Gear

Shimano has acquired all shares of Jackall, the Japanese fishing lure company, the companies announced November 4. The two have worked together since 2010, including on Shimano's Poison rod series. 'JACKALL brings a distinctive approach to product development and a strong connection with anglers,' said Jason Livermore, president of Shimano North America Fishing. The announcement did not say whether Jackall's product lines or prices will change.

Black Diamond has refreshed its whole headlamp line for fall 2026, the company announced October 29, in what it calls its most significant lighting update in years. The new top model is the Megawatt, rated at 3,000 lumens. The Storm, Storm+ and Cosmo are redesigned, and the Spot is updated.

Across the range, Black Diamond says output goes up, USB-C charging becomes standard, the controls are easier to use in the field, and recycled materials are used in headbands and internal parts. The release did not list prices; check Black Diamond's site and retailers for pricing and availability. With clocks falling back on November 1, it is a good week to check that your own headlamp holds a charge.

Snow Peak's Landlock X went on sale in the United States on September 21, 2026, for $1,999.95 at Snow Peak stores and snowpeak.com, the company said. It replaces the Landlock, the Japanese brand's long-running two-room shelter, after debuting in Japan in June; Gear Patrol calls it the first significant update to the design in nearly two decades.

The idea is the same: one large shelter with a living area at one end and a sleeping room at the other, for four people. What changes is how it goes up and how it lives. The new frame, made with pole maker DAC from its high-strength DA17 aluminum in a slate-gray finish, stands on its own earlier in setup and is built to handle more wind. There are more ways in, a skylight in the roof and large mesh panels for light and airflow, and Snow Peak says the inside offers about 10 percent more room on the same footprint, roughly 20 and a half by 13 and a quarter feet. The redesigned inner tent sleeps two or four and can hang at either end of the shelter. Korogi, a U.S. dealer, lists the whole package at 56.2 pounds.

The headline feature for cold-weather campers is a chimney port: Snow Peak built the Landlock X to take its wood-burning tent stoves. That is still a future option in the U.S. The company says its tent stoves are scheduled to arrive here in early 2027, and it has not announced a U.S. date or price for the stove made for this class of shelter, the MK Stove.

In Japan, the MK Stove went on sale January 11, 2025, at ¥390,500 including tax. Co-developed with the South Korean stovemaker Wood & Burn, it has large heat-resistant glass on both long sides to watch the fire, loading doors at each end, room for three or four splits of wood and an optional guard for cooking on top; Japanese reviewers put its weight around 26 kilograms, about 57 pounds. At today's rate of about 157.7 yen to the dollar, its price works out to roughly $2,476.

Using the stove inside the Landlock X also requires the Landlock X Fly Cover TC, a cotton-blend outer layer that covers the whole fly to hold heat, cut condensation and help protect the shelter from sparks. Snow Peak Japan lists it at ¥127,600 including tax, about $809 at the same rate. Together, the stove and fly cover come to about $3,285 at Japanese prices, on top of the tent.

Those conversions use the October 27, 2026, exchange rate and Japanese prices, which include Japan's 10 percent consumption tax. They do not include shipping, import duties or U.S. sales tax, and they are not U.S. prices, which Snow Peak has not set. Wood stoves inside any tent call for a carbon monoxide alarm and the maker's instructions.

The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute, which writes the voluntary safety standards most American guns and ammunition are built to, has accepted a new rifle cartridge for standardization: the 5.56 Commercial, abbreviated 5.56 COMM. SAAMI announced it on October 12. Hornady introduced the cartridge, with a 55-grain bullet at 3,400 feet per second and a maximum average pressure of 62,000 psi.

It fills an odd gap. Millions of rifles are marked 5.56 or 5.56 NATO, but there has never been a publicly available standard for 5.56x45, as SAAMI itself notes. SAAMI's own .223 Remington standard is lower pressure, which is why the long-standing advice against firing 5.56 ammunition in rifles chambered only for .223 still applies.

SAAMI is careful about what the new standard does not do. It does not imply conformance with any military or NATO specification, and because there is no public standard for 5.56x45 or 5.56 NATO, the institute says blanket statements about compatibility between those products and 5.56 COMM are impossible. The standard is voluntary: gunmakers do not have to roll-mark rifles 5.56 COMM and ammunition makers do not have to use the headstamp, though both are acceptable.

