By T. Edward Nickens and David Maccar

These are Field & Stream's picks for the best new hunting knives introduced at this year's SHOT Show:

MSRP: $280 standard handles, plus $20 for warthog ivory, $50 for crocodile hide, and $160 for mammoth molar.
There is no question that the South African knifemaker’s blades are sexy and sumptuous. With handle materials ranging from crocodile hide to giraffe bone and mastodon molar, the fixed-blade models are hand-ground with a signature two-tone finish—a hand-rubbed satin finish paired to a mirror finish on the ricasso. They stand out in a crowd. The new Zebra sports a slightly smaller 3.5-inch blade than the brand’s most popular knife, the Warthog, and it carries less belly for more general cutting duties. But it retains a full grip, allowing the user to bear down with force and make fine cuts easily. A high-hollow grind “cuts so much better the meat,” Bernard Sr. says, in his South African accent. Believe him.

In hand, the Zebra is a delight. The full tapered tang tips the balance slightly towards the blade, and the full handle with a bit of palm swell is just right. Built of cobalt-enhanced Austrian N690 stainless steel, similar... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

One of the problems with something the size of the SHOT Show (This year’s set another record for size.) is that a great many deserving but non-glamorous items get lost in the herd. Here are two that deserve your attention and your money.

One of my greatest regrets as I shuffle off this mortal coil is that I’ve kept poor records of my hunting trips, or no records. If you’d like to end up at the end of the trail in better shape, record-wise, I suggest you get hold of Rite in the Rain’s Big Game Journal Kit. This weatherproof spiral-binder pad (and they are weatherproof, too, by God; I’ve used RiR pads for years) has listings for 35 items of information plus a blank reverse for any random intel you care to include. [ Read Full Post ]

By John Merwin

I review and report on lots of new fishing tackle over the course of a year. Some reels and rods are inevitably much improved, and I love the technical innovations. But I occasionally think that maybe I’m too enamored of new things. So what about the old stuff?

In pondering this, I decided I could be perfectly happy fishing with the same things I was using 20 years ago. In fact, some of the “old stuff” doesn’t seem old at all and still functions perfectly. Here are some examples: [ Read Full Post ]

By Lance Schwartz

Sedona Ripsaw RT Tire
MSRP: $150.95 for 26x9x12 Tire; $168.95 for 26x11x12 Tire

One of the most simple and economical ways to improve the performance of your ATV or SxS is to add a set of aftermarket tires to your rig.

For the last six months, I’ve been torturing a set of Sedona Ripsaw RT tires on my Yamaha Rhino 700.  The area that I typically ride in is littered with sharp blast rock left over from decades of coal mining. Those rocks are like razor blades, and they’ve claimed the lives of countless tires during my excursions over the years.  [ Read Full Post ]