by Doug Painter | May 16, 2025
My name is Bond, James Bond.” In the annals of the spy thriller genre, no other secret agent has achieved the iconic status of Ian Fleming’s 007. An agent with lethal skills and a license to kill, Bond, as his millions of fans know, is a dashing and debonair figure, a...
by Robert Matthews | May 16, 2025
In the long and storied history of gunmaking, there is no name more renowned than that of James Purdey. His rise to fame began 200 years ago, give or take, when he opened a small shop at 4 Princes St., Leicester Square, London, for the purpose of making and selling...
by Sporting Classics Daily | May 12, 2025
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Westley Richards in Birmingham, showcasing the precision and tradition behind their handcrafted shotguns....
by Mike Gaddis | May 9, 2025
Dig the sun from the sunset? Retrieve the river from the sea? Beg back a life that has been wrestled to the grave? For a great part of our being, we are drawn against a metaphysical world of imponderables, an ethereal vacuum of longing, where hope is scarce and...
by Doug Painter | May 7, 2025
A skilled and fearless Indian fighter, the Comanches called him “Devil Jack.” In early June of 1844 Captain John Coffee “Jack” Hays and his 14 Texas Rangers were scouting for Comanche raiders some 80 miles from San Antonio along the Pedernales River. After setting up...
by Jameson Parker | May 2, 2025
A long, long time ago, when I was flat-bellied and wide-eyed and had more hair than brains, a much older, more sophisticated friend took me to a rare gun store in his hometown. It was in an old part of his historic town, where the buildings all dated back to the...
by Havilah Babcock | Apr 24, 2025
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...
by John Ross | Apr 14, 2025
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...
by Chris Dorsey | Mar 18, 2025
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...
by Edmund Lewis | Mar 14, 2025
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...
