On January 5, 1477, the Battle of Nancy (now in France) was won by the Lorraine-Swiss forces led by René II, Duke of Lorraine. More than 7,000 Burgundians were killed, including Duke Charles The Bold. Thus ended the Burgundian Wars and the Burgundian State. — On January 5, 1914, industrialist Henry Ford announced his $5 minimum per-day wage. This doubled most workers’ pay from $2.40 for a 9-hour workday to $5 for an 8-hour workday. — January 5th is the birthday of the late John Pugsley (born 1934, died April 8, 2011), libertarian and economics author. Pugsley was well known…

Gunmakers are often quiet when they discontinue a gun model. We’ve all felt the pain of suddenly discovering a firearm we’d love to own that is no longer available. Three major companies in the last 60 days have given consumers a bit of warning that they were discontinuing long-produced models of popular guns, but their disappearance occurs, nonetheless. GlockIn mid-October 2025, Glock’s list of discontinued models grew significantly. Nearly every Internet pundit claimed it was a kneejerk reaction to legal action mounted in a half-dozen jurisdictions. It turns out the changes were in the works long before paperwork was filed.…

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

2025 was a difficult year to get through.  By the end of the year, I was not enjoying any of it.  In fact, I wanted to quit (do I feel this way at the end of every year?).  You have to laugh and find your sense of humor or you won’t make it through anything that is slightly difficult.  There were so many things that went wrong, so I had to sit down and list accomplishments to remind myself that a lot of things went right.  And once reminded of all the good, I can face the next year in…

On January 4, 871, the Viking Great Heathen Army defeated a Wessex force led by King Æthelred and his brother Alfred, in the First Battle of Reading. — January 4, 1896: Following Mormon abandonment of sanctioned polygamy, Utah was belatedly admitted as the 45th US state.  Settlers had first petitioned Congress for statehood in 1849. Several of Utah’s less populous neighboring territories had been admitted to statehood years earlier than Utah. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy…

Watch full video on YouTube

Sturm, Ruger & Co. has a knack for building modern firearms based on classic lines from decades ago, from the No. 1’s rendering of a modern Farquharson, to the Bearcat’s Remington New Model Pocket-esque profile. So it was no surprise that when the company decided to introduce its first shotgun in 1977, the gun took the form of the continental over-under shotgun. Called the “Red Label,” the shotgun has disappeared from the market two times, with Ruger recently announcing a third generation with its Red Label III.    The Red Label III marks the third generation of Ruger’s classic over-under shotgun.…

Watch full video on YouTube

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Once you have cut, stripped, and made the proper ring terminal connections to the wires, then the  next job is to solder them to the various locations as required; this will involve soldering the 6.0” wire and two other wires twisted together as one wire onto the variable capacitor of the kit. I used a dab of Kester 186 solder flux on the wires before I tinned them and then after I crimped the wires onto the terminals, I put a very small drop of the flux on the crimp connection and…