If you have a rifle marked anything other than 5.56 COMM and want to shoot ammunition made to the new standard, or the reverse, SAAMI's advice is to ask the firearm or ammunition manufacturer first.

Johnson Outdoors has combined its two fishing electronics brands under one name. Humminbird fish finders, sonar and mapping now carry the Minn Kota brand alongside Minn Kota's trolling motors and shallow-water anchors, with Humminbird continuing as "Humminbird Imaging," the sonar and imaging technology inside the new Minn Kota units. The company announced the change October 6, after teasing it as a "whole new chapter" for the two brands.

The pitch is simplicity. Trolling motors, fish finders, mapping and anchors are meant to work as one system under one name, so anglers can draw a route, react to depth changes and position the boat from a single setup. Johnson Outdoors calls it the biggest expansion in Minn Kota's history; the first products are on sale now, with more coming in 2027.

For anyone who already owns Humminbird gear, the key line from the company is that existing Humminbird products will continue to be supported under the Minn Kota brand. Johnson Outdoors has owned both since it bought Humminbird's maker, Techsonic, in 2004.

The company's own news pages did not load for us; this account draws on its statements as reported by The Fisherman, On the Water and Salt Water Sportsman.

Buck's October Buck of the Month is a new take on the 120 General, the Bowie-style hunting knife Buck has made since the 1960s. This version has a 7.125-inch clip-point blade in Cru-Wear steel with Buck's BOS heat treatment, no fuller, and a black Cerakote finish, with a black and gray SureTouch handle, burgundy Micarta spacers, an aluminum guard and pommel, and a distressed black leather sheath, Gear Patrol reports. Buck of the Month knives are limited runs sold on Buck's site.

Benchmade and the retailer Blade HQ have released an exclusive Griptilian, the first major new version of the folding knife in years. It keeps the AXIS lock and the familiar textured polymer handle, but uses a wider sheepsfoot blade with a thumb hole, in Z-Wear steel, a high-toughness steel similar to Cru-Wear, with teal, green or purple blade finishes. All three sell for $175 at Blade HQ, according to Gear Patrol; Blade HQ's site did not load for us to confirm.

Leatherman's Garage Batch #010: Picnic is a limited multi-tool built around a dual-lever corkscrew, with a 2.25-inch 420C stainless blade for meat and cheese. The blade and tools are non-locking slip joints, and it measures 3.47 inches closed. Leatherman lists it at $135; it showed as out of stock on Leatherman.com when we checked.

Decathlon is recalling about 1,150 Van Rysel GRVL AF gravel bikes, sold at REI stores and REI.com from March 2025 through August 2026 for $1,400 to $2,300, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced October 8. The front lock nut can loosen, letting the front wheel come loose and causing a crash. Affected colorways are Sword Brown, Apex Beige, Sword Pink and GRX Black, model numbers 8911304, 8911305, 8911308 and 8929130; the Product ID on the label under the frame near the bottom bracket starts with 5. Stop riding and take the bike to any REI for a free inspection and fork repair, or call Decathlon at 415-408-5494. No injuries have been reported.

Snow Peak is recalling about 100 Takibi propane inserts with lava rocks, model ST-332-US, sold on snowpeak.com in July for about $350. The insert lets the Pack & Carry Fireplace L and XL burn propane, but the lava rocks can ignite and explode when heated. The company has one report of exploding rocks and minor property damage. Stop using it; Snow Peak will refund the set with a prepaid return label, or send replacement rocks. Call 888-424-4916.

Giant is recalling about 3,630 LED-light keys sold with SureLock bike lock sets made after March 2023, because children can get at the button battery. The lock and the plain keys are fine. Take the LED key to a Giant retailer with the lock or a photo of its serial number for a $5 refund.

Kobayashi is recalling about 77,000 HotHands-branded rechargeable hand warmers because the lithium-ion battery and electronics can overheat and catch fire, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced October 1. No injuries have been reported. We missed this one last week while covering the much smaller Gobi Heat recall announced the same day.

