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...
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...
Disrupter Electronic Ear Buds Available
Walker’s Disrupter electronic ear buds are now available both in-store and online nationwide. Walker's latest, the Disrupter electronic ear buds, are now available for purchase — upping the ante by delivering reliable noise protection and sound quality required...
Theodore Roosevelt and A Great Adventure
Roosevelt had said, "I want Uncle Sam to have a better African collection than anybody else"; he accomplished his purpose. Well-known African explorer-hunter Carl Akeley, a contemporary of Theodore Roosevelt, had a simple answer about why Roosevelt's African...
Season 5 Premiers this Week
The world’s most watched outdoor television series returns for its fifth season on Outdoor Channel this week through the end of 2023. Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey is a joint venture between Dorsey Pictures, the largest producer of outdoor lifestyle programming...
Get a Job
Due to the cost of dog food — Mike has informed me I must get a job. Well, the other day Mike was grumbling — again. When I walked by, he pressed a receipt for a bag of dog food in my face. Seems that the price of dog food that was only $60/bag a couple of years back...
Voice of the Outdoors Curt Gowdy
Curt Gowdy left a legacy that will never be equaled. Baseball broadcasts would run spring to fall; football carried from fall to winter and basketball into the spring. But Sunday afternoons from January to March, with snow packed at the foot of millions of doors, part...
The Saga of Cobb Island
This article originally appeared in the 2018 Summer issue of Sporting Classics Magazine. Click here to learn more about Wings of Wonder, a beautiful 327-page book detailing the remarkable story of the Cobb Family. Featuring more than 200 decoys and hundreds of...
Caught on Canvas
"I don't deliberately try to make my paintings look different from other people's, but maybe one of the reasons they do is because I don't consciously imitate anyone artist's approach." Assuming that you buy Mark Susinno's explanation, it is conceivable to believe...
A Typical Success Story
Bob Bertram is somewhat of an a typical success story — a man who is surprisingly talented at more than one calling. Bob Bertram has come a long way since cut school; he studied fine art and commercial illustration at Murray State University, class of 1984. But today...
Sparkplug Marlin
About that time it dawned on me that we had probably made a bad decision! Many years I owned and operated several huntingpreserves.in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Now that I'm retired, my wife Rita and I spend our Winters in Rincon de Guayabito, a small resort village...
History from A Duck Blind
Nash Buckingham (1880-1971) was, in his day and still now, one of the most renowned and best-loved outdoor writers to ever ply the trade. The Limb Dodger was overdue. Concern mounted, and talk had already turned to possible causes of why the train had not bumped and...
Nosler Releases K-Can Suppressor
Short, Light and Quiet – Nosler Adds K-Can to Suppressor Line Nosler Inc. announces their new SR-30K suppressor. Templated from Nosler’s SR-30AlTi — boasting the lightest possible weight due to its aluminum and titanium construction — the SR-30K (aka. K-Can) finds the...
Ruby
Ruby was the original Terminator. As a puppy she proved to be too much for inside the house, and almost too much for the outside. I have never seen a dog so fast, or so muscled or so hard; indeed, I believe you could have hit her anywhere on her body with a broom...
Benelli USA Limited Edition Lupo KAOS
In defiance of the conventional assembly line protocols, Benelli is believes you can only have ONE finish on your Lupo rifle — because no two are alike! Benelli USA is introducing the limited edition Lupo KAOS, a high-performance bolt-action rifle that showcases a...
They Smell Like Fish
When the house starts smelling like fish, I know summer has begun. Well, I can tell summer has arrived because Mike’s friends are arriving with frequency at my house — and they all smell like fish, har har! Of course, each of them has enough gear to open their own fly...
Two Sports
Men of remarkable talent and courage, Er Shelley and Paul Rainey brought a unique form of hunting to Africa. As the 20th century dawned, the gamelands near Memphis beckoned two very different young men. One was a pointing dog trainer from rural Michigan, uncannily...
The Elusive Southern Appalachian Brook Trout
AKA: Brookies, Squaretails, Specs, Natives, etc. The following is an excerpt from Fly Fishing the Blue Ridge Parkway By Sam R. Johnson. For the first time, fly fishing savant Sam Johnson has captured in one guide an incredible “bucket list” of over 210 of the most...
A Thing of Dying
In the 89th year of his being, Ben Willow had died where most completely he had lived, upon the hills of home, with a dog and a gun. A little less than midway through this book, iron-willed old Missouri-West Virginian Ben Willow throws himself mercilessly once more...
New! The Jon Boat Years by Jim Mize
New Book Release! The Jon Boat Years: And Other Stories Afield with Fine Friends, Fair Dogs, a Shotgun, and a Fly Rod Softcover, 175 Pages. Delightful tales of hunting and fishing, family, friends, dogs, and precious time well spent. Nationally recognized and...
Bill Cypress
We thought Bill Cypress was as close to perfection as human beings ever got. State Highway 16 ran south out of town. Not straight south — not to start, anyway. It had to work its way out of the hills first and make a couple of gentle turns past the new high school...
Chris Dorsey on Fox News
Sporting Classics TV host Chris Dorsey joins Fox News to talk hunting and conservation. Chris Dorsey joined Fox News Tonight host Joey Jones to discuss the many differences between green environmental groups and conservation organizations...and who does more for the...