A Record 35 Years in the Making, The Most Common Vehicle on American Roads, and More

Thursday, September 17th, 2026

Good morning! Welcome to The Tradesman, a 5-minute newsletter tailored just for America’s tradesmen.

A man recently discovered that a kill he made on a hunting trip 32 years ago was record-breaking. Find out how below.

Also, a massively famous video game has finally left early access. Scroll down to see which video game this is

In 1991, Sam Aiuppa shot a massive white-tailed deer during a pheasant hunting trip in LaSalle County, Illinois.

He later brought the deer home, mounted the antlers on a plaque, and stored them in his basement, all but forgetting they were even there.

It wasn't until an electrician discovered the antlers 32 years later that anyone realized their sheer size and symmetry.

Today, the Boone and Crockett Club officially declared the antlers a new world record for a typical, or symmetrical, whitetail buck. You can see the antlers here.

If you had to guess, what is the most common vehicle currently on U.S. roads?

If you said a Ford F-150, either you read ahead, or you really know your stuff.

According to Experian's Q2 2026 Automotive Market Trends Report, the Ford F-150 was the most popular vehicle in the country this past quarter, as it has been for the past several quarters.

The second most popular, as has also been the case for multiple quarters, is the Chevy Silverado, making up 2.8% of America's vehicles.

Can you guess what the third might be? Click here to see if you're right.

Five years and 17 million sales later, this already widely popular game has finally left early access.

Valheim, a survival crafting game set in a purgatory inspired by Norse mythology, quickly became a cult classic among PC gamers when it first hit the purchasing site Steam in 2021.

Now, with the official release of Valheim 1.0, players can play the game on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, as well as enjoy cross-play across six platform families.

While the price has been raised from $19.99 to $29.99, the new release includes new biomes, crafting recipes, enemies, and more.

If you've never heard of this game before but are interested, read more about it here.

Conserve Ohio has collected 130,000 signatures in all 88 Ohio counties for a statewide ban on large data centers, up from 70,000 in June but still well short of the roughly 413,000 valid signatures needed.

That target may change after the November gubernatorial election, since the campaign must gather signatures equal to 10% of the votes in the last governor's race.

The proposed ban would stop data centers that use more than 25 megawatts of power, and the group says it will keep collecting signatures for the Nov. 2, 2027, ballot while also helping place local bans on this November's ballot in 10 towns: Sunbury, Pataskala, Urbana, Oregon, Defiance, Upper Sandusky, Piqua, Granville, Conneaut and Trenton.

If someone handed you $2,000 today, what are you buying?