Time for a Rehash, past time

Yes, I am still alive.

Sorry I have been dark for so long, 

the fact that I lost "best airsoft blog" to some Hipster with a shaved rat masquerading 

as a dog put me in to a blue funk .

I drowned my sorrows in many a bottle of  Jim Beam premium bourbon, spent many hours walking the streets, chanting and slapping my head with a book of "The 10 Commandments of Aisoft by SCARR"  

(really, I have just been busy at work)

So, I am back and the 1st thing I am going to do is rehash something I wrote a few years ago.

I have seen this coming up again more and more on the various airsoft and RS forums I inhabit.

I think it's time to say it again

From March 25th 2010

   

Security for airsoft and other things in life

We all can't have a super hero hanging around the house, so we need to watch out for ourselves.

I have been perusing the internet the past few days, reading lots of forums for real steel guns and have noticed some things I wanted to talk about.

It seems like we all (airsoft and RS) love to show off our collections online.

Over the last couple days I have viewed some incredible collections of Firearms, High end collectible knives and airsoft guns. They are all on open forums, hooked to a screen name.

That screen name nine times out of ten has a profile connected to it with the hometown of the poster.

Sometimes even the persons real name is also available.

Now lets say you post up a collection of Vrosapale pistols, you are very proud that you have scoured the world to find all models of this unique piece.

A few weeks later you post that you are on your way to the Vrosapale collectors convention half way across the county and you will be off the forums for 5 days. You revel in your Twitter updates about you most recent find at the show, or what a jerk that last guy you dealt with was.

What have you just done?

Have you just told someone that you have valuable items and you will be gone from .to.?

What do you think?

I know you have a gun safe, but don't you think in two days time someone can't get into it, most of the time using tools from your own shop?

What about the other things showing in the pictures, computer systems, flat screens and all the cool movie collectibles in your "man room"?

Do you think bad people don't read Glocktalk, AR15.com or ASR?

I bring this up because years (way too many) ago I was doing the gun show circuit in FL, 51 weekends a year, driving from one end of the state to another, setting up on on Fri, break down and home Sun night.

We had a time when a small group would come to the show on Sunday, tag a dealer that had a nice display and then wait around till close down and loadout and follow him home. Sometimes they hit as soon as the dealer got home or to his shop, sometimes waiting till the next day if it was a collector who worked during the week.

One dealer got killed and a few got hurt and they didn't stop until they screwed up and  got caught.

Now it's 2012, we have Google maps, Google name search, find anyone for 8 dollars and tons of other neat ways to locate an address.
 (and since I wrote this the 1st time, wonderful Google and IPhone apps that can tell everyone exactly where you are , right to the minute.)

Am I too paranoid? (can you be today?)

I learned to keep every thing collectible or rare at an off-site storage location. That and insurance keeps it away from myself and loved ones

.

It does suck that we can no longer have the "Trophy" rooms of yesteryear.

(even if you never have posted a picture, how about the bug guy, meter reader, the guy who trims your trees.

Do you think they might have looked in the window and passed on how cool your cave was?)

From AOL article, 

 Some insurance companies are catching on. Legal & General Insurance in New England says Facebook and Twitter users could be hit with higher homeowner's insurance premiums. Why? All that blabbing about activities away from home means they face a higher risk of burglary.

The company thinks burglars are actually "shopping" for victims on social media sites, looking not only for an indication you're not at home, but also photos of your home and valuables. That cute picture of your son hugging the dog? A burglar is looking in the background, eyeing your big-screen TV and new stereo system.

And it's not just adults. Teenagers are even more likely to post personal information, so Legal & General has warned that parents who aren't even online themselves could face higher homeowner's insurance premiums if their children are online.

So, a month after I post, others catch on, welcome to the party, Pal

Even though I have a overlapping video system with my next door neighbors, a alarm system, Two big dogs and a neighbor on one side who's a Reserve police officer and has a home office where he works that overlooks my house and on the other side is a just retired Navy DEVGRP 20 year man who has nothing better to do than sit on his back porch and shoot guns most of the day (and night, for the past damn week!) I still want to keep the good stuff locked up.

I hate that when I want to review a gun or get ready to go to a gun match or a airsoft game that I have to lay in another 40 mins to go by and pick up what I need, but I would hate to have a shootout at my house or even worse  to come home and find what I had worked 40 years for ransacked and off at some pawn shop.

