Best Lever Action Rifles (2026) Picking the best lever action rifle in 2026 is not about cosplay cowboy hats or Instagram blackout furniture. It is about a gun that cycles slick when your gloves are wet, hits what you aimed at inside real hunting distances, and still makes sense if your state side-eyes semi-autos. Lever [...]

Picking the best home defense shotgun in 2026 is not about meme furniture or the loudest influencer discount code. It is about a 12 gauge that runs when your heart rate is doing stupid things, patterns buckshot where you aimed, and still works after you have ignored the cleaning kit for a week. Shotguns remain [...]

Picking the best waterfowl shotgun in 2026 is not about the loudest marsh camo on the rack. It is about a gun that cycles steel when the thermometer is lying, shrugs off salt spray and mud, and still swings when a flock of mallards cups at last light. Duck blinds are wet, cold, and full [...]

The best scout rifles follow a simple idea from Jeff Cooper: one light, short, handy bolt action rifle that can do almost anything a lone rifleman needs. Cooper’s recipe called for a .308, a barrel of 19 inches or less, an overall length of 39 inches or less, a forward mounted low power scope, reserve [...]

A wood stock is beautiful right up until it swells in the rain and your zero walks off. A cheap plastic stock flexes every time you load a bipod. Neither one cares how much you paid for the barrel. That is why so many serious bolt guns end up in an aluminum chassis. The action [...]

The .357 Magnum is 91 years old and still the cartridge people pick when they want one revolver to do a little of everything. That should tell you something. It shoots .38 Special for cheap practice and soft house loads. It shoots full-house Magnums when the target is a hog, a coyote or something worse [...]

The best Vortex scopes cover just about every job a rifle or pistol can do, from a budget deer scope to an LPVO that costs more than most of the rifles it rides on. That range is the reason Vortex is the brand so many shooters start with, and the reason it is so easy [...]

The 6.5 Creedmoor started life in 2008 as a match cartridge and turned into the most popular all-around rifle round in America. It shoots flat, it bucks wind better than a .308 with less recoil, and long, high-BC bullets carry plenty of energy for deer. Our CMMG reviewer pointed out that it is still supersonic [...]

Picking the best turkey shotgun in 2026 is not about the loudest camo pattern on the rack or the magazine ad with the prettiest tom. It is about a gun that patterns TSS where your bead (or red dot) says it will, cycles or racks when a bird hangs up at forty yards, and still [...]