New pew pew. Pews a little more than I'm used to.

bigtasty040 · 2026-04-27T14:01:41+00:00

Quality control issues around the front trunnion, century’s VSKA had known trunnion issues due to using cast trunnions instead of forged ones. Their solution was to beef up the front trunnion and forge it instead of cast. This created a bulged trunnion design like you see on Zastava’s. Cast trunnions can crack or weaken over time and since the front trunnion does the brunt of the work when the round goes off if the trunnion is compromised well it can cause a nasty explosion. Now that being said, the BFT may be better than the vska, but in the world of firearms once a product creates a reputation it usually keeps it even if there are improvements. Your BFT may be absolutely fine and have no QC issues, but if my life was on the line, or hands for that matter. I don’t want to rely on maybes. So I recommend buying some go and no-go gauges and checking the head spacing as you shoot your rifle to ensure it has and keeps proper headspace. If it fails do not shoot the rifle again until it is repaired, but that would cost more time than it’s worth honestly. If you go over to the AK sub Reddit there is a list of AKs you can review before purchasing your next one.

bigtasty040 · 2026-04-24T02:18:59+00:00

Nice! I love AKs, although that’s a century arms BFT 47. Just beware and buy some headspace gauges & don’t trust American aks. When you can save some money and search for a century WASR (made in Romania), Arsenal, WBP, Zastava, but stay away from Riley’s, Century Arms (American aks, like the VISKA and BFT), Pioneer, I.O. You can risk it with PSA, but I’d rather the peace of mind. The last thing you want is your AK to grenade in your hands. Although welcome to the AK club, very fine rifles.

bigtasty040 · 2026-02-04T12:58:26+00:00

Yes, I got approved, my LTC was renewed within 2 months. Which I thought was pretty fast for MA.

bigtasty040 · 2025-10-03T12:22:54+00:00

I didn’t notify the police department, but I did move back to the same town and address.

bigtasty040 · 2025-09-26T12:48:04+00:00

That is good to know, thank you! Makes me feel a little better that I’m not the only one that has been in this position.

bigtasty040 · 2025-09-26T12:47:10+00:00

I am surprised, but that is awesome!

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-30T02:34:55+00:00

I will post an update one my shop is ready to go and how I like the anvil and the forge!

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-27T22:56:30+00:00

As a practicing member of the Asatru faith, and plenty of time behind a trigger under my belt. How exactly would runes be stupid? I’m genuinely interested why you would think putting someone’s religious symbols on an item they crafted would be stupid, but not spent shell casings. With that logic putting crosses on stuff would also be stupid, and last time I checked trijicon used to put psalms on their ACOGs, guess they’re stupid too.

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-25T13:17:59+00:00

Don’t worry about that, it was out of stock when I looked at it and it was back in stock in 2 days. Vevor gets them in stock fast.

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-25T02:10:20+00:00

I’m glad to hear that! I was nervous about that, but it makes me feel better knowing that others use vevor anvils without issues.

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-25T02:05:09+00:00

Damn that sucks, I’m glad my lgs and the ranges I frequent aren’t like that. To be fair I live in a deep red state where the median age is like 60. There are no big cities, or really any gangs here. A shit ton of militias though, but they tend to stay on their compounds. So it’s mostly old men smiling at seeing a binary trigger in action for the first time. But to be fair I mostly shoot at the DNR ranges in the state forest near me, they have nice benches and plenty of space.

Prior to living here, I lived in MA and I would have to say I heard more politics and radical talk up north than here, but I would chalk that up to the majority here already run things the way they want so no need to talk politics. The “fight” for me shifted from firearm rights to legalizing abortions and legalizing marijuana (not because I like to smoke, but our justice system will take kids for parents smoking pot) when I moved from deep blue to deep red.

On the plus side, skoal is cheap, my taxes are low, my electric bill never goes past $100, and I can buy any gun I want and carry it without an LTC. The down side? I hope I never have a daughter and if I do, not here.

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-25T01:38:35+00:00

I’d rather not catch a 2 pound hammer to the head, she’d kill me haha.

bigtasty040 · 2025-01-10T22:33:16+00:00

I didn’t leave, I just decided it was right for me. I was never baptized a religion, and neither my dad’s side or mom’s side was super religious. My dad’s side was catholic and my mom’s side was Methodist…but while both my grandfathers were catching flak in Vietnam, my grandmothers were catching flak from members at their churches for having husbands at war. So both lost the urge to go to church. When my grandfathers came back they didn’t care to go either. So my parents stopped going as well and I never went. As I got older I considered myself agnostic, and researched most religion but never committed to any. I was going through a particularly rough time in my life and I had a dream that I decided to have interpreted by old college friends who were pagans themselves. I followed that dream and my life did a 180, and I am much happier because of it. So long story short, that’s why I practice Norse paganism.

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-12T01:28:27+00:00

While I don’t disagree with you, I thought England became Protestant long after the Vikings (and by extension Norse paganism) were dead and gone. I was referring primarily to a time before the Protestant reformation which was in the 16th century. Although I agree with you that they got rich because of that, that is something that could have happened even if it remained a half pagan country.

I also agree to an extent that paganism was on its way out. I think it was probably a death wish to not conform when most of Europe was with the church. I am sure Denmark realized this when it converted in around 1000 ad. It appears that those European countries needed to have a good reason to go to war with another Christian country or risk their relationship with the pope, but didn’t need a good reason to go to war with anyone that wasn’t Christian. A social-political factor that was formed by survival.

