#ThunderRanch

Thunder Ranch is probably one of my favorite places to go when it comes to getting solid, informative, and applicable firearms training. I’m lucky enough to live within short driving distance of the Ranch, so when Jordan of Meprolight invited me out to take the Urban Precision Rifle (UPR) course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put one of their new MVO 1-8x28 LPVOs through the typical Thunder Ranch torture test. However, today’s topic is not so much about optics but rather Jordan’s first experience in a carbine course. Today, we’ll walk through some of the lessons that Jordan has learned from the training from Jack Daniel and the other trainers at TR, as well as his first impressions of the Ranch itself, and some of his thoughts on his company’s own products after having tested them out in a hard-use environment.

We took Mossberg’s new 590RM — a mag-fed evolution of the legendary 590 — and ran it through a brutal 500-round burn-down at Thunder Ranch. With just one double-stack mag, a pile of mixed 12 gauge ammo, and a whole lot of pump-action abuse, we set out to answer one question: Does the detachable magazine help or hurt this shotgun’s rock-solid reputation? Featuring Clint Smith, Hop, Ivan from Kit Badger, and the TFBTV crew, this is a no-BS reliability test. Spoiler: it gets ugly.

Retro AR-15s are back—from clone builds to factory throwbacks like the Bushmaster M4A2 Patrolman's Carbine. I put over 1,000 rounds through this classic-style rifle at a Thunder Ranch Urban Rifle Course to find out if old-school cool is actually worth it in 2025. Spoiler: I didn’t love it. But not for the reasons you think.