The Price of a Dog: Part 2 of 3
Part Two: The Wager Click Here to Read Part One Mike did his part. I turned him out of the box, which was sitting at the rear of the wagon and facing the rear. He set out headed straight away behind us, which is what Mr. Reed wanted. He liked to show that his dogs...
22-Caliber Christmas
Could there be anything more American than a boy receiving his first 22-caliber rifle on Christmas morning? Ah, the excitement, the early awakening before the rest of the household. The faint rustling of paper downstairs—was it the dog rummaging through the wrappings...
Blue Ridge Bear Hunt
Bear hunting sure has changed here in the southern Appalachians.
Stalked by the Predator
It was November in rural Virginia, solidly into whitetail season. Well south of Richmond, with a respectful nod to musician Oliver Anthony. I was on a huge farm, owned by a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who had become a key mentor to me. I had no idea going in that...
P.O. Ackley: Man of Sharp Shoulders
“That’s gone. It sold right away. Sorry.” I had phoned on an ad for a rebarreled Mauser. He did sound genuinely sorry. My reply—“Oh,”—must have had an authentic ring, too. I truly was crushed. “You wouldn’t want a Springfield, would you?” As if he owed me something....
Dad Wasn’t a Hunter
But he was nuts about baseball.
Remembering Mr. Buck
Perhaps the greatest Nash Buckingham story was the one he lived.
Don’t Sell Pronghorns Short!
Pronghorns offer one of North America’s finest sporting opportunities. Spotting and stalking these high-plains drifters is just plain fun! Confession, at least in open form, is said to be good for the soul. With my particular soul being in dire need of the slightest...
The Hard Life of an Elephant Hunter
From: African Hunting and Adventure Ramshua—29th. I found five bull elephants, gave chase, and singled and drove out the largest, and gave him a couple of pills to make him quiet; he shortly turned and stood at bay, about forty yards off, and then came on with a...
Single-shot Ground Hippo
“I’ve been talking with Randall Pence at Ruger,” said my friend Lee Newton. “I’ve got a Ruger No. 1, chambered in .450-400 NE 3-inch, that we think you need to take to Africa and shoot something big! You interested? It’s a sweet-shooting rifle. You likely know a...
Sporting Classics TV Season 7 Episode 23 Trailer
This week, Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey features a unique hunt for giant red stag and elk in Oklahoma for two experienced hunters. It's a New Zealand hunt without the jet lag! The series airs on prime-time on Thursday at 10pm ET, with additional airings every...
Chasing the Silver Ghost
There are many places to chase tarpon—Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and Ascension Bay, the Caribbean, Belize and various jungle rivers up and down Central America, the lower Gulf and Atlantic coasts, even some rivers in Africa. All encounters with these silver-plated...
The Old Maid
Good covey dogs are, as Lincoln said of Civil War generals, “as plenty as blackberries.” Hardy, spirited rangers that will put up whatever there is to be put up and give you your money’s worth day in and day out. That is, in good bird country. But if you are ever...
To the Top
To the top!” I said, grinning, when Jake asked where we were going while pointing nearly straight up to a spot where two giant peaks collide. For few such as us, this is where dreams of trophy bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer begin. Five hours later Jake Worthington...
Karamojo Crossing
The rains were gone but the rivers were still swollen. He looked on in amazement as the men calmly walked into the river, each man carrying a big elephant tusk across his shoulder. As they neared the middle of the river, they continued to walk until one by one they...
A Southern Christmas Hunt
South Carolina’s first poet laureate recounts a holiday hunt on the family plantation.
Blindsided
It had been a chain of thrills. First, the answer of one bull from the top of the darkening ridge, screaming, rolling into a chorus of chuckles, earnest and deep. Then a second, 200 yards right, angry and urgent. And yet another, in the canyon below, maybe a half-mile...
The Christmas Rifle
This story by an unknown author reminds us the best gift of all is sharing with those in need.
