In this era, if you use the term “Heavy Browning,” many people will assume you are referring to the .50-cal. Browning M2 machine gun. While that is technically correct, Browning’s massive .50-cal. design is truly in a category of its own. Call it semantics, but in the first half of the 20th century, the term “Heavy Browning” referred to the .30 -cal. M1917 water-cooled machine gun.  In early 1918, there were two Browning machine gun designs being prepared for service: the Browning Automatic Rifle and the tripod-mounted M1917. While the nearly 20-pound M1918 BAR may have been heavy for a…

Taurus has launched the TX9 polymer-frame, striker-fired 9 mm family of handguns. This series of full-size, compact and subcompact pistols represents the next evolution of Taurus’s TX platform, formerly only available as the TX22 rimfire, but now in centerfire variants. Taurus delivers this new pistol as a reliable, professional-grade firearm purpose-built to perform when it matters most and deliver ultimate reliability, regardless of intended use. Becoming more and more familiar in the handgun world, the TX9 uses a serialized chassis as the fire-control group which allows a wide range of customization and optimization for the individual shooter. In addition to…

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) recently announced that the culprits of “extensive wildlife poaching activity” have pleaded guilty. The agency says that game wardens were initially alerted to the illegal behavior in Wilson and Rutherford counties by a concerned citizen in the fall of 2024.During the ensuing investigation, TWRA game wardens identified Robert E. Comer and Carson Smith for illegally hunting whitetail deer—and perhaps even more shockingly, of illegally selling and bartering whitetail deer meat. At the time, Comer had already been banned from possessing a hunting license for three years following a conviction for previous wildlife infractions.The game…

In 2024, Smith & Wesson surprised the industry by launching an all-new lever-action rifle. Dubbed the Model 1854, the design was initially available in .44 Magnum only, but a couple of years on, several new models have been introduced. Watch our “American Rifleman Television” Rifleman Review segment above for a closer look at one of the latest designs, the Model 1854 Stealth Hunter. “It was 170 years after the company was founded in 1854 that Smith & Wesson came out with its Model 1854 lever-action rifle, and it made a big splash,” American Rifleman’s Brian Sheetz said. “The 1854 now…

On paper, shotgun patterns are deceiving. The pattern board reveals only a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional shot string, suggesting that all the pellets from a payload arrive simultaneously. Nothing could be further from the truth. As soon as pellets exit the shotgun muzzle, they begin to string out. Depending on the shot type, a shot string can be 12 to 15 feet long and three to four feet in diameter at 40 yards.So, you must think of your pattern as a comet, rather than a wall of shot, where the most spherical pellets arrive at the target first and…

00:00:14 Speaker 1: My name is Clay Nukam and this is a production of the bear Grease podcast called The bear Grease Rendered, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by FHF Gear, American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear that’s designed to be as rugged as the place as we explore. 00:00:46 Speaker 2: We’re here with doctor Adam McCall and Josh Lambridge spilmmaker. Happy New Year, by the way, Happy New Year. 00:00:53 Speaker 3: How’s it already twenty twenty six? 00:00:55 Speaker 2: You know,…

I live in a part of the South known as the Pine Belt. Most of the public lands in this part of Mississippi and Alabama consist almost entirely of old-growth or managed pine stands. There’s a running joke that the deer in this area survive on a diet of pine cones. If you’ve ever hunted in some of these places, you might actually start to believe it. Unlike the big bucks of Mississippi’s delta or Alabama’s Black Belt, a mature buck down here might tip the scales at 160 pounds while sporting 115 inches of headgear, save the exceptions.Still, there’s…

BANISH Suppressors introduced its BANISH 556, a design the company claims is the most advanced 5.56 NATO/.223 Rem. suppressor on the market. This new hard-use suppressor is tailored for full-automatic and semi-automatic use and includes controlled-flow technology to mitigate back pressure while optimizing sound and flash suppression.  “Everything we have learned about materials, manufacturing, and the dynamic movement of pressurized gas through suppressors has been leveraged in making the BANISH 556,” said Brandon Maddox, BANISH Suppressors Founder and CEO. “I challenged the design team to create a new 5.56 suppressor that offers best-in-class noise and flash reduction, low back pressure,…

On December 15, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announced the end of a controversial CWD control program: a sharpshooting initiative that involved baiting and spotlighting deer in areas where CWD has been detected. MDC Director Jason Sumners announced the news in an open letter.“As CWD has spread in Missouri over the last decade, MDC’s objective has been and continues to be to keep CWD infection rates low to protect the long-term health of the deer herd. This extensive undertaking can only be accomplished by working collaboratively with hunters and landowners,” he wrote. “At this time, MDC will be pausing…

Reliable, accurate and endlessly customizable, the Ruger 10/22 has sold more than 8 million units since its introduction in 1964, becoming one of the company’s most iconic gun models and one of the industry’s most successful semi-automatic rimfire rifle designs in the process. Much like the AR-15 and the Glock 19, over the decades it has cultivated a massive aftermarket ecosystem; today it is possible to build an entire 10/22-pattern firearm without using a single Ruger-manufactured component. However, not content to rest on its laurels, Ruger continues to innovate within the rimfire space. In late 2024, the company released a…