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Preparing for a safari is almost as much fun as the trip itself.
by Diana Rupp
The anticipation has been building for months, and at last the day is almost here. I’m getting ready to leave for a safari in Namibia, via a flight to Washington, DC, where I’ll connect with South African Airways to Johannesburg, and then on to Windhoek. My duffel is stuffed with safari clothes and soft-soled leather boots and lots of additional stuff I probably won’t really need; my rifle is sighted in and ready to be locked in its case; three boxes of ammo are locked in a hard-sided pistol case inside the duffel; and my carry-on contains my passport and a sheaf of other paperwork as well as cameras, reading material, and a variety of sleep aids for that 16-hour ordeal in coach.
They're big planes, but they seem awfully tiny when you've been wedged in a coach seat for hours and hours.
READ MOREThe new Ram Outdoorsman is designed to be the ultimate hunting truck. We put it to the test in the New Mexico backcountry.
By Diana Rupp
The new Ram Outdoorsman 1500.
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Under Wyoming Skies
A hunt on the high plains with the person who jump-started my love of hunting.
Story and photos by Diana Rupp
I thought I’d had enough hunting experience not to come down with buck fever, but I was a wreck as we waited for the mule deer buck to emerge from the brushy draw. My mind raced through endless scenarios. What if the shot was too long? What if we didn’t get a chance at this buck at all? What if we didn’t see another one? I stared expectantly through my binoculars and tried to force myself to relax. After all, this wasn’t even going to be my shot.
“How do you feel, Dad?” I whispered.
“Fine,” he replied, without a trace of the concern I was feeling. “Look, there are three does moving into the top of the draw.”
READ MOREAn overview of the TSA rules for flying with your hunting firearms, ammunition, and other hunting equipment
By Ron Spomer
They took my Swiss Army knife. They took my mini screwdriver repair kit. They even took my tweezers once. But they haven’t taken my guns yet, and if I pay attention and follow the rules, they hopefully never will.
READ MOREThe Ultimate To-Do List?
The so-called "North American 27" is based on the categories of North American game animals as recognized by the Boone and Crockett Club since 1971. The traditional North American 27 consists of the following animals:
Stone sheep, Dall sheep, desert bighorn, Rocky Mountain bighorn; brown, grizzly, black, and polar bear; barren-ground, Quebec-Labrador, mountain, and woodland caribou; mule, white-tailed, Columbia black-tailed, and Coues deer; Alaska-Yukon, Canada, and Shiras moose; as well as bison, muskox, cougar, jaguar, pronghorn, American elk, walrus, and Rocky Mountain goat.
To make things confusing, B&C traditionally recognized two walrus (Atlantic and Pacific) and two muskox (barren-ground and Greenland), which actually makes 29 different animals. Hunters have only ever counted one walrus and one muskox, hence the North American 27.
Hunting makes critical contributions to the future of wildlife populations around the world.
"Sustainable hunting will continue to be a major conservation tool in the 21st century. It conserves wildlife populations and biodiversity in general, whereas hunting bans can speed up extinction," said the President of the CIC Tropical Game Commission, Dr. Rolf D. Baldus, at a conference during the international IWA-Outdoors Classic trade fair in Nürnberg, Germany. The conference on "Hunting and Sportshooting in the 21st Century" was organized by the "World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities" (WFSA). The WFSA represents over one hundred million sport shooters from all around the world.
Each issue of Sports Afield magazine contains exciting big-game hunting adventure stories, updates about the hottest hunting destinations around the world, timely information for the traveling hunter, and in-depth looks at the latest rifles, ammunition, and hunting gear.
Subscribe today and get one year—six big, glossy, full-color issues—for only $27.97! A two-year subscription (12 issues) is $49.97. For subscribers outside of the United States, a one-year subscription is $49.97; two years is $89.97.
Remember, a Sports Afield magazine subscription makes a great gift!
READ MORESometimes it's the hardships and challenges we experience on hunting trips that make our adventures truly memorable.
By James C. Reed
If you’re going to hunt in some of the world’s most remote places, you’d better be prepared for some unexpected adventures. Being a hunter with a restless spirit, I can’t seem to get enough of the both the joys and hardships that come with hunting the world’s far-flung regions. Here are a few of the most memorable tests of my “mental fortitude” I’ve experienced to date.
A Party in Pakistan
Now I don’t speak a word of the Pakistani language, but when I was stranded by weather in a high-mountain village not far from the Afghanistan border, with an official trying to extort $1,000 from me with a great deal of yelling and pointing, I understood the word “Taliban” very well.
Argentina dove hunting is the ultimate wingshooting experience.
By John M. Taylor
As the rising sun balanced on the horizon, they came in waves . . . in torrents; doves hurtling toward the millions of sunflowers looking for breakfast. Thumbing shells into the already hot Beretta semiauto, I soon gave up loading the magazine and shoved in only single rounds as frantically as one of Custer’s cavalrymen.
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What's the best way to defend yourself if you
run into a grizzly while hunting—or if a grizzly
tries to run into you?
By Anthony Acerrano
Nearly all authorities on the subject agree that the first two words to memorize in this regard are "pepper spray." I'm fully aware that some hunters associate pepper spray with politically correct, granola-eating, New Age, tree-hugger crapola. "Just give me my gun," these guys brag, "and I'll drop any charging griz like a sack of rocks."
Other hunters are less fanatical on the subject, but simply have serious (and understandable) doubts about the efficacy of a spray can to stop one of the largest and most dangerous animals in North America. Doesn't it just make sense that a high-caliber bullet is more potent, and more effective in a life-or-death situation?
It’s a reasonable question, and by no means should hunters dismiss the power and value of their firearms, as we'll discuss later. But as is so often the case when it comes to bears, the answer is more complex than it might first appear.
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