New York Was Far Away
The valley was long and narrow, filled with the green of rich grass and the pale gold of frost-touched arctic willow. Along the edges of the valley was a thick border of spruce, but not far up the mountainsides, the woods played out in a scattering of scrubby trees....
In the Field Trial Kingdom, Labs Rule
The Labrador retriever’s distinctions are many. If there’s one arena in which the Lab is utterly and incontrovertibly dominant, it’s retriever field trials. The most popular purebred dog in America; the most popular gundog, too: the Labrador retriever’s distinctions...
Bullets, Birds, and the Blessing of Saint Expedite
Shooting trip of a lifetime, Delta Flight 101 out of Hartsfield, non-stop to Buenos Aires. Easy flight, eat supper, stretch out, drift off, wake up speaking Spanish. Five thousand some-odd miles at 700 some-odd miles-per-hour at 26,000 some-odd feet. But it’s hard...
Ducks, Dogs, and Fish Bolt to $3 Million in Copley’s Winter Sale
On February 21 and 22, Copley’s Winter Sale 2025 realized over $3 million, was over 95% sold by lot, and shot above its high estimate. Bidders participated via phone, absentee bids, the Copley Live app, and two online platforms, Bidsquare and Live Auctioneers. “It was...
The Firing Line
Last November in Scotland, a line of seven friends spaced 20 yards apart marched across a harvested field in pursuit of pheasant. On that misty morning, hunters, dogs and gamekeepers were eager to find birds and almost immediately they did. A brightly feathered...
Ducks Down Under
The author would enjoy many pleasant surprises during his week of waterfowling in Australia.
This Old House
When the old house was occupied, its splintering walls were stout, its diminutive shelter a fortress of good spirits, its heartwood hale and its ambiance light with ale. Way long ago now, in the antediluvian and simplistic age in which I knew boyhood, circa. 1954,...
True Blue
Grandma’s farm consisted of five acres, mostly wooded except for a half-acre garden loaded with berries and vegetables. Out back stood a shed stuffed with old rakes and spades and other hand tools. Mason jars were scattered among bushel and berry baskets filled with...
Release the Grease
There are things in this world—rare, fine things—that no amount of money can buy. I’m not talking about intangibles: love, happiness, a satisfied mind. I’m talking about palpable objects of desire, things that exist in the realm of the senses but are simply...
No Sporting Chance
The glass buildings shimmered the mirage of a hot morning sun, but winter’s grasp hadn’t yielded to the warmth of spring. February had ended all too abruptly, too fast, with the promises for tomorrow yet undreamt. In the alley below, a cold wind rushed through. It...
The Bond Between Hunter and Dog
The guy’s name was Charlie, I think. The one time I met him, at the now long-defunct Gustav Pabst Invitational Hungarian Partridge Shoot, he showed up in a Jaguar sedan with his German short-haired pointer riding shotgun. That was pretty cool, but what made an even...
The Real Deal
Without the ordinary, there would be no extraordinary. If there were no karaoke, how would we recognize the spine-tingling excellence of Pavarotti or Bocelli? How would we recognize the genius of Einstein or Hawking if there were no ordinary thinkers? And who would...
Women Writers On African Travel, Sport, And Adventure
Dubbed the “Dark Continent” by Victorian explorers who were fascinated by its geographical mysteries and incredible abundance of game, Africa has been the setting for a massive outpouring of literature of interest to sportsmen. The latter half of the 19th century on...
Bob White The Story of a Quail
The nest, with its precious contents of 16 little eggs, occupied a snug corner of the old rail fence, hidden amongst the tall rank grass from the sharp eye of marauding crow or pirate hawk. Mr. and Mrs. Bob White were very proud of their treasures, and Mr. Bob would...
The Boy Never Had a Chance
Willie Boy made his literary debut in the final chapter of The Greatest Quail Hunting Book Ever. The chapter was titled “ A Small Southern Tale,” and it chronicled the comings and goings of a single family of Georgia bobwhite quail hunters in the period following...
Gang-bustin’ Game Warden
The young game warden had known what he was going to find ever since he first spotted the big Lincoln in the forest clearing and saw the machine gun lying across the back seat. After glancing quickly around him, he had moved quietly and carefully through the woods...
