Features
Valley of the Ducks
A Waterfowling potpourri in California's Sacramento Valley
By: Lee Thomas Kjos
High Highland Pheasants
Driven days at Highland Hills Ranch
By: Clair Kofoed
The Man Who Trained Snakefoot
Gary Christensen: unsung hero of the Snakefoot legend
By: Tom Davis
A Visionary Mind
Hofer Jagdwaffen: a passion for creating guns
By: Mark Stone
Less than Epic
Sometimes the smallest hunts occupy the largest places in memory
By: E. Donnall Thomas Jr
Ears ToYou!
Sound thinking on hearing protection devices
By: Dave Holmes
Gibbs Guns
George Gibbs: a gun & riflemaker to swear by
By: Charles Fergus
The Season Finale
Covey upon covey at Wild Wing Lodge
By: Gary Hubbell
Sated in Sinaloa
Doves, ducks & quail in northeastern Mexico
By: Clair Kofoed
Temporary Blindness
The versatile, deceptive & portable field blind
By: Ruben W. Perez
Old-Faithful Fowlers
A timeless look at classic waterfowling guns
By: John M. Taylor
Departments
From the Editor
It had become a rite of fall: the annual day-after-Thanksgiving duck hunt. Each year several friends and I, still groggy from the previous afternoon's bingeing, would drag ourselves out of bed before dawn; gulp down mugs of hot coffee; cram guns, dogs and gear into our vehicles; and drive a half-hour
By: Ralph P. Stuart
Letters
An Elsie Education On behalf of the L.C. Smith Collectors Association, I wish to thank you and the editorial staff of Shooting Sportsman for publishing the well-written article by Michael McIntosh, "Sweet Elsie's Charm," in July/August. The article provides the insightful history and features of the
Game & Gun Gazette
Bismuth Loads Returning, from Across the Sea As many double-gun shooters have already learned, the Bismuth Car- tridge Co. quietly closed its doors following the March death of founder Bob Petersen and failed attempts to acquire the company. Where does that leave the customers who have come to love nontoxic
Phantoms of Delight
From a mile or so off, the rising ducks looked like smoke from a grassfire. And pres-ently they started to come over, high and low, in knots of four and five and tens and scores, in waves and droves. It was entrancing in the purest sense of the word, and at times I was too overwhelmed to shoot. We were
By: Michael McIntosh
David Norin, Rebuilder of Old Guns
The reliable career gunsmiths working today have some things in common. A great deal of experience working on guns is of course a prerequisite, but so is the ability to run a small business like a business and to deal well with clients. The perseverance to survive the many pitfalls of sole-proprietorship
By: Steven Dodd Hughes
Worries
In my column "No Worries" (July/August) I covered some technical subjects that many shooters worry about but needn't be worried about once they examine the facts. This time I'm going to look at shotgunning issues that shooters rightfully worry about, especially once they know the facts. Long Shells in
By: Tom Roster
On the Road Again
Our dogs are road warriors. Trucking to and from training schools, traveling to Montana for summer work, trekking back to the quail plantation for the winter-we put on the miles. In the past five years our dogs have made the round trip to Alaska on the Alaska Highway four times, and, had they qualified,
By: George Hickox
Fowl-Weather Gear
Duck and goose hunters love stuff, and the specialty-gear manufacturers know it. That's why there is a never-ending parade of new products such as motion decoys, realistic game calls, electronic aids for dog training, innovative blinds and boats, and high-tech clothing. Here are five new waterfowling
By: Tom Huggler
Cabela's AyA 4/53 Classic
The Basque gunmaking firm of Aguirre y Aranzabal was founded in 1917 by Miguel Aguirre and Nicolas Aranzabal. Ninety years later it has survived two world wars, a civil war, political unrest and an abortive gunmaker collectivization. It has gone from a small producer to a large manufacturer and back
By: Bruce Buck
A Canine Collection
A stack of dog books has built up on my shelf-and what better way to usher in the new bird season than to report on works dealing with the partnership between human and canine that adds so much to our days afield? The Ultimate Hunting Dog Reference Book By Vickie Lamb (Lyons Press, 800-962-0973, www.lyonspress.com
By: Charles Fergus
A Christmas Carol
It was mid-December. There was a light covering of snow on the ground-just enough to allow Philadelphia's soot and grime to color it black. The skies were gray too. Nevertheless, it was the season to be jolly. Soon there would be office Christmas parties, and gifts would be exchanged. Soon end-of-year
By: Galen Winter
Gold for a 'No-Name' Gun
The Gold Medal Concours d'Elegance of Fine Guns features shotguns and rifles-new and old, from around the world-that are panel-judged in a variety of classes and categories. It began with a call from a friend-the kind of friend who works overtime finding guns he thinks you should buy and then, if they
By: Roger Sanger
and Steve Helsley
The Land Learning Foundation
The mound of empty shotgun hulls at my feet was growing considerably fast-er than the pile of teal on the blind sill. It was mid-September in north-central Missouri, and blue-winged squadrons had been buzzing the blind all morning. I was trying hard not to embarrass myself too badly in front of my host,
By: Chad Mason
