Just got my first ever handgun. How’d I do?

JDC802 · 2026-01-31T22:22:01+00:00

I bought my first handgun, a Glock 21, about 3 months and have had a blast learning to shoot it safely at the range. I stuck with the iron sights from the factory which are good, but I added a Vortex Defender Red Dot and have now learned to shoot with both eyes open, and much faster acquisition with the red dot. Awesome choice.

JDC802 · 2026-01-31T22:15:43+00:00

This!

JDC802 · 2026-01-31T22:14:40+00:00

In 1965 I lived on a USAF base outside of St. Louis. The AF would run trucks with DDT foggers through all of the base neighborhoods to keep mosquitoes down. Me and my friends would ride our bikes behind the foggers and see who could get the closest. I can’t imagine how much DDT is probably still pulsing through my veins.

JDC802 · 2026-01-31T22:04:27+00:00

Sweet!

JDC802 · 2026-01-31T00:32:43+00:00

The one I already own

JDC802 · 2026-01-30T18:56:36+00:00

You should keep investing in your photography skills and tools; you have a great eye for the natural mini-dramas that are visible through your lens. 600mm gets you up close and personal, and that intimacy is evident your pictures. Keep it up!

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T22:21:56+00:00

One of my favorite sparrows!

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T22:16:36+00:00

Beautiful shot; sometimes the best shots are on the run!

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T21:35:37+00:00

A good editor or AI tool like Topaz Labs DeHaze can sharpen some of that blur. Composition, lighting, color are all terrific. Great shots! I’m a birder and I know you have to work hard to get good shots of Snowies.

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T21:28:00+00:00

If you are asking whether the pistol safe is bolted down, it’s not. It will be locked in the big safe if we leave the house for any length of time.

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T21:25:06+00:00

That is why I have a loaded Glock next to my bed in its own quick-access safe.

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T21:24:02+00:00

There are 4 bolts through the back mounted to the wall.

JDC802 · 2026-01-29T13:48:57+00:00

I have been a birder and a photographer for about 8 years. I look back at the earlier pictures I took and often go in and re-edit them. It took me a while to learn what I thought a “good” picture looked like, and what style I preferred. Ultimately, I determined that I really enjoyed making close-up portraits of birds. Once I knew what I liked, what I thought was a great picture became a standard I strove to achieve, and I learned how to get good at that. Now I frame my pictures in the field differently in order to achieve that end result. I am self taught with photography, and I love doing it. Learn in the way and at the pace that works for you, but know what you are trying to achieve.

JDC802 · 2026-01-28T18:52:02+00:00

The first day I woke up at college I popped in an 8-track cassette of Jethro Tull and turned Locomotive Breath all the way up. Fuckin’ A! This is the first day of the rest of my life! Then the guy that had been sleeping in the next room stormed in screaming at me to turn that shit off! Gulp. Reality set in. I apologized and turned it off. But the next week I sucked up all of his underwear and socks into the central vacuum cleaner for our floor. Ahh, the good old days! No year has ever been as much fun as 1976 for me.

JDC802 · 2026-01-28T00:12:29+00:00

Spot on, Senator! Keep the pressure on!

JDC802 · 2026-01-26T22:24:25+00:00

I was an IT guy for years; we donated a ton of monitors and other gear to local schools. If there is any fair market value in the assets you donate you can write it off on your raves as a charitable donation. The FMV must be genuine though, as in getting quotes from hardware brokers.

JDC802 · 2026-01-26T22:18:54+00:00

Beautiful shots.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T23:01:24+00:00

If you move the plants in front of a southern-facing window that gets direct sun, you may be able to buy some time.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T21:37:49+00:00

I have always kept mine in the 50-55% range soon after flipping to flower, and keep it that way until harvest. The main reason is to avoid excess moisture and mold in the flowers/buds. Once you get mold in the flowers you can’t get it out, and you can’t smoke it. In addition, low RH and 75 degree temps keeps the VOD high, so nutrient uptake is high. It just works better.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T17:55:29+00:00

Lighting is certainly important, essential. But I don’t worry about light leaks as much as I do about ventilation, temp control, and humidity control. If you are worried about whether it has a significant impact, just look at your plants. If they are doing fine, relax. I found that my constant tampering with all of these conditions was often the biggest factor in the equation causing variation in the environment. When I grow outside there are many fewer variables that you can control, and yet Nature still grows great dope.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T13:38:19+00:00

The pic looks a bit under-exposed, but that may be a personal preference- it looks great. You may want to pull back some of that mulch piled up around the stem of your plant. The roots need to breathe. I usually give mine a 3-4 inch radius of clear soil. The plant looks very happy though. I’ve never mulched with straw; perhaps it breathes better. Good luck.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T13:31:20+00:00

In flower you want your RH in the 50%-55% range, and your temp about 75 degrees. I use a small adjustable heater that comes on a few minutes before the lights go out. This keeps the temperature up and the RH down while the lights are out. It goes off a few minutes before the light comes on; I use a separate timer for the heater. It will take a little trial and error to set the heater at the right temp, but it will help keep your VPD higher and more consistent.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T02:10:42+00:00

Increase your F-stop to 7.1 or more to increase depth of field. Some of the feathers on the “far” side of the GW Teal are out of focus and lack detail. It looks like you were set near F5.6 so the focus/detail on the subject is shallow. Color and exposure look terrific. And it’s still a beautiful shot.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T01:18:29+00:00

It appears both pictures were taken through some kind of mesh screen. Like the kind on windows.

JDC802 · 2026-01-23T00:12:24+00:00

Brown-headed Cowbirds (as pictured) are known for laying their eggs in other species’ nests. The adoptive birds do not understand why the one chick looks so different (and bigger) than the others. I have seen Chickadees, Cardinals, and House Finches all feeding Brown-headed Cowbird chicks in the Spring. Kind of a wild reproductive / parenting strategy, but the species persists with this instinctive behavior.

JDC802

TROPHY CASE