POTD: The H&K G11 - Tomorrow's Rifle, Yesterday's Budget

The G11 represents a peculiar Cold War tragedy: a rifle so technically advanced that it arrived exactly at the moment its creator could no longer afford it. Developed across two decades by a West German consortium and completed in 1990, this caseless-ammunition assault rifle was supposed to defin...

By Eric B

Fokker D.VIII Fighter: The Deadly Flying Razor

In the summer of 1918, a new fighter ascended in the German Air Combat Forces, or Luftstreitkräfte, boasting a level of performance that would outpace any of Anthony Fokkers’ famous designs. The Fokker E.V parasol monoplane, eventually known as the Fokker D.VIII, demonstrated tremendous combat...

By Tom Laemlein

Leupold’s Relentless Rifleman: Toughest NRL Hunter Match in The West

I have spent plenty of weekends on the clock in all sorts of competitions and classes, including Rimfire PRS , along with a handful of smaller regional and private precision matches, but until this year I had never shot in an NRL Hunter match , and I had never so much as watched its parent discip...

By Luke C.

Leupold Launches the BX-2 Timberline HD Binocular

Leupold just added the BX-2 Timberline HD to the binocular lineup, and the pricing answers the question most hunters will have right away. The 10×42 runs $199.99 and the 12×50 comes in at $249.99. Both are backed by Leupold’s lifetime guarantee and built around their Advanced Opti...

By Sam.S

Operation Anthropoid: Killing the Butcher of Prague

Who was the most horrible person in all of human history? Some might claim their mother-in-law. I’m personally crazy about mine. However, I’d like to dig a bit deeper than that today. Tragically, the competition for that particularly dark superlative is fierce. I would say that human beings a...

By Will Dabbs, MD

Berlin Candy Bomber in the Berlin Airlift

U.S. Air Force Colonel Gail Seymour Halvorsen was a transport pilot best known as the “Candy Bomber” or “Onkel Wiggly Wings,” who became famous for dropping candy to German children in Berlin during the Soviet Blockade of the city. Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, the vic...

By Friedrich Seiltgen

Aviation Icon and American Hero: Chuck Yeager

Born into poverty in the woods of West Virginia, Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager was a World War II aircraft mechanic, fighter pilot, double ace, military commander, and a test pilot who broke the sound barrier. His journey from Army private to USAF Brigadier General is an inspiration to all. Yeage...

By Friedrich Seiltgen

Binocular 101: How to Buy Smart

Charred lodgepoles scratching a gunmetal sky reflected my mood. This morning the elk had won. No plan in mind, I climbed beyond where they’d scattered. Probing the slope’s crest from the sit with my binocular, I saw it. Among ranks of black boles with low-arcing limbs, a branch curved up...

By Wayne van Zwoll

Dale Dye: Why Marines Are Called “Devil Dogs”

It’s one of the most memorable monikers for a fighting force around, and its legend stems from a brutal battle fought more than a century ago. The term was reportedly adapted from the German Teufel Hunden, and applied to American Marines following the Battle of Belleau Wood during World Wa...

By Capt. Dale Dye, USMC (Ret)

Paradox of the German Tiger II Tank

The Tiger II tank, officially designated as Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B and introduced in 1944, was Germany’s most advanced heavy tank of World War II. Known as the Königstiger (King Tiger) by the Germans and often referred to as the Royal Tiger by Allied forces, it was designed to dominate...

By Eugene Nielsen
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