Field & Stream: Hunting, Fishing, and Outdoor Expertise Since 1871

This one’s seen some pockets.

Ken Onion built the Blur around a 3 3/8 inch recurved blade, 6061 T6 aluminum handles with Trac-Tec inserts, and the SpeedSafe assisted opening system in 2003. More than two decades later, that combination is still coming off the Kershaw production line.

Prime Day sent us digging and the Blur wasn’t the only one marked down. We found 10 more, including the Leek, Cryo, Shuffle, and Steppe.

Ken Onion imagery via “Ken Onion: The Untold Story” by Work Sharp Tools for their YT — the full video is worth a watch if you want to learn more about the mind of Onion. ...

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The bluefin was too big for Captain Jamie Savage’s tuna door, so they towed it through the water all the way back to Rye Harbor to have it weighed.

At 1,116 pounds it outweighed the current bluefin state record by 154 pounds. But Savage would find out later that the fish still didn’t qualify for the top spot.

Official record or not, the bluefin sets a new benchmark for off-shore angling in New Hampshire. Congratulations to Captain Jamie Savage and Brandon McGirl on an oustanding catch.

Full Story By @travishallmedia featuring @savagefishingcharters 📍in New Hampshire. ...

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The field just lit up. Meet Blue Blade.
See you in Charlotte ‼️ @corey.heim

#LetsBall @tractorsupply @chiefsbroadway ...

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The turkey woods lost one of the very best.

Col. Tom Kelly died at 99. He was a veteran of two wars, an Alabama forester, the author of “The Tenth Legion,” and one of the finest writers ever to put turkey hunting on paper.

We were lucky to call him one of ours. In February 1995, Field & Stream published “The Turning,” his story about walking his daughter Laura down the aisle. Tom liked to joke that it was the only wedding ever covered by Field & Stream. That was Tom. The story might begin in the woods, but it usually ended up being about life.

At 90, he was still talking turkeys with us. He told Field & Stream that turkey hunting was the only thing he knew that was as much fun at 80 as it was at 20. After a lifetime of fooling with gobblers, they could apparently still fool him, too.

This spring, the dogwoods will bloom and the gobblers will sound off just as they always have. For the first time in nearly a century, Tom won’t be around to hear them. We’ll miss you, Colonel. ...

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POV: This bull walks out on one of your first-ever elk hunts.

Mike Skvarla beat less than 1 percent odds to draw a coveted Pennsylvania elk tag, then made the most of it. The first-time elk hunter took this gigantic bull with crossbow. It green grossed 428 inches and could wind up in the Pennsylvania record book once the score is official.

The numbers are ridiculous: The 9-and-a-half-year-old bull carried an 8x8 typical frame, a 41 inch inside spread, and main beams stretching 49 and 54 inches. Its estimated net score is around 395 inches. If the measurements hold after the drying period, the bull will dethrone both the archery and firearms record in Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Mike Skvarla on an incredible first elk.
Swipe ➡️ for the full story by @travishallmedia ...

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America is still looking for this fish.

In 1940, Peter Dubuc caught a 46 pound, 2 ounce northern pike from New York’s Great Sacandaga Lake. More than 80 years later, it remains the North American benchmark. Across the Atlantic in 1986, Lothar Louis hooked a considerably larger pike on his third cast. The fight lasted 40 minutes. The fish later weighed 55 pounds, 1 ounce. It remains the IGFA all tackle world record.

A 30 pound pike is an exceptional fish in North America. Forty pounds is exceedingly rare. Yet Dubuc’s old 46 pounder reportedly wouldn’t crack Europe’s top 50. Northern pike continue growing with age, and females attain the greatest size. Rich water, abundant forage, good genetics, and enough years without meeting hook, net, or hard winter can produce a very large pike indeed. Fifty five pounds is another matter.

Some records get old. The good ones become fish stories. That’s Old School Sunday with @yuenglingbeer. ...

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100 straight at 62.

In 1922, Annie Oakley stepped to the 16 yard line at Pinehurst, North Carolina, and broke 100 clay targets without a miss. Tournament officials called it a new world record for women. Trapshooters call it 100 straight.

Oakley knew sidearms. Over her career, she shot Parker and Lancaster and Winchester. She learned to shoot as a girl in Ohio, hunting game to help support her family, long before Buffalo Bill’s Wild West made her famous. The exhibitions made Oakley a household name. Scores like this tell you what kind of shooter she actually was.

At 62, with 100 chances to miss, she didn’t.

(Photography via Denver Public Library) ...

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Riley Green’s freezer is doing just fine.

The country singer spent a few days bowhunting in the Utah mountains and came home with an impressive bull. Green didn’t offer a score or much of a hunting report, only that “not many things challenge you like bow hunting elk” and that he was thankful to put it together on this one.

His final assessment was considerably more practical: “Freezer is full.”

Then came the comments. A few people weren’t thrilled about seeing the successful end of an elk hunt. But in the first hour, roughly 95% of the reaction we saw was positive. Congrats @rileyduckman 🫡 ...

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So what did Grandpa find?

Years ago, a man’s grandfather bought an old farm in central Illinois. While digging holes for footers, he pulled this piece from the dirt with his grandson standing less than five feet away. They spent the next weekend looking for more and reportedly found other projectile points nearby. Before he died, Grandpa gave the piece to that grandson, remembering “the way my eyes twinkled when it was found.”

Technically, this isn’t an arrowhead or a point. If it’s human made, the animal shape puts it closer to a possible effigy, and you can see why bison came up. Heavy shoulders, low hindquarters, small head. American bison (Bison bison) once ranged across Illinois, and their remains are common at archaeological sites in northern and central parts of the state. None of that proves this is a bison effigy. Its age, origin, and even whether it’s an artifact remain unverified.

Whatever it is, this one stays in the family and has a story with photos and memories shared in an Arrowhead story group by u/Hefty_Yard_109 via RT. ...

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The federal government has announced plans for the Arctic Mine Development Project in Alaska, a proposed open-pit mine tied to the Ambler Road. The project would give foreign-owned mining companies access to mineral deposits in the Brooks Range and is part of a larger plan to develop the region.

The public has until November 2 to comment on the proposed Arctic Mine Development Project. Conservation groups are encouraging people to weigh in on the Ambler Road as well. Drop “AMBLER ROAD” in the comments, and we’ll send you a link to the Arctic Mine comment portal.

Full story by @travishallmedia ...

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Worth a watch.

A year earlier, Luke Combs went elk hunting with Jason Phelps and came home without filling his tag. This time, the two met in northern Utah for Leupold’s “Days Like These.”

Combs showed up 30 pounds lighter, still looking for his first elk, and determined, as he put it, “to hold my own out here.”

There are close encounters, bulls they pass, and plans that change as the hunt unfolds. Eventually, Phelps spots what he calls “a good six,” and Combs makes the shot. At the bull, he asks the group to pray with him. Then he calls his wife with the news and gets to the considerable business of getting an elk off the mountain.

Congratulations to @lukecombs on his first bull, and credit to @jasonglennphelps and the Leupold crew for putting a good elk story on film. “Days Like These,” is up now on the @leupoldoptics YT channel. ...

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