My stuff is pretty safe and yes, I have gone overboard but it gives me piece of mind that I have done all I can, if I get hit now, that's what insurance is for.

Just some random thoughts that came into my head and I wanted to share them, and because I am old and it's my Blog, I did, Nah nah neey po po

I am losing it

Please share your thoughts on this in the comments.

See you tomorrow

Till then, Check 6

SHOT Show 2011

RECAP

Ok, so it seems like this year was the best for SHOT show coverage by the Airsoft media.

You can find extensive reports all over the web,

information and pictures that even on my best day I could not have achieved.

Check out Thumpys site for some great video.

http://thumpmaster6.wordpress.com/

I got to meet a lot of the guys in the new airsoft world, Tim from Airsoft GI, the coolest media guys in the podcast market (of course I am talking about Airsoftolgy),

Dr Airsoft and many more than I can name.

(give me a break, there was free Budweiser in the Media room!)

It is always great to see old faces too, Wallace and Andy from Ares and Pantac respectively, Alex from NAM magazine, John Steele with CyberGun, Sam from X Caliber Tactical and many others.

After so many years in the Firearms and Tactical field, SHOT show is like old home week, a 20 minute trip away from the booth can turn into 2 hours if you try and catch up with everyone you run into.

The trip out was better than I hoped for, of course any time you put me in an airline seat it is like trying to stuff 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag, but I made it.

 

Got to stay at my favorite hotel in LV, the Treasure Island.

Not the most flashy, but it's right across from the show and you don't have to walk a mile to get to your room.

Rooms were great, clean, beds did what they were supposed to and the shower was hot.

I don't ask for much.

I did find that on Tuesday night my room had a infestation.

 

Let set up this story,

Here is the backstory from a blog post years ago

Everyone asks, what's with the Flying Monkeys 

Why I carry a gun

Ok, everyone always asks, " so, why do you feel the need to carry a gun with you?"
After they get up off the ground, after falling there from the head smack I gave them, I tell them, "it is because I read the newspaper every day.'

 But............ That is not the whole truth
Now, here is the the real truth, you ready

Flying Monkeys,
that's right, I saw the Wizard of OZ when I was very young and saw what those Godd#$@! things can do, they are hideous, and real damn scary.

So that's it, I carry a gun because of those Flying Fuc%&!# Monkeys. ( FFM's for short)
I also carry a backup gun, just in case I get some monkey juice on my primary one.

 

Ok, so the guys I have run the shows with over the years always seem to have found humor in this, 

I get stuffed FFM's, plastic FFM's and such whenever we cross each others path at a show.

 

So, Tuesday night I celebrated my 50th birthday, 

small group at the TI, lots of fun.

 

As the evening wore down my great pal Doug announced he was heading to the room we shared to grab some shuteye.

 

About an hour later Co-conspirator Sam asked if he could retrieve a bag he had left in my room.

 

Not wanting to leave, but knowing that after 10 beers that were bought for me I should, 8 or 10 of us trucked up to the 30th floor to get said bag.

 

When I reached the door, I noticed in in my inebriated state that it was cracked open. 

 

Now I have traveled with Doug before, He stayed unshot as a cop for 24 years and a more ardent disciple of Jeff Cooper and Massad Ayoob you will not find.

 

So I knew something was up!

As I carefully pressed the door open,

my hand on the strong side carry holster thumbreak that I wasn't wearing, 

out of the door boiled this frighting visage that proceed to chase me down the hall,

 Re-staged for the photos, when it happened my drunk ass was stumble running backwards tactically moving rearward to a more advantageous position down the hall.

 Notice lack of bullet holes, 

they knew I flew in and the J Frame I shipped ahead was in the room,

 as I don't "drink and carry".. 

The wings were molting also.

I have seen it all now, a Tactical FFM!!!!!!!

The amount of work Sam and Doug went though to pull this off, getting in early to find the costume and rent it, clearing with TI security on their VIP floor so that the SWAT team and a zoo recovery unit were not dispatched, warms my heart. 

It is great to have good friends.

Of course I was not thinking those thoughts as I was laying on the floor in the hall having a massive stroke, but they did come later.

So, That's my story from Tuesday night, come back tomorrow and I will have some pics from the show.

Till Tomorrow,

stay thirsty my friends