This Week in History: On  August 4, 1873, while protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the US 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (pictured), clashed for the first time with the Sioux Indian tribe near the Tongue River, killing one man on each side. — August 6, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. It was described by Voltaire as “in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Emperor Francis II renounced his title of Holy Roman Emperor, becoming instead the first Emperor of Austria. — August 4, 1900: An allied expeditionary force, made up of Japanese,…

Ask a half dozen hunters what makes the perfect UTV setup, and you’ll get six different answers. None of them are wrong.The UTV that hauled me around the Idaho mountains chasing bugling bull elk looked a lot different than the rig I use to hunt the soggy river bottoms back home in eastern North Carolina.Out west, a hunting rig needs to handle long climbs and steep terrain. At home, it’s more about mud, thick brush, and hauling deer. If it’s duck season, it might also end up loaded with decoys and an impatient retriever. And that’s the thing about building…

00:00:08 Speaker 1: If this is the me Eater podcast coming at you shirtless, severely, bug bitten, and in my case, underwear listening. 00:00:16 Speaker 2: Podcast, you can’t predict anything brought to you by first Light. When I’m hunting, I need gear that won’t quit. First light builds, no compromise, gear that keeps me in the field longer, no shortcuts, just gear that works. Check it out at first light dot com. 00:00:35 Speaker 1: That’s f I R S T L I T E dot com. Okay, folks, saddle up or put your life jackets on, because we’re…

00:00:04 Speaker 1: Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to get serving both. Big shout out to ONEX Hunt for their support of this podcast. I’m your host, Lake Pickle, and in this episode we’ve got some big and exciting news. There is a new hunting season, like brand new getting opened up to the public and that doesn’t happen every day. The state of Louisiana is opening a special black bellied whistling duck season this October. I mean, how cool is that? New hunting opportunities…

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Much of what one learns is truly inexpressible to others—so it’s a wonderful rarity when someone can put their knowledge into words. Bill Wilson, of Wilson Combat, started by plinking at a young age, but in the 1970s, he began gunsmithing in the back of his family’s jewelry store in Berryville, Ark., calling this one-man effort Wilson’s Gun Shop, which later evolved into Wilson Combat. Wilson became a top competitor in numerous disciplines during the same time period. Just as he became known for his shooting skills, Wilson Combat became known for high standards of quality and performance. Wilson was…

Armed Citizen® Today In Hancock County (near Indianapolis) on July 21, a man driving a Dodge began following a man driving a Volkswagen extremely closely. When the two vehicles had to stop in a construction area, the Dodge driver exited his vehicle, aggressively approached the other driver and initiated a confrontation, pointing into the window, cussing in a “very hostile” manner and threatening bodily harm. The Volkswagen driver apparently drew his firearm in fear for his life and the life of his female passenger, whereupon the aggressor mocked him and told him to get out of the vehicle. He then…

The American Custom Gunmakers Guild (ACGG) Foundation announced the introduction of its new “Doug Turnbull Firearms Restoration Arts Grant,” which is an expansion on the foundation’s mission to support gunsmithing education in the United States. The grant is named in honor of Doug Turnbull, the founder of Turnbull Restorations, a dedicated firearm-restoration company. The shop began as a one-man operation and has since expanded into a full team of experienced gunsmiths that provide a careful, tried-and-true approach to the restoration of classic arms. The new grant will introduce gunsmithing students to the fundamental skills necessary to restore vintage firearms. Through…

Gun control activists have become increasingly emboldened. The shift from targeting the margins to challenging the mainstream signals nothing is off-limits. Gun bans are being aimed at the most popular firearms in America. Now, even hunting—which survives in countries that ban defensive gun use—is being targeted. In Oregon, Initiative 28 (IP28), also known as the PEACE Act (People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions Act), is a ballot initiative petition that seeks to ban hunting, fishing, trapping and wildlife management, along with many traditional agricultural practices. Whether it will reach voters in November remains to be seen, but this…

For most of the American shooting public, duty holsters don’t warrant much consideration because their bulk, plus their multi-level locking and firearm retention system, aren’t relevant for those who carry concealed on a daily basis. For the average American, it’s enough to have a holster that has solid friction retention while still remaining easily concealable. But, duty holsters have their place, particularly in law-enforcement and security circles, and they do provide some benefits to civilian users, too. Watch our latest “I Carry” video above for the rundown on some of the latest models. “For many years, Safariland was the 800-pound…