Every hunter who has carried binoculars around his neck and a rangefinder in his pocket knows the routine. Find the animal in the glass. Let the binos drop. Dig out the rangefinder. Find the animal again in a tiny monocular. By then the buck has taken two steps into the timber and you are ranging [...]

A long range scope has one job that matters more than the rest: when you dial 10 mils, the reticle has to move 10 mils, every time, and come back to zero. Clear glass is nice. Tracking you can trust is everything. Every scope in this guide was put on a rifle and shot by [...]

Here is the dirty secret about the quietest suppressors on the market. A lot of them weigh more than a pound and stick out past the muzzle like a soup can on a broomstick. That is fine on a bench gun. Carry one up a ridge for three days and you will start doing math [...]

Small carry guns are hard to shoot well. Short grips, light slides and snappy recoil all work against fast, accurate follow-up shots, which is exactly what you need in a fight. A compensator built into the slide and barrel vents gas upward, pushes the muzzle down and makes a small pistol behave like a bigger [...]

The best .22 revolvers are some of the most fun and useful handguns you can own. They are quiet, cheap to shoot, nearly recoil free, and they do not care if you feed them high velocity, subsonic, or shot loads. That makes them great for teaching new shooters, small game, the trapline, and carrying on [...]

A pump gun will kill anything a semi-auto will. Ask anyone who grew up with an 870. But the first time you swing on a pair of mallards and the second shot just happens, without the forend slamming back, you understand why most bird hunters end up carrying an autoloader. Less recoil, faster follow-ups and [...]

The 20 gauge is the shotgun most people should probably own first, and plenty of 12 gauge shooters would be happier with one. It weighs less, it kicks less and it still kills birds and stops threats when you do your part. Our Stevens 320 reviewer estimated felt recoil at about half of an equivalent [...]

Most of us met the .410 as a kid’s gun. A pop can killer. The little shotgun Grandpa kept behind the door for snakes. Brian McCombie thought the same thing for decades, right up until hunters started killing turkeys with it at 30 yards and beyond. The .410 never got more powerful. The ammunition got [...]

Best Budget 2011 Pistols (2026) Forget the five-figure race gun with a waitlist and a personality cult. The best budget 2011 in 2026 is a double-stack 1911 that runs, hits, and still leaves you cash for ammo, a holster, and a red dot that stays zeroed. You wanted the best 2011 pistol, the best double-stack [...]