Free Republic

Hopefully, it doesn’t happen. Hopefully, we are never forced into a bad situation that requires us to rely on a firearm. However, if it ever does come to that, you need to know that you have the tools to put food on the table, keep predators at bay, and defend what is yours. Thankfully, some of these tools are already available to you. I’ve put together a list of five of the most popular utility guns that are reliable, durable, and available on the market. When the going gets tough, these guns will not let you down, and they won’t...

In case you're having a bad day, it could be worse. https://youtu.be/u0pf-uuT9Tk

While the total number of firearms sales for 2020 won’t be known for another couple of weeks, it is already evident that last year broke all the records. With just weeks until President-Elect Joe Biden is sworn in and moves into the White House, sales of guns are only likely to increase, and that means ammo prices are spiking across the nation. Ammo in Short Supply As numerous reports have highlighted, a driving factor in the increase of sales was due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but it wasn’t just gun owners stocking up. 2020 saw the largest increase in...

The Weather forecast for Washington, D.C. is freezing in the early morning hours with a low temperature of 31 degrees F. It will be partly cloudy, warming to 45 degrees on Wednesday the 6th. There is a 5% chance of rain. The same conditions prevail through Thursday the 7th of January, with a degree cooler in the morning and afternoon. https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Washington+DC?canonicalCityId=4c0ca6d01716c299f53606df83d99d5eb96b2ee0efbe3cd15d35ddd29dee93b2

The AR-15 is certainly one popular firearm. Simply put, the AR-15 the civilian version of the U.S. military’s M16. The only main difference being that you can’t fire in three-round bursts or full-automatic. But while it’s just as versatile, accurate, durable, and downright dependable as the one trusted by the uniformed services, the one thing you can do with an AR-15 that you couldn’t dream of doing in the military is customizing it. Think of Legos — but for grown-ups. Entering the vast and colorful world of rifle mods can be overwhelming at first, and it will take some time...

From 2008 until 2016, there was a shortage of civilian small arms ammunition. It began in late 2008 and continued through nearly all of 2010, and then began again in 2012. Almost all popular calibers including 9mm, 7.62mm, and .45 caliber were impacted – and it impacted the once cheaply priced .22 LR as sport shooters turned to the smaller caliber weapons. It doesn’t take a serious study to note that the ammo shortage began with the election of President Barack Obama, who was often noted to be “the greatest gun salesmen” in the history of the United States. Fears...

#KISS2020GOODBYE includes the largest stage ever built by humans, 50 cameras, 360-degree angles and $1 million worth of pyrotechnics, live streamed from the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. Starts at Noon ET. Full global schedule at link.

Sometimes the military needs a little bit of nudging to determine it actually needs a new weapon. That might just be the short version of the history of the Barrett M82. The U.S. military has a proven track record of sometimes not seeing the potential, and this was true initially of the machine gun – and more recently with a very high powered sniper rifle. The concept of large rifles isn’t entirely new. Large caliber “wall guns” had been used since the 16th century in Europe, and remained in use throughout the 18th and 19th century in India and China...

How Tim Bero went from making floppy disks to manufacturing semiauto .50-caliber machineguns, helping save Humvee crews' lives in the Second Gulf War and now, Multi-Caliber Survival Rifles, Pistols, and more. TNW Firearms first made a name for itself among American shooters 20 years ago in a really big way with a really big gun. That gun was a semi-automatic, full-size replica of the military M2 HB .50-caliber heavy machinegun, a weapon that's seen continuous use in all theaters of war from the 1930s to the present. That sexy belt-fed beast, known affectionately as the Ma Deuce in military circles,...

I have no other words for this... https://twitter.com/rubinreport/status/1340099167964688386?s=21

The only recoil-cancelling pistol made, this first successful British automatic may be largely forgotten today given the rise of the M1911, but it sported notable features for its time. Recoil and muzzle bounce are a fact of life for pistol shooters firing powerful calibers. The time taken to recover from that muzzle bounce is the biggest limiting factor on accurate rapidfire. Only one pistol has successfully engaged this problem and eliminated it: the Webley & Scott .455 automatic pistol. It accomplishes this miracle with its unique locking system. More on that later, but rapidfire is furthered by perhaps the best...

