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Reviews, guides and range notes

Hands-on reviews, hunting and range guides, cleaning and carry advice — written by shooters who own the gear. 165 posts and counting.

ConcealmentIWB vs OWB: which holster actually fits your dayLast Tuesday a student in my beginner course showed up with a brand-new Glock 43 and a $19 nylon holster she’d grabbed off a big-box shelf an hour…Renee Castillo · Sep 7, 2026

Gun ReviewsMosin-Nagants: where the surplus market stands nowI still remember walking into a pawn shop off Route 9 outside Poughkeepsie back around 2011 and seeing a rack of six Mosin-Nagant 91/30s leaning…Earl Whitfield · Sep 6, 2026

EducationColt Single Action Army: The Gun That Won the WestThere’s a display case at a little museum outside Hartford, Connecticut, that I’ve stood in front of more times than I can count, and every time I go…Earl Whitfield · Sep 6, 2026

Gun ReviewsMOA vs MRAD reticles: what actually mattersLast month at a 600-yard steel match out at a range near Cody, Wyoming, I watched a guy burn through four minutes of stage time doing mental math…Priya Anand · Sep 5, 2026

Gun ReviewsMOA vs MRAD reticles: what actually mattersI had a guy at the range in Show Low last spring hand me his rifle mid-string, dead serious, and ask why his dope card “wasn’t working.” Turned out…Priya Anand · Sep 5, 2026

Education.223 vs 5.56: what’s actually differentHad a guy come in last month holding a box of 5.56 ammo and a rifle stamped “.223 Remington” on the barrel, asking if he’d be fine running it through…Tasha Odom · Sep 4, 2026

Gun ReviewsRevolver or semi-auto for your first handgun?Every few weeks a guy walks into the gun shop on Fifth Street near me, first time buyer, and asks the same question. “Should I get a revolver,…Wyatt Coale · Sep 4, 2026

Gun ReviewsBenelli M2 review: the shotgun that just runsI put roughly 300 rounds of mixed 2 3/4 and 3-inch loads through a Benelli M2 on a cold morning at a public range outside Grand Junction last…Priya Anand · Sep 3, 2026

EducationDry fire practice: why it works and how to startFifteen minutes. That’s how long my first “real” dry fire session lasted before I realized I’d been flinching on every single press without knowing…Hannah Voss · Sep 3, 2026

Air PistolsBest air pistols for backyard practice in 2025My neighbor two doors down on Sycamore Court asked me last month if I was “shooting a real gun back there.” I wasn’t. I was putting maybe 40 pellets…Hannah Voss · Sep 2, 2026

Gun ReviewsBest glass for low-light hunting conditions7:42 p.m., last Saturday of the Wisconsin gun season, and I still had a buck standing broadside at 140 yards in timber that was already going gray at…Priya Anand · Sep 2, 2026

Gun ReviewsBest red dot sights under $300 for 2025Forty rounds into a defensive pistol class last October, my buddy’s $89 dot died. Not the battery. The glass fogged internally and the reticle went…Colt Reyes · Sep 1, 2026

Gun ReviewsBest gun safes for a first-time ownerLast Tuesday a guy came into the shop holding his phone with a Facebook Marketplace listing for a “fireproof gun safe” that weighed 38 pounds.…Tasha Odom · Sep 1, 2026

Gun ReviewsScope tube diameter: does 30mm actually beat 1 inch?I had a customer at a range day in Prescott last fall tell me his new 34mm scope was going to double his effective elevation range compared to his…Priya Anand · Aug 31, 2026

Gun ReviewsRuger LCP Max review: pocket 9mm done rightSat behind a guy at a gun shop counter on Route 9 outside Poughkeepsie a few months back while he asked the clerk, dead serious, “will this thing…Wyatt Coale · Aug 31, 2026

Gun LawsNY SAFE Act in 2026: what still applies nowI was in an Albany County pistol permit office back in March, waiting on a friend’s amendment paperwork, and the clerk behind the counter told me she…Marcus Webb · Aug 30, 2026

Gun ReviewsThermal vs night vision for hogs: what the data saysLast February, on a lease outside Comfort, Texas, I sat a feeder for four hours running a thermal monocular in one hand and a gen-3 night vision…Priya Anand · Aug 30, 2026

Armed ForcesThe M1 Garand: America’s WWII Battle RifleThere’s a table at a gun show in Ohio I still think about, a beat-up M1 Garand with a Springfield Armory stamp and a cartouche worn nearly smooth,…Earl Whitfield · Aug 29, 2026

Gun ReviewsCZ 75 SP-01 review: the double-stack that started itI had a range officer at a Wisconsin indoor range tell me last winter that the CZ 75 SP-01 on his hip was “the gun nobody talks about until they’ve…Wyatt Coale · Aug 29, 2026

Gun LawsTraveling with firearms across state lines, explainedI got a call last month from a reader in Ohio who’d driven through three states on his way to a hunting lease in Pennsylvania, and he wanted to know…Marcus Webb · Aug 28, 2026

EducationHow the AK-47 became the world’s most produced rifleThere’s a photo I keep coming back to, taken sometime in the late 1950s at the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, rows of stamped receivers hanging on…Earl Whitfield · Aug 28, 2026

Gun ReviewsRuger American Predator review: a working rifleThere’s a spot off a two-track outside Ennis, Montana, where the coulee drops away and you can glass three miles of sage in one sweep. I was set up…Dale Hutchins · Aug 27, 2026

Gun ReviewsChoosing hunting scope magnification that actually worksLast November I sat with a client at a range outside Cody, Wyoming, glassing a 4-9×40 against a 6-24×50 on the same rifle, same load, same 300-yard…Priya Anand · Aug 27, 2026

Gun ReviewsBergara B-14 Ridge review: worth the hype?Four hundred and twelve yards, quartering-away bull, and my hands were cold enough that I fumbled the bolt on the first shot cycle. That was two…Dale Hutchins · Aug 26, 2026