Coins at the Gun Show

I headed out this morning to the February 2011 edition of the Tanner Gun Show up in Denver. I had a great day walking around checking out all the guns, swords, knives, militaria... and yes, even coins!

I spied quite a few vendors there selling coins and many were also looking to buy gold and silver at the mornings opening spot price, forseeing the impending rise in the metal markets.

I'm not a coin collector, or collector of currency really at all (though I do have my stash of foreign and domestic coins I've gathered), but I can appreciate the artistry and the historical significance of the coins and just overall really love looking at them.

Lastly... who goes to a gun show and doesn't buy... a gun!? I had one in mind before going. The local gun shop down the street from my house wanted nearly the $900 MSRP for this beauty. The first vendor at the show I saw ith it wouldnt go lower than $650 + tax. I ended up finding it for $599 out the door from another vendor. Gotta love it. I took the pic above myself. It's a Taurus PT-1911 AR .45 ACP. The military patches are my unit patch from the up in CT, the 94th RRC (Regional Readiness Command), and then my "war" patch, the 377th TSC (Theater Support Command).

St. Augustine Divers MD For Evidence

"...

Divers said the pond was at least 40 feet deep and were seen repeatedly clearing long green weeds off the tether rope as well as a metal detector being used to search for more weapons. The search was continuing Tuesday afternoon in the same section of the pond.

The Jacksonville and St. Johns County Sheriff's Offices would only confirm they were helping in a joint investigation."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Bob Self/Morris News Service

Skunked at Silver Site, But Still Goodies

Around lunch time today I headed back over to the lots off of Witchduck Rd. Thankfully, the old houses that stood here not too long ago are still visible in Google Maps, so you can get the orientations of where driveways and yards were to get a good feel for the hunt. Not only that, but I used a great website (www.zillow.com) to aid in my research. Zillow allows you to pull up an address and get lots of info on it, including square feet, lot size, bed/baths, how much it last sold for, what it's estimated market price is currently, and most importantly, the date in which the house was built! I noticed a few early '50s lots at the corner of Amberly, so that's where I decided to spend the next couple hours.

Wouldn't you know, I found nothing. Not even a single modern clad coin! I found some big trashy items scattered about, but nothing worth my time there that day. I don't think I've had a completely skunked day like this in a long time. It was sort of depressing.

On the way out, I drove past my local gun shop, The Armory. I usually buy ammo from the spot, but had never actually purchased any of my weapons here. Today that would change. About a year ago I stopped in and they had M4/A3 style AR-15's for between $550-$700, a sweet price range. Sadly, deals like that did not exist on this trip. But I did manage to pick up what I wanted, a Rock River Arms (RRA) LAR-15 with a 2-stage match trigger and Tactical Rail/Handle. I got it in a .223, mostly because it's the same as my M16 from the Army days, and it's relatively cheap to shoot compared to a .308, actually 5x cheaper. While in there I saw something else that had caught my eye, and felt I just had to have. It looked like a miniature mash-up between a AR lower and an AK upper... and in reality, that's what it was. They had one bored in .223, but this thing was a "pistol", and that seemed a little much so I picked it up for $200 cheaper in a .22LR. It's a Kel-Tec PLR-22. It used a modified AR clip and holds 27 rounds, which is pretty sweet. And being a .22LR, the rounds are like a penny a piece, so it's going to be really fun to shoot.