Writing Military/War

I'm no veteran, but I have a love for writing an occasional military/war story.  My only currently finished short story is military/war action and the last flash fiction I posted I consider to be military/war.  I also wrote a military/war (it's also almost historical fiction) story for school two years ago.

Military/war takes a lot of research to write.  I've had to look into the operation of both smooth-bore and rifled flintlocks for different pieces.  I've also fired firearms before, which helps.

As far as I can tell, military/war is really tough to sell, especially as short stories.  Consequently, I'm going to submit the short story that I have to a local contest.  Hopefully I'll have more luck there than I did submitting it to literary magazines.