Kings of the Hill
Only four years apart in their native Germany, Wilhelm Kuhnert and Carl Rungius would go on to become preeminent painters of the world's big game. For a short time in the late-1880s their trails crossed, the two young bulls setting out to make their ways in the world,...
A Country Store
What a store was doing out in the middle of nowhere I didn't know, but there it was. I should never have had that second green chili burrito. The gas in my stomach told me I had made a big mistake and it was getting worse by the minute. I had finished my sales calls...
Grizzly Singlehanded
The guide put me ashore on the island. Just me and the grizzlies...an interesting feeling...isolated. My thoughts: I can't walk out. Just one person knows how to find me. I'd read many stories about grizzly bear hunting and attacks by the big, hump-backed predators....
Attacked in My Front Yard!
Those diving birds are dangerous! The other day I was casually strolling across the front yard when it happened: a bird flew out a tree and dive bombed me. Yikes! Attacked in my own front yard. Well, I did not call the law, but I did run and jump back on the porch to...
Spruce Creek and the Future
Spruce Creek's greatest claim to fame may well lie in what it gives to angling families in the future. No wider than the asphalt two-lane that traced it, the little stream wasn’t too impressive at first glance. The roar of traffic along a busy Pennsylvania highway and...
Frank Stick the Forgotten Artist
He not only left a lasting legacy of art and conservation for future generations, Frank Stick left the world better than he found it. The Golden Age of illustration, which spanned the first half of the 20th century, produced some of our finest sporting artists,...
The Cripple
Deep down, he knew this duck, this day, no matter how good it had been, could not have made up for the things they had already lost. As they turned off the main highway onto a rutted two-track, Tom glanced over at his son and wondered what Casey would be thinking....
Wings Over Sonora
I know a sure cure for February cabin fever. It's just as well that February is the shortest month of the year. My grandfather used to maintain that it was so brief because it offered as large a dose of foul-weather misery as anyone could endure, and in many senses he...
Dove Season is Nigh!
Dove season is coming — and that right soon! Well, if you have been sleeping these hazy days of summer away, you may have missed the fact your calendar indicates dove season is coming — and will be here soon! I love hunting doves. There’s lots of shooting, birds...
Benelli 828U Sport
SPONSORED CONTENT Benelli’s 828U Sport is an innovative over/under shotgun for those who appreciate modern design combined with outstanding Italian quality. For centuries, Italian gun manufacturers have created shotguns with beautiful form and function. Benelli has...
Storytelling On the Thames
Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. The neighborhood of Streatley and Goring is a great fishing center. There is some excellent fishing...
Play Day
Scene: A summer morning, Florida Keys, late July — but the events outlined here could have transpired in August, even September, just as well. We load the cooler with gallons of Gatorade, water and ice, with the reasonable expectation that it will feel downright...
The Scent of Elk and Horses
Following is the author Michael Altizer’s introduction to his latest book RAMBLINGS—Tales From Three Hemispheres. In addition to its over two dozen chapters that encompass stories from the top of the planet to the bottom, this book also contains a collection of...
Dog Overboard!
Life is so full of perils when you are on — or out of — a boat. As I have noted before, this summer has been one of many trips down rivers in fishing drift boats. While river cruising is fun, it has dangers like rocks and limbs protruding from the shoreline. Also the...
Gloss and Glory
In the 60s it was hip to be bass, and anglers everywhere welcomed a whole new breed of American hero. By 1965, the bassing revolution was at full throttle and re-born bass fishing was rapidly becoming galaxial. It was hip to be bass. Popularity encouraged fraternity...
Cosmi Shotgun from Nighthawk
The Cosmi is a premium grade Italian-made semi-auto that’s primarily built by hand — a slim and sleek firearm as fine as a Swiss watch. SPONSORED CONTENT I learned the value of quality a long, long time ago. For a lot of practical and aesthetic reasons, it pays to...
Defunding Hunting Programs in Schools
Defunding efforts that promote getting kids outdoors is antithetical to the current administration’s own stated goals of addressing America’s psychological woes. As America faces a storm of geopolitical threats, endures a flood of fentanyl streaming across a largely...
The Sporting Life of Riley
Ford Riley's goal is not just to paint what he sees while hunting and fishing — he wants to take you there, mind and soul. Almost all of Riley's paintings are inspired from his daily outings in the woods and on the water near his home along the St. John's River just...
