Outside of gun collectors and history nerds, few people could positively identify the make and model of a random 130-year-old gun from just one photo. That’s not the case with the M91/38 Carcano rifle. Hundreds of thousands of people who ...
Americana
Memorial Day Is a Time of Remembrance, Not Celebration
For too many Americans, Memorial Day is little more than a three-day weekend, a holiday in May marking the unofficial beginning of summer. The long weekend is filled with pool parties, first-of-the-year barbecues, and, of course, retail bargains. ...
Frank Hamer: The Toughest Texas Ranger Who Ever Lived
It’s been almost 90 years since the infamous duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were gunned down following their 21-month crime spree that included 13 murders and multiple bank robberies. While Bonnie and Clyde remain household names, few people ...
Cormac McCarthy, Creator of the Anti-Western Novel, Dies at 89
The novel Blood Meridian can simply never be made into a movie. It’s cursed. Adaptation attempts have all failed for 40 years, and now, while in the midst of working on the script for an upcoming film version of what many consider his most violently ...
Rough Riders: Roosevelt’s Wildly Rugged Volunteer Heroes
Generations of American schoolchildren have learned about Theodore Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders as they charged to victory up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. The mental images of Roosevelt hooting and hollering his way up that ...
The True Story Behind ‘Jeremiah Johnson’: What We Know (and Don’t)
When the American Frontier was alive, and still a drawing force compelling folks to head West for fortune and glory, the lives of famous gunfighters and personalities that inhabited the fringe of civilization were often greatly exaggerated. Men like ...
Prohibition Bootleggers: Deer Hoof Shoes and Pig Carcasses
Two decades into the 1900s, as the nation slid headlong into the Great Depression, a growing movement of temperance gained enough to change the U.S. Constitution. It was amended to outlaw the “demon rum,” a substance that a vocal segment of the ...
The Continental Army’s Worst Winter Gave Us Saint Patrick’s Day
Every year on March 17, the beer and whiskey flow, corned beef and cabbage hit family dinner tables, and the White House fountain and Chicago River turn emerald green for a day. Saint Patrick’s Day is traditionally the Roman Catholic feast day of St. ...
Cruise Custom Flags: Stars and Stripes from Bourbon Barrels
When Army veteran Chris Cruise left the service in 2006, he took up woodworking as a way to channel his energy and keep busy. He viewed it as a form of therapy because he could be productive and relax simultaneously. But when he was laid off ...
How NASCAR Was Born of Bootlegging and Daredevils
This weekend, nearly 9 million Americans will cheer their way through the “Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing” — the iconic Daytona 500. The most popular and prestigious race on the NASCAR schedule, the Daytona 500, which has roots in bootlegging, kicks ...
Did the American Shad Save George Washington’s Colonial Army?
Shad often lose the freshwater spotlight to trout, salmon, and largemouth bass, but there is no fish more American than the humble shad. The American shad (and its hickory and gizzard shad cousins) have long played a vital role in American ...
The Valentine’s Day Massacre Tommy Guns and Birth of the NFA
A shocking burst of full-auto gangland payback in 1929 that left seven bloody, bullet-ridden bodies on a garage floor was the Parkland Shooting of its day. The now infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was a horrendous display of violence that the ...
History of American Football: You Can Thank T.R. for the NFL
Teddy Roosevelt: 26th president, legendary hunter and conservationist, overall badass, and — the reason we have the NFL as we know it? Believe it or not, among his many accomplishments and badass undertakings, Roosevelt helped shape the history of ...
Live With Courage, Keep Your Word: The Code of the West
In the lawless days of the Old West, men who worked the rough pioneer towns and frontier ranches developed a straightforward, effective way to keep themselves in line. They didn’t give it a name then, but decades later, others did. They called it The ...
Black Rifle Coffee Invades the 2023 SHOT Show!
The spirit of the Second Amendment and a love of the outdoors make up the Black Rifle Coffee Company DNA. So it makes perfect sense that America’s coffee should be front and center where the entire hunting and shooting community gathers in one place ...
