Free Republic

Texas Loosens Gun Laws after Shootings, Media Questions Why“Hours after shooting rampage, Texas gun laws loosened”.“New Texas laws loosening gun control draw outrage from advocates after Odessa shooting”.“Texas Allows Guns in Churches, Schools After Firearm Access Laws Expanded”.These are news headlines recently published by major outlets. CBS, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal – mainstream media publications and journalists are crying foul of the Texas state legislature’s decision to loosen gun laws in the wake two shootings in Odessa on August 31, and in El Paso on August 4. Many of these publications question why, in the face of mass gun...

When they were first introduced to the national hunting community, these novel methods for bringing in bucks were considered unconventional at best, and harebrained schemes by most. Now deer hunters everywhere use these tried-and-true tactics. We take a look back to when these trusty standbys were still considered downright bizarre. RATTLING - The brush-country hunters of Texas and New Mexico were crashing antlers together for decades before the trend caught fire in the rest of whitetail country. Although native hunters likely developed the technique, legend has it that an old market hunter accidentally discovered the phenomenon: "He was coming to...

Time for another league of Pick'em Pro Football fantasy league. This is a free pick'em league. Choose the winners and assign your confidence points on which team will win. Easy and stress free. Until you can't get a cell signal ... and join asap. First game is Thursday so choose that game once you sign up.

A regular AR-15 fires, ejects, and chambers rounds using either a direct-impingement or piston-operated gas recoil system. That’s a mouthful, let’s just call it a gas system either way. Just like the AR-15 comes in a plethora of calibers and configuration, so too does its gas system. There is no real, “universal” logic for picking the right gas setup for your black rifle, SBR, or pistol. Continuing with the general theme, this week's guide provides visual illustrations and an explanation of the AR-15 gas system. It includes comparisons between DI and piston systems, gas system lengths, types of gas blocks,...

Gun Stress Test at a Higher Level - Hi-Point pistol has been known to take a beating anywhere from running it into the mud to having it run over by a truck and still keeps on running. Will a Hi-Point pistol work if dropped from a helicopter? Well, this is what Edwin Sarkissian did. Check out this skydiving Hi-Point pistol that was "dropped once". Love them or hate them Hi-Point pistols are here to stay. Some people swear by them as an economical protection handgun while others swear at them. Are they that tough? In this video we see a...

What is the maximum pressure 455 Webley brass can withstand without rupturing?

Two weeks before I started my teaching career, my mentor teacher asked if I had any questions. I replied, "I don't know enough to know what to ask." It was true; I had never student-taught, so without being in the classroom I had no idea what to expect, nor did I know what needed clarity. The same goes with hunting. The more you hunt, the more you establish a hunting program. How you prepare. What you take. How you handle adversity and the amount of risk you tolerate. Then there are the specific logistics pertaining to the quarry. You’ve hunted...

Browning's light and balanced A5 shotgun lets you to shoot the old 'gentleman's gauge' in a technologically updated package. As an aspiring curmudgeon (my wife might suggest that I’m already there), I frown disapprovingly when I hear that someone is remaking a classic. Be it a movie, a song or a firearm, some things are just so iconic that you simply shouldn’t mess with them. If you do, you'd better get it right, or you’ll catch hell from people whose hearts were captured by the original. Sadly, and all too often, "new and improved" translates into "new and cheapened and...

Semiautomatic rifles have their place. In the proper hands, with quality ammo and parts, they can shoot a lot of rounds a long way. There is also a place for bolt guns, but the relatively slow rate of fire demands that they be employed with some stand-off. At distance, even a Lee-Enfield or Mosin-Nagant could be effective. My vote for home protection? The all-American choice is the Remington 870. The pump shotgun is incredibly simple. The controls? A safety button and a pump. Work the pump and shoot. Got a jam? Work the pump and shoot. Repeat as necessary and...

A Year-Round Season means Anytime is Hog Hunting Time - As the shadows lengthen across the golden grass-covered hillsides of California, I am perched on my chosen spot and glassing the valley below. The endless oak trees dotting the landscape are a parched palette of brownish and mottled green colors, and the foliage seems to be clinging to the promise of moisture sure to arrive. I sit with my binos glued to my eyes and scan every shadow on the hills looking for a dark spot moving along, like a hungry ant searching for leftover picnic crumbs. And soon I...

U.S.-based gun makers produced over 8.6 million new firearms last year, with almost a quarter of those being 9mm pistols. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)Initial gun production numbers are in from 2018, showing an increase from the previous year’s figures and the solid popularity of 9mm handguns. According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 8,669,259 new firearms of all sorts were produced last year. This is up from 8,327,792 released into commerce in 2017. The largest single category of firearms produced in 2018 was in pistols chambered larger than .380ACP to 9mm, with 2,281,450 handguns...

