Category: Charles Drago

A Fever of Rays

EXCLUSIVE

Fever of Rays

Solitary. Mysterious. Balletic. In motion, like isolated thoughts adrift in a synaptic sea. Until, driven by urges ancient and unfathomable, they coalesce into an idea, an odyssey from randomness to intention, a seemingly chaotic dance macabre onto which the observant human brain is compelled to impose order, but which the human imagination longs only to join.

Read More

Two Great Expedition Outfitters – Then and Now

EXCLUSIVE

Abercrombie and Fitch

How else could Lewis and Clark have made it all the way there and back again? How else could Burton have discovered the source of the Nile? How else could Stanley have found Livingstone? How else could Teddy Roosevelt have mapped the River of Doubt? The history of great expeditions as we appreciate it today could not have been written if the courageous explorers who walk like giants through it had not been outfitted with the finest shooting and survival gear of their respective times.

Read More

The New, Platonic Relationship between Women and Guns

EXCLUSIVE

The New, Platonic Relationship between Women and Guns

In the final analysis it is not about empowerment, or leveling the playing field, or addressing a perceived need to demonstrate physical strength, emotional stability and practical judgment. The story of the dramatic increase of women owning guns in America is one of the human needs for self-expression and self-defense.

Read More

The Infamous Derringer that Changed History

EXCLUSIVE

The Booth Derringer

Shortly after 10 p.m. on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln. As Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Booth leapt onto the stage and escaped through the back door.

Read More

The Gatling Gun: The Early Years of 19th Century High Tech

EXCLUSIVE

The Gatling Gun: The Early Years of 19th Century High Tech

The Gatling gun was born in a storm of irony. It was designed by the American Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861 and patented a year later. Gatling repeatedly reminded all who would listen that he created the gun to save lives by reducing the size of armies while ultimately demonstrating the futility of war.

Read More

The Kentucky Longrifle: Davey Crockett’s “Ole Betsy” Likely Not at The Alamo

EXCLUSIVE

Davey Crockett’s “Ole Betsy”

Few guns in American history are more legendary and less accurately depicted in use than the so-called Kentucky longrifle.  In its most famous, romantic iteration, the gun is said to have been wielded by Davey Crockett in 1836 during the 13-day siege at The Alamo.  American schoolchildren who received far too great a proportion of their history lessons from popular 1950’s television programs were all but hypnotized by images of actor Fess Parker in his Disney-produced role of Davey Crockett fighting the Mexican hordes with longrifle “Ole Betsy” in his hands.

Read More

How Poorly Reasoned Government Procurement of Cavalry Long Guns Led to Defeat at Little Bighorn

EXCLUSIVE

Cavalry Long Guns

Of all the disadvantages that contributed to the annihilation of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer’s five-troop battalion at the Battle of the Little Bighorn –among them superior numbers of enemy forces (a 5:1 ratio seems a safe bet), criminal disobedience of direct orders by junior officers in command of support battalions, and terrain so inimical to cavalry maneuvering as to negate every advantage commonly enjoyed by mounted troops in generically similar situations – none was more devastating than the inferiority of the Seventh Cavalry’s government-issued single shot carbines.

Read More

Hiking the Little Bighorn: Fire + Science = Truth

EXCLUSIVE

Last Stand Hill

In the space of less than two hours on the hot, dusty Sunday afternoon of June 25, 1876, Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer led five troops of his Seventh U.S. Cavalry – 200-plus souls – to annihilation by Lakota (Sioux) and Cheyenne warriors on the bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana.

Read More

Preserving the Planet: Impassioned Stewardship and Enlightened Interaction

EXCLUSIVE

Earth Day - April 22

April 22 marks the 48th anniversary of Earth Day, the international environmental force with a mission “to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide.”

The first Earth Day, in 1970, mobilized 20 million Americans of diverse backgrounds. By 1990, after passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and other groundbreaking environmental laws, Earth Day had swollen its ranks of supporters to 200 million people in 141 countries.
Today, the Earth Day Network stands as the planet’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people from 195 countries participate in Earth Day activities – the largest civic observance in history.

Read More

Hunting as a Means of Wildlife Management

EXCLUSIVE

Hunting as a Means of Wildlife Management

At first blush, the process presents as counter-intuitive.  How can preservation arise from elimination?  That is the question raised by opponents of hunting when they argue against the notion that hunting contributes to wildlife conservation.

Read More
Loading

The Great Indoors

The Great Indoors

Our Sponsors

Survival Corner

How To Survive

JOIN THE NRA TODAY!

JOIN THE NRA TODAY!

New Free Listings

OEL Classified Directory

Advertisement

The Preserve Academy
The Preserve Academy, located at The Sporting Shoppe & Range at The Preserve, offers a wide curriculum of firearms safety and tactical training classes taught by NRA Certified Instructors.
Dispatches

The OEL Monthly Newsletter

Featuring unique content plus the best stories from OEL and special offers on outdoor equipment and supplies.

You have Successfully Subscribed!