The Tracks
As long as live, I’ll never forget two simple numbers and one letter, 26-B. That was the federal housing number of the home my mom, dad and I lived in during the tumultuous, worldwide war years of the 1940s. The small, country town we and several thousand other...
The Boardman River Revisited: Busman’s Holiday on the Boardman
Twenty-five years had passed since I had gone fishing with the Smith brothers. Thirty years had passed since I had seen the Love Shack. I had never seen Oz. Jake was sleeping in his tent by the river. Chris was sleeping back home with his wife. I was sleeping with Oz...
Sporting Classics TV Season 8 Episode 2 Trailer
Make sure to catch this week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey, a celebration of hunter-funded conservation as three outdoorsmen meet for waterfowl and upland birds in Idaho. The series airs on Outdoor Channel on Monday at 12pm, Wednesday at 6am,...
Roosevelt’s Last Hunt
"The man should have youth and strength who seeks adventure in the wide, waste spaces of the earth, in the marshes, and among the vast mountain masses, in the northern forests, amid the streaming jungles of the tropics, or on the deserts of sand or of snow. He must...
Bear Hunting In Japan
This story originally appeared in the June, 1895 issue of Outing magazine. As we left the port of Yokohama for bear hunting in Japan, dropped slowly down the bay of Yedo, passed through the Uraga channel and crawled lazily southward on our way to Hiogo, no more...
A Day With the Cottontails
This article originally appeared in the October 1897 issue of Outing. “There’s old Don,” said Jake. “Jest you stand here—he’ll fetch ’im ’round all right enough.” From over across the hollow came the deep-toned baying of the hound, rising and falling as the trail led...
Washington Discovers a Wetland Rule That Works—and Immediately Calls for Review
The federal government has once again fired up its most reliable engine of public policy: if it ain't broke, form a working group to figure out whether it can be broken more equitably. This time it's the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has opened a remarkably...
A Terrible Silence: Cape Buffalo in the Zambezi Valley
The author fulfills a life-long dream of hunting Cape buffalo in old Africa. When things do not go as planned, he finds himself following a wounded bull — and reconsiders his reasons for pursuing dangerous game. At the shot, the Cape buffalo bull whirled from his bed...
We Fixed the Predator Problem So Thoroughly That Now We Have a Predator Problem
Somewhere off the coast of Florida right now, a mako is doing to a sailfish what a wood chipper does to a Christmas tree, and someone in the boat is filming it in vertical video for maximum emotional impact. This has become a genre unto itself. Scroll for ten minutes...
The Literary Legacy of W. Robert Foran
A few months back I received an e-mail from a book collector/dealer asking me a question that immediately raised a question of my own. The essence of his inquiry involved a photocopied collection of a series of syndicated columns written by W. Robert Foran under the...
Autumn’s a Comin’
Fall begins in July. That’s when savvy hunters and anglers unlimber their guns and stout fly rods. Though it’s tee-shirt and golf-short weather throughout the lower 48, it’s time to freshen your swing on those crossing shots; forego the bench and practice shooting...
Behind the Badge
“It’s just a game, you play your half and I’ll play my half,” said the deer poacher after our abrupt 2:00 a.m. meeting along the rural dirt road. He was kinda right, and since I already had his rifle seized and secured, we would now wait for the game to continue....
Night Fishing
As a boy learning to fly-fish for trout on the name branded freestone flows and limestone streams of Pennsylvania, fishing hours were strictly entrenched into my sporting ethics. No matter if fish were still sipping spinners, 30 minutes after sunset our flies were...
Sporting Classics TV Season 8 Episode 1 Trailer
Make sure to catch this week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey, featuring an adventure over land, air and sea as Luke and Nate Dorsey pursue elk, pheasant and trout at Colorado's stunning Elk Creek Ranch. The series airs on Outdoor Channel on Monday at...
Why I Support Safari Club International
If someone asked me which conservation organization I would want standing beside hunters when the next political assault arrives, my answer would be immediate: Safari Club International. That isn't because SCI is the largest hunting organization or because it hosts...
Fine Sporting Arms to be Offered at Poulin Auction House
Poulin Antiques & Auctions is pleased to announce their upcoming five day, 2,622 lot sale on August 5th-9th, 2026. This event will be held live at Poulin's gallery, located at 199 Skowhegan Rd., Fairfield, ME 04937. It will also be available for live bidding on...