Want to bag a buck? Head to the South and Midwest, where the huntin’s good for America’s deer. The deer hunting sector has been changing over the last few years, with new entrants moving into the top positions as far as the number and quality of white-tail deer hunting is concerned. Judging which states are working hardest to produce a high number of deer for hunting can be difficult, but there have been many changes to the states that sit at the top of the list in the last few years. The best States for deer hunting are spread through...

Widespread, severe flooding has killed at least nine people and affected 210 000 households or more than half a million people in southern Thailand, officials reported Friday, December 4, 2020, describing the situation as the worst they have seen in 50 years. A state of emergency has been declared for Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, where all the fatalities occurred. Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) said another person reportedly went missing. The youngest victim was a child aged five. DDPM added that the affected provinces are Surat Thani, Phatthalung, Trang, Songkhla, Pattani, Narathiwat, and the worst-hit, Nakhon Si...

An uptick in activity has been observed at the Nicaraguan Telica volcano on Monday, November 30, 2020, with low-level ash emission and dozens of explosions at regular rates. Ashfall was reported in nearby communities, including El Panal, Cristo Rey, Los Cocos, and Los Ángeles​. At least 50 explosions were recorded within 9 hours on November 30, with a maximum height of ash between 100 and 400 m (330 - 1 300 feet) above the crater. This is about 1.5 km (5 000 feet) above sea level. "This activity is part of the normal behavior of an active volcano and it...

The soil under Dar el Sallam, the finance capital of Tanzania, is mysteriously liquefying under homes and businesses. Mud has been seen coming out of the soil, destroying at least 9 houses (total collapse), cracking tens of others and prompting mass evacuations. Residents started taking the situation seriously when a child and a cow almost drowned in one of the mud pools The source of the oozing mud is unknown It was first thought it could be coming from a small stream. But then the similar phenomenon was discovered in many neighboring districts of the town. So what the heck?...

Unseasonal ice storms hit many parts of Russia on November 18 and 19, 2020, causing power outages, traffic chaos, and the collapse of key infrastructure systems in the Far East. An overnight storm accompanied by strong northerly winds and ice rain -- described by The Siberian Times as 'weather apocalypse' -- caused the collapse of key systems in the Russian Far East on November 19, 2020, leaving at least 120 000 people without electricity. Vladivostok and most of the Primorye region were turned into frozen land, the paper reported, adding that hundreds of power lines were cut by wet snow...

A new blaze, the Silverado Fire, prompted evacuations for about 60,000 residents – also affected about 10 schools – Monday in the Orchard Hills neighborhood of Irvine, Orange County, California. The fire, which began Monday morning at 6:47 a.m. PDT, quickly exploded to 500 acres during some of the season’s most extreme fire conditions. Much of the state is under red flag warnings because of high winds and low humidity. Wind gusts and low humidity are making for dangerous conditions in parts of California. Gusts over 80 mph have been recorded. At least 20 wildfires still have not been fully...

Australia has been hit by more than 2.24 million lightning strikes in just 48 hours as wild weather battered the east coast over the weekend. Storms and damaging winds up to 100km/h wreaked havoc in multiple states, with volunteers responding to hundreds of calls for help. The weather bureau said most of the 2.24 million lightning strikes were recorded in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory, with more storms expected this week. The same wave of extreme weather slammed Southern Australia with more than 120,000 lightning strikes on October 22, 2020. In Melbourne’s outer east a woman aged in her...

Royal Tiger Imports brings Ethiopia’s Arsenal to America - If you don’t know by now, Royal Tiger Imports is offering for sale some of the rarest late 19th century to mid-20th century military rifles and carbines to ever make their way to the collector market. What makes them really significant is not so much the types of weapons available, as it is their remarkable and undisputable provenance to Ethiopia. One of the least studied and most important military powers in Africa, Ethiopia’s history was shaped by the arms its people bore. Military history buffs have likely, at least, heard of...

This week stargazers will be able to see up to 25 shooting stars per hour fly across the night sky as the Orionid Meteor Shower puts on its annual show. These meteors streak across the sky each October, through until November 7 – but peak viewing is expected on Wednesday, October 21 around midnight. This cosmic event happens when Earth passes through stream of debris left behind Comet Halley – the parent comet of the Orionid shower. You should be able to see the shooting stars from whatever direction you look, but they will appear to come from the constellation...