My very first shotgun was a single-shot break-open Springfield 20-gauge. I have no recollection whatsoever about its choke or even its barrel length. For a long time, it was the only gun that I had, and I shot everything available with it. I honestly don’t remember...
Ralph Waldo Emerson once pronounced, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” It was, and is, true in the context that he meant it. It’s important to not allow yourself to be confined to “the box.” In this day and time, you’ve got to be able to look...
Who hasn’t owned a Remington Model 870 at some point? And, of those who haven’t, how many don’t have some experience with one? After all, according to some authorities, there have been more 870s produced than any other shotgun. If Winchester made the slide action the...
“East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet.” So said Rudyard Kipling, and it’s been gospel since the day he wrote it. It’s elementary stuff, but if you’ll bear with me a bit, there’s a point at the end of this little discussion. Shotguns and...
Have you ever noticed how sometimes great ideas grow from the tiniest little seeds? That happened to me recently. I was talking to Todd Ramirez, the Alba, Texas-based master gunmaker, about a rifle that I wished I had. The more we talked, the more the idea grew, until...
Have you ever noticed how any time there’s a gathering of outdoorsmen, an argument always breaks out? The B.S. level rises with each successive opinion, and pretty soon, things get heated. It happens all the time at Sporting Classics. The problem is, we’ve got so many...
I was just a youngster when I first noticed that men and women were different. Long before I encountered puberty, I noticed that women thought differently than men. And acted differently, too. My daddy was a stern disciplinarian, but somehow, he seemed to “get me”...
I think I know what Otis Redding had on his mind when he crooned “Sittin’ on the dock of a bay.” Only there’s no dock here. There’s no bay either, but I’m sitting on a high bluff overlooking the Parana River in Argentina, takin’ the rest of the day off. Mi amigos...
If I may indulge in the slightest understatement, I’ve been around a while. And I’ve seen a few things. Not as many as some, but more than most. I’ve been lucky enough to have gunned birds all over the world, and there aren’t a great many species that I haven’t hunted...