The warmers are white with orange, sold in pairs that join magnetically, with a USB-C port, adjustable heat, LED indicator lights and a silicone lanyard. The model number, H163650, and a batch number are on the underside. Only the electric rechargeable warmers with the white HotHands logo are recalled, not the familiar disposable air-activated packs. They were sold at Bass Pro Shops, Meijer, Target, The Home Depot, Amazon and elsewhere from July 2025 through August 2026 for $30 to $40.

Stop using them and get a full refund through hothands.com/recall-notice-rechargeable. You will be asked to write "Recalled" and your claim number on each warmer in permanent marker and send a photo showing the marking, model number and batch number. Kobayashi's recall line is 866-534-9986, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. Do not throw the warmers in the trash, curbside recycling or a store battery bin; call your household hazardous waste site first.

Also recalled October 1: about 400 ZAREI portable camping showers sold by Golden Resale on Amazon and Walmart.com from February through August 2026 for about $60. The 1,500-watt immersion heater, with heart-shaped openings in its metal housing, can ignite if it runs partly or fully out of water. Stop using it and contact Golden Resale for a refund. The CPSC notice lists the number two ways, 855-927-2440 and 855-927-3440.

Gobi Heat is recalling about 5,500 of its rechargeable hand warmers because the lithium-ion battery and electronics can overheat and catch fire, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced October 1. No injuries have been reported.

The warmers are black and gray, sold in pairs that join magnetically, with a USB-C charging port, LED indicator lights and a silicone lanyard. "Gobi Heat" is printed on the top and on the box, and the model number UT3053 is on the underside. They were sold at GobiHeat.com from October 2024 through August 2026 for $20 to $40.

Stop using them now. Gobi Heat is offering a refund, or store credit worth the price plus 20 percent. Get a claim number at gobiheat.com/pages/handwarmer-recall, write "Recalled" on each warmer in permanent marker, and email a photo showing the marking and model number to [email protected]. The company's line is 888-462-4743, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern on weekdays.

Do not put the warmers in the trash, curbside recycling or a store battery drop box. The CPSC says recalled lithium-ion batteries need to go to a household hazardous waste site; call yours first to confirm it takes them.

Two things are happening in the same release cycle and they point in opposite directions. One is powered assistance: another hiking exoskeleton appeared in early September, the second from the same manufacturer in a short span. These are hip-mounted motors that assist on climbs and brake on descents, and a year ago they read as a novelty. They are now appearing often enough to be a category.

The other direction is subtraction. Xero expanded its minimalist line with the Mesa Summit collection, built for people who want the ground feel of a barefoot shoe without the stiffness of a protective trail runner. Six Moon Designs showed an ADC V2 travel pack under two and a half pounds that the company is calling the lightest fully featured travel pack made.

Both are answers to the same complaint, which is that carrying things up hills is hard. One adds a motor and a battery; the other removes material until there is nothing left to remove. Which one is right for you is mostly a question of whether your limiting factor is load or legs.

The rest of the early-autumn releases are unremarkable in a useful way: waterproof panniers and packs, solar trail cameras, camouflage editions of things that did not previously come in camouflage, and a steady drift of winter gear arriving before anyone wants it. A helmet with a MIPS system and headphone-compatible ear pads at $170 is the kind of quiet release that matters more to more people than an exoskeleton will.

Our position on powered assistance is that it is a mobility device before it is a performance device, and the most interesting question is not whether it makes a fit hiker faster. It is whether it puts trails back within reach for people who had written them off.

The headline feature on this year's flagship compounds is not speed. It is tunability: cam systems designed so that lateral adjustment can be made without a bow press, on a stable axle-to-axle platform around thirty inches. BowTech's Alliance is the clearest example, built around a refined version of the company's DeadLock cam.

That design choice is aimed squarely at a real problem. A bow that drifts out of tune mid-season used to mean a drive to a pro shop, and pro shops have been thinning out for a decade. Being able to correct cam lean at camp with a hex key changes what a hunter can fix themselves.

Arrow makers have moved the same direction, with tighter straightness and weight tolerances at mid-tier prices rather than only at the top of the range. Consistency between arrows does more for a group at forty yards than most of what gets bolted to the riser.

