Eukanuba Celebrates 50th Birthday

The year was 1969, and headlines were ablaze with Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk, Woodstock and, alas, bell-bottomed trousers. Meanwhile, Paul Iams founded a premium dog food company that he named Eukanuba. Competitors wondered, “Who in their right mind would double...
Palm Swells, “Tacticool” and Field Gun Performance

Palm Swells, “Tacticool” and Field Gun Performance

Lately, I’ve been seeing more and more “palm swells” on guns intended for field use. Whatever their merits or demerits on a target gun, they are mostly a hindrance to quick, reactive use on game, which seldom waits for you to call “pull” and seldom takes a certain,...
Sporting Classics TV Episode 7 Teaser

Sporting Classics TV Episode 7 Teaser

This week’s episode features Sporting Classics author and contributor Ron Spomer.  Ron and his wife Betsy recently purchased a ranch in southern Idaho, and Ron spends his first hunting season patterning the giant mule deer that migrate through this new property. Find...
Pointing Lab: The Do-It-All Dog?

Pointing Lab: The Do-It-All Dog?

As a card-carrying traditionalist, I’ve always been more than a little skeptical about the pointing Lab. Why fix something that ain’t broke, you know? Then I met hunting and fishing guide John Klus of Lake Waubesa, Wisconsin. Klus is the owner of Oscar, a...
Improved Cylinder or Screw-In Chokes?

Improved Cylinder or Screw-In Chokes?

I generally regard screw-in choke tubes to be one of the greatest inventions since sliced bread. They lend a degree of versatility to shotguns that we could only dream of “back in the day.” I usually shun them on classic side-bys, but that’s probably just for...
Slow is Smooth. Smooth is Fast.

Slow is Smooth. Smooth is Fast.

A while back, I was quail hunting with a young friend who was struggling mightily with the little brown bullets. We were finding plenty of bobwhites in the piney woods of South Georgia, but my pal just couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. It wasn’t that he was a bad...
The Working Man’s Dangerous Game Gun

The Working Man’s Dangerous Game Gun

John Hill was frozen in his tracks. He got busted trying to sneak across a narrow opening to the spot where I was carefully setting up my shot on a very old and very large Cape buffalo bull.  The two were now in a staring contest and John stood statue-still with his...
Alabama Sets First Sandhill Crane Season in Century

Alabama Sets First Sandhill Crane Season in Century

“They fall out of the sky like a lawn chair,” my co-worker told me after he returned from his first sandhill crane hunt. “What do you do with a crane?” I asked. “They’re called the ‘ribeye of the sky,’” he replied, and that was all I needed to know. I was up for...