Articles by Herschel Smith

I agree with his perspective.

I couldn’t be less interested in what Navy SEAL umpty-so uses for EDC, or what Ranger bad boy carries in his Kydex IWB holster. That matters so little to me that I automatically switch off and find something else to occupy my time. Oh, and I couldn’t care less what the military uses or used. I will never switch to ceramic cartridge cases, and I have nothing that says Sig in my gun locker.

I am an engineer, and I love well-functioning machines, as well as machines that have been made with beauty. I also love that the guns that interest me have a relationship with the history of so many great men and my own country.

That’s why I admire Browning for the 1911 design, and Eugene Stoner for the AR-15 design (the genius of direct impingement putting the recoil in line with the bore axis still amazes me, along with the general reliability of the design), and so many men who contributed to lever action rifles. I want to see my 500 S&W magnum lever action rifle one day without having to spend the money at Bighorn Armory, and I wonder if it will ever happen.

I probably don’t need it because of .444 Marlin and 30-30 Marlin and 45-70 Marlin, but I want one anyway.

Because you can’t have those proles having the means to enforce their vote, can you? Channeling Mike Vanderboegh, if someone comes to your door and demands that you turn over your guns to the government, shoot them in the face.

For those who follow me on X, up until now I’ve just been insistent that they don’t deploy the Marines unless arming orders are issued.

Call me old fashioned, but personally I’m a big fan of peace officers and the Posse, and when more is needed, the unorganized militia. And shooting horse thieves and home invaders.

The problem with the unorganized militia is that it relies on a legitimate government to call it up, unless it self-mobilizes under its officers. You know there is militia in neighboring states that could mobilize quickly.

We’re here because of illegitimate government, and because America no longer believes in the Posse and the Militia.

Well, they're sporting pump action shotguns. I'd rather have a Benelli M4 or Beretta 1301 but whatever. I do wonder if those pouches have bean bags in them or what? What will they be shooting? Maybe pump action because bean bags won't work so well to cycle gas or inertia guns.

— CaptainsJournal (@BrutusMaximus50) June 10, 2025

Outdoor Life.

Lone Star lawmakers recently added aoudads to the list of animals hunters can shoot from helicopters in Texas as part of a management tool to aid in the ongoing fight against the invasive sheep.

Senate Bill 1245, which passed both state legislative chambers and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in May, will go into effect Sept. 1. The bill expands Texas’ aerial wildlife management permit system, which previously only listed feral hogs and coyotes, to include aoudad. Aerial culling efforts have helped Texas with its burgeoning feral swine population. A 2019 USDA study found that helicopter hog hunting, also called “porkchopping,” has successfully reduced hog numbers by at least 31 percent.

Gross. Well, whatever. That’s just my reaction. Do as you wish – I see value in hunting hogs any way you can.

As for Aoudad, I think I’d rather stalk them.

Outdoor Life.

If you’ve been out in the bush long enough, you know the difference between a fire that quietly gets the job done and one that gets you spotted or worse. Whether camping or hunting, a smokeless fire is the mark of true bushcraft skill. Clean-burning fires are cleaner, safer, more discreet and better for your health. Most people make the same common mistakes that cause a smoky mess. Large, smoky fires can result in long-term damage to your lungs. They can also compromise your location in survival scenarios and chase off wildlife. Consider whether you’re making these mistakes in your campfire assembly and learn solutions to help you build a responsible fire pit like a pro.

Yep, I’ve made all of those mistakes, but experience is a great teacher. Also, don’t burn rhododendron. The smoke makes you sick. Ask me how I know.

Source.

The themes of grief sometimes bubble over into righteous rage. In 2018, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Fla., Leckey began working on the song “Can’t Pray to Me.” In the bluesy, boisterous track, Leckey sings from the perspective of Mother Mary. “I am the mother of all children / I am the lady keeping watch,” she sings, imagining how Mary might react to gun violence in the U.S. today. “You can’t pray to me and keep your guns.”

[ … ]

Instead, Hell Gate is “not about being queer in the church — it just is queerness in the church,” she said. “There are so many ways to be Catholic. And being a queer person is inherently creative. God delights in our creativity.”

