Sporting Notes

Howdah pistol by Lyon & Lyon of Calcutta, in .577 Snider, brought $7,000 at Rock Island’s August premier auction. Lyon & Lyon was a prominent gun dealer during the British Raj. Its guns were mostly made in Birmingham — Photo courtesy Rock Island Auction Company

Rock Island Farewell (Sort of)

When I attended my first Rock Island auction in September, 2018, I little suspected I…
Alaska’s Chugach Mountains in 1990. Wieland is carrying his trusty Camp Trails internal frame pack. After that trip, and the conditioning that went with it, it fit him like an old flannel shirt.

The Labors of Hercules

If there is one basic ability every hunter should have, it’s backpacking.  To some extent,…
Fitness instructor Jeremy Koerber demonstrating his hip-flexion exercise. It can be varied by number of repetitions or resistance of the flexion band. Facing CRP grass? This is for you.

Pheasant Phit

In most midwestern states, pheasant season will open in about eight weeks (mid-October), which leaves…
Lt. Col. J.K. Stanford was a prolific, highly entertaining, and extremely knowledgeable writer on both shooting and ornithology. He published 27 books in all.

For Your Reading Pleasure…

August 1 has come and gone and suddenly fall doesn’t seem so far away, if…
Your obedient correspondent in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska in 1990, hunting Dall sheep. After a while, you feel naked when you’re not wearing your pack.

An Unpopular Topic. (Read it anyway, dammit)

Except for the demented few, physical fitness is not the favorite topic either of hunters…
Literary pictures of life in the great age of Victorian and Edwardian shooting—fact, fiction, and fantasy.

Oliver & Gladys

It’s time to recommend another book:  Olly, by Rupert Godfrey, is “The life and times…
Winchester pre-’64 Model 70 in .220 Swift, with a 26-inch barrel and fitted with a Meopta Optika5 MeoPro 4-20x50 RD scope. The rifle was manufactured in 1953.

A Match Made in Heaven

Not many cartridges can claim to have a mystique, and a cult-like following, but the…
What a century-old Brady case looks like after 35 years in the rafters of a henhouse. The rest of the case was no better.

Down to Cases

One is reminded of the famous line from 48 Hours:  The dishevelled cop, Nick Nolte,…
The venerable Lee-Enfield, in its many forms and guises, is an iconic rifle in Canada, the army having used it with distinction in two world wars and Korea. Wieland favors it as ideal for an “armed populace;” it was also on the Liberals’ rifle-ban list, because of its 10-round magazine.

Rifles and Americans

For longer than any of us have been alive, Americans have rejoiced in being known…
Incomers from a high tower often dazzle shooters. One way to deal with them is to deliberately not look until the last second, then shoot completely by reflex. In this photo, each shooter used the second barrel to take a flying shard.

Spontaneity Plus

by Terry Wieland One interesting aspect of shotgunning is that it has essentially changed so…
Wieland in the Chugach Mountains in 1990.

Treadmill Blues

There are three words that strike terror into the heart of an editor when you…
The Xero S1 screen displays the result after each shot.

More on Garmin’s Xero S1

On the surface, it’s every shotgunner’s dream:  A little machine that sits in front of…