Kansas City To Host Bird Hunting Extravaganza
Behind seemingly every American game bird or animal is a hunter-funded conservation group working to ensure that it not only survives but thrives. These organizations harness the passion millions of American sportsmen have for their favorite game species and transform...
Sanctity of Sanctuary Ranch
The words “sanctity” and “sanctuary” both have Latin roots. Sanctity, from sanctus, defined as “sacred or holy,” and sanctuary from sanctuarium, “a sacred or private place.” These words both define in totality the experience at Pat Bollman’s and his family’s whitetail...
Copley Winter Sale 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025 10:00 AM - Saturday, February 22, 2025 5:00 PM Copley’s Winter Sale 2025, consisting of over 500 lots, will offer buyers the opportunity to acquire antique and contemporary decoys, decorative carvings, paintings, prints, folk art, Americana,...
In Pursuit of Papa
Tracing Hemingway’s footsteps through his fishing days in Bimini.
SEWE Celebrates 43rd Showcase in Downtown Charleston February 14-16
The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) is set to host its 43rd annual showcase in downtown Charleston February 14-16, 2025. Sporting Classics will be located in the Sporting Showroom at the Charleston Marriott (170 Lockwood Drive, directly across from Brittlebank...
Complete 33-Year Run of Double Gun Journal For Sale
A grand opportunity to add a full holding of a wonderful magazine to your library and reference materials. $3500. Click Here to Buy Now In 2022, after an impressive run of 33 years, Double Gun Journal ceased publication. Over the course of those three-plus decades the...
One Last Cast: The Legacy of Jack Hemingway
A legend in his own right, Ernest's son, Jack Hemingway, created a name for himself in the world of fly fishing that lives on to this day. Anyone who was lucky enough to befriend Jack Hemingway during his lifetime—and he frequently fished with some of the world’s most...
The Art Of Mort Künstler
In this post-modernist era when so much fine art is obscure, experimental and non-representational, Künstler arguably represents a touchstone You’ve just humped up a steep knoll trailing a wounded elk, or maybe you have designs on glassing mountain goats. Fatigued,...
On the Spoor of a Spiral Horn
If I was going to take a shot at the kudu we’d been hunting all day, it would have to be now. And it would be like threading a needle. If I was going to take a shot at the spiral horned kudu we’d been hunting and tracking all day, it would have to be now. And it was...
The Elk of Two-Ocean Pass
An ideal bull in an idyllic locale.
The Ghost of Camelot Ridge
Every so often, it occurs to me that I am, without question, one of the luckiest guys in the world. It’s a brash statement, no doubt, and I hope that it doesn’t come off as bragging, because that’s not how I mean it. To me, it just means that I understand, and that...
Do You Write, Mr. Faulkner?
The hunt and the wilderness were more than just an escape for William Faulkner. They also taught him patience and self, discipline and were the inspiration for some of his greatest literary works. Early on the morning of November 10, 1950, William Faulkner received a...
Hunting Africa with a Falling Block Rifle: The Dakota M10 Single Shot
The romance of the falling block single-shot rifle has never been lost on me. The courage to trust my hunts to one sometimes has been. If you’ve ever seen that photo of Selous sitting in his camp chair beside two Kori bustards with his falling block rifle leaning...
Leo Tolstoy and The Bear Hunt
I felt something warm above my head and realized the bear was drawing my whole face into its mouth; my nose, already in it and feeling the heat of it... Have you had summer in Moscow and St. Petersburg this year? "the bundled-up June tourist asked at the train depot...
The Declination of a Bowhunter
For any hunter, fancies flip and flop and morph. Change seems a common entity. As a bowhunter, my lifelong hunting journey was no exception. A green vine, thumb-sized and flexible, served well for the bow – in those tender years of boyhood. A three-day life maximum...
The Specter of Tiger Creek
After passing the winter on the plantation, we moved, in the spring, down to a house on the coast, where we spent the summer, safe from malaria and other swamp-fevers . . . It was there that we did our salt-water fishing, and there that we had this adventure with a...
Birthday on the Manitou
As I watched, my resentment began to leave and I knew that, whatever the reason for his coming in, it must have been very important. While casting the long riffle below the pool, I became aware that I was not alone, that someone was there on the river with me. It...
