By David E. Petzal

(L-R) Jack O'Connor, Warren Page, Elmer Keith, Townsend Whelen, Bob Brister

When I broke into the gun writing business in the mid 1960s, I was an editor, not a writer, which meant that I, who did not know what I was talking about, got to meddle with the copy of people who did. And those people were a different breed from today. To start with, they were almost all veterans. Not only did this give them a certain perspective on the use of firearms, but some formal training in ballistics as well. Pete Brown studied naval gunnery at Annapolis; Warren Page was a naval gunnery officer; Charley Askins was an Army ordnance officer, as was Col. Townsend Whelen.

I had the great good fortune to get my start on a small magazine whose main writer was a fellow named Larry Koller. Koller was a consummate outdoorsman. He was an expert shot with rifle, handgun, and shotgun, and a master gunsmith, bamboo-rod maker, flyfisherman, whitetail hunter, and cook. There was nothing he could not do, and do at the master-class level. While a few of the old gun writers were only semiliterate (Elmer Keith), most were far better educated than people are today because everyone was far better educated then. Ol’ Elmer probably never made it through high school, but he was a master storyteller, and if you pick up one of his books today you won’t be able to put it down. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Once a year I shoot my sporting clays gun—a Miroku Charles Daly with 32-inch barrels—on a two-day charity preserve pheasant hunt. The stock is fitted to me and the long, heavy barrels move inevitably to the birds. It’s almost impossible to miss with it.   

Longer barrels are easier to shoot with, especially on any kind of crossing bird. Most of my hunting guns now have 28-inch barrels, which seems like a good compromise length. Of course, barrel wall thickness varies and two guns with 28-inch barrels can have very different balance, but in general they have a little bit of weight forward that makes them easier to shoot. In fact, chances are I will shoot a gun pretty well if I pick it up and it feels too heavy in the muzzle. [ Read Full Post ]

By Ben Romans

A coalition of 24 organizations like the Ducks Unlimited, the NRA, Safari Club International and the U.S. Sportsman’s Alliance have joined the NSSF in opposition to a California bill that would ban the use of traditional lead ammunition in the state.
 
In April, Field & Stream reported on Assembly Bill (AB) 711, a proposal initiated by Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) that would extend a lead-free zone currently enforced in areas frequented by the California condors, to the entire state by 2016—a move many sportsmen and gun advocates are considering a back-door approach to gun-control legislation. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

It’s less than three months until dove season and now is the time to start practicing.

There are a few people who don’t need much practice. They are the lucky ones who shoot so much during each season that they can fish or golf all summer, then pick right up where they left off when the season starts again. Most of us don’t fall into that category. I certainly don’t—so instead of fishing or playing golf, I shoot low-gun skeet. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Season IV of “The Gun Nuts” begins filming this week. That is me on the set last season, shooting trap with a camera attached to my gun using electrician’s tape. This year we will have an all-new much improved gun camera (the ShotKam) and, I hope, some other improvements to the show, which is a lot of fun to do.

Once again I will be answering viewer/reader questions that is, if you have any.

Ask me your shotgun questions. This season I’ll be picking four or five and some fabulous but as yet un-named prize will go to the people whose questions I answer.

If the question can best be answered by me shooting something, that makes for much better TV than me talking, which can be boring. I have answered questions in the past about cross-dominance, what happens when you put a 20-gauge shell in a 12-gauge barrel, if there is such a thing as shot string and many other topics of earth-shaking importance. So, please ask away, and you may be the winner of some useful shooting-related widget that web editor Dave Maccar or I can scam from some willing manufacturer. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Because no good idea goes un-copied, today we present the first installment of Gunfight Friday based on (and by “based on” I mean “shamelessly ripped off of”) the Wild Chef’s Food Fight Friday. The format will be eerily similar: You send us pictures of your gun (see below) and write a little about the gun and why you like it for a specific purpose. We’ll pair up two guns, and readers will decide which is their choice. Unlike Food Fight Friday, which sometimes pits, say, venison vs. fish, we’ll try to confine this to guns for similar purposes like, say, elk rifles for black timber or squirrel rifles.

I have wanted to get pictures of readers’ guns onto this blog for a long time, and this seems like a good way to do it. I hope you agree, participate, and enjoy it. Because we don’t have any reader pictures yet, Dave Hurteau and I are going to face off on the first installment, which pits my 20-gauge turkey gun against his. [ Read Full Post ]