Death in Sidamo
May 1979 Ethiopia, much like Nicaragua, ain’t what it used to be. It’s the same problem of Marxist incursion that has so altered life there that the country I knew really was a last horizon. There is still safari hunting in Ethiopia, but I think things have a very...
Ghost Ram
Wild sheep. No hunting adventure strikes deeper into your soul than stalking wild rams – those majestic monarchs who rule fortresses of stone and ice in some of the most stunning and unforgiving terrain on earth. Blocky shouldered, square-chested and crowned with...
Eastern Panther – Myth, Ghost, Legend
The Lowcountry panther entered my dreams and my life. Haunting me when I slept, quickening my pulse and step when I was alone in the swamps come sundown. Daytimes, the Old Man looked off into middle distance. Nights, he gazed deep into campfire flames. He held us...
Fishing the Island of the Dead
Fishing a reef known for its monstrous fish…and its reputation for driving men to madness.
An Old Parker Finds New Life
To restore or not, that is the question. How many times have each of us thought about having a fine old gun refinished only to be cautioned that having it reblued or restocked will diminish its value? Several years ago at a small gun show in a church social hall, I...
From A to Zoli: Rethinking the Over/Under Shotgun
Many, if not most of us, would be glad to take the helm of a company owned by our family, certainly that is if good ’ol dad—or perhaps it was mom—had kept the business humming along quite nicely over the years. On top of the money rolling in, if the family operation...
Grouse of the Little Hills
I have always felt that the ruffed grouse is the wariest, the swiftest and the most beautiful gamebird in the world. The bronzed magnificence of old gobblers allures me; so does the gleam of sunlight on the tall and craggy antlers of the whitetail. Yet a hunting...
The Extraordinary Howard Hill
Viewed from the end, an imbedded arrow is an obscenely small mark, cleaving it the stuff of fairy tales. But film director William Keighley wasn’t working on a cartoon. He needed that arrow split. For real. On camera. Who better than an archer who shot as if drawing...
Fine-tuned Firearms Fashion
One of the touchier subjects in the hunter’s world of guns and ammunition is — of all things — rifle fashion. By that I mean much more than AR-rifles versus lever-actions. This isn’t about mechanical cycling systems so much as pragmatic design and functionality. Form...
Turkey Tracks in the Big Cypress
When the creatures of the wild were named, the wild turkey should have been christened “Wise Turkey.” The big bird is by nature sociable, and if at times he seems distrustful of human beings, it is because he is quick to recognize a hostile purpose. The Indian hunter...
Grover Cleveland: Our Kind of President
Not many years ago, while residing in a non-sporting but delightfully cultured and refined community, I found that considerable indignation had been aroused among certain good neighbors and friends, because it had been said of me that I was willing to associate in the...
Poulin’s Spring Premier Firearms Auction, May 8-11, 2025
The Poulin Antiques and Auctions’ Spring Premier Firearms and Militaria Auction is right around the corner May 8th-11th. This sale features collections from across the globe including the private collection of Lewis Drake which includes extraordinary sporting arms...
Borealis
It’s a fairly young river as fair rivers go, born in the mountains of far western Alaska before making its raucous way down from the heights and out across the tundra on its broad braided ramble to the sea. I have never seen its mother lake Kagati, but I know the...
Quicksand & Curses
Not everything in Africa that tries to kill you is even alive. Well, okay. I’ve since learned that that first sentence is a bit of trumped-up, deltoid-pumping rhetoric. Maybe you’ll forgive me, though, because at the moment it happened, I genuinely believed I would...
The New Russell Safari
Marrying the lightweight comfort of the PH and the performance of the Backcountry, the new Russell Moccasin Safari isn't just an upgrade, it's a whole new animal. The Safari is built for Africa, but will probably end up on your feet everyday. Best paired with some...
My Greatest Shot: Buck Calm
One of several great shots featured in Sporting Classics’ Guns & Hunting 2015 issue.
Hunting Camp
Growing up in rural Texas, in the gravel hills near Cummins Creek just above the Gulf Coast Prairie, hunting, fishing and camping played an important role in my early life. My first real “camp” was my Dad’s enclosed dog trailer, wood walls with a tin roof, all of...
Zane Grey in Print: A Collector’s Guide
There are many facets, some of them controversial or even contradictory, to Zane Grey’s career: oddball youngster with an overbearing father, exceptionally skilled collegiate baseball player, disillusioned dentist, struggling and often depressed young writer trying to...
Unique Auction Is A Calling For Conservation
That a country kid from Mississippi could build a game call company into a household brand among America’s 15 million hunters is a classic American success story. That he would use his fortune from the sale of the company to, among other things, order a custom...
