Return to the Mighty Seven 

Return to the Mighty Seven 

It was the 6.5 Creedmoor of the 1960s. Flying off the shelves. Everyone was chambering it. Everyone who didn’t shoot it wanted to. Or they pretended they didn’t.    Remington’s 7mm magnum blew Winchester’s 264 magnum right off the plains and into early retirement....

What Your Dog is Really Thinking

What Your Dog is Really Thinking

Because of developments in brain imaging technology, scientists are beginning to see evidence of “love” for humans within the canine brain. Dog lovers have a tendency to claim they know exactly what their dog is thinking based on certain behaviors. Even a graying...

Building From the Base Up: Your Under Armour Ridge Reaper System

Building From the Base Up: Your Under Armour Ridge Reaper System

When the temperature drops and hunting season is upon us, choosing the right clothing is just as important as your rifle, shotgun or bow setup. SPONSORED CONTENT When the temperature drops and hunting season is upon us, choosing the right clothing is just as important...

A Gift of Water and Wind

A Gift of Water and Wind

Three-fifths of the world is water and the wind courses over all of it. So when Pappy gave me that 10-foot bateau, he gave me the world. The first swell smacked the port quarter, sent green water clean over the wheelhouse. Aboard Maggie C, a 26-foot Maine Lobsterman,...

The Call of the Surf

The Call of the Surf

There are fish in the surf that will take the angler half off his feet with the violence of their attack and cause him to shout aloud in the excitement of the combat. Game and fish are fast disappearing as our remoter sections become settled, as lakes and bayous are...

“Best of the Best” with Krieghoff’s Bespoke Side-by-Side

“Best of the Best” with Krieghoff’s Bespoke Side-by-Side

If it is mastery of the art of gunmaking that qualifies “Best Guns,” German gun manufacturer, Krieghoff, has crafted a gun that fits the bill. SPONSORED CONTENT When you think of “Best Guns,” what comes to mind? Where do they come from? England, Italy, Spain…places...

Père David’s Deer Back From the Brink

Père David’s Deer Back From the Brink

The intriguing survival story of a deer species discovered in China more than 150 years ago. When I was a small boy I started digging a hole in the backyard. My dad came out and asked me what I was doing. “Digging a hole,” I answered. He smiled broadly. “If you keep...

Skills of Successful Wingshooting Guides

Skills of Successful Wingshooting Guides

Being a hunting guide might seem like a dream job, one we would all like to have, but there is a tremendous gap between the dream and the reality. There is a famous anecdote, possibly apocryphal, about Fred Astaire’s first screen test for RKO Pictures. Apparently, the...

Mid-Season Tune-Ups for Your Retriever

Mid-Season Tune-Ups for Your Retriever

None of our dogs are perfect. Here are a few of the most common issues that retriever owners frequently need to address during the season. SPONSORED CONTENT Hunting season! Time for all your summer training and hard work to pay off. Thankfully, your waterfowl dog is...

The One-Stop Shotgun Shop: Fabarm U.S.A. 

The One-Stop Shotgun Shop: Fabarm U.S.A. 

Fabarm offers a plethora of shotguns crafted with bird hunters in mind, running the gamut of semi-autos to side-by-sides, from shooting trap to waterfowl and everything in between, all in one place. SPONSORED CONTENT Have you ever known a true shotgunner to own only...

Columbus Man Wins Boat in Take ’em Fishing Challenge

Columbus Man Wins Boat in Take ’em Fishing Challenge

Freddie Leibhart's mom introduced him to fishing when he was young. Now, the Columbus man is doing the same for his children. Better yet, he now can take them fishing in the new boat he won as the grand prize in the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's Take 'em...

Russell Chatham’s Roasted Duck

Russell Chatham’s Roasted Duck

The hill’s contour was pink with slanting light, so much like a Russell Chatham painting. I looked down at the large gray breast of the mallard and thought about the meal to come. I rounded a bend of a winding, western Montana creek, and the heads of two mallard...

NFL Legend Bert Jones: A Bird Dog Man?

NFL Legend Bert Jones: A Bird Dog Man?

It might surprise you to know that NFL legend Bert Jones and his father Dub are hard-core quail hunters and bird dog men. Joe Augustine, who happens to be a friend of mine, is one of the handful of sportsmen who’s bagged every species of upland gamebird in North...

Peak Performance Through Nutrition

Peak Performance Through Nutrition

The diet you choose to feed your dog can have a big impact on their ability to perform at their peak. SPONSORED CONTENT Hard charging performance dogs—like pointers, setters, Labs, English cockers, GSP’s and many, many others— are wired to work. Their work requires...

