Author: Braxton Taylor
Turkey season is here, folks, and it’s time for the MeatEater Crew to strut their stuff and see who is the best turkey-talker of the bunch. Over the next week, crew members will be facing off head-to-head in three rounds: best turkey call sequence, crow call and owl hoot, and turkey gobble—and you get to pick who wins.The winner of the contest will get to donate $500 to the National Wild Turkey Federation in their name. Watch the videos and cast your vote below to select who you think should make it to the next round. Don’t delay—voting will only…
SnapSafe recently unveiled the new Keypad XL safe, a space-saving and affordable compact horizontal safe that’s reminiscent of a hotel safe. The new SnapSafe Keypad XL can hold documents and smaller important items like jewelry, miscellaneous items and most importantly, firearms such as a handgun. Externally, this security container is protected by a 16-gauge steel thick body, while its door is composed of thicker 9-gauge steel with an electronic keypad operated by battery. Features such as a carpeted interior, a low battery meter and interior LED lighting that turns on as soon as the door is opened are standard on…
Should you find yourself dealing with old ammo or that of unknown origin, be sure to inspect it prior to attempting to fire it in your gun. I purchased a GSG Firefly .22 LR pistol a while ago and finally got to the range to try it out. Overall, I am pleased with the pistol, but I did experience one issue during that outing to the range: The owner’s manual specifies the use of high-velocity ammo, of which I have a few bricks on hand that are 20 or more years old. The ammo, for the most part, functioned well. I…
Updated: March 29, 3:47 p.m. ET.Senior Defense Department leaders have less than two weeks to submit proposals to shrink and reorganize their commands, agencies, and departments, Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered in a Friday memo that also proffered early-retirement and deferred-resignation deals to eligible civilian employees.The March 28 memo launches the latest phase of Hegseth’s rushed and rocky effort to shrink the department’s civilian workforce. When he took office in January, DOD employed about 760,000 civilians; within weeks, officials had announced plans to cut that number by five to eight percent.The memo, titled “Initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” orders…
Breek Arms has recently launched its new Breek-Lok 3QD ⅝x24 tpi HUB-style suppressor-mounting accessory. The Breek-Lok 3QD is machined from titanium and weighs only 2.3 ounces, only a slight bit more than the typical rifle-barrel muzzle accessory such as a flash-hider or compensator. With its titanium construction, overall light weight and its 1.15-inch shorter form factor, the new Breek-Lok 3QD is intended to serve as a minimalist HUB-style mount in order to reduce the overall weight and improve the balance of a mounted suppressor on the typical carbine. This device works best with .223 Rem./5.56 NATO rifles that have barrels…
Turkey season is here, folks, and it’s time for the MeatEater Crew to strut their stuff and see who is the best turkey-talker of the bunch. Over the next week, crew members will be facing off head-to-head in three rounds: best turkey call sequence, owl hoot, and turkey gobble—and you get to pick who wins.The winner of the contest will get to donate $500 to the National Wild Turkey Federation in their name. Watch the videos and cast your vote below to select who you think should make it to the next round. Don’t delay—voting will only be open for…
Through good training and then practicing what we’ve been taught, we form the habit of presenting our defensive handgun in a level fashion to the target. Just before breaking the shot, our focus goes to the front sight to confirm that we are properly lined up with the vital zone. This is what Col. Jeff Cooper called the flash sight picture. At close ranges we don’t bother to try to line up our front and rear sights like a target shooter does, or like we would need to do at longer ranges. What we need in a close-range encounter is…
Among our core advice principles at USAA, this one holds a special place in my personal life experience. I say that because the words “spend less than you earn” are the first element of USAA’s core advice and the first half of a mantra that we metaphorically drilled into all of our kids’ heads as they grew up. Add a second element, “and save some to boot,” and I would wager my 401(k) match for the rest of my working days that all three of our kids would answer the question, “What did your parents teach you about money?” with…
The Defense Health Agency has extended several deadlines facing patients in the Tricare West Region as a result of the change in contract management to TriWest Healthcare Alliance on Jan. 1.The agency announced Thursday that patients now have until April 30 to update their payment information with TriWest, get specialty care without prior authorization from the company, and receive care from non-network providers authorized by Tricare under the extension.The postponement marks the fourth time patients have received a reprieve to update their payment information if they pay TriWest by bank draft or credit card. The original deadline was Dec. 31;…
The Marine Corps announced “significant updates and additions” to its child care program in an administrative message last week that clarifies training requirements for staff, outlines the program’s responsibilities for children with disabilities, and delineates the process for reporting serious incidents such as suspected child abuse, among others.The Marine Corps’ Child and Youth Program is intended to provide “high-quality and affordable” child care to support families with children between 6 weeks and 18 years old, according to the update. Military parents often rely on these services to take care of their children amid busy schedules, deployments and frequent moves.While the…