Buffalo on the Choctaw!
“Got a question!” said Jim Bequette shortly after we had finished recording an episode for my weekly DSC’s Campfires with Larry Weishuhn podcast. My first thought was: “No, Jim I’m not going to sell you another one of my favorite rifles!” A year earlier I had sold him...
Nervous Water
A father and son are finally reunited, on a secluded lake high in the Colorado Rockies. On a clear June morning, I took my father bass fishing into the Colorado Rocky Mountains. I had not seen or spoken to him in ten years. We ate an early breakfast at a truck stop on...
Greatest North American Hunting Trip Ever
It was the greatest North American hunting trip ever, though the men’s survival was always in doubt. Fall of 1804, Meriwether Lewis was halfway up the Missouri, St. Louis to Great Falls, though he could not name the Great Falls until he had seen them, yet many months...
The Least of Your Worries, Pt. 1
A safari full of parasites, crocs, stampeding buffalo, and terrorists with automatic weapons and mortars.
Tomorrow’s the Day
Tomorrow is the moment he’s been waiting for. Tomorrow the fisherman will emerge from his annual six-months’ hibernation, which began with the close of last year’s trout season, and head once more for that favorite pool he has brooded about all winter. Tomorrow – nor...
UnMistakably British
Cleverly designed and impeccably made, the guns and rifles, clothing and accoutrements of British craftsmen have influenced sport the world over. We can be justifiably proud that we are the greatest melting-pot nation in history. Our willingness to absorb...
‘Secrets Of Great Salt Lake’ Brings Urgent Environmental Story To The Giant Screen
Utah’s Great Salt Lake is drying up, foretelling a dire future for residents of Salt Lake City and the surrounding region if something isn’t done soon to reverse the lake’s decline. An unprecedented coalition of state leaders, agencies, conservation organizations,...
Fallen Lady
The other day, while rummaging around in the attic for an air rifle with which to instill some respect for authority in the blue jays that had been raiding my roasting–ear patch, I chanced upon something more interesting than what I was looking for. This may well...
Shadow the Wonder Pony
Shadow is living proof that a pedigree is just a piece of paper, and that there’s ultimately no substitute for heart, guts and desire.
Tom Foolery
The boys’ agreement with the Colonel was simple: “An hour’s work for an hour’s hunt. Pay as you go and no quitting until the season ends or you kill a turkey. Fair enough?” A cold May morning in Michigan found Dave and me climbing trees on a field edge, hoping to...
Guns of Late Winter and Early Spring
I live for the “season of the painted leaves,” but for the time being, those crisp days of fall and early winter are precious memories to remember and to anticipate in a few months. With the closing of deer and other big game seasons, it’s time to switch to late...
The Winchester Model 97
The first time I saw the 97, I knew where it came from: that era, that time around the turn of the century when men just hunted and really did not ask the question, “Why?” That is simply what they did; you can see it in the eyes of the men in an old photograph from...
A Collector’s Guide to Parker Shotguns
I guess I should tell you up front that I have some misgivings about this column. Not because it’s bad stuff, but because I have a lot of friends who may not be too happy about it. You see, I make an annual pilgrimage to the Southern Side-by-Side Championship in...
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...
Brays Island Plantation: Your Sporting Life Awaits
Springtime has arrived at Brays Island, and owners get to enjoy all that the change of season brings: the start of turkey season; hungry redfish in the waterways surrounding Brays; cobia season; and perfect weather for a day on the sporting clays course, golf course,...
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...
Classic Alaska Charters: Now Booking for 2025!
Now Booking for 2025! 2025 is Classic Alaska Charters 36th season navigating the protected wilderness waterways of Misty Fjords National Monument/Wilderness Area! They offer outstanding adventure cruises for 5 days, 4 nights, saltwater fishing, crabbing and shrimping,...
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...
Shotguns Across the Pond
At one time, controversy raged over who made the finest guns. Americans pointed to Parker, L. C. Smith, Fox, Ithaca, Lefever and late-to-the-party Winchester. British gentleman would talk James Purdey, Holland & Holland, Henry Atkin, Grant, Lang, Westley Richards...
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...
Dead or Alive in Zimbabwe
I had an uneasy, anxious feeling as we drove to the bait tree just east of camp. It was with a bit of apprehension that I viewed my trip back to Zimbabwe and a patch of hunting land I had come to know and love. Through my long-term partnership with property owner...
Arthur Burdett Frost – The Sportsman’s Artist
A. B. Frost's paintings captured all the tenseness & humor of sporting situations while retaining the natural characteristics of the hunter & the hunted. Because of the artist's familiarity with human nature, his love for the sport and the creatures of the...
A Battle for Survival
Precariously perched in the small tree, the hunter peered into the night, his eyes slowly adjusting to the eerie light cast by the moon. The year was 1903; the place: Sabi Sands, South Africa. Harry Wolhuter was shaking from a combination of cold and fear. What was...
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...
Papa’s Cuba: Hemingway’s Home Away from Home
Cuba offers a party atmosphere: sunshine, sparkling seas and miles of white sand. It also offers some of the best cocktails and cigars on Earth. But as anyone knows who visits here, when it comes to attractions, its people are its greatest stock in trade. Cubans are...
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...