Scottish Roe Deer… Finally! (Part 3 of 3)
When Scandinavian Prohunters’ Stefan Bengtsson told me Scotland would be the third leg of my Three-Nations roe deer hunt they were donating to the DSC Foundation Gala’s auction, I was thrilled beyond words. I could hardly wait for our adventure to begin, especially...
Celebrating the Field Sports and Upland Hunting in the Old Dominion
Nestled in the verdant, rolling hills of Virginia horse country not far from the nation’s capital is The National Sporting Museum & Library (NSLM), America's must-see museum for outdoorsmen, especially those interested in upland hunting and sporting and working...
George Cherrie: Naturalist and Explorer
In his life of adventures, George Cherrie crossed the line from what was the known world to the unknown world many times and survived to tell about it. It is a well-known phenomenon that virtually every bird dog owner believes his dog is the best. Therefore, it is...
Poland’s Sarna (Part 2 of 3)
“Planes, trains and automobiles!” said Mark Little with a broad smile as we boarded the train in Malmo, Sweden in route to the Copenhagen airport and the second leg of our Scandinavian Prohunters’ three-nation roe deer hunt. Both Carol Little and I had taken really...
Baron Bror von Blixen: Farmer, Charmer, PH & Adventurer
In Kenya he found big game and adventurous women–peril and economic ruin, too. He relished the risks. They started on the Congo, at the former slaving hub, Stanleyville, in a steel boat bought from a Belgian trader. Its three-ton capacity belied its small size....
A Return to Roe Hunting in Sweden (Part 1 of 3)
It was at a sportsman’s convention in 2026 when I stopped by Stefan and Sofia Bengtsson’s Scandinavian Prohunter’s booth to confirm my roe deer hunt in Sweden. I drooled over the photos Stefan showed me of bucks his hunters had harvested since I had last hunted roe...
Big Tusks, Big Risks
I remember with pleasure how some 15 years ago a hunt for a big bull elephant was rewarded with a grand trophy shot in the most dramatic conditions, in the classic style. A young, active American brought his bride on safari with me, and his principal interest for the...
Old Scar Hip and Assorted Bruins
Old Scar Hip actually climbed the ladder to my stand. I sat inches away from his nose, contorted so that drawing the bow was impossible. That ladder was behind me. How this boar had collected his grisly name was uncertain. Perhaps an errant arrow while still in his...
Assessing Cartridges for Africa
First, let’s get the all-round 375 H&H out of the way. Fine though it is, it’s been dominating Africa rifles discussions too long. Yes, this may indeed be the ultimate one-gun option. With the right bullets at the right muzzle velocity this 111-year-old cartridge...
The Colt Chronicles: SC Redux
The great fly angler Lee Wulff once made the point that, “A trout is too great a gamefish to catch only once.” Here at Sporting Classics, we also believe that many of our past articles deserve a second chance, a “redux,” if you will, that will delight new readers and...
The Cat
“Oh, no,” the old woman said as she pulled the curtain back from the kitchen window for a better view. “There he goes again!” The old man looked up from the newspaper. “Who goes where?” “Your grandson,” she said. “You only call him my grandson when he’s acting up.”...
The Thing About Doves
The long pull uphill meant standing on both the bicycle pedals pumping for all I was worth. Sweat rolled down my face to top out as our small town faded away behind me. At the top stood an old abandoned almond orchard, or what was left of one. Scraggily trees with...
Copley 2026 Sporting Sale
July, 9-10 2026 | 632 Lots Click Here to View Lots Copley Fine Art Auctions’ annual Sporting Sale is a premier auction of sporting art, featuring exceptional paintings, important antique decoys, decorative and contemporary carvings, fishing tackle collectibles,...
The Grandfather Factor
Some of the finest sporting literature ever published delves deeply into outdoor interactions between seasoned veterans of the field and apprentice hunters, fishermen or natural historians. Unquestionably the finest example of this literary genre is Robert Ruark’s...
Neglected Birds
Responses vary greatly when someone hears the unexpected. There may be a blank stare or emphatic sigh or even a look of mild alarm. There may be the sudden gasp accentuated with a rhetorical, “Really?” This is not so much a question as it is spontaneous disbelief. Or...
