So you bought a shotgun and took it hunting. Hunting turns out to be a lot of fun, but it would be even more fun if you didn’t suck at shooting. Or maybe you’re streaming Olympic trap or skeet, can’t get enough, want to learn how to shoot, and don’t ...
Gear
Ammunition Update: How the National Ammunition Shortage Is Going
Among avid shooters, the alphanumeric monikers of popular calibers — 9 mm, .45 Auto, .223, 5.56 NATO — may as well read like ticker symbols on a surging New York Stock Exchange. Those holding ammunition are all smiles, while the have-nots feel ...
A Positive Upshot of the Ammo Crisis? Conservation Funding is at an All-Time High
If you’ve tried to buy a box of factory ammo in the past six months or even components like powder or bullets for handloading, you’ve undoubtedly encountered bare shelves and strict quantity limitations on whatever happens to still be available. For ...
Old Ammo Found in Sunken Smuggler’s Boat, Internet Goes Wild
What would you do with 1,800 rounds of waterlogged .30 Carbine ammo if it washed up at your feet? These days, more than a few people who would take it to the range and see what happened, even if the crusty rounds were found in the remains of a ...
10 Knives That Would Make Crocodile Dundee Proud
“That’s not a knife …” In 1986, Paul Hogan (no kin to Hulk Hogan) uttered quite possibly the most famous quote in the entire knife industry. Indeed, Crocodile Dundee was a man’s man (who was manlier than most men). From the Australian Outback, Mr. ...
Guns and Ammo Get a Little Cheaper in West Virginia
About a year ago, rumors swirled about a bill introduced to the House that proposed a 30% federal tax on guns and 50% tax on ammo. During the 2020 presidential campaign, it was also suggested that then-candidate Joe Biden favored a $200 tax on ...
9 Sleeper Gun Control Stories — and All the Damn Rhetoric — That Shooters, Hunters, and 2nd Amendment Advocates Need To Know
During an October 2019 presidential debate, then-Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke advocated for a federal semi-automatic rifle “buyback” program that sounded to many Second Amendment advocates — and conservative voters — like wholesale ...
NSSF Releases Data on Highest-Selling Guns of the Pandemic
When COVID-19 reared its ugly head in March 2020, it had a pretty profound effect on the gun industry. We immediately named it “Gun Salesman of the Year” as gun sales surged. The FBI reports a 24.7 percent year-over-year increase in NICS checks for ...
Ammo Famine: How the Current Shortage Started and When It Will End
Ammo has become both scarce and very expensive over the last year. But how did our current ammo famine start? And, more importantly, when we will again be able to buy all the ammunition and components we want at a reasonable price again? As I ...
Understanding Blades: Pros and Cons of Various Knife Steels and How To Choose the Best One for You
Choosing a knife steel is one of those things that if you go down that rabbit hole and get super into it, you're certain to form bizarrely strong opinions and develop weird loyalty for certain alloys. A lot of people fumble around with different ...
The New ATF Worksheet on Pistol Braces and SBRs: What You Need To Know
Pistol braces are back in the ATF's crosshairs. After a bizarre series of events in fall 2020 involving a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) order to cease and desist production of the Q Honey Badger AR pistol and the ...
Father’s Day Guide: 8 Rad Gifts for the Adventure Dad in Your Life
I used to think Father’s Day was a made-up, Hallmark holiday designed to separate an unwitting American public from their hard-earned capital. Then I became a dad and understood the true meaning of Father's Day: breakfast in bed, compliments all day ...
Straight Razor 101: Everything You Need to Know About Vintage Razors
Alfred Einstein once said he often got his best ideas while shaving. Whether a Nobel Prize winner or just a regular Joe, using an old-fashioned straight razor offers some extra time to ponder the world or even an excellent idea of your own. Men ...
Starter Kit: Build a Backyard 3D Bowhunting Range
Smacking a bag target, arrow after arrow, is hardly good bowhunting practice. Often, it’s done in the wide open and on flat ground in pleasant weather. Plus, the bull’s-eye is blatantly obvious. Anyone who can hold a bow with minimal training can ...
Seeing in Animal Vision: The John Barklow Approach to Camouflage
John Barklow is a retired Navy diver with more than 20 years of experience operating the cold-weather training facility for Naval Special Warfare in Kodiak, Alaska. Barklow also is an accomplished big-game hunter and product manager for Sitka’s Big ...
