The Baby Toddles
I think a dog’s pleasure in scenting game is certainly as keen as our seeing it. How many birds do you think there are in it?” I asked Jake. “Forty if there’s one,” he said. I believed him; for Jack owed me nothing, and he is not a farmer. To a farmer — at least, to...
The Bloody Side of Hunting
For me, this hunting season is becoming the season of cuts. If you think this piece will be about dead animals, read something else. The recent blood in hunting has been mine. From thorns to sharp rocks to barbed-wire fences, there are things in the hunting world that...
John Schoenherr Bold and Beyond
As both sportsman and art lover, my walls battle for either mounted heads or country scenes. Oddly, though, I own no wildlife art. Before visiting John Schoenherr I wasn't sure why. Now I am. Over the years, most wildlife has seemed partisan to me, as though the...
Why I Taught My Boys to be Hunters
It has always seemed to me that any man is a better man for being a hunter. I have said that my hunting has often been solitary; but that was chiefly in the early days. During the last 25 years, I have rarely taken to the woods and fields in the shooting season...
Night of the Leopard
As night fell, a dense bank of fog from the Indian Ocean pushed inland over the Mozambique coast, blocking the moonlight and cloaking the forest in darkness. Condensation that had formed high in the jungle canopy literally rained down onto the leaf litter below. Just...
Hunting is Like Work
I may need to charge overtime. Treats and a half, Mike! I wrote recently that fishing is like work, and I’m here to tell you that hunting is like real work. I have to climb mountains, trek down valleys, wade or swim across rivers and struggle and muscle my way through...
ETHOS Performance Shop Upland Shotgun
Benelli’s ETHOS Performance Shop Upland 20-gauge semi-auto shotgun with its Inertia-Driven System meets all the requirements. SPONSORED CONTENT Every quality upland shotgun should meet these requirements: be easy to shoulder, swing and point; easy to operate by feel...
Cole Johnson in Black and White
"You don't decide on a style...you do the work and a style evolves." Over the years, I have had the luck to interview some very talented wildlife artists. A number actually hunted, others did not. In the work of those that did, I discovered another quality, a...
First Season Expectations
SPONSORED CONTENT: You’ve built up to your pup’s first hunting season — but what should you expect from your young dog? The experts weigh in. Every sporting dog owner has high expectations for their dog. Social media is flooded with beautiful images of dogs on point...
At the Edge of Alaska
A sheep-turned-grizzly hunt along the Canadian border.
The Traveling Knight
Sir Henry Seton-Karr dreamed of hunting America, later using a .500 double to take many of its game animals.
A Hunting Song
“Give me a dog that is keen of scent, and a gun that is tried and true . . .”
Island Getaway
Bunny gunning on Nantucket amid the homes of the rich and famous.
Fall at Brays Island
Fall at Brays Island brings with it the much anticipated scene of crisp mornings, rock steady pointers and eager cockers culminating in a burst of bobwhites in every direction. With 3,500 acres of quail courses and woodlands, Brays is every upland bird hunter's dream...
Dog Names
Well, there are now lists for everything — including popular dog names. I was surfing the web and looking for more stuff to order when a list popped up — the Most Popular Dog Names. I had to look — and could not find Cameron anywhere. Who made this list? On the list I...
Slamming Cuba
A belief in Avalon helped the author overcome years of fear and heartache.
Belly of the Beast
Hunting elephants in cover so thick they can only be located by the rumbling of their stomachs.
Fishing is Like Work!
On the offseason I get to fish — a lot. But fishing (not necessarily catching) with Mike sure feels like work! Well, it has been a long hot summer of tagging along as Mike fishes. Now, I did not say he was catching — just fishing, har har! On the downside of these...
Preseason Training Tips from the Pros
Eukanuba Pro Trainers share key preseason training tips to help get your dogs prepped and ready for Opening Day and the autumn trial season. SPONSORED CONTENT Opening Day is coming in low and hot, and so is the autumn trial season. Pro trainers “plan their work and...
We Weims Can Run
Weimaraners can run at speeds up to 35 MPH. I was again surfing the web the other day — hey, I’m down to only 20 boxes of dog treats, time to reorder — and saw a dog speed report. According to the report, Weimaraners can run at speeds up to 35 MPH. We Weims can run!...
Raymond Harris-Ching Thrilled By the Sight
Harris-Ching is one of the handful of artists who advanced the position of wildlife painting into a serious artistic genre. The ground is tinder dry, the air is suffocating — infuriatingly unlike air — more like the fug under a woolen blanket. Under the midday sun,...
Dealing with a Killer Elephant
The legend of a man-killing—and man-eating!—elephant that’s hard to pronounce and even harder to forget.
Francis Golden – That Golden Touch
Truly this is Golden's touch, to give us the moment tinged with feeling...[by] putting his own enthusiasm on paper with sensitivity and style. I am not a fly fisherman, but the experience of standing in a rushing stream casting to trout lurking in deep pools is...
Earning My Keep
Cameron the Weim — Hat Retriever Extraordinaire! I have written many times that I like hunting, pointing and retrieving birds. It’s the life of a top sporting dog — me. Now comes this new duty — hat retrieving. The other day Mike and I were at a high country lake —...
