All Outdoor

One of the quickest and least painful accuracy upgrades to an AR-15 is a trigger upgrade. But many people tend to go way overboard, thinking they need an adjustable trigger to get great performance by “tuning” it. The problem is that very very few of us have the talent to actually tune a trigger safely. The other issue is that multi-piece replacement triggers can be a bit tricky to install for the first timer. CMC has solved these issues with a design that offers defense and military level durability and reliability with a maintenance-free, un-tunable design that still delivers one of the best feeling match AR15 triggers on the market.

The fit and finish of the CMC triggers are excellent, with no sharp or roughly finished edges. What has impressed me is that the entire cartridge/unit is spec’ed to precisely fit snuggly inside the trigger cavity on the lower. The fit is perfectly tight, and after tapping in the oversized retainer pins it’s rock solid. T

If you are currently part of the flood of interest in AR-15 type rifles, then you probably own several ammo magazines for your rifle(s). Furthermore, if you participate in shooting games like 3-Gun competitions or other shooting sports at the range, then you likely have a whole knapsack full of AR magazines.

AR magazine management can be a study all its own. Everybody seems to have their own system for keeping up with this kind or that, aluminum, steel, or thermoplastic in various capacity sizes from 5 rounds up to 30.

I even color mine for specific uses. Black are for tactical range work, SHTF prep, and general defensive survival preparation. I usually load those mags with standard 55-grain, FMJ ammo that is cheap for practice shooting and can aggravate the heck out of any target. Many AR shooters live the by theory that more ammo is better, and these low shelf munitions are affordable in quantity. Current prices are back to around $400 for 1000 rounds. Pre and post-election the same case would have cost $1000 or more.

I use Brownell’s desert tan magazines for hunting ammunition. In those mags I load a 45-62 grain hunting load with some type of soft tip bullet designed for hunting varmints, nuisance animals like wild hogs, or white-tailed deer.

I load my green Magpuls with hunt

You don’t have to identify as a prepper or survivalist to have a bug-out bag (B.O.B) ready to go at all times. One never knows when they might have to get out, and get out fast, from your home because of fire, earthquake, riots, or whatever may come your way. My entire family is equipped with BOBs and we have enough food and survival gear to last us three or four days. However, we also have an alternate set-up, and that is the old U.S military A.L.I.C.E. gear set-up.

For those who haven’t served in the military, back when we hunted dinosaurs with rocks, A.L.I.C.E stands for All-purpose Light-weight Individual Carrying Equipment. Quite a mouthful, to be sure, so we’ll just call it A.L.I.C.E in this article. Today’s military doesn’t issue A.L.I.C.E gear any longer. Instead, they have opted for several different types of set-ups, most of which are MOLLE, and it carries all your gear high up on your body, and all–or almost

To hunt tom turkey, one must have the ability to provoke the turkey into revealing its location; this ability requires an understanding of what will cause that reaction. Traditionally, a hoot of an owl does the trick, but animals are perceptive and can sense the difference between a real call and an emulated one. When used in between the calls of song birds, a the new Lightning Owl locator call by Flextone can successfully provoke a response from a tom turkey.

“The distinctive shape and style of the simple-to-use Lightning Owl is a perfect match of form and function,” reads a statement from Flextone. “An oversized barrel amplifies call volume while the unique Flextone ‘tone button’ design reports instant screams. Together, these two features generate authentic calls with unmatched long-range draw, even the most prudent gobblers can’t resist. … Flextone has fashioned the Lighting Owl with a large port hole that provides greater call control through increased back pressure. This critical feature allows callers of all experience levels an error-proof alternative to the persnickety calls of the past. Further embellishing the calls ease-of-use and realistic sound is a soft body that is simply manipulated to instantly alter call volume, pitch and tone and deliver unrivaled life-like

This slingshot bow is a pretty marketable item. It’s powerful given the size and you can hear it’s strength when the arrow hits the thick archery mat.

As I was online searching for ways to expand my 10/22 collection, the Force barrel stopped me in my tracks. I mean look at that thing — how amazing is that hex machined barrel. I had to have one.

Admittedly the looks caught my attention, but beyond the cosmetics the Force Production barrel offers more than a few engineering advantages. The company also offers every other main part of the 10/22 with the exception of the bolt, and all are custom level which deliver stunningly consistent accuracy and flawless functioning.

Force Production was started in 2007 by Charles Watson in 2007, the lead Engineer for STI (you know, the custom 1911 folks).

Charles had always had a small machine shop as a home business, and after an internal discussion at STI he decided to start a business dedicated to non-competing custom products such as parts for the Ruger 10/22 and custom gun barrels for a number of rifles from various manufacturers.

