Fair Game

Abercrombie & Fitch were classic, Olde World outfitters where you could buy a genuine English sun helmet (this is not a pith helmet!) made for them in Piccadilly to the highest standards. This one belongs to Gray’s shooting editor Terry Wieland. On the same trip in 1977, he bought a birchbark moose call made for A&F in New Brunswick.

Mecca on Madison

Long ago (1945 to 1977, roughly) and far away (New York City) there was a…
Winston Churchill’s work on a Sharps-Borchardt that sold at Rock Island in December, 2022. It brought nearly $30,000. Grace and three-dimensional quality? Indeed. Photo courtesy Rock Island Auction Company

Winston Gordon Churchill, 1939-2023

On July 31, at age 83, Winston Churchill of Proctorsville, Vermont, went to a world…
The .458 Lott (right) beside the perennially popular .416 Rigby. When it comes to hammering dangerous game, almost nothing beats the .458’s 500-grain bullet. We say “almost” because presumably Zeus has some lightning bolts in reserve.

Meditations on Big-Game Hunting

For something like three decades, every summer I would go and visit for a long…
A duelling pistol by Robert Wogdon of London—so preeminent in his field that a serious dispute between gentlemen became known as “a Wogdon case.” Courtesy Rock Island Auction Company

Initial Reactions and Random Musings

I’ve been reading past Sporting Notes with near-orgasmic pleasure (Why “near,” you ask. Because I’m…
Robert Ruark and his two most enduring books: Horn of the Hunter and The Old Man and the Boy, and anthology of his eponymous Field & Stream columns.

Robert Ruark — An Appreciation

On July 1, 1965, I was listening to the AM radio in the kitchen when…
Dave Petzal

Tom McIntyre and Thunder Without Rain

On November 3, 2022, Tom McIntyre’s overworked heart shut down while he slept, depriving his…