Best of Breed
If immortality is nothing more, or less, than the condition of being remembered, the dogs profiled here will always remain vibrantly and brilliantly alive. These canines are, by any reckoning, the Best of Breed. Not long ago, I had occasion to write to a man I’d never...
Caribbean Silvers in Another World
From one world to another in a couple of blinks. The first boat heads out. Native fishermen crowd the beach and watch to see if they make it through. We idle upriver, then circle to wait our turn. Ahead is a quarter mile of choppy, mocha-stained water. Five-foot waves...
An Exceptional Archibald Rutledge Collection
Click Here to View All These materials all have been collected by Jim Casada, a longtime student of Archibald Rutledge and the editor of five works bringing together Old Flintlock’s enduring outdoor tales on a variety of subjects. Collectively they represent a solid...
I Call It Rabbit Netting!
What follows is a true story and not a tall hunting tale! The other day while Mike was fly fishing on a river near our home, I continued doing what I do best — sniffing about. Every bush and object within 100 yards of a river or lake must be sniffed out, that’s my...
Griffin & Howe 100 Years: Celebrating a Legacy of Craftsmanship
In the world of firearms, few names carry as much historical significance and prestige as Griffin & Howe. Founded in 1923, this legendary company has been synonymous with quality, precision and innovation in the firearms industry for an incredible 100 years. To...
Chairman of the Lower Forty
From this moment forward, their association will finally go down as one of the greatest in the annals of outdoor writing. Our paths converged in a field called the Lower Forty. Corey Ford owned it, I own it — in this very real, very rural, picture-postcard New England...
Swarovision: Unveiling the World of Precision Optics
SPONSORED CONTENT In the world of outdoor enthusiasts, nature lovers and avid hunters, the name "Swarovski" has long been synonymous with exceptional quality and unparalleled precision optics. The renowned Austrian company, Swarovski Optik, has been at the forefront...
Weatherby Offered in Other Cartridges
Weatherby has now made available the option to load some of the most popular hunting cartridges in the industry. Starting out, the cartridges being loaded will be: 300 PRC, 7mm PRC, 6.5 PRC, 28 Nosler and 280 AI. Designed to lead the industry in velocity and terminal...
Rediscovering Phillip Russell Goodwin
For many years after Goodwin's death, he was largely ignored in art circles. His "real" specialty," he told a friend, was painting "hunting scenes with action" for sporting goods calendars. Yet wildlife, hunting, fishing, and western paintings signed "Philip R....
Bob Ruark and the Boy
Bob Ruark left every lover of nature, every hunter and fisherman a bountiful legacy. To virtually all contemporary lovers of fine sporting literature, not to mention the millions who came to know him through his biting newspaper columns or best-selling novels, the...
People Like Us Never Grow Up
I do not mean to sound bitter about this, for perhaps it is not the fault of the wet-eared young... This piece is being written in a bug-ridden swamp on the banks of the sluggish yellow Tana River, in northeastern Kenya, where the big elephants bugle and the baboons...
Sweltering Summer Days
I must say, I frequently take a dip into the water to cool off. Those splashes are what summer is all about. This summer is going great, in case you wondering how I am. I have been on several new rivers, and have made some drift boat trips on well-known Blue Ribbon...
Springfield Armory Releases 2020 Rimfire
The Model 2020 Rimfire is a refined rimfire rifle that exudes the quality craftsmanship and reliable performance Springfield Armory has been known to offer. Available in Classic wood-stocked (offering four grades of Turkish walnut sporting a satin finish) and Target...
A Cat and His Hats
Other hats await, too. Hats I will someday own. I don't read the girly magazines any longer, but I'm still dog-earing and sweating up the catalogs. The boys blew ashore just a little after four. They had started out in the wee hours aboard the Marsh Hen, a 25-footer...
Hero of Kumaon: The Life of Jim Corbett
Must Read: Hero of Kumaon: The Life of Jim Corbett Hardcover, 271 Pages. Jim Corbett became the hero of thousands of impoverished local families in the remote Indian region of Kumaon when, throughout the 1920s and 30s, he answered their pleas to rid them of the...
Poetry In Paint
"The subject of my art is a look, not a story." If Eldridge Hardie had his druthers, this would be among the shortest articles ever written. It's not a matter of being publicity-shy, or of wanting to cultivate a certain "arty" image, or of being even remotely...
