For me, drill practice is about isolating a few critical performance elements and pushing them under honest pres- sure. The goal is not to chase perfect runs, but to build a repeatable process that holds up when time, distance and consequences start to stack. Progress comes from consistency, not from the occasional lucky score. The Pistol Standard Xray 2 is a clean, demanding test of pistol fundamentals at distance, combined with a reload and a position change. Shot at 25 yards, it forces you to respect sight picture, trigger control and recoil management while staying aware of the clock. The…

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A quarter of a millennium ago this July 4, John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. He wrote his name flamboyantly with big loops, underlined it, and placed his signature in the center of the parchment, knowing this act made it more likely he would be hanged by the British for treason. Hancock’s brave gesture gave us variations of the cheerful line “put your John Hancock here,” as Americans have always celebrated those willing to stand boldly for our freedom. Now we are 250 years into this experiment of individual liberty and America is still the…

In 2020, Springfield Armory introduced its first centerfire bolt-action rifle design with the aptly named Model 2020 Waypoint. While the initial Waypoint design was intended to be more of a precision platform, Springfield has since come out with several field-ready variants of the Model 2020, including the Boundary. Watch our “Gun of the Week” episode above to see the details of this bolt-action design. “Springfield Armory has come out with a few different iterations of this design, and the Boundary is really designed, in some ways, to be a little bit more of the traditionally sort of designed rifle,” American…

Growing up, I always wanted to be around my dad. My older sister and mom tell stories of me standing at the screen door in diapers, crying and screaming because I wasn’t on the tractor with him. Eventually, I got old enough to realize that if I wanted to hang with the old man, I better learn how to fish.Now, I don’t envy anyone attempting to teach a preteen girl how to cast a fly rod. Somehow, my dad managed to pull it off and instill a lifelong love of angling in me. He would hammer (what I now realize…

On June 4, 2026, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled that law enforcement cannot stop and search a person merely because they see a gun—or the outline of one printing from a concealed holster. This case is Steven Hicks v. State of Maryland. This decision marks a post-New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) evolution in how law enforcement interacts with armed citizens in the Old Line State. The Second Amendment, after all, protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. In Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that the right to lawfully carry firearms extends…

As they say, the 2026 Annual Members’ Meeting in Houston is a wrap. More than 73,000 freedom-loving Second Amendment supporters—the highest number since the COVID pandemic—joined us for three days of celebrating freedom. If you didn’t attend, you missed the crown jewel—the exhibit hall! Not just another gun show, the exhibit hall featured more than 540 exhibitors over 14 acres of exhibit space, showcasing the latest in guns, gear and gadgets. Building on last year’s Annual Meeting, Voices of the Second Amendment included 34 social-media providers live from the exhibit floor to more than 30 million followers. This year, the…

There are a lot of cool barrel-swap systems in the firearm world, but most are expensive, and sometimes a whole new rifle is required. The SwitchLug by West Texas Ordnance is designed for popular rifles, and it’s a modern system that doesn’t require buying new rifle. Instead, it’s a simple lug change on the action, and it’s about as easy of a barrel change as possible. West Texas Ordnance & The Lore of the LugWest Texas Ordnance, Inc. (WTO) was founded by Marine Clayton Smith and his wife in 2009 after active duty; the SwitchLug system was patented and then…

I funded my extended stay in college by working at a local gunshop on weekends and semester breaks. For five or so years I saw thousands of guns come through those doors. I had the privilege of shouldering a handful of rifles I knew I’d never own. Some of them lived behind bars or velvet-lined cases. Before leaving for my first “real” job, I managed to walk away with a few good ones: a slick Winchester Model 70 featherweight in Jack O’Connor’s beloved .270 Win. and, my personal favorite, a Savage Model 99F in .308.There were plenty others I would…