Preparing for Hunting Season

By Massad Ayoob Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 For a great many rural folk, big game hunting season is a high point—often the annual high point—of their involvement with firearms. In some locales, the big game...

The Trigger Line

By Len McDougall Issue #108 • November/December, 2007 With most of our planet underwater, fish have been a part of the human diet since before recorded history. Almost any permanent body of water can be presumed...

Getting Ready for Deer Season … Now

By Massad Ayoob Issue #155 • September/October, 2015 As summer blends into fall, "deer season" is on the horizon. In the United States, the deer is by far the most popular big game. When I was...

Build a Groundhog Snare

By Allen Easterly Issue #98 • March/April, 2006 In just a few minutes your completed snare is ready to put an end to your groundhog woes. A snare set vertically is very effective catching groundhogs with...

Marlin 336 — The Other Classic Backwoods Home Deer Rifle

By Massad Ayoob Issue #95 • September/October, 2005 In the March/April 2005 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine, this space was devoted to the "Winchester '94: the Classic Backwoods Home Deer Rifle." And you know, even when...

Hunting to Fill the Dinner Pot

By Len McDougall Issue #110 • March/April, 2008 It was November in northern Michigan, and I was supposed to be deer hunting, but it seemed I'd brought the wrong gun today. The deer I did see...

Grouse Hunting — The Ultimate Joy of Autumn

By Linda Gabris Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 Nothing instills such excitement or makes my heart flutter louder than the sudden whir of a flushed out grouse. No matter how many times I've heard it, the...

Snapping Turtles

By Jason Akers Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 When the first of the snapping turtles roamed the lands during the Oligocene epoch in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era some 40 million years ago, they...