Support us! GearJunkie may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More Backcountry: Up to 40% Off (Photo/prAna) You can find nearly everything you might need for outdoor adventures at Backcountry. And you’ll find major deals on that gear during Backcountry’s Summer Sale. Get up to 40% off a variety of apparel, shoes, tents, and more. I’m partial to suggesting prAna’s Stretch Zion Pants. With many sizes and colors on sale for 30% off, it’s a solid choice for pants that will last a very long time. I’ve had my pair for over 10 years, and…
Buying and leasing both have their advantages, but the cheaper option depends on how long you plan to keep the vehicle, how much you drive, and whether you’re expecting a PCS, deployment, or other life changes. Before you sign on the dotted line, here’s what military families should consider. How Does Leasing Work? Leasing a vehicle is similar to renting it as you pay a monthly fee for the ability to use the car for a certain amount of time, which is typically two to three years. During that time, your lease agreement will dictate how you can use the…
A climbing rope made entirely from recycled materials has no business handling this well. The Mammut Crag Recycled 9.8mm Dry Rope ($200) looks and feels surprisingly similar to some of the thinner ropes I already own. That caught my attention because it had been a long time since I’d been interested in using a 9.8mm rope. The more experienced I became as a climber, the lighter I wanted my ropes to be. Lighter and thinner ropes have several advantages. They’re easier to feed out of a belay device, faster to clip, and lighter to carry. But they lose points in…
Homicides hit historic lows in 2025, and all indications seem to suggest that we’re going to set a new low here in 2026. That’s fantastic news, especially as this drop has coincided with the fearmongering among anti-gunners following the Bruen decision. The problem is, though, that anti-gunners don’t actually care about reality. All they need is enough of a perception that there’s a problem to sort of justify them doing stupid things, like, say, calling for a special legislative session to pass gun control in one of the most anti-gun states in the nation.The Delaware-based…
Your vehicle’s brakes are its most important safety system, but they’re also one of the easiest components to overlook when something goes wrong. While brake pads and rotors wear over time, your vehicle usually gives you warning signs before braking performance becomes dangerous. Paying attention to unusual noises, changes in pedal feel, or differences in how your vehicle stops can help you catch problems early. Knowing what to look for can help you avoid more expensive repairs – and keep you and your passengers safe on the road. 1. Squealing or Screeching When You Brake A high-pitched squeal when you…
The best running vest is the one you completely forget you’re wearing. I’ve tested dozens of vests over the years, and they usually fall into two traps. They either hold plenty of gear but bounce erratically, or they fit beautifully but lack space for longer efforts. Nathan hits a sweet spot with the VaporAir 4.0 and women’s-specific VaporAiress 4.0 ($160). Instead of just adding pockets, these vests focus on a fit you can change on the go. You can tighten or loosen the rig as your bladder empties, you shed layers, or the terrain changes. I tested the women’s VaporAiress…
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This article was originally published by Conner McEleney at The Mises Institute. Many progressives, such as Robert Reich and Kyle Kulinski, argue that the economy needs a universal basic income (UBI) to fix it. Their argument stems from the idea that UBI has no serious flaws, that many studies show success, and that it’s the moral thing to do. An example that these progressives would cite would be the Denver UBI experiment. The study had three groups of people. Group A had $1,000 per month, and Group B had $6,500 for the first month; the other months were $500. Group C had…
New Jersey got slapped down by the Third Circuit, and the majority opinion was written by a Biden-nominated judge. They can’t even blame Trump or the NRA for that one. The thing is, I think anti-gun lawmakers secretly enjoyed it. I think they liked being smacked down to some degree, like they’re really into humiliation or something.Why? Because they seemed to respond to it by dusting off a previous mandatory storage bill that would be smacked down just as hard.New Jersey lawmakers, having just lost badly at the United States Court of Appeals for the…
I’m used to the mainstream media taking stands on gun control policy that, frankly, infuriate me. USA Today is a particularly egregious offender in this, up to and including their horrifically idiotic inclusion of the chainsaw bayonet in a list of potential modifications available to the AR-15. However, I’m also used to it. I’m used to large media outlets actively opposing our Second Amendment rights. I don’t like it, but I accept it as reality. So when they start raising questions about a bit of gun control, it catches my attention.See, the reason I invoked…
Connecticut officially just took another swing at some of America’s most popular handguns. On May 26, Ned Lamont signed H.B. 5043 into law, targeting so-called “convertible pistols,” semiautomatic handguns lawmakers argue could be illegally modified with machine gun conversion devices. And the backlash from the firearms world was immediate. NRA-ILA blasted the law as another attack on law-abiding gun owners, while NSSF says it plans to challenge the measure in court. Translation: Connecticut just lit another major Second Amendment fuse. Under the new law, the state will ban future manufacture, sale, and importation of many striker-fired pistols beginning October 1,…