Sporting Classics TV with Chris Dorsey
This week, Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey proves that birds of a feather do indeed flock together as Chris is joined by friends and neighbors from Brays Island, South Carolina on a group trip to South Africa to enjoy some of the finest wingshooting anywhere on...
Life After Death
Poetic justice, I thought — that on the same mountain where I'd shot that bull in the heart before, I got hit in the heart. About mid-morning on a Montana mountainside the guide heard “Cody, just a minute.” He turned to see the hunter lean forward, then fall straight...
On Top of the World
Bowhunting polar bears where even angels fear to tread.
Benelli’s Over/Under 828U Sport
SPONSORED CONTENT Benelli's over/under 828U Sport shotgun features both classic and innovative modern design features. The design of over/under (O/U) shotguns has not changed dramatically for several years, and although improvements have been made, they have mostly...
Wild Impressions
"I want to leave something to the imagination...some mystery in the painting. I want to leave room for a viewer to participate." Jim Morgan reached over and picked up an old canvas goose decoy, one of several near his paint-spattered easel. His latest...
Go West Young Dog – On the Prairie
The prairie is a land of hopes and dreams for those who train field-trial pointing dogs.
Vista Lands Iconic Fly-Fishing Brand Simms
As all seasoned fly fishermen know, rivers tend to reach a kind of perfection in the waning light of the day. The drift boats have left the water, wind that foils a back cast often subsides and the mercury-like water of the river reflects the greens, browns and...
Mick Doellinger – Wildlife Sculptor
Mick Doellinger’s climb as a wildlife sculptor has been based on pure Outback adventure.
Lion on Foot
Following a lion on foot locks you into a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with Africa’s deadliest predator. Armed with large, bone-crushing teeth and claws that grab like steel hooks, the African lion is one of the most formidable predators on earth. Lions are...
Under the Volcano
Fly fishing for sailfish and tarpon in Costa Rica . . . until the earthquake comes and the tsunami hits.
Sporting Classics TV: Denver New Episode!
Chris Dorsey has taken nearly 50 safaris to Africa and 30 trips to South America in pursuit of the greatest televised big game and wingshooting adventures on Earth… but one of his favorite hunting honey holes is just a short drive away from his home outside of...
When Nearly Everyone Was a Hunter
There was an era in which Main Street, Hollywood, and pro athletes all came together in the gamefields of America. Will it ever come again?
Venator Laurentian Estate
Covering some 22,000 square miles of territory just north of Montreal in the southern part of Quebec, the Laurentian Mountains consist of Precambrian rocks more than 540 million years old, making its soft peaks among the oldest in the world. SPONSORED CONTENT: Here,...
The Sea Serpent
Who has not heard of the sea serpent? There was no educated man in the United States, at least, who had not read with wonder, not unmixed with awe, of the visits of this formidable animal to the coasts of New England. Nothing could be better authenticated than the...
Exercise-Induced HRI: Does Your Dog Need Help?
A gun dog’s drive may override his ability to know he’s overheating, so it’s up to every owner and handler to keep their dogs safe from HRI. SPONSORED CONTENT If you want your dogs to be sharp on Opening Day you’ll have to run them in the summer. But hot temperatures...
Artist Chad Poppleton
The artist has already achieved a distinctive style for conveying the spirit of each animal in his paintings.
The Croc That Wouldn’t Die
I sat on the engine cowling, holding my rifle and studying the hideous design of the crocodile’s head. Then its eye opened.
Making a Martini
Custom gunmaker Ralf Martini brings out the “Best” in pre-war English and European gun designs.
Where the Buffalo Roam
It’s possible to stick Australia’s Asiatic buffalo with a bow, but be prepared for painful stalks and saltwater crocodiles.
A Call For Africa
Three talented artists are creating a spectacular tribute to a legendary African river and its wildlife.
New! Argentina Wingshooting Past and Present
This lavishly illustrated book documents the best of Stuart Williams’ 40-year love affair with bird-hunting in Argentina. Stuart was preceded only by Hollywood actor Robert Taylor as one of hundreds of American sportsmen who have discovered the incredible, high-volume...
Fire & Iron Damascus Steel
Modern smiths keep an ancient art alive.
Lessons from Large Pin Cushions
It’s a dangerous place outdoors. The world is full of dangers. You've got speeding cars, stinging bees, rattlesnakes that bite and more. Luckily I have Mike to walk the trails ahead of me and check for dangers — much like a very slow bodyguard, har har! Once, while...
The Elephant on the Mountain
Only eight short paces would separate the aggressive young rogue and his pursuers when they finally met in the dark of an African night.
What Are You Pointing At?
If the noses of gundogs are so incredibly discerning, why do they point so many things that aren’t birds?
Summer Swims are Super!
Unfortunately for some dogs, summer means a prolonged down time. Summer is the time to explore everything — and get out there. My summer plans make up a long list of to-do things. On my list are fishing, hiking, camping, running, digging out gophers, chasing...