The Era of Belle
Perhaps there truly are angels among us. The journey to the mailbox should have been exciting. There was a flawless, expectant stillness to the air, as if the world held its breath in waiting. Dense, leaden clouds layered the bottom of an ashen sky, leaving the fields...
Gunwerks Releases the Elevate Bipod
Gunwerks releases its latest innovation in the hunting industry — the Elevate Bipod. The Gunwerks Elevate Bipod is the most capable hunting weight bipod anywhere. The Elevate Bipod offers features and adaptablity that rival every bipod on the market. Its carbon fiber...
This Hunting Life
We were learning the world. It is that learning I speak of as hunting. In the house I rent hangs a photo of me taken as a teenager. I'm lying next to my dog in some tall reeds by a river. For a long time I wondered what made me frame that picture and hang it. Tika and...
My Favorite Painting
Seven famed wildlife artists select their favorite pieces out of their portfolio, and give a little insight as to why. Silence in White - by Ken Carlson My selection of Silence in White was based strictly on the enjoyment I derived from creating this piece. A longtime...
Majestic Images and Magic Art
Unlike many artists, Carl Rungius had been fully appreciated during his lifetime. On a winter day in 1913, Carl Rungius was alone in his studio on West 42nd Street, at work on a painting of a bull moose. There was a knock on the door. The artist was not expecting...
Admiration On a Distant Continent
The 10 years or so of acquaintance with these two have left a powerful impression. My admiration remains. Pieter still wears the same hat he was wearing when I first met him quite a few years back. But as for that, so do I. I suppose we both discovered that a good...
Russell Moccasin Boots Behind the Scenes
Founded in Berlin, Wisconsin in 1898, Russell has been the bootmaker of choice for the pioneers of history. From Eisenhower to Earl Shaffer and Charles Lindbergh to Harrison Ford, their quaint little workshop has created a tradition unlike any other in footwear. This...
Cattle and Wildlife in Tanzania
Will the Tanzanian government succeed before the country surrenders too many of its wild lands and these ecosystems succumb to over-grazing and the inevitable and irrevocable desertification that follows? We watch as a lone bull elephant heads for a water hole but...
A Bullet Worthy of Jack
I opened the ancient brown paper bag and poured a few bullets into my hand, looking to see what I was going to be working with. I couldn’t believe my eyes for a moment... I was holding a bullet that I had read about for over 30 years, one that I had never thought to...
Take a Hike
Hiking is full of adventures and sights. Just the other day I noticed Mike was filling a daypack and lacing up his Irish Setter hiking boots. Great, we were going hiking! Hope he packed a gun because the mountains around here are now full of grizzlies, wolves and...
Ring of Spears
At last the tense ring was complete, and the spearmen rose and closed in. The next day, we moved camp to the edge of a swamp about five miles from the river. Near the tents was one of the trees which, not knowing its real name, we called "sausage-tree"; the seeds or...
Wildlife in Motion
When it comes to portraying animals in motion, many wildlife art experts agree that Schatz has few peers — if any. He is among western Europe's most renowned wildlife artists. His paintings, some of which sell for as much as $40,000, have been displayed in several...
Mr Tutt is No Gentleman
"A gentleman!" repeated Quelch sarcastically. "Will you kindly inform me in what respect a person calling himself a gentleman differs from anyone else?" Mr. Ephraim Tutt had just come out of the clubhouse and was standing, rod in hand, on the bank of the Santapedia...
Giant of the South Seas
"Sharks!" I yelled, hauling away for dear life. Time is probably more generous and healing to an angler than to any other individual. The wind, the sun, the open, the colors and smells, the loneliness of the sea or the solitude of the stream work some kind of magic....
Happy 4th of July
Happy 4th! But mind your hunting dogs — they may mistake those sky booms for downed birds! While you hoomans are celebrating the 4th of July, you kinda miss the meaning of freedom. You have jobs, payments and so many daily and life obligations. Ugh. For dogs, however,...
Roland Clark The Varied Artist
Roland Clark's love of excellence extended beyond duck portraiture. More than other hunters, waterfowlers are men sustained by memory and promise. In the icy silence of the marsh, when a world of water and sky hangs suspended between darkness and daylight, a man looks...