On September 19, 1356, English forces under Edward the Black Prince defeated the French at the Battle of Poitiers and captured French King John II, during the Hundred Years’ War. Preceded by the Battle of Crécy in 1346, and followed by the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, it was the second of the three great English victories of the war. — September 19, 1778: The Continental Congress passed the first budget of the United States. — Also on this date in 1796, George Washington addressed the nation in his farewell address as President. — Today’s feature article is by JWR.…

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JWR’s Introductory Note:  This is an update and expansion of an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog back in 2009. I’ve corrected the article’s dead links and added some important details. — One bit of retreat architecture that I’ve often recommended to my consulting clients who are designing (or retrofitting) retreats is the inclusion of a protruding entryway foyer, that I call a crushroom. Passing this advice along to you gives me the chance to employ one of my horrible puns: The Meme of Crushroom. A crushroom is a controllable confined space, typically an entry foyer, that can be covered…

In honor of National Shooting Sports Month—held annually in August—along with the growing popularity of the sport with new participants, MidwayUSA Foundation announced it has distributed more than $14.2 million in cash grants to support youth shooting sports in 2025. The record-breaking figure for the year includes multiple programs offered by the Foundation that encompasses coach training, range development, organizational and team grants. Of the $14.2 million total, youth shooting teams received $7.7 million in cash grants. Many teams can take advantage of multiple programs. Murray State University’s Rifle Program received its annual team cash grant, as well as a range…

Last week, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed an order that could drastically remake the Public Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)—an account created by Congress in 1964, using revenue from offshore oil and gas leasing to assist in public-land management. The new directives, as outlined in Secretarial Order 3442, alter the priorities and usage of the money on lands managed by the Department of the Interior. (The order does not apply to National Forest lands, which are managed under the Department of Agriculture).Specifically, the order limits the scope of public land acquisitions by the Bureau of Land Management…

Since the end of World War II, debates have raged about the effectiveness of American armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) in that conflict. AFV aficionados tend to favor the larger, more heavily armed and armored German tanks, while deriding America’s Sherman tanks as thinly armored and under-gunned. No doubt, the German Tiger and Panther tanks are particularly impressive—visually and in the potential outlined by their pure factory specifications. From 1943-1945, German firepower and armor protection were unequaled. Even so, I’m one of those historians that likes to point to the scoreboard. Despite all the Monday morning armored quarterbacking, American AFVs were…

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Anti-hunting organizations have launched a campaign to ruin Florida’s black bear hunt by flooding the lottery with entries in the hopes of winning a permit and sitting out the hunt. But state officials tell MeatEater that their efforts may well backfire: if this year’s harvest goals aren’t met, bear hunting opportunities may increase in future years.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided to hold a black bear hunt this year for the first time since 2015. There are 187 bear permits available, and would-be hunters (or non-hunters) can enter to win one of the permits by purchasing a $5…

00:00:00 Speaker 1: How many times have we gone and we’re like this is not or even in a day, you know, like morning we’re optimistic. You know, you’re hearing bugles, you’re hearing but it’s just out but you’re like, it’s gonna happen, and then it doesn’t. Then you got the kind of the midday lull where some people go back to camp. We kind of die when we go back to camp. Why add is not good? So we either go if we’re by ourselves, we go push around bowls, you know, still and whatever. And then you have…

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