Various U.S. Circuit Courts have ruled that the AR-15, often called “America’s rifle,” can be banned. Meanwhile, on July 17, 2026, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, struck down New Jersey’s long-standing ban on these popular semi-automatic “assault firearms” and magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds as unconstitutional. This tees up this critical constitutional issue for the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear cases challenging bans of these popular semi-automatic in the coming term. To make sense of this issue, Joseph Greenlee, director of the Office of Litigation Counsel at the NRA Institute for Legislative…

Speer Ammunition’s Gold Dot Deals promotion, which offers consumers a rebate worth 20 percent of their purchase price, launched July 1. Gold Dot is a trusted line of bonded-core, jacketed hollow point ammunition, widely considered an industry standard for self-defense and law enforcement duty. To take advantage of this rebate, customers must purchase at least two boxes of qualifying Speer self-defense handgun ammunition between July 1 and Aug. 31, 2026. Eligible purchases qualify for a rebate of 20 percent of the purchase price, excluding taxes, fees, shipping and handling. The maximum rebate is $200 per person or household. Rebate submissions…

The VX-5HD Gen 2 is an updated and improved version of one of the most versatile lines of hunting scopes on the market. Built with an array of features, the line delivers everything required to fill tags and freezers during the magical hours of first and last light. While I chose the 3-15×44 mm option in the new lineup, there are a variety of others that are quite tempting, including a 4-20×52 mm, a 1-5×44 mm, a 2-10×42 mm and a 3-15×56 mm, just to name a few, most offered with a variety of reticle options. My test sample boasted…

Changes recently posted on the Federal Register by the Commerce Department and State Department on July 23 signal a major change for a growing segment of the firearm industry. The rules transfer export licensing of firearm suppressors from the State Department to the Commerce Department. They finish a U.S. Munitions List to Commerce Control List (USML to CCL) transition process launched by the Trump Administration in 2020. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) issued the coordinated rules. They remove suppressors from the USML and place them on the CCL. “Eight years…

Watch full video on YouTube

00:00:01 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Tony Peterson. 00:00:20 Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation’s podcast was brought to you by first Light. I’m heros Tony Peterson, and today’s episode is all about how we think about big deer and why that often doesn’t do us a whole lot of good. Metacognitive thinking is a way…

Author’s Introductory Note: Please remember all of my writings are a Gedankenexperiment, not a form of advice, but an extended thought experiment. I can safely conclude that the Republic has likely fallen just before its 250th Birthday. My ancestors were founders of the original Republic and I am one of the small percentage of Heritage Americans left with 97.5 percent of people who reside in the United States having no original colonial Patriot blood flowing in their veins. I do not make this pronouncement lightly or gleefully, but solemnly as my family has for generations warned against the dangers of…

00:00:01 Speaker 1: Like Apollo thirteen in the nineteen seventies, Thomas Jefferson’s eighteen oh six Red River expedition into the West was a failure. This is part two of how their stories should have gone. I’m Dan Flores, and this is the American West, the river that flowed from nowhere. Part two January fifteenth, eighteen oh seven, Knakotish doctor Sibley’s home, my dearest President Jefferson, and so our journey continued. On the thirtieth of September, with the Red River commencing to from a northwest direction and the unfamiliar mountains gathering their strange shapes around us, we came to a considerable…

This Week in History: On July 28, 1851, the first-ever photograph of a total solar eclipse was captured on a daguerreotype by Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski at the Royal Observatory in Königsberg, Prussia. — On or about July 28, 1586, English astronomer and mathematician Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to England on his return from Roanoke Island, in modern-day North Carolina. (The date is disputed.) — July 29, 238: The Roman Senate and Praetorian Guard proclaimed 13-year-old Gordian III as Emperor. He was the youngest-ever emperor of a united Rome. — July 29, 1609: Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two…

Logging cuts, also known as clear-cuts, are some of the best places to find mature bucks in the big woods. They provide a focal point in an otherwise monotonous landscape. You can also readily spot them while e-scouting. The problem is, everyone else realizes this too. While clear-cuts attract deer for bedding or browse, they also attract a lot of pressure.Luckily, whitetails adapt regardless of hunting pressure, and logging cuts can still hold mature bucks. You just need to stop hunting them like everyone else. Take a step back and evaluate how you’re hunting an area. After that, you’ll need…