BRCC’s Teddy Roosevelt Tribute Roast: The Artist Behind the Bag
Theodore Roosevelt is one of those historical characters who is almost too big, too badass to have been real. Usually, you find out someone’s reputation outshines their real exploits — it’s mostly tall tales and historical embellishments. But T.R. ...
Why Theodore Roosevelt Was the Most Badass President Ever
Theodore Roosevelt faced life enthusiastically, and his go-get-em, never-back-down attitude took him from the New York legislature charging through the battlefields of the Spanish-American War and eventually into the White House. People may ...
Roosevelt’s Rough Riders Era Custom S&W Sells for $910K
Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders Era1898 Smith & Wesson New Model No. 3 belonging to Theodore Roosevelt just sold on the auction block, fetching an impressive $910,625. The sale was conducted by Rock Island Auction Company this week. This isn’t ...
How George Washington Used Thanksgiving to Unite Our Country
On Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, George Washington woke early. Assisted by his enslaved valets — William “Billy” Lee and the young Christopher Sheels — he powdered his hair, put on his favorite black velvet suit, tied his white neckwear, and donned his ...
Giving Back: BRCC Fund is Changing Lives and Saving Lives
Sometimes, it’s a large charitable gesture of kindness that forever changes the course of a life — or many lives. Other times, it’s a single small act of compassion that burns the brightest. For the leadership behind Black Rifle Coffee Company’s ...
Creepy Things Hunters Have Seen in the Woods
Hunters spend a lot of time in the woods. Most of us can move through the outdoors with a sense of confidence built through an intimate familiarity with nature. The fact that we’re often toting weapons also helps mitigate the fear factor nonhunters ...
Headless Horseman: The Origins of an American Ghost Story
As the weather cools, the days shorten, and copious amounts of disgusting candy corn hit the grocery store shelves, it’s time to pull out the creepiest stories we can muster. One that makes the rounds every spooky season is the tale of everyone’s ...
American Monsters: 5 Terrifying, US-Made Original Horrors
You’re alone on a country road covered in fog with no phone and no gun. The piercing cry of something — not animal, not human — sounds in the distant darkness. A chill runs through your veins as your mind conjures up images of cursed forest-dwelling ...
Roosevelt’s Legendary Double Rifle, the ‘Big Stick,’ Up Close
Theodore Roosevelt, Holland & Holland, and Africa: a hunter, a gun, and a location that should send a little shiver of excitement and yearning up the back of every hunter. It’s a trifecta that speaks of a bygone era that many hunters aspire to ...
Birth Control for Wild Horses: Drama in the American West
The drama of wild horses and burros in the American West is playing out like a Shakespeare tragedy. As drought continues to plague the region, the animals, whose populations are growing, must roam farther and farther in search of water while ...
How John B. Stetson Gave America the ‘Cowboy Hat’
If there is one item of clothing that carries the full weight of American culture, it has to be the cowboy hat. Instantly recognizable the whole world over, this iconic piece of headgear has become a long-standing symbol of adventure, hard work, ...
Billionaire in Taiwan Tells China to F*ck Off, Starts Own CMP
A retired Taiwanese tech billionaire is personally funding a civilian marksmanship program called the Black Bear Academy. Its purpose? Fighting a potential Chinese invasion of the island nation that is striving for sovereignty. Under Robert Tsao’s ...
The Hard Working Americans who Keep our Country Running
The machinery of infrastructure and life that is the United States is massive and complex. It has been kept running for the past two centuries by hard working, blue-collar Americans. These men and women do the most difficult, dangerous, unglamorous, ...
Teddy Roosevelt Ran a Suppressor on Three of His Hunting Rifles
The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, liked guns, and he liked to shoot. He famously quipped: “I don’t know how to shoot well, but I know how to shoot often.” The architect of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation ...
Ohio Man Shoots Bald Eagle, Tosses Away Dead Body
An Ohio man has confessed to shooting a bald eagle and then tossing its dead body into the tree line of a neighboring farm. On Tuesday, June 21, David B. Huff, 79, of Dover, pleaded guilty before US Magistrate Judge Carmen E. Henderson in ...
