Author: Braxton Taylor
It’s official: After signaling their support for a black bear hunt, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted this morning to finalize a set of rules for the three-week December season.The 5-0 vote in favor of the hunt is a striking rebuke to anti-hunting groups that have lobbied for months to block it. Today’s meeting saw testimony from an equal number of supporters and opponents, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, but opponents came armed with cute pictures of bears and signs reading “I am not your trophy” and “Wounded, hunted, forgotten.”“This hunt is unnecessary and cruel unless you…
Practicing how I play has delivered great success in my life. It’s no different with archery. While flinging arrows at a target is fun just about any way you slice it, we like to make sure it serves our ultimate goal.You’re training for that one moment in the wild when you’re deep in the mountains, your legs are screaming, your heart’s pounding, and you’ve got one shot to make it count. Hunting isn’t just about marksmanship. It’s about being ready, physically and mentally, for whatever the backcountry throws at you.I’ll do my best here to outline how we combine fitness…
An Alaskan military base long used to intercept Russian aircraft is now racing to welcome one instead.President Donald Trump will host Vladimir Putin for an unprecedented summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, just north of Anchorage, a White House official confirmed to Defense One. The joint Air Force-Army base, which today supports F-22 Raptors, historically has been used to counter the Soviet Union and launch intercepts of Russian and Chinese aircraft. The installation has hosted numerous presidential visits over the decades, but has never welcomed a U.S. adversary of Putin’s stature on base. This begs questions about the logistics of securing the…
Unsure whether they would ever step on solid ground again, a distressed group of mariners huddled above the imposing waves that thrashed their broken ship.A menacing nor’easter pummeled the SS Pendleton on Feb. 18, 1952, causing the oil tanker to be broken in two a mile off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The captain and seven crewmen were in the bow, or front, of the ship while the other 33 seamen on board were in the stern (rear), according to author and historian Michael Tougias, who wrote “The Finest Hours,” the historical account that inspired the movie of the…
More jobs at Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers faced “severe” shortages this year compared with last year, and more facilities reported shortages in doctors, a government watchdog found in a report released Tuesday.This year, Veterans Health Administration facilities reported 4,434 severe occupational staffing shortages in jobs ranging from physicians to nurses to security guards to electricians, the VA’s inspector general said in the report. That’s compared to 2,959 total jobs with shortages last year — or about a 50% increase.Meanwhile, the inspector general estimated that 94% of facilities have severe shortages for medical officer jobs, compared with 86% last…
As National Guardsmen are sent for a second time in recent months to a U.S. city whose local leaders made no requests for their support, we may be seeing the Trump administration’s new national defense strategy play out in unprecedented ways ill-matched to military capabilities. Civilian and uniformed Pentagon officials have said publicly that this administration is prioritizing the geographical United States in its national security policy, a departure from recent administrations—including Trump’s first—that have described conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific or terrorism in the Middle East as the biggest threats to America.“I think we’re learning in real-time what that…
Leupold & Stevens, Inc. is launching the new VX-5HD Gen 2 family of riflescopes which feature Leupold’s Professional-Grade Optical System to deliver the precision serious shooters demand. With a SpeedSet elevation dial for tool-free zeroing, competition-grade adjustments, a redesigned maintube for increased elevation travel, an integrated throw lever and a rugged construction, the VX-5HD Gen 2 is the built for the great outdoors. “The VX-5HD line has been the greatest value in riflescopes since the moment we introduced it. It outperforms everything in its class,” said Tim Lesser, vice president of product development and marketing for Leupold. “But our team…
Holosun is now shipping the new AEMS Core X2 and the AEM Pro X2 red dot sights. These models represent the latest in Holosun’s AEMS red-dot product line, which is meant to be paired with rifles, carbines and other long guns. In addition to the standard red color, Holosun also offers both the new AEMS Pro X2 and the AEMS Core X2 with green- and gold-colored emitters. While both are built around the same housing and profile, the Pro X2 model includes additional features such as more night-vision compatible modes, a multi-reticle system and 7075-T6 housing material construction. In addition…
Presidents Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet Friday at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in northern Anchorage, American officials said Tuesday. The trip will be Putin’s first to the United States in a decade, and the first-ever for a Russian president visiting Alaska, which Russia sold to the U.S. 158 years ago. White House officials are already playing down expectations for the summit, which is ostensibly about the future of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, the Financial Times and CNBC reported Tuesday. The Friday meeting is planned one week after a deadline Trump gave Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or…
If Doug Duren placed historical markers on his family’s farm in southwestern Wisconsin, one would mark the car crash that killed his brother Matt in January 1995, and the other would show the log landing where a chainsaw nearly killed his father, Vince, in April 1991.Matt died near the farm’s driveway on State Highway 58 in the Driftless Area, and Vince dodged death across the road from there, just past the unnamed creek that flows north toward Cazenovia. Doug points out both sites from the farmhouse uphill. Heck, he could easily throw a baseball to Matt’s site, and in his…