Starter Kit: Build Your Own Home Bow Shop With 8 Must-Have Tools
A loud bugle pierced the mountain air and woke me like a double-shot espresso. The bull was on a mission to confront another bull bugling in the background. I nocked an arrow and assumed the position as he appeared about 70 yards out from the timber. ...
Why the Pipe Tomahawk Is Still One of the Coolest Weapons Ever
This might come as a surprise, but the amazing pipe tomahawk in these photos isn’t from a museum collection. It also wasn’t made 255 years ago. It was made this year, exactly like it would have been made 255 years ago, by three artists in ...
This is How Firearm Suppressors Work
All firearm suppressors work the same way. When a trigger is pulled and the striker ignites a primer and sends a bullet down a firearm barrel, it’s trailed by hot and expanding gases from the combustion of primer and powder. Suppressors collect, ...
Understanding Knives: Blade Shapes
Cutting implements were among the first tools human beings ever created. Throughout history, we’ve created an impressive number of blade shapes fashioned from bone, stone, and steel. A whole lot of blade shapes have been created over the past few ...
4 Tips for Choosing the Right Road Running Shoe
Whether you prefer the urban hustle, quiet country roads, or well-heeled suburbia between the two, running can be an enjoyable, long-term exercise regimen and not the painful grind so many people perceive it to be. The key is finding the right ...
What You Need to Know About Fishing Kayaks
Kayaks make an ordinary angler a fishing ninja. They’re stealthy. They can get into target-rich skinny water that a larger boat can’t reach and would be impossible to wade, and they hold all the gear you’ll need for a day on the water or a multiday ...
How to Choose the Right Trail Running Shoe
Rolling uphills and downhills. Rocks, tree roots, and muddy stretches. Creek bed crossings. Brush-lined, single-track paths. Tall grass, slippery leaves, and steep switchbacks. At first glance, trail running can seem intimidating. The truth is, not ...
Camp Stoves 101: Understanding and Choosing the Right Cooker
There is nothing better than cooking over an open fire, but it’s not without its challenges. Regulating heat is difficult, and getting the right amount of flame and ember can be tough for even the most experienced fire-builder. The best choice for ...
Pro Tips For Shooting Better Outdoor Photography
Shutter speed, aperture, exposure, focal length, depth of field, composition. There’s a lot to take in if you want to up your photo game. Whether you’re using an iPhone, a point-and-shoot digital camera, or the latest and greatest Sony Alpha, putting ...
GEAR TEST: The Ultimate Replaceable Blade Knife Test
Sharpening and honing a knife blade is a necessary outdoor skill, but it’s hard to beat the convenience, weight, and surgical precision of modern scalpel-like replaceable-blade knives. Many of the most knowledgeable hunters and outdoorsmen have found ...
Starter Kit: Gear Up for Turkey Season
Turkeys are all hunted about the same way. First, you find them. Second, you call them. Third, you shoot them. It's simple to turkey hunt — but it's not easy. Spring is most hunters’ favorite time to chase turkeys because the season plays on the ...
Know Every Plant: A Cool and Useful Flora Identification Smartphone App
Sometimes the Instagram ads really nail you. No, I’m not talking about the cheap Made-in-China adult onesie it tried to sell me or the arthritis pain gel that got Paula Abdul dancing again. (How old do you think I am, IG?) But in my case, the ’Borg ...
Here Are the Reasons for the National Ammunition Shortage
Thanks to the pandemic and its one-two punch on the economy, I was furloughed from my day job — at a major health care provider in Michigan — in the middle of last summer. To pass the time, I took a seasonal gig behind the gun counter at a local ...
From Battle to Field: 5 Popular Military Knives That Are Also Great Hunting Knives
Every human has the knife-appreciation gene in their blood. We’ve inherited the recessive trait from our earliest and most inventive hunter-gatherer brethren. While the trait is not expressed in everyone, for those who served in the military or spend ...
Starter Kit: Learn To Cross-Country Ski
Flat, straight trails. Skinny, pointed skis. Boots that look more like high-tech sneakers. Bindings that only lock you in by your toes. It’s easy to think that cross-country skiing is the awkward junior high version of downhill that somehow missed ...
