After eight weekends of field testing on the coast, in the New Forest, and on a few overland trips into Snowdonia, our team put ten of the best camp hatchets with holsters through their paces for . We chopped oak, processed ash kindling, drove tent stakes into gravel, and strapped every sheath to a pack […]

After three summers of testing fabrics over open fires, charcoal grills, and camp stoves, I can tell you that the best camp cooking aprons earn their place in your gear hauler in ways a regular kitchen apron never will. Sparks fly differently at a campfire, soot gets everywhere, and a wet sleeve brushing a hot […]

I've burned through more butane canisters than I'd like to admit over the last decade of car camping, backpacking trips, and home cooking with a kitchen torch. Some worked great. A few failed me on a chilly morning when my stove cut out mid-boil, and one cheap canister actually clogged a torch lighter beyond repair. […]

If you've ever lost a flipping pitch into a pad field or wondered why your Texas-rigged worm slid past a hooked bass without getting bit, the answer was probably the bullet sinker on your line. I've spent the last decade fishing for largemouth and smallmouth across Texas reservoirs, the Carolinas, and the Great Lakes, and […]

After a full September rut pushing through aspen stands from Colorado to New Mexico with seven different bugle tubes strapped to my pack, I can tell you the best bugle tubes for elk are not all created equal. Some sound like a kazoo in the wrong hands, others carry a screaming challenge half a mile […]

Bottle jacks are an excellent choice for trucks because their tall, narrow footprint slips under higher ride heights where a standard floor jack barely fits. After 90 days of testing ten hydraulic bottle jacks on a half-ton Silverado, a 3.5-inch lifted Wrangler, and a 1-ton dually, I can tell you the real difference between a […]

I still remember the first time a boomerang actually came back to me. I was 11, standing in a field with a cheap foam thing from a souvenir shop, and after what felt like 40 missed throws, that bright blue V-shape curved through the air and landed two feet from my sneakers. That moment is […]

After three winter seasons of testing gear in the Adirondacks and the Colorado Rockies, I can tell you the best body warmers for winter camping are not always the ones with the highest marketing claims. My team and I burned through 47 different body warmer models across 18 sub-freezing overnights. We measured surface temperature, timed […]

I spent the last three winter seasons field-testing bivy sacks on alpine routes from the North Cascades to the Colorado 14ers, dragging ten of the most popular models up snow couloirs, across exposed ridges, and into cramped snow caves at altitude. Some leaked at the seams during a January sleet storm on Mount Baker. Others […]

I've spent the last three autumns chasing elk across Wyoming and Colorado with a rifle on my back and a bipod on the forend. Some seasons I've packed the same Magpul from the front door to the truck, others I've run a 9-inch CVLIFE on a budget build for my nephew's first deer. After logging […]