Sporting Notes

Wieland’s favorite page from Donald Dallas’s 2008 masterpiece, The British Sporting gun and Rifle. The shotgun is an Adams-patent Purdey underlever, typical of the superb illustrations that add so much to a book that is already extraordinary.

A Shotgunner’s Essential Library

There’s nothing quite like moving your home, office, gun room, and library to bring home…
Springfield Armory’s M14 (A1). To Wieland’s eye, it is better looking than either its predecessor M1 Garand or its successor, the M16 (AR-15).

The M14. Unsung. Much Loved.

To read John Lachuk’s piece in the 1965 Gun Digest, you’d think the M14 was…
The gun is a W&C Scott Monte Carlo ‘B’.

The Gun Room

The title of this piece might feel familiar to you, and rightly so:  It has…
An avocet, in flight. Illustration by A.M. Hughes.

Bledgrave Hall & After

Say what you will about the internet—and Lord knows, I’ve said enough, not always in…
Holland & Holland ‘Royal,’
Holland & Holland ‘Royal,’ freshly finished, borrowed for the occasion, and not (quite) disgraced.

Dawns & Departures

One frosty morning in December of 1998, I was standing on a hillside in Wales…
Jeremy Koerber demonstrating the one-arm row. Both weight and reps can be increased. No dumbbell? Try a jug of milk or a can of paint. Almost anything will do.

Keeping Up The Good Fight

Much as we might try to minimize it, hunting is essentially a physical activity.  It…
Mannlicher-Schönauer Model 1905, chambered for the 9x56 M-S, is as fine a bolt-action woods carbine as you will find.

Thirty-Five

In many ways, .35-caliber cartridges find themselves in the same situation as 35-year old men: …
The Ruger Blackhawk came along in 1956, chambered in .357 Magnum, and has been with us ever since. The holster is by George Lawrence, from the 1960s.

Everyone’s a Cowboy.  Some More, Some Less.

Thirty years ago, the editor-in-chief of Gray’s Sporting Journal, David Foster, summoned me down to…
Possibly the most spectacular piece of English walnut Wieland’s ever seen, although he prefers the French walnut on the E.M. Reilly, also shown. Some chocolate sundaes are just too rich. Still, a beautiful piece, and no one would ever call it boring.

Stock Synthesis

This week, I had the pleasure of visiting Lee Shaver in his single-shot temple in…
Christensen Arms Model 14 MPR, chambered in 6 Creedmoor and fitted with a Sightron S1 4-12x40 scope.

In Praise of Newer Rifles

Every so often, I get a letter asking why I never write about newer rifles…
J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. Model 52 “Schuetzen Jr.” in .22 Long Rifle, probably made just before the Great War. Note the unusual configuration of the Monte Carlo comb and pronounced perch-belly stock. This is reminiscent of the work of George Schoyen of Denver.

Yet Another Stevens (Yay!)

Stevens devotees are lucky:  No matter how many you own, you can never claim to…
Shoulder flexibility and strength can be improved with a simple flex band, repeated 15-20 times, in three sets.

Fitness for Bowhunting

Bowhunting season is almost upon us and, although I eschewed bows and arrows many years…