This week, I've got another article for those interested in "tactical" gunsmithing, and building and shooting black rifles: The Complete Guide to AR-15 Barrels (Twist, Length, Rifling & Type). The barrel is arguably the most important part of your black rifle or pistol. It determines what types of rounds you can shoot, how accurate you can get, and how far you can reach out and touch targets. Picking the perfect barrel can make or break any AR build. Today, we’re going to go over everything with a complete guide to AR-15 barrels. This guide gets into twist rates, barrel length...

The year is 1904 and from the inner workings of John Moses Browning’s, mind a cartridge emerged. It was the great 45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol), 45 Auto or an even more modern nickname “The Flying Dump Truck”. The US military had been buying and using various calibers while searching for the perfect combination of size and power. Having moved from a 250 grain 45 Long Colt to a smaller 150 grain 38 Long Colt during this transitional period many unfortunate and very deadly failures to stop occurred. While the light cartridge was easier to control, it didn’t yield the...

A Top-flight Shooter And Hunter Details How To Get Great Groups - KaBOOM…“$*@@!%&, $^&*@@!*^%#” came the expletive from the bench two down from mine. As the sound of his shot reverberated from the steel roof at the rifle range, I looked over at the shooter and saw him turn away from the spotting scope and jump up to start turning the adjustment turrets on his 3×9 Leupold scope. He had taken on what seems to be a daunting task to many shooters: zeroing, or “sighting in,” their hunting rifle. It had started some 45 minutes prior when the gentleman arrived...

Breaking down the Best Optics for a Hunt - When you think about your most important pieces of gear for big game hunting in Alaska or anywhere, optics top the list. Alaska’s terrain is big and varied, and most game is spotted at a long distance. In order to locate and assess game, evaluate the terrain and plan a safe, effective stalk, quality optics are key. As a rule of thumb, get the best optics you can afford. Quality optics gear is not cheap, but the investment is worth every cent. Since the day I first used them, I fell...

“AK’s are kind of like a cheeseburger. However you want it, you can have it.” Those are Jared LaMarche’s thoughts on the Kalashnikov, or AK, rifle. LaMarche is a gunsmith at Windsor Arms in Windsor, Vermont. They bring a bunch of their AKs and other guns to the Green Mountain Boys Machine Gun Shoot in Eden, Vermont. The event takes place mid-July of every year. LaMarche is a big fan of AKs. “A lot of people think that the AK is not a fun, or a great gun. I think it’s awesome,” he told Guns.com at last year’s shoot. He...

FOUR POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE HEADING UP FOR BLACKTAIL DEER - I'm not one of those dudes who have been hunting for 30 years. I don’t have a ring of racks in my garage or an elegant mount in my living room. I don’t have epic stories of 400-yard shots. My hunting career is littered with chaos. I shot my first deer in the leg. I was with my high school basketball coach and his daughter. She put one through the neck of a fork-in-horn at 150, and then dropped a 4-point at 250 to set up my...

'Colin Dowler ended up in a Life-or-Death Struggle with a Grizzly Bear in British Columbia' A Canadian man from Dowler, British Columbia survived a brutal grizzly bear attack by stabbing the animal in the neck with a 2-inch pocket knife, according to reports. Colin Dowler, 45, was mountain biking in the remote back country of British Columbia outside of the city of Power River on July 29 when he spotted a large male grizzly. Dowler stopped about 100 feet away from the bear in order to decide what he should do next—stay still, ride past the bear, or cycle in...

People who enjoy eating venison need to bone up on bullets, if they haven’t already done so. The bullet makes the connection. The projectile launched from a rifle or handgun is the critical element, the one thing that separates wild-meat eaters from people who buy it at the market. And there are five things one should understand about bullets. 1. Boattails are best. With but a few exceptions that apply to taking large, dangerous game primarily on the African continent, the spire-pointed boattail bullet is the best choice for Western hunters, especially those hunting open country. This projectile is superbly...

'Whether you're headed to Alaska, Africa or Australia, or planning a hunt for elk, moose or bear in the contiguous 48, you can't go wrong in choosing a Trophy Bonded Bear Claw,' says columnist. - Failure, it is often said, is the greatest teacher. In the hunting and shooting world, failures have inspired some innovative minds. John Nosler experienced bullet failure when hunting a huge Canadian bull moose and that incident led to the development of the Nosler Partition bullet. Jack Lott ended up further off the ground than he intended to be when he was tossed by a Mozambican...