Hunting Tips, Videos, and Other Media

This fantastic giant eland, taken in Cameroon in early March 2008, is probably my very best African trophy. We were lucky to catch a glimpse of this great bull the first time we hit the herd, so we stayed with them until he offered a shot.

AFRICA’S TOUGHEST: LORD DERBY’S GIANT ELAND

At the peak of the midafternoon heat we took a break in the shade and drank some water. About six that morning we’d picked up the tracks where we left them the night before. By now I’d lost track of how many times we’d hit the herd, failed to get a shot, and had watched them break into their ground eating trot, vanishing in a cloud of dust. We were in northern Cameroon, and these were Central African giant eland, Lord Derby’s eland.Read more

The 7mm Remington Magnum, left, introduced in 1962; and the .300 Winchester Magnum, right, introduced in 1963, rank respectively and the most popular and second-most popular magnum cartridges in the world, both achieving this position on merit.

CLASSIC CARTRIDGE: 7MM REMINGTON MAGNUM

Roy Weatherby was a savvy gun guy. He was also a marketing genius and a true zealot who believed in his theories about high velocity and his own cartridges that produced them. In the postwar era the belted cartridges that bore his name began making serious inroads into the staid American firearms industry. He made the majors nervous, and they responded with their own cartridges bearing the suddenly popular “magnum” suffix. Winchester led the charge, first introducing the .458 Winchester Magnum in 1956, following in 1958 with the .264 and .338 Winchester Magnums. They completed their quarter of short magnums in 1963 with the .300 Winchester Magnum, all based on the .300 H&H case shortened to .30-06 length (nominally 2.5 inches), necked appropriately with body taper removed.Read more

Thought must be given to exactly how you’re going to get your pig from where you shoot it to the nearest road. I was a lot younger when I did it this way!

GOING HOG WILD

In just a few hours it would be a hot July morning, but a pleasantly cool dawn was just breaking when we took a stand on a ridge. In the early morning the pigs would work their way up from the irresistible barley fields in the broad valleys below, headed toward thick chaparral bedding areas in the higher hills behind us. In theory our ridge straddled a movement corridor, and we would soon see pigs.Read more

I used Trijicon’s 5-20X mil-dot reticle on a recent hunt in Pakistan. I had done my homework and knew the values for both the mil-dot and the turret adjustments, and I was ready for shots at longer ranges.

SCOPE RETICLES

Okay, the word is actually “reticule.” You won’t get the word “reticle” to come up on your spell-check. But over the years, in our little world, we’ve shortened it to “reticle.” Whatever you call it, it is the arrangement of aiming point or points that you see when you look through your riflescope.Read more

This Thompson/Center Encore has a Nikon mid-range variable on it. This is a good example of the class of scope most American hunters choose.

NOTES ON CHOOSING SCOPES

I started hunting in the 1960s. At that time the telescopic sight was more than a century old, but only fairly recently had come into widespread use. The variable-power scopes we take for granted today were still a bit finicky, so fixed-power scopes were almost universal.Read more

An Arizona desert sheep tag is a once-in-a-lifetime tag, so you’d best make it count.

YOU HAVE TO APPLY

In the late afternoon we picked up fresh tracks along a snow-covered ridge, big ski-like tracks of a full-grown moose…but not big enough to be a mature bull. It could have been a youngster, but more likely a big cow. If so that was just fine. The rut was on, and she might lead us to a bull.Read more

IBEX

Nearly 90 years ago Theodore Roosevelt’s son, Kermit, journeyed to the Tien Shan Mountains of western China. His book, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, is a legacy of adventure only slightly less rich than the great literary legacy left by his slightly more famous father. From a hunting standpoint, that Roosevelt expedition is fascinating because the primary and most prized quarry was the ibex found in those Asian mountains, with long, curving, heavily ridged horns. The argali sheep they hunted along the way were considered little more than camp meat.Read more

Grizzly bears are extremely omnivorous, but they are also very effective predators. In Arctic Alaska one of a bear’s first actions upon coming out of hibernation is to kill a moose. He’ll cover the kill, and then lay on it for several days.

GREAT GAME ANIMALS: THE HUMPED-BACKED BEAR

The bald eagle is America’s icon, without question a regal bird. Benjamin Franklin’s preference was the wild turkey, a choice that today’s turkey hunters would no doubt approve. Legend, or at least Hollywood, has it that Theodore Roosevelt thought the grizzly bear was a better choice. True or not, I vote with Teddy! To me the grizzly bear is the ultimate symbol of the American wilderness, and North America’s ultimate game animal.Read more

If you are going to use iron sights at all—or think you might—then you must commit the time required for serious practice. Most of us today grew up with scopes, and we don’t wake up in our middle years and find sudden proficiency with iron sights.

SCOPES OR IRON SIGHTS?

Ken Elliott and I had an argument regarding iron sights that ran for years. Ken, my long-time boss, believed strongly that a centerfire hunting rifle should wear iron sights in addition to a scope, preferably with detachable mounts. I never agreed. Only once in my hunting career have I removed a scope in favor of iron sights (more about that later).Read more

This young bushbuck ram perched on termite mound near our camp in central Tanzania and watched us for hours. With chestnut and white on the legs and white patterning on the body, this is an exceptionally colorful bushbuck.

AFRICA’S WHITETAIL, THE BUSHBUCK

Okay, so I didn’t really know what a “bushbuck” was the first time I went to Africa. Most hunters probably don’t. Obviously, it’s some kind of buck that lives in thick bush, right? The bushbuck, Tragelaphus scriptus, is actually the smallest member of the group of spiral-horned antelope, and is very possibly the most widespread of all of Africa’s antelopeRead more

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