Some members of the military community now have an expanded virtual option for urgent care. Tricare Prime beneficiaries who see a primary care manager at a military hospital or clinic may be able to get a virtual appointment for urgent care if their local military treatment facility is booked, Tricare officials announced Thursday. Patients can contact the Military Health System Nurse Advice line online or by phone at 1-800-TRICARE (874-2273). A nurse will assess whether they can get a virtual appointment that day or the following. “This is part of the Defense Health Agency’s effort to improve health care access,”…

Photos by Rob Curtis Sub-caliber training rifles are nothing new to the long range and precision crowd. Most serious competitors have used .223-caliber training rifles for years. But now, with highly accurate .22LR rifles such as the CZ455 and builds based on the Vudoo Gunworks Remington Model 700 pattern rimfire action, shooters can mimic a competition or duty rifle in a caliber that’s much more palatable to the wallet. The trick is turning .22LR’s ballistic drawbacks into training advantages. Chief among this list is range considerations. Instead of looking at .22LR’s short range as a handicap, with the right drills,…

Though the .458 SOCOM is not particularly popular, there are a wide range of factory loads like this hard-hitting one from Buffalo Bore from which to choose. The idea of a large-caliber, anti-personnel cartridge for an infantry service gun is nothing new. In 1873, the United States Military armed troops with the Trapdoor Springfield rifle chambered for the .45-70 Gov’t cartridge. This concept was abandoned in 1892 when the U.S. Military adopted the .30-caliber Krag-Jørgensen rifle. Ever since, the military has prioritized reach as opposed to big bullets that make big holes—it has been more than a half-century since the…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is ready to put Senate Democrats to the test on voter ID legislation.The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has earned the backing of 50 Senate Republicans, including Thune, which is enough to break through a key procedural hurdle.Whether it can pass from the Senate to President Donald Trump’s desk is, for now, an unlikely scenario if lawmakers take the traditional path in the upper chamber. Still, Thune wants to put Democrats on the spot as midterm elections creep closer.”We will have a vote,” Thune…

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A lot of gardeners started with the goal of saving money, myself included. With how expensive food has gotten, growing your own food should be cheaper than buying it, right? Turns out, not so much.When I first started gardening, I found that by the time I stocked up on seed trays, plant ties, protective netting, and all sorts of other garden gadgets, I ended up spending way more than I saved.The good news? You probably already have plenty of things around your house that can do the job just as well—if not better—than the store-bought stuff. And if you’re missing…

With the recent news of massive layoffs at the venerable Washington Post, we are hearing from many corners that democracy itself is under siege, the earthquake being the Donald Trump presidency. We already are seeing the narrative forming: the billionaire Jeff Bezos apparently gutting his own newspaper in order to appease the anti-democracy factions of the Trump administration, as decent people look on with horror. Pundits and public intellectuals are having a field day with their post-mortems (no pun intended) of the demise of the newspaper that gave us the famed team Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that helped bring down Richard Nixon’s presidency, but perhaps…

Even positive changes can be hard to accept. Long before the M1 Garand rifle was in widespread service in the US military, it had its share of detractors. A number of these objectors simply disagreed with the Army’s decision to adopt a semi-automatic rifle at all. They argued that the M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle was more than capable as a battle rifle, that new semi-automatic designs were unproven, potentially too fragile or complex, and that troops would waste ammunition. A man demonstrates how to load a M1941 Johnson rifle using five-round Springfield stripper clips. Author’s collection At the time, these…

Photo credit: duncan1890 on iStock.We discuss some highlights from Clayton Cramer’s Lock, Stock and Barrel to learn more about the origins of American gun culture.American gun culture is often portrayed as a modern invention, an outgrowth of industrial manufacturing, clever marketing or frontier mythology. According to this view, firearms were rare in early America, ownership was limited, and widespread civilian gun use emerged only after the Civil War.That story is neat. It is also wrong.The historical record tells a far different story, one in which firearms were not merely common, but expected; not reluctantly tolerated but legally required. In early…

The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday awarded Boeing a sole-source contract for new massive bunker-buster bombs, to replace the munitions used in last June’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.In a copy of the justification notice posted online Thursday, the Air Force said it needed to award the U.S. defense giant a sole-source contract because it is the only vendor that makes the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Issuing the contract to any other vendor “would result in unacceptable delays” and undermine the Air Force’s readiness, the service said in the notice.“This action is essential to restore operational readiness … and ensure…

A PLETHORA OF OPTIONS, FROM SHOTGUNS TO HANDGUNS. Narrowing down the best gun for home defense can feel overwhelming. Between the advice at the gun store, the people online, and your friend’s brother’s buddy who used to be a cop, it can feel like too much information. To avoid adding to that noise, we’ll keep this short and simple. Covering the pros and cons of the major platforms while giving some recommendations for specific models to take a look at. EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON YOUR SITUATION There is no one-size-fits-all answer to defending your home. Differences in budget, local laws, personal…