The archery product calendar runs on a January cycle, announced at the trade shows and reaching shops through spring, which is why September is a quiet month for launches and a loud one for discounts on last year's flagship. If you are buying a bow this autumn, last season's model at a markdown is usually the better purchase; the year-over-year changes are rarely worth paying full price to have first.

The thing nobody sells you and everybody needs: a draw length that actually fits, and enough arrows to shoot a real practice session without walking to the target every three shots.

Blade Show ran June 5 to 7 at the Cobb Convention Center in Atlanta, drawing 350 to 400 entries in the factory competition, roughly level with last year. The overall Knife of the Year went to the Hawk Knives Talon Auto, which also took best automatic, on the strength of a slider mechanism hidden under the scale that keeps the handle clean.

The result worth noting for people who use a knife outdoors rather than collect them is the Microtech Akris taking American Fixed Blade of the Year. It is the company's first production fixed blade: a 3.7-inch straight-back blade in Bohler M390MK, stonewashed to hide wear, full tang, on a 4.49-inch orange G-10 handle chosen so you can find it when you set it down in leaf litter. Eight and a fifth inches overall, 6.2 ounces.

Blade Show Texas earlier in the year pointed the same direction. The Null Knives Voodoo took best folder and best of show with a tri-stud deployment system and a Damasteel blade, and the Tenable Loki took best fixed blade for being small enough to actually carry every day at just under three inches.

The pattern across both shows is that high-performance steels like MagnaCut and Vanax have stopped being a specification to brag about and started being paired with designs built for real use rather than shelf appeal. A new category for traditional slip joints was added this year, which tells you where some of the demand is going.

REI introduced Westward in March as a camp line for members who want a base camp rather than a shelter. The Westward 6 tent runs $549 and the 4 runs $449, with a 77-inch peak height, front and rear doors with awnings, an electrical cord pass-through, and a vestibule sized to hold two camp chairs.

The rest of the line prices the same idea out. A Westward Shelter at $329 fits over a picnic table with nearly seven feet of peak height and zip doors at both ends. A camp tarp set is $249. The padded folding chair is $129.95 and the standard chair $119.95. Self-inflating beds run $199 to $299 depending on size and whether you want a double.

An electrical pass-through on a tent is the detail that gives the category away. This is gear for a site with a power pedestal thirty feet from the truck, and it is designed without apology for that.

The co-op also refreshed apparel and updated its own Co-op Cycles ADV 2.1 gravel bike to $1,499 with a simplified drivetrain and a clutched rear derailleur, which is uncommon at that price.

The Tortue Pro arrives in a 2026 edition on Snow Peak's new-arrivals shelf. The Japanese company, still headquartered in Sanjo in Niigata prefecture and family-run since 1964, occupies an unusual position in the American market: priced as luxury, built as tools, and bought by people who would never describe themselves as gear collectors. Worth watching as a counterweight to the direction the mainstream camp category is heading.

The clearest move in the 2026 family-tent lineup is the vestibule as a room. One new large shelter pairs an enormous front vestibule that seals fully for gear, opens for half-sheltered lounging, or props overhead as a shade canopy, on a footprint north of eighty square feet. It undercuts the established competitor by around forty dollars, though it gives up interior pockets to do it, which matters more than it sounds like when four people are unpacking at once.

Chairs got serious. One new camp chair replaces the stiff webbing your grandparents sat on with foam across the whole back and seat, adds a stiffened mesh cup holder and wooden armrests, and ships with integrated backpack straps. It weighs eight and a half pounds, which is irrelevant thirty feet from the tailgate and disqualifying anywhere else. A full recliner sits above it.

On the sleep side there is a small trend worth naming: quilt-style bags with fold-over wings across the torso, showing up in more than one line this year. It is an attempt to give side sleepers and people who overheat a way out without abandoning a bag entirely.

None of this is backpacking gear and none of it pretends to be. The honest way to read the category is that the gap between a good campsite and a bad one is now mostly furniture, and manufacturers have noticed.

Neither is new, and both are the kind that stay in a garage bin for years. Roughly 201,000 Ozark Trail tabletop single-burner butane stoves, model BG2247A1, sold at Walmart between March 2023 and October 2025, were recalled in November after 26 reports of stoves exploding or catching fire and 16 burn injuries; Walmart is refunding. In March, Amazon recalled its Amazon Basics camping folding pocket knife, model B0DM5BJK3H, in three manufacturing lots, for a laceration hazard. Model numbers are on the fuel compartment label and the packaging respectively.

