First, I spent two hours tracking down and eliminating some malware that may have come in with "Mafia Wars". Scan your computer for SVRWSC.EXE. My Comodo firewall and anti-virus let it in, but when it tried to run, I got cryptic error messages from Comodo. I think I'll go back to the MS firewall and Symantec antivirus tomorrow.
Then I heard some sort of nasty-sounding animal screaming outside. It must have been several houses away, and sounded like a tiger coughing up a hairball. Sort a combination of a scream and a cough.
It's 4AM, no other houses are lit up, and nobody's yippy little dogs are yipping.
Being an unusual situation, I stuffed my Sig P220 in my belt, and got my flashlight. I walked onto the driveway, and didn't see or hear anything. I lit up under bushes and cars, being careful not to shine a light into anyone's window. Then I shined the light between two houses across the street, and got a really loud scream-and-cough in response.
It seems there were two of these things, several houses apart, screaming back and forth. Neither one changed location, and neither one came into my view (thankfully), but I was still puzzled because no people or dogs were disturbed by all of this. I gave up, and went inside. The "serenade" is still going on. All I can think of is two male somethings trash-talking each other to stake out mating territory. We certainly have deer here, but if this is the start of rutting season, they've always had the decency to take it somewhere else.
I've decided I'm saving my handgun for daylight hours. If I have to investigate at night, I'll take my AR57 with 50 rounds of the 19gr hollowpoints. Devastating on tissue, low barrier penetration. And an Eotech sight, which still beats the tritium sights on the Sig. No handgun I use for defensive purposes will be without Trijicon sights.
With those stories behind us, here is the completion of my M4Economy. Still needs sighting in, but it's now fully kitted out as a low(er) cost but effective weapon.
Aside from the magazine latch and bolt hold-open, I had every last little part on hand, scattered in various places. I decided to "splurge" by using my last remaining Magpul MOE pistol grip rather than the GI torture grip. And one Eotech sight that was replaced by something else. Plus a few luxury items like the backup rear sight, Smith Enterprises flash hider,and front and rear aftermarket sling swivels. Leaving off the luxuries, I would have had a box-stock M-faux for about $20 in small parts.
As it is, I have a leet optical sight, comfy pistol grip, and a crisp six-pound trigger pull that I made myself out of careful honing and polishing.
This would have been state-of-the-art ten years ago, but I'm still vey happy with it. For one thing, I completed a whole weapon out of spare parts, excepting the upper and lower. For another, I now know I don't have enough decent parts to do it again. So at least I made one more very nice user-friendly rifle for myself, rather than letting that treasure trove of small-but-important (and sometimes pricey) parts go unused.