One day Charles was sitting around attempting to develop a better bar

The progressive refinement of the Ruger Mark I, II, and III line of .22 semi-automatic pistols have been staples of the Ruger portfolio since their introduction, and without question these are the most popular .22LR semi-auto pistols in history. A few years ago, Ruger answered the requests for a 1911 style grip with introduction of the 22/45 line, which features a restyled polymer lower receiver modeled after the 1911 but married to the tried and true Mark III upper receiver. In later 2012, Ruger again added a few new options to the 22/45 line, including a few tactical threaded barrel models and this ultralight aluminum sleeved and tensioned barrel “Lite” model, which is the lightest 22/45 ever.

Ruger is one of m

Archers and hunters are no strangers to detail and preciseness, and subtle but effective augmentations to a bow can aid in accuracy. But that improvement doesn’t have to be expensive. That’s the goal of the Accu-Peep, a new peep sight recently released by Hot Shot Manufacturing. The Accu-Peep, which retails for $9.95, is available in several colors and dimensions including 1/8, 3/16, 1/4 and 5/16 diameters. It’s already available to buy through their website.

“Similar to the concept of a binocular or scope bell, the Accu-Peep utilizes a tapered conical design with convex entrance pupil technology to gather larger amounts of light than standard straight diameter peeps,” the company said in a statement. “The additional light is then channeled into the shooters eye creating two distinct advantages: longer shooting time at the fringe of daylight and the opportunity to shoot a smaller diameter peep sight, equaling greater possible accuracy.”

Lightweight but durable materials also make this a worthy investment. “Constructed of high-grade aluminum and slight in design, the Accu-Peep’s light weight minimally slows bow strings, while it’s robust construction will not crush or deform even when served tightly in. Deep-channel, smooth-edged radial and angular groov

Check out this method for making your shoes water resistant! It’s not a perfect system but it will make your shoes relatively unaffected by water.

At this point I have reviewed about a half dozen aftermarket target barrels for the Ruger 10/22. Most are designed to significantly improve accuracy, but some are better at that goal than others. Generally, this accuracy improvement comes in the form of a heavy .920″ bull barrel, but a few companies are offering sleeved or tensioned barrels which drastically drop weight while usually maintaining excellent accuracy — again, some are better than others.  The Beyer 10/22 Barrel is one of these hybrid sleeved barrels and has become one of my favorites because of its features, weight, and accuracy performance.

Clint Beyer has been an avid hunter and shooter for many years but could not find a 10/22 barrel he liked.  After his retirement from the U.S. Armed Forces, he started Beyers Barrels in 2006 to create precision custom barrels and special orders.  Several of his barrel styles are sold in Brownell’s catalog, but Beyer also handles custom orders directly.

Beyer Barrels offers a wide selection of barrel lengths, fluting options,

Whether you are building your first AR-15, upgrading, or looking for parts to create your next build, we are all looking for high quality parts at reasonable prices. This is Anderson Manufacturing’s sweet spot. High quality AR-15 parts at very affordable prices. At one point, Anderson was offering $70 stripped lower receivers at the height of the AR-15 shortage.

It is Anderson’s RF85 lubrication free parts treatment which started them building AR-15 rifles. I only have experience with their standard untreated parts.  If you want the benefits of the RF85, then you need to order a complete rifle from Anderson manufacturing. With or without the RF85 treatment, Anderson delivers great parts at very reasonable prices for piecing together your next AR-15 build

Unlike the drove of “really brand new” companies offering AR-15s, Anderson manufacturing is passi

Despite the shortage of .22LR ammo, rimfire rifle sales are at an all-time high. Many people are also turning to air rifles to keep practicing on the cheap.  The goal is to find an optic with an adjustable parallax that can deliver accuracy at distances under 100-yards, and that has variable power, clear optics, and a price that’s less than your average 10/22.  Nikon’s ProStaff Target EFR 3-9×40 is specifically is designed for all the above rimfire and air rifle applications.

Nikon Sport Optics is a division of the famed camera optics company. Nikon has become a fast growing sporting optics manufacturer by delivering outstanding clarity for far less than competitors. In fact, I have featured Nikon products in large number of articles because they always bring the best out of my builds.  Nikon’s optics are legendary due to their proprietary anti-reflective coatings, which offer high-resolution images in most lighting conditions.

About a year ago I was on a plane reading the Max Brooks Zombie Survival Guide.  About halfway through the flight the guy sitting next to me said he loved zombie fiction and asked how hilarious I thought the Survival Guide was. 

I stared blankly into his face and asked, “what are you talking about? Zombies are real!”, I then cast a wink to the 60 year old lady on the other side of me and then I went back to reading.  

After the guy next to me hurriedly de-boarded, the lady to the right of me laughed and told me that she had seen zombies too — “they drive mini-vans”, she said.  I too have seen zombies, they are usually are wandering around grocery stores after 5PM shuffling their feet, mumbling that they need to pick up cheese and milk.

