​If you’re outdoors, and the weather is both cold and wet, one invaluable piece of gear that you need is a good pair of waterproof gloves – especially here in New England. The only problem is that many waterproof gloves don’t breathe, don’t allow you to have good dexterity and aren’t sturdy enough for actually doing real work - like chopping wood.

​Recently we’ve spent a fair amount of time looking for a good pair of waterproof gloves and finally found a pair that we liked; the Seirus Innovation 1171 Mens Xtreme Waterproof gloves. We like the fact that they provide a tight fit and have a tall wrist cuff that keeps out the cold air and snow – while allowing us the dexterity to use tools in the cold.

​You can find the details about the Seirus Mens Xtreme Waterproof gloves on the Camping/Tools page.

​As with most gear, everyone has their own opinions about firearms; what specifications matter, which firearm is better, which firearm should be used for what application, etc.,
 
Because of this, one of the topics that comes up alot is the comparison between the AR-15 and the AK-47, and the various pros and cons of each. The AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the US, while the AK-47 is one of the most widely recognized rifles on Earth. Both weapons might be similar in appearances, but on closer observation, they are truly worlds apart. 

​Here's a side-by-side infographic comparison of the basic functionality and specifications of these two popular guns that was pulled together by TacticalGear.com:

​Recently someone asked where the readers of our website were located - so we thought that we would share the data with you.
 
We have readers from all 50 States in the US and over 75 other countries around the world.
 
Here's a couple of screenshots from the website's analytics showing where our readers are::

​Needless to say, we appreciate all of you – our readers around the world.

​Guns & Ammo has been publishing their evaluation of the gun laws of each State for the past six years, and on 31 October 2018 they published an article [“Best States for Gun Owners (2018)”] by Keith Wood with this year’s evaluation. 

As with previous years their evaluations are based on the following 5 categories:

• Right to Carry
• Black Rifles
• NFA
• Castle Doctrine
• Miscellaneous

 
As always there’s a lot of great information – not only on a State-by-State basis - but on the overall trends across the US – since many times legislation that successfully passes in one State gets fed to anti-gun organizations in other States to see if they can get it passed too. Not to spoil the article – but here’s a summary table with their overall ratings - sorted from Worst to Best :

If you want to read the entire Guns & Ammo article (which we highly recommend) you can find it here:
 
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/best-states-for-gun-owners-2018/327233

​These days there’s lots of information related to Hiking, Camping and Shooting gear on the internet – some of it good and detailed - and some of it superficial and just plain wrong. Since we like to help our readers save time by focusing on information from good online resources (instead of wasting your time surfing all over and filtering out bad resources) we list the best sites that we find on our website under the heading of “Other Helpful Information Sources”. 

Because the content on the internet is constantly changing, we also update our references when we find new ones that we like. Recently the folks at MyOpenCountry.com found our website online and reached out to us to us since we both love the Outdoors and share a common point of view. We hadn’t seen their site before so we looked it over and really liked the information that they were putting online.

​We especially liked that they had a specific sections for “Hiking & Camping Gear”, “Hiking & Camping Tips & Guides" and “Trip Inspiration” – much like the content on our site.

​In addition to all of their other content, the folks at My Open Country just published a great detailed article with their point of view on the gear you need for Hiking titled "What to Carry: 3 Season Hiking Gear Checklist”; they even included a downloadable checklist to make things easier for you. 

​Their article starts with some "Quick Tips: Do's & Don’ts" and then the covers the areas listed below in more detail:

​So, if you’re searching for another great outdoor information source, you might want to take a look at, and bookmark, MyOpenCountry.com. 

If you want to see our latest gear checklists you can download PDF versions of them here:

     Hiking Gear

     Camping Gear

     Disaster Preparedness Gear

     Shooting Gear