The ultralight tent shelf was updated again this month, with a revamped version of Gossamer Gear's long-running The One drawing most of the attention in the latest round of testing published on September 2.

The design that keeps turning up on trail, though, is Durston's X-Mid. The standard version runs about $269 and uses an offset pole arrangement to buy interior volume, pitching easily and staying reasonably dry inside. The Pro swaps the double-wall silpoly for a single-wall DCF fly and drops close to a pound, at the cost of modularity: its floor is integrated, so you cannot leave the inner at home.

Big Agnes has spent its 2026 development on keeping moisture out of down fill, using a hybrid baffle construction across new sleeping bags, one of which adds an integrated pad sleeve so you stop sliding off in the night.

For packs, Gossamer Gear's Murmur 36 remains the extreme end of the frameless category: a little over five ounces carrying 36 litres, using your sleeping pad as the frame sheet and unusually wide hipbelt webbing to move the load. It rewards people who already pack light and punishes people who do not.

None of this is a reason to replace working gear. It is a reason to know what the options are when something finally gives out.

Outdoor Retailer opened in Minneapolis on August 19, its first show after leaving the Mountain West, and it is a different event. Organisers have pointed it at specialty retailers, emerging brands and industry innovation, with a steering committee drawn from across the sector and a scholarship fund to help small shops cover the cost of attending.

Anyone who remembers the show at its peak should adjust expectations. It is much smaller and dominated by small brands, and the major players largely did not bring product. What filled the space instead were founders building businesses from the ground up, which made for a better floor to walk than a better floor to buy from.

A pavilion run with Garage Grown Gear and Founded Outdoors gathered more than fifty independent brands and ran an inaugural summit for a couple of hundred founders. The Industry Day conference took on tariffs, artificial intelligence and sustainability, which is a fair summary of what is keeping the trade awake.

Among the actual products, the updated Hyperlite Unbound packs drew the most attention from thru-hiking reviewers: retooled fabric and revised features on a pack that became a favourite almost immediately when it first appeared.

Two separate things happened and they keep getting merged. First, beginning January 1 the federal making and transfer tax under the National Firearms Act dropped from $200 to zero for suppressors and several other categories, under the reconciliation bill signed in July 2025. Machine guns and destructive devices still carry the $200 tax.

That change removed the cost and nothing else. The Form 4, the fingerprints, the photographs, the background check and the wait all remained, and the agency's position was that the rest of the registration process stood.

Then on August 5 a federal court in the Northern District of Texas entered final judgment in consolidated cases brought by the Silencer Shop Foundation and others, permanently barring enforcement of several NFA registration, transfer and making requirements as applied to items whose tax Congress had reduced to zero. The order took effect August 13.

What it does not do is make suppressors unregulated. The relief runs to transactions covered by the order rather than to everyone, the government is defending the statute on other grounds, and appeals will take years. Anyone reading a headline saying the Form 4 is gone should check whether it applies to how and where they are buying.

State law did not move at all. Eight states still prohibit civilian suppressor ownership outright, others allow ownership but restrict hunting use, and local restrictions in parks, municipalities and specific wildlife units remain in force. For a hunter, the state and unit rules are still the ones that decide whether you can carry one into the field.

The Outdoor Market Alliance summer show is where next year's catalogue gets shown to reviewers before it reaches a store, and this year's floor leaned hard on weight and price at the same time, which has not usually been the same conversation.

Kelty brought a budget ultralight tent, which matters more than a spec sheet suggests: the sub-two-pound category has belonged to cottage brands and cost accordingly. MSR showed a short-pole version of the Freelite that packs down further than the standard model. LOWA showed the Paceterra Pro on the footwear side.

Sleep systems keep getting sold as systems rather than parts. One bundle on the floor pairs a quilt, sheet, pad, pillowcase and pillow bladder with a dry sack to hold it, at just under three pounds for the 25-degree version.

The detail that will actually get used: Kelty's updated Loveseat has durable mesh and a cover that doubles as a pet mat, so the dog gets somewhere to sit and your partner gets the chair. Most camp furniture design is not this considered.