They say it could never happen —

If you ever have to shoot beyond the point plank range of your weapon, it helps to know two things: how far the target is, and how to sight on it to score a hit. Some scopes make it easy by providing a reticle for measuring range on objects of known height or width, and for holding over to compensate for bullet drop. Unfortunately, pre-calculated reticles are only close for the one combination barrel length/muzzle velocity, bullet weight and height over bore, such as 3150fps, 62gr, 2.5 inches. Putting the same scope on a 20″ rifles firing 3300fps 55gr bullets gets rather different points of impact at range.

Point blank range itself varies with the size of the target. If you are trying to take down a deer or hit a gunman peeking out from behind a car engine, your margin of error is quite small. Firing several shots quickly to create a beaten zone gets around the precision requirement somewhat, but that takes time and exposure to return fire. First-shot hits are still preferred and for that, a good understanding of the weapon’s trajectory is needed. But first, range the target.

The outer ring of EOTech holographic sight reticle is 65MOA, which corresponds closely to the hight of an average male at 100 yards. With a hundred yard zero, the point of impact would be at the middle of that circle. Point of i

If you have not heard about the HiperFire line of single-stage triggers, you should seriously consider them. They are absolutely awesome, from the HiperTouch 24 to the enhanced HiperTouch 24E to the super tuned 24C competition model. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it all before, but this time it’s different.

HiperTouch’s founder, Terry Bender, had an idea to overcome many of the shortcomings of “match” triggers. Terry is not just some guy filing down sears and swapping out low power springs in his garage — he is a mechanical engineering consultant. The approach to the HiperTouch design was new from the ground up.

The ultimate challenge for a great tactical/hunting trigger is to deliver a smooth, fast, and flat pre-travel, very fast trigger r

I don’t know about you and your friends, but within my circle of friends, we like to compete for stakes. One thing always leads to another, cash comes out, and sometimes we even suck strangers into the challenges as well. “Hey do you think you can hit the 300-yard gong on the first shot with a .22?”

Most of these challenges center around our custom Ruger 10/22s, with wagers ranging from distant gong hits to topping a 12 gauge shotgun shell with a .22 at 100-yards and splitting playing cards at 50-yards. The dollars involved in the wagers are lower and shots are harder when you have a $1500 custom Kidd or Volquartsen 10/22 on your bench, which obviously screams tack driver. Generally, agreements on a wager come a bit easier the more the gun looks stock, so I wanted to create a covert tool for taking my friends’ money.

The 10/22 had to look and feel as stock as possible, but could still deliver playing card dividing accuracy.  Sure, I could just use my Feddersen Raptor TN Ridge Runner rifle complete with rubber ho

I recently got a big shipment of Fallkniven knives in for testing, but before I get into the cutting and chopping, I’d like to post some pictures and first impressions of the blades. In this post, I’ll be taking a look at Fallkniven’s Idun (NL5) model, and comparing it to the venerable and widely loved Fallkniven F1.

Why compare the NL5 to the F1? A lot of people either have the F1, know someone who has the F1, or are considering the F1. It’s an extremely popular, premium bushcraft and survival blade, up there with the Bark River Bravo 1, Spyderco Bushcrafter, and ESEE-5 in terms of popularity in the $130 to $200 price range. I’ll be comparing my two F1s with the NL5, which is in their same size and weight category.

While the F1 is itself a bit of a premium production fixed blade, at $130 street price in its standard configuration, the Northern Lights series is Fallkniven’s attempt to elevate the fit and finish of their line to near-custom levels. Most of the knives in the NL series have a counterpart in Fallkniven’s regular blade lineup, so that they function as a bit of an upgrade, if that’s what you’re looking for.

The Idun reviewed here lists for $460 and change, but you can find it around $300 if you look hard enough online. This price puts it int

Last year, Oleg Volk covered the secret of the Little Badger’s popularity. I recently came across a great video review posted by Jeff Quinn from GunBlast.com. Enjoy!

Photoshopped or not, we had to share this picture!

(I found this on REDDIT by Socarch26).

Originally I picked up the Model1Sales.com Dissipator Upper as a rifle kit for use as a long range gopher hunter.  The 1:8 twist ER Shaw barreled upper was impressively accuracte for a kit rifle, but with no disrespect to the Dissipator, guns three times the cost with greater accuracy now fill that duty. This upper has been laying around waiting patiently in the bottom of my Liberty Safe waiting for a project and lower receiver. What to do with a very accurate upper that I still love? The front sight way out near the muzzle is an advantage for iron sight shooting, and my idea was to convert and update the upper to a fun, iron sighted battle rifle.

Fortunately Troy has a couple of cool looking long rail options that could help me drop the heavy un-fluted rail in