won’t fog up.

      • Hey Jack, I’m the one who called in about red dot pistols.

        I’m in Michigan, so I don’t encounter flash fogging like you’ve described, but I gotta ask if you’ve had issues with scoped rifles fogging like that.  It’s not something I’ve heard about, so I don’t know.  I might suggest looking to see if police agencies or SWAT units in the south have found some antifog agent, because they’ve surely encountered the same problem.

        • It happens but it isn’t a big issue as you are not generally exiting a vehicle or building to shoot a deer.  Additionally hunting season is not the time of year this is really a problem.

  5. Jack,

    As you said to the caller from Wisconsin who wants a trout pond, trout like cold water. Trout won’t survive if the water is too warm. Keeping them alive through summer is more of a concern than through winter. Here in Maine the state stocks trout in October for ice fishing. Many of the lakes and ponds that are stocked in the fall can not support trout through the summer because of water temperature.

    • I agree that the summer will be a bigger issue than the winter – especially with a small, shallow pond.  Trout need cool, well-oxygenated water.   Around here (zone 5a) trout are stocked into lakes in the fall and are considered “put-and-take” since they won’t survive into the next summer.

      • I do in general agree but I am going to say I saw plenty of trout hold over for many years in small ponds in zone 6.  I think the whole keep em anyway thing is a just justification of keeping them, done so long it is now believed by those saying it.

        • ” I think the whole keep em anyway thing is a just justification of keeping them, done so long it is now believed by those saying it.”

          I would not agree with that being true in this area.  I just checked our local DNR site and it says trout need water temps <70° with DO >7 ppm, and that they are “stocked seasonally in lakes as put-and-take fisheries”.  There may be a few surviving somewhere, but it’d be very rare.

  6. I would like to point out that I am also a first time homebuyer (buying this spring), and as such there are many programs that exist in many states to provide down payment and other forms of assistance. Each state is different and has different grants and other ‘freebies’ but the way I see it, we already have to pay into it, so we should take advantage of it! Do some research, especially for rural areas-many states offer various assistance because they need more people!

  7. Responding to the call about securing/marking your tools at work.

    I do agree with protecting your investment with a quality tool chest first and I would take a weekend or two (I’m not sure how many tools that you have) and either engrave or use metal stencils to mark all of your tools the same. The material that you need to mark will probably determine what method you need to use to mark it. I probably wouldn’t spend the time on things like sockets or other small items, but Jack mentioned buying a different brand of those small tools so that they are more or less unique to just you like “Only Bob uses those types of widgets”. I would also take a few photos of everything you own, also print out a copy and throw/tape it inside your toolbox for any kind of quick reference mostly for others to see because you know your tools.

    Now the important part of what to engrave or stencil on your tools or any property important to you, such as even your tool chest. If you have the room, always mark your state of drivers license and it’s number. It would look like this if you were from Texas:

    TX 12345678

    The reason you use this is for several reasons.

    1. Each item will then have a UNIQUE AND IDENTIFYING NUMBER which can be entered as a stolen item in any state entry system. It doesn’t matter if it was stolen in Maine and it shows up in a pawn shop in Hawaii, it will come back as stolen in whatever report where it got entered and there is no expiration on it until it is recovered.

    2. The really handy thing about this is if an officer comes across one of your items in their line of work and regardless of if one of your items were entered as stolen or not, but you had previously reported a theft or burglary, then they can likely either track that report or you yourself down and ask you directly about the item and if it was stolen. (I can’t tell you how many burglaries, thefts and sometimes lost items have been reunited with their owners because of this!)

    3. Your state drivers license ONLY RETURNS TO YOU! That’s how officers are able to reunite so much stolen property and discover thefts and burglaries after the fact when they find marked or inscribed items for the rightful owners. Sometimes the items found by law enforcement were never reported stolen or missing because the owner hadn’t realized they were missing, but having your state and drivers license gives them someone to contact and ask about the item that they came across.

    I’ve personally seen this happen many times and can attest to it working very effectively. Good luck securing your goodies.

    Justin Case

     

    • Follow up to address Jack’s question about using or marking your property with your state and drivers license (DL) number.

       

      As far as making your DL number public or advertising it somehow, then I would recommend against it. But if the concern is some form of identity theft, then it only begins to become useful to criminals when they have your DL in conjunction with your more useful identifying information such as Name, Date of Birth, SSN and Address. Now back when DL’s were commonly requested for writing checks, it could have indeed been used in that fashion, but those days are nearly gone. I personally haven’t come across someone having their identity being violated due to a DL number, but have worked many instances where someone had their DL obtained by someone else who then used all of the information off of the DL, which we all know is your Name, DOB, Address and still a SSN in a couple of states (which is disturbing personally, as that is very useful when stealing identities).

      So, when people mark their property with their DL’s it’s not very useful to criminals unless they also have your other identifying information and they also actually commit those types of crimes or know someone who does. Usually the crooks that steal property normally stay in their own lane as far as most of their crimes, though I have seen a few exceptions, but it quite rare.

      Justin Case