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.
Requiem for a Peregrine
Everything about the peregrine falcon is spectacular — even in death. "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds." – Aldo Leopold Early one evening toward the end of April, my English setter, Tina, and I were on the...
Nothing To Do for Three Weeks
I left long before daylight, alone but not lonely. Sunday-morning stillness filled the big city. It was so quiet that I heard the whistle of duck wings as I unlocked the car door. There would be ducks leaving Lake Michigan. A fine sound, that, early of a morning. Wild...
The Knobbly Buck
The magnificent old buck was a once-in-a-lifetime prize…and now it stood only 25 yards from his son’s stand.
Arriving in Tinkhamtown
“He was going back to Tinkhamtown. It was a long way, but he knew where he was going. He would follow the road through the woods and over the crest of a hill and down the hill to the stream, and cross the sagging timbers of the bridge, and on the other side would be the place called Tinkhamtown. He was going back to Tinkhamtown.”
Shoot and Shoot More Often!
Let’s be honest—most of us don’t practice enough, but it’s essential for becoming a better, more confident shooter. The first step is deciding to change that behavior and plan ahead for practice time—and stick to your guns. Handle your gun frequently, even when not...
Sporting Classics TV Season 6 Episode 7 Trailer
This week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey is an adventure in the Gulf Stream as Chris Dorsey and friends are after tight lines on saltwater. The fly fishing adventure starts in Cape Cod in pursuit of striped bass, then heads south to Puerto Rico to...
Sam “Bird” Fite
Seven Decades of Chasing the Elusive Drummer
Woodcock Days
The best hunting spots are secrets among friends, where a bird in the bag is just a bonus. A mist conceals these mountains. They are gray like bone. The sun will not rise above them for another hour, and yet it is eight o'clock. This is a favorite spot. I find...
Rising Buffalo
Instead of just two bulls, Theodore Roosevelt and his party were suddenly confronted by a huge herd of angry Cape buffalo. The buffalo rose like massive black warriors from the papyrus swamp. Theodore Roosevelt and his party had just come face-to-face with one of...
Bad Day In the Bush
On the morning of September 30, 2001, professional hunter Johan Calitz awoke with a start. Outside his tent the quiet sounds of a safari camp coming to life mixed with the chatter of raucous francolins greeted the sunrise. This is how Johan began most days, his ears...
2024 Guns & Hunting Issue
Our special 2024 Guns issue is now available! It features an incredible collection of articles on exquisite shotguns and rifles from both past and present. The cover sports The Millionth Savage Model 1899 Lever Action Rifle, currently on exhibit at the NRA National...
Warped Perspective on Precision Rifles
We hunters might be suffering from a warped perspective on rifle accuracy or, more accurately, precision.
River of Many Returns
I must tell you a story. A story of old Argentina. A story older than two centuries, but as young as yesterday. A story within a story, for one would be untold without the other. A story of many things, though at its core the strength and soul of a woman. Not of Evita...
Experts Warn Mountain Lion Attacks Likely To Rise If Colorado Ballot Measure Passes
In David Baron’s 2004 environmental classic, The Beast in the Garden, the science author explains why large predators like mountain lions are increasingly frequenting suburban communities—specifically his hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Since the 1980s, mountain lion...
Sporting Classics TV Season 6 Episode 6 Trailer
This week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey features an epic hunt for red stag and fallow deer in the stunning mountains of New Zealand. Chris Dorsey returns to the south island to pursue big game with his old friend John Scurr in an adventure that...
The Least of Your Worries, Pt. 2
Face-to-face with a band of angry Cape buffalo—and AK-wielding terrorists.
Watch: Tough Hunt for Moose in Newfoundland
Shane Jones hunts moose on Newfoundland in a grueling hunt on 'The Rock,' and stalks within range of a massive bull.
The Tail of the Mangy Mutt
It was my very first hunt with Lacie, and I said to the plantation manager, “Could you please put out twelve quail, two chukars and two pheasants, and all as singles in a small field.” He replied, “We have a small training field that is planted with sorghum. But you...
Sables Are Hard to Hit
In this article for Outdoor Life, Jack O’Connor revels in the name given him by the natives, Medala Pala Pala “Old Man Who Can’t Hit a Sable,” but in the end he manages to silence his African critics by taking a fine bull.
The Russell Chukka
The Chukka fills that "what-should-l-wear" gap between a loafer and a boot. Comfortable and light for everyday wear but with enough height to keep out dirt and sand. Slips on and off easily and laces quickly. The Chukka's many uses will make it your favorite daily...
The Brook Trout’s Province
Newfoundland and Labrador’s crystal-clear waters teem with brook trout, a telling testament to this unspoiled land.
The Cost of Hesitation
The old saw, “Good things come to those who wait,” rarely applies to hunting trips.
Leopards are Different
Of all the African big game animals, Chui the leopard is the most beautiful and exotic – even in death.
Sporting Classics TV Season 6 Episode 5 Trailer
When bobwhite quail populations in West Texas plummeted in 2010, concerned hunters took notice and banded together to fund research to find a solution to the mystery. Now the efforts from the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation are bearing fruit for wildlife in...
Menace On Flat Water
Hazards from beasts in the bush are no match for daily perils along Africa’s waterways!
