Huge elk, big bucks , nice trout and funny trail cam pics: these are the 50 best photos taken by our readers in October.
Go find a pumpkin, carve it up, take a picture, and enter the photo in our 2012 Pumpkin Carving Contest. We'll give some great prizes from Gerber to the most creative jack-'o-lantern carved in a hunting, fishing, survival, or shooting theme.
By David Draper
Last Friday, at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, while waiting for the weekend shift of working girls to deplane, I picked up a bottle of water and some reading material for my flight home. On the rack, there were the usual periodicals that often make their way into my carry-on: The Atlantic (which my swollen head couldn’t fathom at that moment); Surfer (not really the inspiration I needed for a trip home to Nebraska), and Esquire (didn’t want to be seen reading a magazine with a picture of Bill Clinton on the cover).
What I did find was a copy of Saveur, a food magazine whose Jan/Feb issue annually lists their Top 100 people, places, and ingredients for the food-obsessed. The Saveur 100 issue serves as great inspiration in the kitchen and fuels many a daydream for food-related road (and plane) trips should I ever win the lottery. It’s the kind of best-of list where you’ll find meatloaf next to something called mugua ji, or a treatise on the Czech Republic’s microbrews matched with Frito Pie.
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By The Editors
The Accuracy International AX offers Remington 700 owners a stability boost with this chassis. There is nothing flimsy about the AX, and it has a lot of room for you to add on your favorite gear.
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By The Editors
Here's a first look at a prototype of US Palm's Takedown AK47, a compact rifle that snaps together with a twist. AK fans, look for it to hit the market later this year.
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By The Editors
The Stag Arms 3G was designed with 3-Gun competitors in mind. Stag Arms offers both right and left handed versions so everyone can join in this growing sport.
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By The Editors
Looking for a quick upgrade for your Ruger 10/22 that will add versatility and accessory options? This simple, railed, snap-on chassis set comes in two models.
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By The Editors
These rounds might mark the end of the metal casing. The polymer casing significantly reduces ammunition weight while retaining its accuracy--meaning you can carry more ammo during your next hunt.
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By Editors
Those long waits in the stand or the blind can be a little easier with these gloves that let you access your spartphones' features, like the Rut Reporter app...or, you know, Fruit Ninja.
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By David Draper

On the first night of last week’s SHOT Show, the Field and Stream editorial staff gathered around the table for dinner at the Las Vegas outpost of Thomas Keller’s legendary Bouchon restaurant. Remembering the damage I did to his M&E budget the previous year, Field and Stream editor-in-chief, Anthony Licata didn’t invite me to join them until he was absolutely sure I already had reservations somewhere else. And after my meal at Aureole, I’m okay with that.
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By The Editors
Nathan Masters, creater of Flippinoutslingshots.com builds hand-crafted slingshots for the small game hunter. From the common, to the exotic, any of Masters' slingshots pack enough punch to take out a squirrel or rabbit. With the double-banded slingshot you can catapult a .40-.50-caliber piece of lead at about 250 fps.
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By David E. Petzal

In a wretched economic year, the pants-wetters, doomsayers, and purveyors of pessimism would be confounded by the life and vitality in the shooting industry. This year in Las Vegas, an estimated 60,000 people (all in the gun biz), many of whom look like Larry the Cable Guy, crowded into a maze of under-ventilated halls to ogle, grope and buy. Guns. What did you think I was talking about?
The most densely crowded venues were dedicated to the wonderful worlds of the paramilitary and law enforcement. Apparently there is an insatiable need for the equipment used in shooting, clubbing, and gassing people. There are suits of full body armor the like of which has not been seen since the Battle of Agincourt. There are all-black deathmobiles, equipped with lethal gear of all sorts. I’m told that Cop World constitutes fully one-third of the SHOT Show. How shooting and suppressing the citizenry ties into Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade is more than I can comprehend, but there it is.
There is also a very notable shortage of Booth Babes. In past years, you could hardly turn a corner without seeing some inadequately clothed young mammal who would cause you to stop dead in your tracks and give thanks to the forces of evolution. Damned if I know what happened to them.
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By The Editors
Arno Bernard makes high-quality knives with croc skin handles and sheaths made from cape buffalo skin. Incredibly, these knives range from about $100 to $400. They come in a variety of different sizes and could very well be the steal of the SHOT show.
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By David Draper

I don’t think I’m alone in my love-hate relationship with cookbook author/food pundit Mark Bittman. He’s taken his former (and formidable) influence as a cooking columnist at The New York Times from a place that taught us how to cook and turned it into a pulpit, or more accurately, a soapbox from which to tell us how to eat. He recently trumpeted the drop in overall meat consumption by American families, which has declined more than 12 percent in the past five years, in an op-ed piece last week. [ Read Full Post ]
By David Draper
Those of us dealing with the post-holiday hangover might be thinking about losing a little weight around the middle. I know I’ve put on a few pounds this fall that will need to be shed before I hit the woods for my annual spring turkey death march. I generally don’t tend to pay much attention to any of the diet trends that come and go, but one that does intrigue me is eating Paleo, a.k.a. the caveman diet. The name alone conjures images of tearing hunks of fire-roasted meat right off the bone, something I can relate to as a hunter. But apparently there’s more to the diet than that.
To learn more about eating like a caveman, I tracked down Charles Mayfield, co-author with his wife Julie of the Paleo Comfort Foods cookbook. In addition to being cookbook authors, the Mayfields own several gyms in the Atlanta area and are hardcore fitness junkies. Charles is also a hunter, so who better to explain the Paleo lifestyle and how it can benefit hunters and wild-food lovers.
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By Chad Love

A bill in the Georgia state senate would allow hunters to use silencers. The debate will most likely not be as quiet.
From this story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
A Georgia Senate proposal would end the ban on silencers for hunting firearms. Senate Bill 301 is sponsored by Sen. John Bulloch, who says allowing hunters to use silencers would keep them from disturbing their neighbors. The Ochlocknee Republican says hunters would still have to have a federal permit to possess a silencer. The bill has been assigned to the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which Bulloch co-chairs. Sen. Ross Tolleson, a Republican from Perry who co-sponsored of the bill, is the committee's chairman.
Thoughts?
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