After almost 21 years in the Air Force, Jeff Andrejcik was looking forward to retiring from military life and embarking on a fruitful career in the civilian world. Andrejcik’s service time included multiple deployments, highlighted by three combat tours in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. The Air Force veteran served in several roles and had built a solid resume, landing a job with the federal government and moving his family to a base in Florida for a position he had worked years to acquire. Then came the gut punch. President Donald Trump’s swift and indiscriminate overhaul of the federal…
In response to a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak, Uganda has closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. This news comes as the suspected cases reach over 1,000. According to the numbers compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 121 confirmed Ebola cases in Congo and 17 confirmed deaths, with at least 1,077 additional suspected cases of the virus and 246 suspected deaths from the disease. The WHO, which is run by the United Nations, has discouraged border closures as a means of containing the virus. Closures…
Federal agencies managing public lands have seen broad cuts under the Trump administration. The White House fired 25% of the National Park Service’s workforce last year, and proposed even more funding cuts this spring. Of the money that’s left, however, the Trump administration has very specific goals in mind: Restoring water fountains in Washington, D.C. The National Park Service (NPS) has been directed to spend $67 million of funding from park entrance fees to fund beautification projects in the nation’s capital, according to a New York Times analysis of federal records. Much of the money ($60 million) is going to the restoration…
We’ve been reporting on the surge in gun sales in Virginia over the past few months, a boom caused by Democrats’ wave of gun control legislation that includes a ban on so-called assault firearms and large capacity magazines. Now a similar wave appears to be forming in Maryland in response to Gov. Wes Moore’s signature on a bill that will ban the sale of Glocks and other striker-fired handguns later this year. Erik Shilling, who runs Solidarity Firearms Training in Westminster, Maryland, told the Baltimore Sun that “Anytime there’s a gun law that passes, no…
Veterans smoke at higher rates than the general population, and the reasons are not hard to understand. Military culture has a long history with tobacco. Deployment increases smoking rates by more than 50%. Stress, sleep deprivation, boredom and the social dynamics of unit life push people toward cigarettes, and the habit follows them home. About one in five veterans currently use tobacco, and veterans are more likely than civilians to use every type of tobacco product, including the most harmful. A new study from the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle suggests that the VA’s Whole Health program,…
Imagine hiking a 1,200-mile trail. Now imagine trying to cover that distance in 30 days, and then imagine doing it all without resupplying at any point. That’s exactly what Jamieson Hatt, 46, just did on Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail. Hatt not only set a fastest known time (FKT) for the trail, but he also completed the longest-ever unsupported FKT. The Challenge FKTs are split into several categories: supported (a crew helps you), self-supported (you can send yourself items and resupply), and unsupported. Unsupported means that you have to carry all your food and gear with you from the start. If…
As parents, we can sometimes be protective of our children. To some extent, that’s our job, though we’ve all known parents who take it too far. I think most of us can think of a few stories where a parent has done it, and while we might cringe and wonder what the kid’s therapy bill will look like in the future, it’s usually not anything we should be alarmed with beyond that. Enter Florida Man.That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, people from Florida reproduce, and as terrifying as that might be for some, the reality is…
Consistency is key in fitness, especially as we age through each decade, because what you do in your 40s matters to how you feel in your 50s, and the same holds true for each subsequent decade. Consistency creates a compounding effect that enables you not just to be healthy and fit but also to secure your independence, mental health and pain mitigation for years to follow. Here is a question from a retiree who is still young but is at an important crossroads in his life, as what he does now matters tomorrow: Hey Stew, I am 46. Retired from…
Support us! GearJunkie may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More As a lifelong backpacker and staff writer for GearJunkie, I’ve tested and written about hundreds of products in nearly every category, and yet my favorite, absolutely must-have piece of gear when I go into the woods is a reusable pee cloth. A Kula Cloth, an anti-microbial, washable pee cloth, makes the simple yet messy task of peeing in nature cleaner and far more pleasant. Since Anastasia Allison started it in 2018, the brand has grown from a small cottage shop into a booming business,…
Maryland already has a problem with juvenile violence, and things could get even worse thanks to a “reform” bill signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore this week. Under the Youth Charging Reform Act, it’s going to become harder to charge juveniles as adults for certain violent offense, including those in which a gun is used. Speaking in support of the bill, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said the state “was automatically charging kids as young as 14 as adults for cases that almost always—almost always in the super majority of cases—ended back into the juvenile…