Move Over Jimmy Buffett, Meet the Coolest Salt of the Sea

Move Over Jimmy Buffett, Meet the Coolest Salt of the Sea

Wherever the currents of time find Pallot, you can bet the fish will be biting and he’ll make room in the boat for you—whether in person or vicariously. What could be cooler than that? For 15 seasons a lanky poet with the central casting name of Flip Pallot poled a...

From Field to Freezer: Tips for Processing Big Game

From Field to Freezer: Tips for Processing Big Game

Here's the basic cheat sheet: Gut it, skin it, keep it clean and keep it cool. You successfully shot a deer, elk or other big game animal. Now the work begins. You want to properly process the animal so you get many healthy, enjoyable meals from it. But you should...

Lynn Bogue Hunt: Angler, Hunter, Artist

Lynn Bogue Hunt: Angler, Hunter, Artist

Great Holiday Gift! $25 Hardcover with Dust Jacket, 180 Pages.   Angler, hunter and above all artist, Lynn Bogue Hunt was America’s most popular and prolific outdoor illustrator of the mid-20th century. He painted a record 106 covers for Field & Stream;...

The Unpredictability of Hunting…and Life

The Unpredictability of Hunting…and Life

No two hunting stories are the same. This may explain why those of us who hunt are rich with a bank full of distinct memories. No two hunting stories are ever alike. For good reason. Ruffed grouse roosted in the aspens never take the same flight path. A whitetail buck...

Nebraska Changes Deer Checking Process

Nebraska Changes Deer Checking Process

Nebraska deer hunters can expect a big change in how this year's firearm deer season will be conducted. This year, Nebraska Game and Parks will not run check stations during the Nov. 14-22 firearm deer season; instead, all deer must be checked electronically via...

Tips on Preparing Waterfowl for the Table

Tips on Preparing Waterfowl for the Table

Excerpted from The Remington Cookbook, Jim Casada offers a few tips and tricks for preparing delectable duck and geese recipes. Do it Easy or Do it Right: Skinning versus Plucking Visit any waterfowl camp or sit with several buddies in a duck blind and sooner or later...

Down the Writer’s Rabbit Hole

Down the Writer’s Rabbit Hole

What is writing, if not the sharing and resharing of life itself? It’s done.   Finished.   Written and designed; printed, bound and finally shipping out to a host of readers, both old and new...this latest book that’s been growing from my head and heart and fingertips...

The Silent Woods

The Silent Woods

Treat the earth well; it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.  The woods are mostly silent now.  As the old man’s boots disturbed the dry autumn...

Want To Help The Environment? Then Start Cutting Trees.

Want To Help The Environment? Then Start Cutting Trees.

One conservation organization warns aging forests could spell doom for many species. With forest fires raging across the West, there’s been a renewed call to reexamine our nation’s forest management policies. Nearly 46,000 wildfires have burned more than eight million...

Snow Days

Snow Days

I was thinking about the coming season a few days ago and, as usual, it occurred to me that I might have a chance or two to hunt in snow. It’s still hot in Georgia, but snow is coming. Dear Lord, do I love to hunt in snow! I guess it’s a little surprising to hear a...

Tarpon Don’t Come Easy!

Tarpon Don’t Come Easy!

Fish that require effort, skill, knowledge and perseverance, along with some luck thrown in to land, are special indeed—tarpon are super special. It’s been said that the greater the challenge, the greater the appreciation. This means your sense of satisfaction is...

A Creel Full of Fine Angling Reads

A Creel Full of Fine Angling Reads

The richest of the various veins of sporting literature almost certainly is that devoted to angling in general and particularly fly fishing. It has a long, venerable history, dating all the way back to Dame Juliana Berners late 15th century work,...

The Life-Saving Labrador

The Life-Saving Labrador

Why would a man come to disavow the story of how his gundog saved his life?   The man had grown up in a family of hunters, in a place where the sport is woven deeply into the cultural fabric. It’s celebrated, embraced. Blaze-orange “Welcome Hunters” banners are such a...

A Bucket-List Wingshooting Trip

A Bucket-List Wingshooting Trip

This week on Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey... It's a wingshooting bucket-list trip to two of the finest upland and waterfowl destinations in North America in this week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey as Chris heads to South Dakota to hunt...

Whole-Dog Nutrition

Whole-Dog Nutrition

If we want top performance from our dogs, we need to feed them a diet that nourishes the whole dog, and not just one particular body part. SPONSORED CONTENT As hunters, we are always striving to take our passion to the next level. We spend time at the range...

In the Penumbra

In the Penumbra

Eyes night-blind from the dashboard light you plunge Into the swamp to please the dog, walk By feel between trees and tangled vines, feet Seeking the hardness of the path, following. She trots ahead and stops, tail Slapping briars as she turns, impatient. Blindness...

Sportfishery for Great White Sharks?

Sportfishery for Great White Sharks?

The thought of a sportfishery for great whites tantalizes some anglers, but if it's ever to happen, the science will have to support it. "I want to show you something.”  I had spent enough time working for the artificial reef program at the South Carolina Department...

Mossberg 940 JM Pro Wins 2020 Best New Shotgun Award

Mossberg 940 JM Pro Wins 2020 Best New Shotgun Award

O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. was honored with the 2020 Caliber Award in the “Best New Shotgun” category for the company’s 940 JM Pro competition shotgun. Presented virtually on October 20, 2020, by NASGW (National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers) and POMA...

True Romance: The Ugartachea 20-Gauge

True Romance: The Ugartachea 20-Gauge

I quickly surmised that the pawn shop didn't know what it had ­– a Spanish double of good repute. Further, they were asking only $295. My grandfather had an old double barrel that I never shouldered. It hung beyond my reach above my grandmother's china cabinet,...

Four Timothy Murphy Poems

Four Timothy Murphy Poems

The recurring theme in Timothy Murphy's poetry is hunting and the cruel and ruthless innocence of nature, conflating the virtues of hunting with religious values. In 1951, two recently married teachers in Hibbing, Minnesota, paid a young boy named Bobby Zimmerman ten...

Woman Gored by Neighbor’s Pet Deer

Woman Gored by Neighbor’s Pet Deer

After a Colorado woman was gored by a deer, CPW issued misdemeanor citations to the neighbor who admitted she raised deer in her home. A Black Forest, Colorado woman who told Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers she took a days-old fawn into her home more than a year...

Meet the $70,000 Fish

Meet the $70,000 Fish

For many, catching a bonefish on the fly is tantamount to turning the saltwater flats to holy water. As a fly fisherman, I feel naked when I wade a saltwater flat to cast for bonefish. I try and play the part of motionless heron but nevertheless feel so exposed in the...

Cockers in Cover

Cockers in Cover

The cocker: a breed that deploys quickly and steers precisely. I damn near didn’t stop. I was driving a road that I rarely traveled, en route to another piece of cover. It was a crisp, clear day toward the end of October, the kind of day you see in your mind’s eye...

The Woman With Wide-Set Eyes

The Woman With Wide-Set Eyes

A woman of breathtaking beauty was absolutely the last thing he expected to see in such a desolate place. I’d been on a Jim Harrison binge in the wake of his death—easy to do given his prodigious output. In particular, I’d been enjoying the stuff set in Michigan’s...

Collecting Guns

Collecting Guns

A simple but effective technique has proven workable to many gun collectors. And it’s almost as classic. One of the finer points of gun collecting, if not the finest, is the ability of concealing from your wife: (1) the fact that you have actually purchased a new gun...

Little Angler, Big Trout

Little Angler, Big Trout

He hasn't yet turned five years old, but already he loves going fishing with the big guys and his new fly rod. Note: This article originally appeared in the September/October 2014 issue of Sporting Classics. His name is Gabriel Matthew Altizer, and he has not yet...

How Upland Bird Hunters Can Stay Safe in the Field

How Upland Bird Hunters Can Stay Safe in the Field

While enjoying the hunt and upland bird hunting season, all hunters should make safety their top priority. Upland bird hunting is enjoyed by thousands of hunters who want to create memories, carry on traditions and bring home a wild meal. While enjoying the hunt, all...

Buffalo Around the World

Buffalo Around the World

This week on Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey... We're celebrating the different subspecies of buffalo from around the world, including the animal known to kill more hunters in Africa than any other, the Cape buffalo. While other subspecies of buffalo – water,...

Parker Bros.

Parker Bros.

Our quest: the old workhorse of the Parker stable, the gun that, more than any other, validated the company catchphrase, “The Old Reliable.” For it was that of a young man, and I am old, and I have seen first-hand the burnishment of many golden years upon a dream that...

Getting to Know Your Friendly Neighborhood Oyster

Getting to Know Your Friendly Neighborhood Oyster

October is oyster season in the southeast, and there are a few things the United Oyster Ranchers and Rodeo Association of America doesn’t want you to know about the common oyster. “Secret, a­­­nd self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” – Charles Dickens “He was a...

Ghost Light on the Land’s End Road

Ghost Light on the Land’s End Road

I was suddenly awash in pale blue phosphorescence and I briefly reckoned poor ventilated Private Quigley had his chilly arms around me!  Right turn at Frogmore, south down a dozen miles of two-lane island blacktop, through woods and swamps and fields, to old Fort...

Ruffed Grouse Covert

Ruffed Grouse Covert

Once upon a time Bob Sohrweide had a ruffed grouse cover. He’d had other covers before and since but this one was his best. Bob found it in his eighth grade Latin class. Let me tell you… As Bob walked into his classroom, he overheard Robbie Trotta finishing a story to...