Gunkholing for Ducks
In September, the summer folks trade their beach lives to head home. The public boat ramp near my home, the one that once was clogged with all sorts of recreational craft, is deserted. It’s a busy process to haul and winterize boats tied up in slips just as it is to...
Roosevelt’s Smoldering Savannah
A raging wildfire threatens to bring President Roosevelt's safari to a quick and untimely end. It was a terrifying sight that greeted Theodore Roosevelt as he stepped from his tent that morning in 1910, and it was something that could have brought a costly and...
On The Nose
Once merely a bullet’s front end, the tip has become an engineering project. Here’s why.
A Thanksgiving Day’s Bear Hunt
Thanksgiving Eve at length came around and I was off for Norfolk with the lightest of hearts and the gayest smile I had worn for many days. My friend and companion in arms, Mr. Parkins, met me there, and away we went together, as jolly a pair as could be found in a...
These Old Shoes
Decades became years, years became days, days became hours, and it seemed I had been born only yesterday. Peering north , the creek appeared to narrow to little more than a trickle before vanishing altogether up where the lush green grass glinted backlit in that...
Your Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide
From the Producers of Sporting Classics TV If there is a hunter or angler on your holiday shopping list, we’ve got you covered with this season’s Holiday Gift Guide for the Outdoors. This season, give the gift of adventure – after all, the real present is not what’s...
Sporting Classics TV Season 7 Episode 22 Trailer
This week, Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey returns to the Iberian peninsula for an unforgettable wingshooting and big game combo as Chris Dorsey and friends enjoy driven partridge and Ibex hunting . The episode is a celebration of the fantastic hunting culture...
The Perfect Thanksgiving
Perfection is in the eyes of the beholder. Southeastern Wisconsin is far from a waterfowl hunting destination. It lacks the open spaces and accessibility of the Canadian prairies, the expansive agricultural fields of the Dakotas, the multitude of privately managed...
A Thanksgiving Blessing
For more than 50 years I’ve been going up there. If it happens to be during hunting season – that is, deer season in the fall or turkey season in the spring – I usually have a rifle or shotgun in hand. For at least 30 of those years, my aging mother-in-law always...
A “Thanksgiving” Shooting Trip
On Thanksgiving, a shoot at Hooper’s Island in Chesapeake Bay furnished some experiences that will not soon be forgotten. Our party consisted of three—my hosts, Bert and his brother Al, and myself. With me went my two dogs, Don, an English setter, and Nick, a pointer,...
The First Time I Saw God
It was about 5:15 p.m., 108 miles northeast of Oran, I remember, when the starboard gunners shouted, ‘’Torpedo off the bow!” The helmsman tried to swing her so the thing would run parallel to us, but the old bucket was bottom-heavy with about 9,000 tons of high...
Mixed Bag in the Yukon
We were out of the wind up there on that Yukon ridge. In the polished blue of the sky, fluffy white clouds were sailing along like jet planes, but where we sat, it was quiet and pleasantly warm. It was late August, the tail end of the Yukon summer, and the rolling...
Arthur Savage and His Inimitable 99
Unlikely seed of cattle, coffee and a torpedo, his rifle failed. Its revival blessed hunters for a century. Gashes in the old snow pulled me into a riot of swamp-grass. Yards into it, a speck of red winked from the tangle. Confirmation, not a promise. I’d called a...
Faster Horses
I guess I’m just a born country boy. I’ve always felt most at home in the woods and fields with a dog and a shotgun for company. Early on, I “took to” the home-spun philosophy in country music, too, and Tom T. Hall was one of my favorite inspirations. I was still a...
The Cull
The common link spanning the wide chasm of wealth and status were the dogs.
Poulin’s Firearms And Militaria Sale Realizes Nearly $9,000,000!
This four day event saw breathtaking results, including setting two new world record auction prices for antiques in the uniform and dragoon categories! Poulin Antiques & Auctions is pleased to announce the results of their four day, 2,500+ lot sale held October...