Kelsey’s Rifle
Bill was morose, angry really, as only a drunk can be when things are not going his way. “Bad Bill,” as he was known, had been causing big trouble in Butte and the local lawmen set out to change his address whether he liked it or not. The city fathers wanted him gone...
Carrie Stevens: Rangley’s Favorite
Over the years, one category of fly has truly impressed me with its consistent ability to produce violent strikes and exceptional fish. It’s called the eastern streamer, and it’s found in two basic forms. One is a gaudy abstraction known as an attractor; the other, a...
Dorsey: “Time is Now” to Mainstream Hunter-Conservation Message
Chris Dorsey was the featured Keynote Speaker at the 2025 Bobwhite Ball to open the 2025 Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic in Kansas City, Missouri. Dorsey stressed that the time is now to bring the message of hunter-based conservation to mainstream media to protect...
Hunting with Dad
It was 2 o’clock on the afternoon of January 20, 1978, when the agent with the steamship company called my Seattle house to tell me that Jack O’Connor – my mentor, hunting partner and best friend – had just died of an apparent heart attack on the S.S. Mariposa en...
Old Dog
The light in the old dog’s eyes fell, and he dropped loosely back from the gate of the kennel run. He had reared . . . trembling . . . begging with all the equity of his years . . . hoping against hope to go. But the man he adored most in the world had offered only a...
38th Annual March in Montana
The 38th annual March in Montana sale and show is set to be a centerpiece of Western Art Week in Great Falls, Montana. Join us March 20-22, 2025 at the Great Falls Elks Club for an unforgettable celebration of Western and Native American art, artifacts, and culture....
GunBroker: The Dick Metcalf Firearms Auction
From March 10th through March 23rd, GunBroker.com is offering collectors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bid on more than 80 firearms from the personal collection of legendary gunwriter Dick Metcalf. For more than 40 years, Dick Metcalf was a cornerstone of the...
Buffalo Down Under
Late November in the Northern Territory of Australia is wicked hot and there was no respite from the heat across the miles of floodplain where I stood. In the midday sun, the mirage made the water buffalo look like black fuzz balls on a blanket of green grass. I...
The Day I Went to Audley House
We were young, starry-eyed thirty somethings who found ourselves playing explorer in the Mayfair District of London some 35 years ago. We were there on a work-related trip, but we had some free time, so my wife and I and a friend decided to see some sights. We were...
2025 Safari Club Convention in Nashville a Big Success
Martha and I were excited about getting back to Tennessee for the third convention since they moved the location from Las Vegas to Nashville. The eight hour drive had been an easy trip for us in the past and we anticipated no problems. Then the day before we left we...
Rare/Classic Hunting Books for Sale
Here’s a chance to add treasures in a variety of fields—classic reprints, sumptuous books on renowned sporting artists, choice old-time angling titles and more. There are items for every budget and many interests. All of the listings that follow are one of a kind...
Patsy & the Princes: A Classic Story by Archibald Rutledge
The daughter of Carolina Frank is a princess by right. I became Patsy's when she was only four weeks old, and she already showed her blue blood and all it means in a pointer pup. Sensitive, patrician and affectionate, she was not happy unless she could curl up in my...
Dreams of Duxbak Days
There’s wisdom aplenty in his words, and as I become increasingly long of tooth and sparse of hackle fond memories of youth’s halcyon days seem to grow in importance. That’s a common human trait and likely always will be. Most of these dreams of yester-youth are...
Jake Peavy’s Southern Falls Plantation
A Sportsman’s Paradise Known for its fertile soils and trophy hunting, the Black Belt region is a truly distinctive corner of the country. What’s even more unique in the region is the former home and estate of Major League Baseball All-Star Jake Peavy. Tucked away in...
Winchester Lofts
In my late teens, the Connecticut drinking age was a youthful 18 years of age. As a result, my buddies and I spent time knocking around in the closest city, which was New Haven. Sometimes we hit a place called the Brewery that sold 130-something different types of...
Man Is The Prey
James Clarke has lived in Africa since his early 20s and was news editor of The Star in Johannesburg when his book, Man Is the Prey, was published in 1969. Clarke leads us on an investigation into the curious and unpredictable actions and motives of the leopard,...
Oneida Moccasin
Famous for its use between WWI and WWI with the U.S. Army to build dirigibles for early warning against German subs, the Russell Moccasin Oneida continues to have a strong fan base today. The smooth but tough molded leather outsoles were essential to prevent any tears...
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,...
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...