All Big Game

The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From January 2012

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:06:52 -0500

Each month, Field & Stream editors review the hundreds of photos submitted by readers to our Trophy Room. If your photo is chosen to be printed in the Game Faces section of the magazine, you’ll win a Rapala Fish ‘N Fillet knife!

Submit your photos here!

Here are the monthly Best Reader Photo Galleries from last year:

NY Hunter Pays $300K for Montana Bighorn Sheep Tag

Sarah Smith — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:57:51 -0500

--Chad Love

How much is a Montana bighorn sheep hunt worth to you? For one New York hunter with deep pockets, it was worth a cool $300,000.

From this story in the Great Falls Tribune:

A New York hunter paid $300,000 for this year's Montana special auction license for bighorn sheep at the Wild Sheep Foundation convention in Reno, Nev., in January. The price, while not a record, ensures that the bighorn sheep tag continues to be the high interest big money tag of all the special auction tags Montana offers.

James Hens of East Berne, N.Y., bought the tag. He will be able to hunt a sheep in any Montana bighorn sheep hunting district this fall. Last year, James Liautaud of Champagne, Ill., owner of the Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shop chain, paid $295,000 for the same tag. The year before, Liataud bought the tag for $275,000. The highest price ever paid for the bighorn tag was $310,000 in 1994.

Can High-Fence Hunting Save the Scimitar Horned Oryx?

Sarah Smith — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:59:18 -0500

--Chad Love

Can hunting endangered African species help save them? That's the question the news segment that aired last night on 60 Minutes is asking.

From this story on cbsnews.com:

The scimitar horned oryx . . . the addax . . . the dama gazelle - three elegant desert antelope that you'd hope to see on a journey through Africa, except that their numbers are dwindling there. Which is why Lara Logan went to Texas -- yes, Texas. There, on large grassland ranches, some exotic species that are endangered in the wild have been brought back in large numbers. But there's a catch: a percentage of the herd is hunted every year by hunters who pay big money for a big catch.

The Best Shotguns of 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:56:43 -0500

The Best New Rifles of 2012

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:41:18 -0500

There were more exhibitors and more atendees at this year's SHOT Show than ever before. That means more guns than one could ever see, but we did our best to find the best. Here are David E. Petzal and John Snow's picks for the best rifles from the show floor.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 3

Online Editors — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:48:52 -0500

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 2

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:34:22 -0500

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day I

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:48:40 -0500

Lessons Learned and Soliciting Queries for SHOT Show 2012

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:15:08 -0500

by David E. Petzal

This past year was an unusually active one for me. I dragged my rotting carcass across both oceans and to a number of states, and took 11 head of big game, with big game being defined as a wild swine or larger.

Looking over the whole business, a number of things stand out. The longest shot I took was at an elk. It was 160 yards. The two shortest--at a red stag and a mule deer--were around 30 yards. The average for everything was 80 yards. None of this is long-range shooting, and leads me to wonder, where are all these 500-yard shots everyone is obsessing about? During the whole season, one person I was afield with took a long shot--400 yards--at an elk, hit it and was unable to find it. In the real world, at least from my experience, things still happen well inside 200 yards.

The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From 2011

Dave_Maccar — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:15:14 -0500

Every month readers submit hundreds of photos to our Trophy Room. They include everything from grip and grin shots of some beautiful animals and fish to remarkable nature shots taken on fishing and hunting trips. These are the web editors' picks for the best reader photos of 2011.

Our Trophy Room is always open, so Submit your photos here!

Here are the monthly Best Reader Photo Galleries of 2011: