A Cold One in Formidable Country
What compels hunters to enter into difficult, even life-threatening situations? Dangerous terrain, fierce winds and bitter cold are never fun, yet many hunters not only accept these hardships, they're challenged by them. The mountain climber's answer, "because it's...
Fighting the Goose
Mike informed me the other day that the end of goose season was near, so we were going goose hunting. I had to don my neoprene camouflaged vest and hop into the truck — make that inside the cab with the heater. I never ride in a box in the bed but that would be the...
Where the Wind Blows Free
"I told him I'd bury him in the meadow and not tell anyone. We shook hands on it, and I can't go back on my word to him, I just can't. If I get sent to jail, I'll go." “Ellie, make note of the date, time, people present and that this is an informal hearing with no...
Double Barrel Doves
I swore to lock up the 28-gauge Perazzi, safe and sound, and return it when asked. But I simply could not, would not, make this trip without her. I have always been lucky with dogs and shotguns. Or maybe just unlucky with everything else. In any event, one evening the...
Frank Benson Inspirations
When Frank Benson decided to hang a dozen or so intaglio prints, most of sporting subjects, in the 1915 exhibition of his paintings at the Guild of Boston Artists, he unwittingly put his career on a new path and founded a new artistic genre: the sporting print. One of...
The Big Sixth Should Be a Hippo
Hippos will fool you. Fat, slow, benign and slightly cartoonish. Except they aren't. This two-and-a-half-ton herbivore kills more humans every year than lions, leopards, elephant and buffalo combined. The Big Five should be the Big Six, and the biggest of the lot...
Mike Needs to Be Bringing in the Bucks
Getting the birds yourself could be far cheaper than having to buy ready-to-cook birds at the grocery store. The other day Mike stopped at the grocery store and went inside, leaving me alone in the truck — again. Why can’t I go inside? I promise not to graze on too...
SEWE 2023 NEW SPORTING SHOWROOM
After visiting the Sporting Classics booth, check out the new SEWE Sporting Showroom at Charleston Marriott! Explore carefully curated exhibitors in a setting that allows for meaningful conversation. Experience showroom exhibitors include sporting and adventure...
Death in the Wild African Dust
We were standing three abreast when a cow charged through the dust. It was Rick Stoeckel’s second African hunt, as with most he had cut his teeth on plains game and couldn't wait to return for something big. By the time our plane bounced down hard on the old military...
Sporting Classics at SEWE 2023
Sporting Classics will be in attendance at the 2023 Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. Come by and say, "Hello!" The 2023 Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) is just around the corner. This Friday-Sunday (17th-19th) is the largest gathering of wildlife art and...
Peter Principals In African Wildlife Art
Peter Gray and Peter Stewart, two painters living in South Africa, inhabit different corners of the Cape region and chronologically are a generation apart. But each welcomes the direction that contemporary wildlife art is taking. In case you haven't noticed, these are...
The Fury of A Lion
We were camped on the edge of Pom Pom Lagoon in the game-filled Matsebe concession, located deep in northern Botswana’s 4,000-square-mile Okavango Delta. Here, brush-covered islands, mopane sand and big herds of buffalo, primary prey of the area’s magnificent lions....
Legends of the Elephant Tail
Aspiring elephant hunters dream of large tusks and an elephant hair bracelet on their right arm. Before the turn of the 20th century, natives living in remote regions of Africa begrudgingly shared their home ranges with elephants. They were often forced to defend...
SK Customs Donates for NWTF’s 50th Anniversary
America’s only limited-edition, series-driven production manufacturer, SK Guns, through SK Customs division and the SK Gives Back initiative, is eager to showcase a new collectible firearm set to celebrate the National Wild Turkey Federation’s 50th Anniversary. Two...
NEW at SEWE 2023 The Sporting Showroom
Directly across the street from Brittlebank Park, visit the new Sporting Showroom at the re-imagined Charleston Marriott. Peruse the carefully curated exhibitors in a setting that allows for meaningful conversation. Showroom exhibitors include sporting and adventure...
World Hunting Celebration Comes to Nashville
If there’s a Super Bowl of the hunting world, it’s the annual Safari Club International convention. SCI is comprised of more than 50,000 members with 180 local chapters and affiliates across the globe. Come February 22, tens of thousands of hunters, guides,...
Ice Fishing is Just Insane
The oddest thing I have discovered about hoomans is that when lakes freeze over in the winter and rivers are choked down with thick ice — they want to go fishing. Really? It’s cold, there’s ice everywhere and you had all summer to fish. Why go now? The other morning...
The Other Side of the Dream
Webster was adrift in time again. For 30 minutes, or it could have been hours, the leopard fed. The sun was setting behind the dangling bait, a shoulder from the zebra Webster had killed two days before. Forty yards away, Webster watched through a peephole in the...
Larry Norton and The Searching Spirit
Larry Norton's subjects are not only anatomically proportionate but portrayed in body positions as they appear in the wild. One notes the malevolent cast of a lurking croc, the rubble of scattered bones, virtually hears the forlorn call of the turtle dove. Terror...
Taking On the Biggest Game
Young men unthinkingly take chances by driving fast cars and chasing fast women because they believe they are immortal, that they will never die. More mature men choose to openly embrace danger because they know they are not and most surely will. Hunting an animal...
SEWE 2023 Raffles
Go ahead and reserve your raffle tickets! SEWE has some excellent prizes in store — and Sporting Classics is spotlighting a few of them! ***Images link to corresponding page*** SEWE 2023 is kicking off! Get everything in order for your trip and see us there!...
Hooman Special Days: Valentines Day
You hoomans have way too many special days to remember and track — like the one coming up with flowers and candy. When I see flowers, I remember to raise a rear leg and start watering, har har! As for chocolates and candy, those are off limits for dogs and by the...
CSF Welcomes New Board Members
Last week, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) Board of Directors (Board) welcomed new members to the Board rounding out a full slate of individuals representing various industries who all share in the mission of working with the Foundation’s leadership and...
Capturing Life On the Edge
Africa, the Dark Continent. Ask anyone what comes to mind when they think of Africa, and they will say its wild animals. And invariably its dangerous game. As a wildlife biologist turned wildlife photographer, megafauna and man-eaters are what first drew me to visit...
David Langmead and Dangerous Liaisons
"If I have any legacy, I want it to be that of an artist who was passionately in love with Africa." Ross Parker knows the color of truth in African wildlife art. As a native Zimbabwean raised in the dust of ruby red sunsets, he says no day in the bush is more...
Southeastern Wildlife Exposition 2023
Sporting Classics will be in attendance at the 2023 Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) this coming February - here's what you need to get started! Whether you are looking for SEWE's Brochure, FAQ's, Raffles, Tickets or Hotels, you can begin — or continue — to...
First Snowfall of the Gray Days
When I remember my best days of hunting, the memories dawn mostly cloudy and gray. I'm thinking about the gray days and cloudy skies preceding a storm. Every hunter knows that animals sense and instinctively move in advance of a storm. And I think the same urge stirs...
Frightening Eyes Aglow in the Night
The young naturalist pulled back the tent flap and peered into the inky blackness of the African night. He was certain he'd heard something. As he raised his lamp, his worst fears were confirmed. There, only a few steps away, were the glowing eyes of approaching...
The Villain of East Africa – John Patterson
Whatever the goal, the safari became a recipe for disaster. The great elephant rounded a clump of acacia and swung toward the two hunters. Drying blood made dark stains down its wrinkled shoulder and neck, but despite its wounds, the big animal moved deceptively fast...
Death By Night – John Seerey Lester
From Legends of the Hunt – Campfire Tales by John Seerey-Lester
Uganda Gold
Hunting the kob in the Jewel of Afria.
New Beginnings
You’re not really a Westerner until you’ve taken your first elk.
Roosevelt’s Game Preserve
Once barren of elk, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge now affords once-in-a-lifetime hunting opportunities.
Well You Can’t Fix Stupid
When I was researching my book, Legends of the Hunt, I came across some unbelievable and farfetched stories. The one recounted here is perhaps the most incredible, yet it was verified by two independent sources. In 1900, Mr. Larkin, an engineer for South African...
Banovich Living What He Paints
"My work has evolved a great deal in recent years, particularly in the way I apply paint to canvas. I hope that I'll still be growing at the same rate 10 years from now." These words by John Banovich appeared in an article by Editor Chuck Wechsler in the March/April,...
James Stroud and South Africa Now
There is nothing meek or ambiguous about a charging elephant, especially when the tusker in question appears to be lunging off a canvas from South African painter James Stroud. Stroud's vivid wildlife portraits are so different from the flat surfaces of most sporting...
Old Values In New Times
In 1985 Holland & Holland bought W&C Scott of Birmingham, a purchase that brought together two of the oldest and most influential gunmakers in England — two firms that helped create the modern gun and thus helped shape tradition. And then Holland & Holland...
First Side-Lever Over/Under Rising Third Bite Shotgun
For the first time ever, a rising third bite action has been paired with a side-lever over/under format. The new gun – produced first in a trio of 16-bores for a European customer – joins Boss & Co’s 1812 Edition family of guns that utilize a purpose-built bespoke...
Han Solo’s Blaster Sells for More Than $1M
The only surviving blaster originally used by Harrison Ford as Han Solo in “Star Wars: A New Hope” sold at Rock Island Auction Company’s August Premier Auction for $1,057,500. Han Solo’s blaster headlined the three-day event that drew international interest and...
The Man Who Knew Ruark Best
"...the most incredibly wonderful, generous, humorous and likable son of a bitch who ever lived." To many discerning readers, Robert Ruark ranks as the finest outdoor writer ever to grace the American literary scene. His enduring fame is linked to three immensely...
Julie Jeppsen Believes Practice Makes Perfect
"...I could do it if I practiced enough." It's not uncommon, upon meeting Julie Jeppsen for the first time, to find yourself doing a double take just a few minutes later. Let's say you're at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina, one of...
Furrow Auction Company 2023
This is YOUR chance to own what very few in the world do! SPONSORED CONTENT: Furrow Auction Company is conducting an online-only auction for the Estate of Safari Club International lifetime member’s collection of Taxidermy from around the world and a huge assortment...
The Santa Claus Buck
Both of us were nine at the time, impressionable if not gullible, and we were awed by the significance of the event...for our first deer hunt we alone were awarded the honor of accompanying our fathers to the woods to learn how to hunt whitetails and the Santa Claus...
A Christmas Buck
TR gets meat and memories from a pre-Christmas deer hunt.
My New Years List for 2023
You hoomans seems to be list makers — for everything. I know lists help you reach goals and stay organized, so here goes with my 2023 New Year resolutions list. First, get some huns, alias Hungarian partridges. Those birds are like small rockets with hyper-speed...
The Ledge
They were the absurd, precarious axle around which reeled the surged universal tumult. On Christmas morning before sunup the fisherman embraced his warm wife and left his close bed. She did not want him to go. It was Christmas morning. He was a big, raw man, with too...
Where There is a Wil…
A painter he is, and that's what he always wanted to be... His house is what realtors, in Salisbury, Maryland, call a two-story “Colonial.” It sits near the back of a tasteful subdivision — meaning one where developers have left standing the native loblolly pine, oak...
River Spell
The secluded river and soul-quieting snow...together they would cast just the right spell for losing himself while regaining a sense of belonging. Day 1: I am all by myself in the canoe, maybe on this whole river given the time of year and the fact that for days...
Taking the Icy Plunge
Sometimes I have to take the icy plunge to retrieve Mike's Ducks. BRRRRR! While Weimaraners like me are well known for finding, flushing and fetching upland birds, like pheasants and grouse (which I do when Mike finally connects and shoots one of those birds), I also...
A Trip Back To Yesteryear (Pre-1900)
Why are American deer hunters so infatuated with the past? What is it about looking at old pictures from yesteryear that stirs our very being? Hunting touches the soul. When we go back in time and see how our grandfathers and great grandfathers took to the woods and...