Author: Braxton Taylor
Federal Premium is now offering its popular HST jacketed hollowpoint bullet for the classic big-bore .44 Mag. revolver cartridge, packaged under the Federal Premium Personal Defense ammunition product line. “This new HST loading addresses customer requests for a Personal Defense option in .44 Mag., offering more power than a .44 Spl. load but better control and less overpenetration than a full magnum hunting load,” said Chris Laack, Federal Handgun Ammunition Product Manager. “Its cartridge-specific bullet design best utilizes the magnum power available for defense and has more energy than 10mm and .357 Mag. yet with a larger .44 Mag. projectile.…
Global markets received an unwelcome jolt in April when the Chinese government began to require pre-approval for exports of medium and heavy rare-earth elements. Official statements and state-linked commentators have since made clear that this new export-license system is designed to increase Beijing’s leverage over Pentagon supply chains. It may, in fact, become a signature tool of great power competition.The Ministry of Commerce laid out the basics in Announcement No. 18: Chinese exporters must now obtain licenses to ship out certain rare earth metals (and their oxides, alloys, and compounds) such as dysprosium, terbium, samarium, gadolinium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.…
Bond Arms is adding the new Rowdy XL Flag Package to its 2025 lineup of firearms and accessories. This specially designed firearm package is a testament to Bond Arms’ commitment to honor the United States and deliver exceptional performance to American gun owners. The Rowdy XL Flag Package pairs a uniquely engraved Rowdy XL handgun with a black leather holster. Both the gun and the holster are emblazoned with waving American Flag graphic, making this patriotic combination a unique blend of form and function. The black holster features contrasting stitching and an embossed American flag. Chambered in .45 Colt/.410-bore, the…
The Trump administration has recently directed that a new wave of polygraphs be administered across the executive branch, aimed at uncovering leaks to the press.As someone who has taken roughly a dozen polygraphs during my 27-year career with the CIA, I read this development with some skepticism.Polygraphs carry an ominous, almost mythological reputation among Americans. The more familiar and unofficial term – lie detector tests – likely fuels that perception. Television crime dramas have done their part, too, often portraying the device as an oracle for uncovering the truth when conventional methods fail. In those portrayals, the polygraph is not merely a tool – it’s a window into the…
Many years ago, before I started really thinking about how to adapt to different self-defense situations, I would picture scenarios in my mind and prepare on how best to react. I remember thinking if someone broke into my house I would respond with “X.” If someone tried to steal my car at a gas station, I would respond with “Y.” If someone tried to steal my purse I would respond with “Z.” I thought I was ahead of the game, but when I look back, that may not have been the case. Yes, if the real event went down exactly…
Trump’s Pentagon is under fire for not coordinating fully with the White House before halting recent weapons transfers to Ukraine, the Associated Press reported Tuesday evening, citing administration officials. Trump on Monday said he’d reversed that decision to halt arms to Ukraine, which just fended off another overnight attack from Russia involving more than 720 drones and at least a dozen missiles—including six alleged hypersonic missiles—striking 11 regions in the country, according to Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy. Reuters reports those 720-plus drones set a new record for the three-plus-year conflict. “This is a telling attack—and it comes precisely at a time when…
Like most classic metal-frame pistols, 1911s have always relied on external grip panels (or stocks) to provide a useful grip surface for the shooter’s hands. Grip panels on 1911 pistols also cover the interior of the grip portion of the handgun’s frame and shield it from the elements. Because it’s so easy to swap between different panels, 1911 owners enjoy a wide variety of stocks made from different materials, colors, designs etc. Stocks for 1911 can vary from the extremely basic, like the brown plastic ones that were standard on military M1911A1s, to the extremely exotic. The latter tend to…
Time and again, poachers never seem to get what they deserve. Even in cases with egregious wildlife crimes, securing jail time can be nearly impossible. Every so often though, a district attorney goes for broke in prosecuting a case. Such was the case in Grant County, Oregon, where a 34-year-old man recently received 95 days of jail time, $22,000 in fines, and a lifetime hunting & fishing ban for a slew of poaching incidents spanning the last two years.Unsurprisingly—as seems to be the case with most chronic poachers—it wasn’t Travis Palmer’s first run-in with the law. In fact, Palmer had…
While there is plenty of bitching in the hunting world when it comes to overcrowding, fishing is a little bit different. It’s not like you can’t find once-secret bodies of water, and the fisherman who lament the extra attention, but it’s just different.This might be because of the seasonality of fishing in a lot of places or the timing of hot bites. If you head to the Mighty Mississippi, where I grew up in the bottom right-hand corner of Minnesota, you’d see an example of this where the walleyes stack up below the dams in the spring. It’s bumper boats…
No one ever dreams small. From childhood, we fantasize about becoming astronauts, movie stars, or the president, and imagine owning flashy cars and elaborate mansions. As we get older and our goals become more realistic, but this internal desire for grandeur rarely diminishes. From getting our next promotion at work, to harvesting our next trophy animal, we all want the best and biggest and the best for ourselves in all that we do and that includes fishing.Every single angler out there at least toys with the idea of catching the big one. That fish that will push out tackle to…