That last paragraph is a lie. Mary isn’t the person she described, and I’m not Roman Catholic anyway and I only pray to the Father through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So in a short missive, she missed on all cylinders. I’ll keep my guns, thank you.

Sheesh. How does society produce imbeciles like this?

Nice try, Grace. Come back after you’ve studied a bit and we’ll talk.

Source.

The hotly-debated hunting matter of how far is too far for ethical rifle shots came up again Friday at a Wyoming legislative committee, where lawmakers were in a quandary on how to regulate the issue.

Members of the Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee noted that extremely long-range hunting shots are a growing concern, as they relate to hunting ethics.

But they questioned whether there’s any practical way to regulate the practice without trying to legislate ethics and morals.

The topic “keeps coming up over and over,” but it’s difficult for regulations to stay ahead of the rapid pace of firearms and optics technology, committee member Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, said.

In one much talked-about instance, a hunter in Fremont County shot an antelope from nearly 2,000 yards away.

Some hunters argue that any shot beyond about 600 yards is just too far.

Committee co-chairman Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, said he’s been hearing concerns from the hunters among his constituents.

“It is definitely affecting Western Wyoming,” Byron said.

He noted that he heard a story about a hunter who was preparing to take a 400-yard shot at a big game animal, only to have another hunter blast it from much farther back.

I wouldn’t worry about regulating ethics and morals. All laws are legislated morality.

2000 yards is simply too far to take an ethical shot in my opinion. You’re risking pain and suffering of the game animal and that’s just not a moral thing to do. It’s a shame that hunters can’t self regulate, but also a testimony to a sad state of affairs where hunters want to be the next “stud” who took game from a greater distance than the last record. It seems to me sort of like golfers getting out and wanting to put little white balls in holes in the middle of a field. Men worry a great deal over what I consider to be a stupid game.

Erik Cortina has said that he wouldn’t take a shot on a game animal at further than 600 yards, and anyone else shooting out there isn’t Erik Cortina, plain and simple.

Again, it’s a crying shame that hunters don’t have the morals to self regulate.

Source.

As Florida moves forward with plans to reinstate a regulated black bear hunt for the first time since 2015, opponents of the hunt from around the world are mobilizing an unconventional tactic — applying for the lottery hunt en masse. If these anti-hunters draw a tag, they’ll hold onto it, effectively preventing a legal, well-intended bear hunter from drawing. Their goal is to flood the lottery and, theoretically, reduce the number of bears harvested.

“Never in my life did I think I’d be a hunter,” Chuck O’Neal, president of Speak Up Wekiva, a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the Wekiva River and its watershed, told Naples Daily News. “Now that we have a constitutional right to hunt, I might as well take advantage of that.”

The obvious answer for these idiots is to restrict tags to people who had a hunting license the previous year.

This happens because people don’t get out around feral animals. This could even be remedied by taking your children to farms and ranches.

Source.

Source.

Citigroup on Tuesday ended a seven-year-old policy restricting how it provides banking services to firearm manufacturers, sellers and resellers.

The bank launched the policy in March 2018 after a teenage gunman killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 that year.

Citi said at the time that it would require clients to “adhere to these best practices: (1) they don’t sell firearms to someone who hasn’t passed a background check, (2) they restrict the sale of firearms for individuals under 21 years of age, and (3) they don’t sell bump stocks or high-capacity magazines.”

The bank’s policy applied only to its business clients, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500-sized companies. It did not restrict how Citi’s personal banking customers used their cards. Citi says it provides banking services to more than 19,000 companies globally.

“As a society, we all know that something needs to change. And as a company, we feel we must do our part,” Citigroup Executive Vice President of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs Ed Skyler said in 2018.

But Skyler says things have changed. “The policy was intended to promote the adoption of best sales practices as prudent risk management and didn’t address the manufacturing of firearms,” he wrote Tuesday in a blog post announcing that Citi “will no longer have a specific policy as it relates to firearms.”

Operation choke point, it was called. And it’s illegal because it interferes with interstate commerce.

When the government creates a banking system and essentially forces everyone to use it for business, and then encourages that system to exclude certain actors, it’s also immoral.