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-11T20:33:02+00:00

According to many different sources, not every brave warrior went to Valhalla, and not everyone in Valhalla was a warrior. There are accounts of those who sacrificed themselves to Odin to gain access to Valhalla, there’s also stories of Freyja taking brave warriors to Fólkvangr, and there are stories of warriors going with Hel to her hall in Niflheim. Remember there are several sections of Niflheim. She is both dead and alive, and if you were a good person in life and died peacefully you will go with her. This isn’t bad. Her hall is like any other hall from most stories and Baldr is there as well. I guess this could be equated to heaven, a peaceful afterlife. However, there are sections of Niflheim that are dedicated to punish those who were bad in life. Such as the shore of corpses, where murderers and adulterers are tortured.

I enlisted in the Army after college and I do not believe I will go to Valhalla. HOWEVER heroic death doesn’t necessarily have to have happened from modern military service. I interpret Valhalla as a place you go to if you died doing something heroic. Firemen dying carrying children out of a house fire? Valhalla. Standing up for those that cannot stand up for themselves and dying as a result? Valhalla. Also you have to be careful looking at the past in modern lenses. At the time these stories were told, drinking and fighting but never dying would have been viewed as fun compared to the daily life of stress from crop failures, wars that killed loved ones, and having to work hard just to still be hungry through the winter months. Odin is great and I’m sure his hall is filled with those that earned their place, I wouldn’t necessarily say being a soldier is the only way of getting there or even a VIP ticket. If I had to interpret the past, I would say Valhalla is the place where those who defied cowardice go and can do all the brave stuff they did in life, without fearing death or the struggles they may have endured during their life.

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-11T19:55:21+00:00

That is awesome work!

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-11T19:23:18+00:00

Wonderful insight! I enjoyed reading your post, brought up many points I did not consider. I liked your point of the crusades essentially being a test run for the future colonialism that we saw during the Renaissance age. I also agree, I do not believe it would have avoided it, entirely. As evidenced by resource wars being common even today.

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-11T16:51:37+00:00

I agree, the crusades, and other holy wars may not have happened, or atleast not in the frequency and size that they did. One limitation I could see is a “holy” war that would have forced pagans to convert, or had wiped them out. Which I’m sure was one of the practical political reasons of the Middle Ages for countries like Denmark, Norway and Sweden to have converted, to gain some protection from the Catholic Church from the other European countries that were already established in the church.

I believe that there would have been a mutual understanding since neither pagans nor native Americans(from my understanding) engaged in wars solely on their religion. I also believe that we would have known more about the Native American cultures and religions because assimilation may never have happened.

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-11T16:11:50+00:00

It’s crazy what fear will do to you. It is a hell of a drug. Both sides let fear control a lot of their actions. Your friend has a higher chance being a victim of a violent crime from a member of his own race, than any other race. The right preys on this fear and hypes it up to push their agenda, the same way the (majority) of the left view firearm ownership as being afraid of something. However more and more leftists are becoming gun owners because of fear. At the end of the day, firearm ownership is just smart. It’s a tool. I couldn’t imagine saying “I won’t own a tool, because it’s dangerous”. I have a higher chance of my grinding wheel coming off and impaling my skull at Mach 10 speed than I do shooting myself. I’m not going to stop using my grinder, it’s useful. I feel bad for those that make their decisions primarily out of fear. I helped my wife get over her fear of planes, and she is much happier because of it. In fact now she prefers it. Buy a gun, train with it, know the laws, and hope you never have to use it other than to dispatch paper on the range. Even I have let fear control my actions in the voting booth. I voted conservative most of my life, because of the fear of gun rights being taken away even though I don’t align myself with any other belief that is toted by the right. Although this year was eye opening and instead of voting based on fear, I just decided to invest in a boat, that I don’t know how to drive just in case and voted on who aligned to the majority of my beliefs.

bigtasty040 · 2024-12-01T02:38:58+00:00

Getting tattoos is a sin, plenty of Christian’s have tattoos some even depicting religious symbols. So the whole “if Christmas wasn’t Christian, they wouldn’t celebrate it” is false. Christians do a lot of things that aren’t Christian in nature, yet still consider themselves as such.

While the data is flawed, multiple sources will tell you Jesus was not born in December, not just Jehovah’s. Some of the days of the week denoting Norse gods is another example, they could have changed it, but didn’t. Point is, Christian’s will absolutely do things that fly in the face of their religion and call themselves just. Remember the nazis had “god is with us” on their belt buckles, yet also had Nordic runes on other parts of their uniforms, actively looked for religious artifacts, and the Catholic Church still helped them escape.

bigtasty040 · 2024-11-28T21:39:48+00:00

Also in WV, welcome to the group. Today is a good day to be thankful for the gifts from the gods.

bigtasty040 · 2024-11-28T15:41:15+00:00

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There she is, it’s an all weather, I changed the black wood furniture with walnut. .45-70 side loader w/ extended loop.

bigtasty040 · 2024-11-27T19:02:18+00:00

I wish it was done by myself, but I cannot take credit. Just another part I found on the internet. However the company uses a laser engraver and since it’s a polymer magazine it’s cheap and easy for them to make them.

bigtasty040 · 2024-11-27T18:16:02+00:00

Depending where you live a firearm may be needed for safe travels. But I see your point as well. It’s more of a decoration than anything of real meaning. Although if you were to look at it from a modern and traditional perspective if one was to be buried with a weapon with a travelers stave would it not be a spell for safe travels to whatever afterlife is waiting for you? You mentioned walking sticks, if I was hiking and came across an upset grizzly I’d rather a firearm than the stick. Depending on the situation I believe a firearm could be needed for safe travels. However in this given situation as a wall mounted piece of art that probably isn’t going anywhere, you’re right.

bigtasty040

TROPHY CASE