In a world where technology continues to make our lives more and more convenient, hunting and fishing remain inherently challenging. To be successful, you have to be willing to at least take a short walk outside. Of course, there are still a lot of ways to make the outdoors a bit easier on yourself. Hiring guides, hunting on game ranches, or fishing in stocked ponds, and using things like trail cameras and other electronics all help make you as efficient as possible. Yet, there are still a lot of outdoorsmen and women on the other side of the coin who choose to do things the hard way. These ad ..read more

General veterinary visits aren’t cheap. The annual checkups, blood work, vaccinations, and whatever else can add up. While it’s fun to gripe about services that seem expensive, the usual stuff is a small price to pay to keep a pup healthy. Emergency veterinarian visits are a different story. If you have a real injury to deal with, or something goes wrong at midnight and there’s only one clinic in town that accepts overnight patients, you’re going to pay for it. Expense is obviously not the only reason to try to keep a pup out of the vet’s office. No one wants to pick up a fresh recruit and wat ..read more

Purchasing a suppressor has historically been one of the most frustrating experiences for gun owners. The paperwork is onerous, but the wait time is what really gets you. No one wants to drop $1,000 on something (plus a $200 “tax”) just to wait a year or more to bring it home. Those days appear to be over, thanks, shockingly, to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The much-maligned agency has made a few key tweaks to how they process suppressor applications, and since then, wait times have dropped dramatically. How much? According to the industry experts I spoke wit ..read more

You can tell a lot about a guy by what kind of rifle he shoots. Not that it matters, but what does your favorite rifle cartridge say about you? Does he follow trends and need the latest and greatest gear? Does he appreciate novelty or cherish a passed-down .30-06? Does he hunt the thick timber or the open country of the west? Does he drive a grocery-getter or a bright red sports car? All joking aside, choosing a rifle and cartridge to match your circumstances and value set can be a tough decision, complicated by the growing myriad of rifle cartridges on the market today. The Academic If you’re ..read more

Talk about being a good neighbor. Earlier this month, two State Farm insurance agents and a fishing guide in Mississippi rescued 38 hunting dogs that had become stranded treading water in Grenada Lake. Arkansas resident Bob Gist and fellow insurance salesman Brad Carlisle had traveled down to the lake for a day of crappie fishing with guide Jordan Chrestman of Tri-Lake Guide Service. They weren’t on the lake for long when the trio noticed something strange in the water: dozens of hound dogs fitted with radio collars. "Jordan had the presence of mind and nerve to turn to his paying customers an ..read more

On January 20, Gaige Zook and Jackson Harbor went out for a duck hunt on the Platte River near Torrington, Wyoming. They took along Maurizio Justiniano, an unlicensed hunter who wanted to learn more about waterfowling. Tragically, Justiniano will never get the chance to take Hunter’s Ed or shoot a bird on the wing because he took a fatal shot to the gut in the blind that day. What Happened? Goshen County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Lamb responded to a call on January 20 at approximately 2:58 p.m. “I arrived at the junction of Wyoming Highway 156 and road 37. I exited road 37 at its end and crossed ..read more

My parents are fond of telling anyone who will listen how I had an affinity for amphibians right out the gate. The house we lived in during the first five years of my life sat on a dead-end street where the asphalt ended just short of a small pond. As soon as I could walk, they like to say, I was on my way to the water to try to catch frogs. They talk about how often they’d lose track of me only to see their tow-headed toddler stalking Kermits at the water’s edge—an equal testament to my obsession and the kind of parenting style that leads to quasi-feral kids. There must be something genetic t ..read more

The apocalypse is nigh. As you gather your loved ones and sprint out the front door, you have just enough time to grab a hunting rifle. For some reason only partially explained via flashback montage (the writers on this show suck), you know you’ll need this rifle to hunt every legal big game animal in North America–from moose to pronghorn. Which rifle do you pick? If you’ve never posed this question to a hunting buddy in a deer stand and spent the next hours in whispered debate, I encourage you to do so. It’s a great way to pass the time, and I’ve only ruined a few friendships. Here’s a more r ..read more

One shot rang out, causing a temporary disruption to the symphony of the marsh. Its echo was preceded by a plop in the open water, spraying the nearby ice rafts in its proclamation. In the red morning light, Massachusetts hunter Mike Wec thought he had shot a hen mallard. But it wasn’t until he waded out to the floating figure that he realized it was...Well, what was it exactly? Wec carefully examined it further, stretching out its delicate white wings that nearly glowed in the contrast of the dark water. Its contour feathers were composed of various shades of white and blonde—some as dark as ..read more

Read enough gun reviews and you’re sure to see a rifle design described as “thoughtful.” The term is probably overused, but I think it fits Sig Sauer’s new rifle: the CROSS Magnum. Sig’s engineers designed the CROSS Magnum with an actual human hunter in mind. The rifle is chock full of small features that make it easier to shoot, more convenient to use, and more deadly in the field. That’s usually what writers of my ilk mean when they say a rifle design is “thoughtful,” and I can’t think of a better descriptor of Sig’s new offering. Specs and Features Caliber: .300 Win Mag Barrel Length (in ..read more