A few years back, I had the privilege of visiting the NRA Whittington Center, a 33,000-acre stretch of high desert beauty tucked into the foothills of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, just southwest of Raton. I came away in awe of what the center offers adult shooters: an unrivaled collection of ranges, world-class competition venues and the kind of wide-open Western landscape that makes you feel like you’re back in time on the Santa Fe Trail. But since my visit, I’ve learned that one of the most compelling reasons to make the trip to Whittington has nothing to do…

Price is often considered to be a solid indicator of a firearm’s potential for good performance. If that were a hard-and-fast rule, my highly customized competition and carry model 1911s would shoot circles around my well-worn Springfield XD-S in .45 ACP, even with its aftermarket trigger. But, in reality, the XD-S offsets its lower capacity and slower split times by holding its own in accuracy and reliability at any distance. Don’t ask me how or why, it just does—and at a fraction of the cost. The last few years of my Army career were spent neck-deep in the rapid prototyping,…

Some members of the U.S. Army will begin receiving a new XM8 carbine for testing in October 2026, a shorter, lighter version of the M7 rifle introduced under the branch’s Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program. The carbine version was developed by SIG Sauer as part of its joint Product Improvement Effort with the U.S. Military. The gun received the official XM8 designation and stock number from the U.S. Army in March, according to Soldier Systems. The XM8 trims one full pound off the M7’s 8.3-pound heft. Its shorter barrel contributes to the weight savings, along with modifications to the…

Two things taught me to be a much better turkey caller. The first was when I started to semi-regularly kill bucks by snort-wheezing at them. Now I know that might seem disconnected from turkey hunting, but hear me out. Most hunters look at the snort-wheeze call as a dominant buck vocalization that is a straight-up challenge to fight.Because of this, hunters will spot a buck, snort-wheeze at it, and then usually get a negative or neutral response. They’ll reason that the buck isn’t a fighter, or isn’t in a mood to scrap, and give up on that call. I’m not…

Few things are more deflating than missing a turkey. If you think successful hunts are unforgettable, misses will etch themselves into the part of your brain that handles long-term memory. Months later, when you think you’ve gotten over it, you’ll wake up from that nightmare, drenched in sweat and panting as you think of all the things you could have done differently. If only you hadn’t moved or sat next to that sapling. Maybe you should have yelped to stop that bird before you shot. Meanwhile, phantom gobbles ring in your head like a chorus of mocking children. Even worse,…

Watch full video on YouTube

00:00:04 Speaker 1: Wow, what a beautiful animal. God get just to get a few moments to just watch that animal. Few people in the world will ever get to do that. You can be out. You can be out in this country your whole life, hiking, riding the mule, whatever. You might see a mountainlying in a lifetime. You know they’re just you just don’t see them. The only way you’re gonna see them and look at them like this right here is with hunting with these dogs. And we are a long ways from the truck, miles and…

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 Foundation’s podcast, which has brought to you by First Light. I’m your host, Tony Peterson, and today’s episode is all about turkeys and what we believe about them that will keep us from killing a limb hager this spring. We’re still in Turkey Week here…

I have always been interested monitoring ships and air traffic around the world, especially since 9/11. On that day I was fishing for salmon out of the middle of Lake Michigan, a very clear day and I noticed every jet in the sky was turning into a different direction heading somewhere else. Turning on the Marine radio and started to hear the chatter of what was going on around the country, I finished my sandwich and headed the boat for the harbor. Since then I have learned of several websites that show real-time movement of ships and airplane around the…

Watch full video on YouTube