Father’s Boats
He fished for panfish, bass, and maybe, just maybe, a muskie.
Ruffed Grouse Are Not Gentlemen
Ruffed grouse are survivalists, like anything wild. Keen masters of escape, Houdini had nothing on them. I’ve had them use the back door too many times to think it’s chance. And when that door is covered, they fly out the side window. I am convinced they thumb their...
Getting Socrates Drunk
Stuck for a name, we had it when Uncle Harry christened the stray pup “Socrates,” given his proclivity to poison himself. Worse than a baby in a bathroom cabinet, right from the git-go he liked stuff he shouldn’t and revealed a fatal attraction for everything liquid....
Sporting Classics TV Season 6 Episode 4 Trailer
The world’s most watched outdoor television series embarks on an unforgettable safari adventure in Tanzania as Chris Dorsey and Steve Hicks hunt myriad plainsgame on this week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey on Outdoor Channel. The two intrepid...
Mr. Detwiler: A Ghostly Grouse Hunt
Who was this strange old man who handled a shotgun like no one I'd ever seen? When I first saw him, I tried to duck back into the pines, but he raised his hand in greeting and I was stuck. All the while he was coming on over through the hawthorns, I cussed under my...
Birds on the Wing
“When you have shot one bird flying, you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.” Before I was old enough to own a gun, wild game came to me via a boyhood...
To Bite the Bullet
An overturned jeep, no water, and a charging elephant in the night. What else could go wrong?
The Parson Lied
First published in the April 1939 issue of Hunting & Fishing magazine, and then in Tales of Quails ’n Such in 1951.
The Day Momma Killed Corky
It was an act of violence rougher than anything Hemingway ever wrote about – the blood-curdling screams made me sick to my stomach. But about that time I hooked a monster bluegill... A Southern Tall Tale Excuse me, gents. Jimmy Shakes here, nice to meet ya. I couldn’t...
A John of All Trades: Winchester’s John Olin
Whether gundogs, shotshells or firearms, John Olin always sought to create the best.
Hemingway’s Pilar – Chasing Billfish and German U-boats
Papa called her Pilar and she was a fishing machine, a 1934 Wheeler Playmate, custom built to his specifications in a Brooklyn boatyard. She was 38 feet at the waterline, with a low-cut transom rigged with a roller for sliding fish aboard. She held a ton of ice, had...
An Excerpt from “A Toklat Grizzly Comes A’knockin'”
In seconds a section of wall was gone and the bear was on its way in.
The Golden Age of Sporting Art
Harrowing encounters with big predators. Life-threatening disasters. Dramatic, last-second rescues. All of these dynamic situations were almost commonplace during the golden age of sporting art. From the turn of the twentieth century through the 1940s, action-oriented...
The Ultimate Quail Gun. Really!
Quail Unlimited’s best-of-the-bunch 28 gauge shotgun modestly named “The Ultimate Quail Gun”
Sunset Bear
I visited that spot for the rest of the season, and it was like returning to the scene of a crime and every time the sunset forced me to leave, I felt a terrible weight on my shoulders.
Joseph Thomson: Mystery Man of Africa
Over the course of the 19th century, phenomenon sometimes referred to as “the opening up of Africa,” hunters and explorers, along with a solid sprinkling of traders, were in the forefront. They pioneered the way into the interior and their tales of grand adventures,...
Sporting Classics TV Season 6 Episode 3 Trailer
Get ready for an epic adventure in Greenland as Chris Dorsey and friends hunt eider and muskox in this week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey on Outdoor Channel. The team of Dorsey, Terry Graunke, Steve Farris and Charlie Potter navigate through...
Hunting with Babe Ruth
One word said it all — the greatest baseball player ever, a man who batted big and lived bigger. Babe combined incredible charisma with athletic genius. He hit like a dreadnought, was outspoken, uninhibited, profane, occasionally arrogant to teammates, often unruly...
The Lasting Legacy of Nash Buckingham
Regrets are scratches on the furniture of our lives that can never be polished away. The scars of fate that shoved aside dreams, the wounds of choices ill-chosen, the lesions of opportunities lost or dreams abandoned. Some are shallow; some are deep. Some settle...
Hunting Tuskless Elephants in Zimbabwe
An exciting, relevant and timely story about hunting tuskless elephants in a Campfire Communal Concession in Zimbabwe.
Griffin & Howe’s All American Rifle
It can be argued that a rich and storied history may well be a company’s most valuable asset. No matter how great the legacy, though, like any inheritance, it can easily be squandered. Some outfits, for example, simply sit back on their haunches hoping that the glow...
The Guns of Royals
Doug Tate explores some of the guns used by royalty when activities such as going on safari were a rite of passage for this class.
Remembering Grandpa Joe
I flat-out worshiped Grandpa Joe. His folksy wisdom, the wonderful times I enjoyed in his company as a youngster, and what he taught me when it came to living close to the good earth endeared him to me. He died a half century ago, and in fairness and from hindsight, I...
Sporting Classics TV Season 6 Episode 2 Trailer
It is an epic celebration of ducks and geese at the top of the flyway as Chris Dorsey and friends hunt waterfowl in Saskatchewan. Catch the action on Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey every Monday at 12:30 pm, Tuesday 7:30 am, Thursday 2:30 pm, and Sundays at 4:30...