The Best Plains-Game Rifle for Africa
The gun has to be capable of dropping everything from ten-pound dik-dik to 2,000-pound eland.
Paul Mauser: The Man Who Repurposed the Door Latch
His rifles armed world powers in titanic wars, and hunters in the greatest game fields on Earth. The spoor, braided at first, was unraveling. “Ready to bed,” John mouthed the words. Short yards ahead, a patch of dried mud came to eye—two feet off the ground....
Dead or Alive: John Wesley Harden and the 44 Schofield
I was once a wanted man, a man on the run with a woman in hot pursuit, one of my exes with a .44. It was for a trifling indiscretion, or so it seemed at the time. All I had was my overdue Visa and a quarter tank, but my Ford was faster than her Volvo. Never assume the...
Patron Power
What better way to celebrate a lifetime achievement than with a British Best gun. There is no one in the world who doesn’t like being rewarded for hard work. Whether it’s a book well written, service to the nation or success in popular entertainment, the good and the...
Shooting Yankee Gunboats on the Natchez to Save Southron Womanhood
Byrnes and I attribute our late-life good looks and prime health to a ceremony we began many years ago when we were only in the male change of life, our 40s. Wednesday afternoons were his time out of the office, a time known to us as Woods Wednesday. A time when we...
Assessing Cartridges for Africa
First, let’s get the all-round 375 H&H out of the way. Fine though it is, it’s been dominating Africa rifles discussions too long. Yes, this may indeed be the ultimate one-gun option. With the right bullets at the right muzzle velocity this 111-year-old cartridge...
The Colt Chronicles: SC Redux
The great fly angler Lee Wulff once made the point that, “A trout is too great a gamefish to catch only once.” Here at Sporting Classics, we also believe that many of our past articles deserve a second chance, a “redux,” if you will, that will delight new readers and...
Ithaca Doubles: Overlooked Classics
Like many enterprises of the time, its origins were humble. It began in a rough little wooden structure perched precariously on the steep gorge of Fall Creek near Ithaca, New York. The virtue of the location was its abundant water power, and the building had already...
Holland & Holland’s Aim for the Future
Holland & Holland, long respected for producing firearms of the highest quality, was acquired in 2021 by the Beretta Holding Group from the French perfume company, Chanel. For three decades, the French company tried to redefine and reinvent the venerable old gun...