Sporting Classics TV Season 7 Episode 21 Trailer
This week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey features a tour of the pheasant belt as Chris Dorsey and Domenico Orzi take a road trip through South Dakota to hunt at three spectacular venues. The series airs on prime-time on Thursday at 10pm ET, with...
Watch: Steel vs. Alloy Upland Hunt Showdown
For upland hunts, should you grab a light alloy shotgun or a heavier steel shotgun? Steve Gould and Travis Mears hit the field at Greystone Castle for an upland hunt to find out if shotgun weight really matters. We’re putting an alloy receiver and a steel receiver...
Eleventh Hour 11-Pointer
I sat content in the pre-dawn silence. The sun began wrapping its gentle embrace, and the world seemed to hold its breath, listening to the soft whispers of the past carried on the morning breeze as darkness turned to monochrome and finally to the warm golden color of...
Got An Attitude?
Next time you head to the deer woods, keeping a “proper” attitude can pay huge dividends! Deer movement had been slow. By now, the three of us in the South Texas Brush Country camp should have had a couple of bucks hanging or at least be talking about the bucks we...
Hemingway In Michigan
The Making of a Literary Sportsman Whether you admire him for his prose or the adventurous lifestyle he led, vilify him for his philandering or even pity him for his untimely and ignoble ending, Ernest Hemingway nonetheless remains one of the most influential literary...
Sporting Classics TV Season 7 Episode 20 Trailer
This week, Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey celebrates the best of land, sea and air on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains as elk, mule deer, pheasant and trout are all in play at Elk Creek Ranch. The series airs on prime-time on Thursday at 10pm ET, with...
A Man In Full: Roosevelt’s Early Years
Young Theodore Roosevelt wasn't exactly the strong, confident leader of American history that we know today. Like many of us, Little Teedy started small. Young Theodore Roosevelt, or "Little Teedy," was a sickly child and the doctors didn’t offer much hope. He had a...
The Grand Passage of Beetle Island
A once-in-a-lifetime view of the waterfowl migration.
Dove Song
Dove openers initiate the beginning of the fall hunting seasons—special occasions that create wonderful memories. Doves embody the best features of upland game birds rolled into a gray bullet that challenges the best of shooters. The stars must have aligned early for...
Prairie Wings
We had just turned the horses into the wind when I noticed Beck, one of Jeff’s A-Team setters, getting birdy. Was it another bunch of meadowlarks or something better? Then, 50 yards in front of us, Beck locked down tight and Bandit, his canine partner from the A-Team,...
Mountain Lion Against All Odds
As with any type of hunting, circumstances can change abruptly when hunting mountain lion with hounds. There is either a track to run, or there is not, and this changes instantaneously. We had put ten miles behind us in a hike in Idaho’s snow-covered backcountry...
A Short Gun for Long Horns
“Got you set up to hunt with Don Richardson,” said Greg Simons with Wildlife Systems when we visited about my upcoming pronghorn hunt in western Texas. “Don knows the ranch you’ll be hunting and will have scouted it before you get there. When I did the annual game...
Sporting Classics TV Season 7 Episode 19 Trailer
Make sure to catch this week's episode of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey for a pursuit of Scotland's ultimate sporting quest - the MacNab - where one must take a stag, a brace of grouse, and a salmon in one day. The series airs on prime-time on Thursday at 10pm...
Seeing with a Hunter’s Heart
Hunting is paradoxical: Immersing one’s self in a hunt that could end in death is life-affirming.
Luck Is Cheap Up There
Like the old song says, two out of three ain’t bad, especially on a bowhunt for elk.
The Buck of Cordwood Hill
One of the redeeming features of existence in a small Canadian town is that at all seasons of the year some form of woodland sport lies within an hour’s walk or drive or paddle of your door. For the monarch moose and the shy, capricious caribou, one must go far afoot....