2019, and much of 2020, were quite busy times for researching firearms-related things, but November and December 2020, and now, January 2021, have been quiet, in that regard. Maybe it is research fatigue, or maybe a realization that early 2022, when my buying power will be reduced, is only a year away. (I will have to start paying the retiree health insurance rate at the end of January 2022, and, my bi-weekly pay-out of unused leave, which I have been receiving at half-pay level, will end soon afterward.) I can see myself shifting attention more to historic firearms, and more to traveling to see them in museums, and visiting sites where they were used, than in owning them.
The research into things AR15, especially upper receiver/barrel-related, in 2020, was intense. My mind is now numb, on that subject, and my bank account very much the worse for wear. And, yes, I now wonder whether it was worth the trouble.
My most-recent firearm acquisition was trading two disused G19 Glocks, for older technology, a pre-owned, well-preserved S&W Model 64-4 snub-gun. I had been looking for nice K-Frame snub-guns, the past couple of years, but that was not based upon technical research, but simply a result of phasing-out compact Nines, which now vex my aging hands. (The effects of shooting too many Magnums, in the Eighties, started coming home to roost in 2011, as I started my fifties.)