Ithaca Doubles: Overlooked Classics
Like many enterprises of the time, its origins were humble. It began in a rough little wooden structure perched precariously on the steep gorge of Fall Creek near Ithaca, New York. The virtue of the location was its abundant water power, and the building had already...
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...
A Rush of Black
We stood now in the shade of the trees with great smooth trunks, circled at their base with the line of roots that showed in rounded ridges up the trunks like arteries; the trunks the yellow green of a French forest on a day in winter after rain. But these trees had a...
The Extraordinary Bob Swinehart
Doing things the hard way became habit. With arrows. In Africa. At the end.
Frank Young: An Angler for the Ages
As a trout fisherman, Frank was simply the best I have ever been privileged to witness in action, and I’ve been astream with the likes of Gary Borger and Lee Wulff.
Holland & Holland’s Aim for the Future
Holland & Holland, long respected for producing firearms of the highest quality, was acquired in 2021 by the Beretta Holding Group from the French perfume company, Chanel. For three decades, the French company tried to redefine and reinvent the venerable old gun...
Welcome to Dogtown
Next to the dirt road was a field full of a tangly mix of broomstraw, wire- and lovegrass. A thick column of switch cane revealed the seep running along the back side. Off in the distance I could see the cotton in the neighboring farm’s field. It was so white that,...
Prospect Hope
A Colonial road, a looted grave and a deathbed promise. You don’t want to fall off your horse in the middle of Prospect Road. It might look like dirt, but it’s hard as concrete, paved with shell, packed solid by 250-odd years of feet, hooves and wagon wheels. A...
A Turkey World Slam
The pursuit of mountain game throughout the world has been a passion for most of my life. But now, having reached four score and three and endured four heart operations, I was not looking for strenuous high-altitude climbing. So, finding myself once again hunting at...
Why the Wye
An act of God combined with a dash of Grace creates a trout stream of royal proportion. Not far from the dirt path was a field thick with wide stalks of dark green, calf-high grass. To get a glimpse of the sun, wildflowers in nearly every hue—soft purple and blue,...
Shotguns Across the Pond
At one time, controversy raged over who made the finest guns. Americans pointed to Parker, L. C. Smith, Fox, Ithaca, Lefever and late-to-the-party Winchester. British gentleman would talk James Purdey, Holland & Holland, Henry Atkin, Grant, Lang, Westley Richards...
Harry Selby “Bwana Haraka”
“Clients tend to see their white hunter as a father.... He looms in their imagination. They are proud of him, and should he happen to visit them at their home in the northern hemisphere they will make sure that as many of their friends as possible meet him and see for...
Tutorial in Microcosm
Bream fishing with a fly rod is God’s way of making up for lack of funds. The old man wheezed as he made his way up the bank from the boat. Had to sit awhile on a stump to get his breath and reorganize his lungs. He wished he really could reorganize them. There’d...
Nervous Water
A father and son are finally reunited, on a secluded lake high in the Colorado Rockies. On a clear June morning, I took my father bass fishing into the Colorado Rocky Mountains. I had not seen or spoken to him in ten years. We ate an early breakfast at a truck stop on...
Our Gobbler
I suppose that there are other things that make a hunter uneasy, but of one thing I am very sure: that is, to locate and to begin to stalk a deer or a turkey, only to find that another hunter is doing precisely the same thing at the same time. The feeling I had was...
When 300s Were Young
What place, after a century, does a British cartridge have in the booming chorus of American 30-caliber magnums? Dawn’s hard snow was loud underfoot but the elk were noisy, too. Wind strumming the pines covered the crunch of our steps till both of us, surprised, met...
An Incidental Shooting-Iron: The Savage Model 99
Here’s a gun that carries better than some considerable few others of no greater efficiency. And a man carries a gun a blame sight more than he shoots it.
Sporting Classics TV Is Back for Season 8!
Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey will return for its eighth season on Outdoor Channel on Monday, June 30th. Episodes will air during prime-time every Thursday at 10pm ET, with additional airings on Monday at 12pm, Wednesday at 6am, Thursday at 6pm and Friday at 2...
The Devil of Bangalore
The night was warm and still and, although there was no moon, the myriad stars cast a bright glow over the village as the hunter took his position outside one of the huts. He had just arrived in the Bangalore region of southern India where he was waiting for one of...