A Goose on the Loose
I was sentenced to Chester Elementary School for six long years along with about 180 other unfortunate inmates. I wasn’t exactly sure what terrible offense I had committed against my parents to warrant such a harsh punishment, but I tried to serve my time with quiet...
Own an Original John Seerey-Lester Painting
Immerse yourself in the awe-inspiring world of wildlife through the extraordinary art of Sir John Seerey-Lester. Knighted in 2015 for his remarkable contributions to the preservation and portrayal of nature, Sir John is renowned for his unparalleled ability to capture...
The Dilemma
The rifle was all they talked about. A slick new Winchester Model 94 resting in the glass showcase at Harden’s Hardware. Jack coveted it. All the boys did. An inveterate hunter all of his long life, Mr. Harden smiled at the boys’ enthusiasm. Recalling his excitement...
A Hunter’s Coat
Whenever he wears the old canvas coat, he feels the heart, a hunter’s heart, of the man who wore it.
Reticles That Help You Hit
When I fired my first shot with a centerfire rifle, only about half of all hunters used scopes. Offhand, squinting down the Krag’s long barrel and struggling to hold it up, I tugged the trigger. The report savaged my ears, the steel butt my clavicle. The oil can on...
Royal Hunter
On a trip to Nepal several years ago, I was making my way apprehensively along a maze of trails to a remote tent camp in the Chitwan area. Adding to my anxiety, I had passed several fresh pugmarks of tigers, and as the light began to fade I imagined a big cat watching...
A Thousand Distant Gobbles
The following is an excerpt from Duncan Dobie’s newest book A Thousand Distant Gobbles: Turkey Tales from the Heart. This 236-page collection, featuring eight short stories and eight turkey vignettes, will warm your heart and take you on an unforgettable adventure...
Woodie Wheaton: Maine’s Grandest Guide
To his ‘sports’ and to his fellow guides, Woodie Wheaton was revered for his outdoor skills.
Drunk on Life
Be drunk,” the poet said. It might have been Ben Jonson; I don’t remember. Whomever, though, he was right. I suspect I’ve been drunk on just about everything that can be brewed, fermented or distilled. The aftermath hasn’t always been pretty, but getting there was fun...
Jane Mason: Hemingway’s Femme Fatale
Among the most accomplished outdoorswomen of her day, gorgeous Jane Mason inspired Hemingway’s nastiest femmes fatales.
Sporting Heritage Timeline
A timeline is a great mirror in which we can rediscover how truly marvelous our journey has been. Time is the protoplasm of destiny, the stay of our years as indefinite as the flesh of our bones, and within its meager allotment each man strives for immortality....
Dog Fight
What gives with such shabby treatment toward man’s best friend? After a week of sunshine, the field made muddy by heavy spring rains transformed the clover and alfalfa into a thick sea of green. There were lots of wildflowers, and the few I could identify—primrose,...
The Governor’s Trout
Sean and Patrick had chanced upon the secret to catching the Governor’s huge Loch Levens trout. And this very night would be the perfect time to pull off their daring exploit. Right under the Governor’s very nose.
The Art of Frogging
Frogs don’t carry swords or pistols, but they look as though they wish they could. Frogs are physically incapable of smiling, but they can look insufferably smug, as if they know something the rest of us don’t. Maybe they do. What I know is that frogs are biologically...
Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey TV Ratings Jump 20% in 2024
The popular Outdoor Channel series Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey saw a dramatic 20% increase in audience from 2023 to 2024. The series reached 2.38 million households with 2.7 million unique views over the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2024. In addition to the...
Dry-Cow Fishing As A Fine Art
The 1907 winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) achieved fame as a poet and novelist. He is best remembered for poems such as “Gunga Din” and “Fuzzy Wuzzy,” books such as Kim, Captain Courageous and The Jungle Book, and for coining the...
A Winter’s Bone
Damn cold. The stove has died during the night, down to coals. I’m completely awake, just opening my eyes to the dark of the cabin. The creaking I hear as I get out of the bed isn’t just the old bunk springs, it’s my bum elbow and that damn left knee. I heave an...