All guides
Thirteen categories, ordered roughly by how much difference the purchase makes to your shooting.
Rifle scopes
Glass is the one component that reliably outlives the rifle underneath it. Here is what the spec sheet is actually telling you, an…
Thermal optics
Thermal is the category where the spec sheet lies most often, because manufacturers quote detection range against a human-sized ta…
Red dot sights
The fastest sighting system ever put on a gun, and the one where mounting footprint compatibility causes more wasted money than an…
Laser rangefinders
Every rangefinder box quotes a headline number measured off a highway sign. The number you care about is the one measured off an a…
Binoculars
The optic you will actually look through most. Most hunters would be better served spending more here and less on the scope.…
Mounts & rings
The cheapest part of the optical system and the one most likely to be blamed on the scope when it fails.…
Gun safes
Most residential gun safes are certified against a five-minute attack with hand tools. Knowing that changes what you should be sho…
Lockboxes
Three different jobs — flying, securing in a vehicle, and fast bedside access — with three genuinely different sets of requirement…
Ammo storage
Modern smokeless ammunition stored cool, dry and sealed lasts decades. Stored in a humid garage in a cardboard box, it can be comp…
Range bags
Ammunition is dense. A bag that felt fine empty in a store is a different object with five hundred rounds of 9mm in it.…
Hearing protection
Noise-induced hearing loss is cumulative and permanent. This is the least glamorous and most consequential purchase on the whole s…
Eye protection
Ordinary sunglasses are not eye protection. The standard printed on the frame is the entire point of the purchase.…
Shooting gloves
A glove that improves your grip and ruins your trigger feel is a net loss. The trade-off lives almost entirely in the index finger…