Author: Gunner Quinn

Sturm, Ruger & Co. is making friends all over the place. For, in manufacturing as in life, who you know can be just as important as what you know. Quickly proving that the company’s partnership with Magpul to design and produce the capable RXM 9 mm Luger semi-automatic pistol was no mere one-off, Ruger introduced the second member of its burgeoning RX series of intra-industry collaborations at this year’s NRA Annual Meetings with the announcement of the two-model RXD suppressor line. And, yet again, Ruger’s choice of dance partner illustrates just how much care and deliberation the gunmaker is putting…

JWR’s Introductory Note:  At just over 20,000 words, this is perhaps the longest single-topic contributed article ever serialized in SurvivalBlog. I consider it an important piece to ponder.  Please read all seven parts before sending your comments. I will post most of them in the Snippets column on October 29th. — I want to start with a brief but sincere thank you to all the article writers I have learned from here at SurvivalBlog.com. Your efforts have made a difference for me and many others. I hope my contribution can have a similar benefit to others. Thank you. Let me…

On October 20, 1600, the Battle of Sekigahara established the Tokugawa clan as Japan’s rulers (Shoguns.) — October 20, 1634: King of England Charles I levied the “Ship Money” tax on all English and Welsh counties. — October 20, 1906: Dr Lee DeForest demonstrated his electrical vacuum tube. (Soon commonly called a radio tube.) — Today is the birthday of the late Tom Petty. (Born October 20, 1950, died October 2, 2017). He was a great singer-songwriter and a passable actor. — Today is also the birthday of shootist Ed McGivern (born 1874, died December 12, 1957.) He was born…

Precipitation and humidity can render a standard paper target unusable in only seconds, which is what makes Rite In The Rain’s line of weatherproof targets such a godsend for outdoor shooters. Not only does the company’s patented moisture-shield coating hold up to rainy and muggy conditions and allow the targets to be written on when wet, but the paper has been designed to leave clean, easy-to-distinguish impacts when hit. Coming 100 to a pack, the double-sided 8½”x11″ 25 Meter M16A2/M4 Zeroing Targets were developed by the U.S. military to help riflemen zero their 5.56 NATO-chambered carbines and rifles at either…

Most Google searches now return with a series of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated snippets that allegedly summarize information provided by linked websites. How it determines which details to display and whether pro-Second Amendment websites get equal consideration in results is a closely guarded, Silicone Valley secret. The summaries, which began appearing in May 2024, are negatively impacting nearly every firearm-related website today and the pace is accelerating. Year-over-year firearm sales figures are on a similar tangent. Dangerous InformationMost people readily recognize how false-information snippets can appear in search results. Others are not as experienced. Hunters heading afield this fall, for example,…

The Benjamin M600 Airbow is an outstanding development in the world of archery. It is powerful, accurate, and easy to use. Using pre-charged pneumatic power, it delivers arrows downrange at up to 600 feet per second with 300 foot pounds of energy. With a weight of 6.8 pounds and a length of 33 inches, the M600 delivers these features in a reasonably light and compact package. The M600 is made in the USA with globally sourced components. At the time of this writing, it cost $829.90 at benjaminairguns.com. The only drawback to airbows at this time is that most state…

October 19, 1987: Black Monday. Stock market indices around the world crashed, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which fell 508.32 points (22%). That was 4½ times the previous daily record. — October 19th also marks the anniversary of Operation Gatling; the famous “Green Leader” raid in 1978 in which Rhodesia attacked ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army) in retaliation for ZIPRA shooting down a scheduled passenger flight, Rhodesia flight 825, during the Rhodesian Bush War. The Rhodesian military suffered only minor casualties in the raid, but claimed to have killed 1,500 ZIPRA personnel as well as some Cuban military…

The lever-action just might be the quintessential American rifle and has experienced a renaissance as of late with everything from the revival of classics to modern, tactical versions. Smith & Wesson made the public aware of its heritage as one of the first lever-action manufacturers when it introduced its 1854 series in 2024. New for 2025, and just in time for whitetail season, Smith & Wesson is adding the .30-30 Win. chambering to its Model 1854 lineup. Introduced in 2024, Smith & Wesson has expanded the chambering options for its Model 1854 rifles, with .30-30 Win. being the most recent…

October 18th 1356: The Basel Earthquake. This was the most significant historically recorded seismological event north of the Alps. It destroyed the city of Basel, Switzerland. It was rebuilt with many of the buildings that can still be seen today. — October 18th, 1662 was the birthday of Matthew Henry (died 22 June 1714). He was a Presbyterian minister who lived primarily in Chester, England. Matthew Henry’s six-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (commonly called Matthew Henry’s Commentary) (1708–1710) is a must for the bookshelf of any serious Bible scholar. — Today’s feature article is short piece by…

Last week, the U.S. Senate voted to overturn three BLM resource management plans (RMPs), paving the way for increased energy development on select public lands. The congressional resolution targeted the Miles City Field Office in eastern Montana, the Alaska Office’s Central Yukon district, and the entirety of the North Dakota Field Office.The strategic selections single out regions with particularly dense natural resources. In Montana, the primary target is coal deposits in the Powder River Basin; in North Dakota, it’s the oil-rich “Bakken formation;” and in Alaska, the mineral-laden Brooks Range, which would require construction of the 200-mile-long “Ambler Road” to…