In early May 2018 I had the distinct pleasure of hunting Doves, Ducks and Perdiz at Los Laureles Lodge in Argentina’s Entre Rios Province along the Parana River. It’s an hour flight northwest of Buenos Aires and a lazy 75-minute…

The first thing we saw, through the mist and fog, were dark shapes on the hillside. In scattered bunches they huddled together, at rest, while others fed around them. A relic of a time when wild bison roamed across the…

Spanish gun makers established their reputations for quality and value by replicating England’s best guns for a fraction of the price. Now Retay Arms of Konya Turkey has taken a cue from Spain by manufacturing the Masai Mara semi-auto with…

“Much of the pleasure of shooting is what accompanies it and sharing it all with a good friend.” ~ George Bird Evans, The Upland Shooting Life (1971) The child tells what he got for Christmas, the mature man tells how he spent the…

In America, you would be hard-pressed to find a more magnificent collection of fine shotguns than at the Safari Club International Convention, held this year during the first week of February at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.…

I set out quail hunting with David Lanier at Carr Farms in the plantation belt around his hometown of Albany, Georgia. He’s an affable guy with your average mid-50s paunch and a friendly clean-shaven face shaded by the brim of…

Two years ago, I was living in an apartment in the basement of a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I was working in private practice as a psychiatric nurse practitioner and spending most of my weekends driving two hours both…

Browning’s new A5 Sweet 16 semi-auto revives a classic and creates an upland hunter’s dream gun. Officially launched in 2016, the latest reincarnation of the Sweet 16 harkens back to a day when the 16 gauge was in its heyday.…

In 1803, London sporting dog expert William Taplin published the first of two volumes titled “The Sportsman’s Cabinet” – an elaborately leather bound and illustrated compendium described as “A correct delineation of the canine race.” In 2003 Chris Mathan paid…

Story | Photos by John N. Felsher “Shoot,” I yelled as birds exploded in all directions from thick reeds just a few feet from us. “There’s another one. Fire! Here comes a straggler. Get him.” In seconds, my son Steven pumped…

Once you have handled a really well-balanced shotgun, you will never again be satisfied with less. One shooter, back in the 1990s, described it as being like the first time you taste a really great French wine. Your palate changes…

Now for the unthinkable: from the workshop of English best gunmaker James Purdey & Sons emerges an audacious 12-gauge clays gladiator fit for the Olympics. The idea may not seem so far-fetched after shooting the new Purdey Trigger Plate over/under.…

There is no shortage of pheasant hunting lodges in South Dakota. Yet one lodge seems to rise to the top as an Orvis Endorsed Lodge in 2009 and Orvis Wingshooting Lodge of the year and in 2016.

Story|Photos by Tom Keer Say the word “woodcock” in a room full of bird hunters and you are likely to capture most everyone’s attention. Hunters are fascinated with the eclectic, migratory bird for a wide variety of reasons. Dyed-in-the-wool woodcock…

Monty Lewis called the bobwhite quail hunt a “Fellowship Opportunity,” and he wasn’t kidding. Our party of 20 current and retired board members from Ducks Unlimited and Ducks Unlimited Canada had collectively served nearly 400 years as volunteers for the…

Not a year goes by that a well-known firearms manufacturer doesn’t come up with a new model that peaks the interest of shotgun enthusiasts worldwide. In late 2017 that manufacturer was Germany’s oldest gunmaker, J.P. Sauer and Sohn (now owned…

Sixteen-gauge enthusiasts love shotguns that “hit like a 12 but carry like a 20,” so a 12-gauge that carries like a 20 should be irresistible. The Winchester Select 101 fits that description, and it has won this 16-gauge devotee’s affection.

All shotguns have stories and the story has to start somewhere. We all have shotguns that have such a story… my grandfather’s L.C. Smith Ideal Grade 20 gauge conjures a crystal clear vision of Archie in my mind even though…

The porch was long and spacious. There were comfortable chairs and tables along the wall, and a short drop from the porch down to the natural flora of Texas Hill country spread a few dozen yards out to a limestone…