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1 week ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily |Will Brantley |Travis Hall |Matthew Every
A turkey hunter's life, to paraphrase what they say about a soldier’s, is 99 percent boredom, 1 percent sheer excitement (instead of terror). You make plans, scout, walk for miles, and wait for hours, days even, in hopes of a momentary thrill. But those few minutes can change your whole season, even your entire spring. Like many Americans, I am blessed, and slightly cursed, to live a comfortable, unexciting life.
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2 weeks ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily
If you buy into turkey chokes and expensive, tight-shooting turkey loads, your gun needs a sight. Period. Otherwise, you will whistle dense, tiny, grapefruit-size patterns right past the heads of turkeys, leaving them unharmed. Ask me how I know. One good solution is to mount a red dot, and the most elegant red dot mounting solution on the market is the new Vortex Viper Shotgun Enclosed Red Dot.
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2 weeks ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily
A man once asked me for advice about his goose gun. The recoil of 3 ½-inch shells caused the trigger guard of his gun to whack the middle finger of his hand, leaving him bruised and sore after the hunt. He wanted to know if there was some kind of padding made for trigger guards. I said yes, such things existed, but why not try some 3-inch shells that wouldn’t kick as much? He was so stunned by my suggestion, he couldn’t form words to reply.
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2 weeks ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily
Trap is a simple game. The shots aren’t difficult, and the targets are the same everywhere you go. All you have to do is not miss. Then, you get into a shoot-off with everybody else who didn’t miss, and you don’t miss some more. Then you win. Being simple doesn’t make trap easy. It takes tremendous mental toughness to stay in the moment and focus only on breaking the next bird in competition.
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3 weeks ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily |Christine Peterson
A 22.5-Inch Beard. 13 Beards Total. And 4 More Incredible Wild Turkey RecordsEvery turkey is a trophy, of course, but some are more unusual trophies than others. As hunters tag birds across the country this spring some birds have more beards or longer beards or spurs. Some are heavyweights, and some combine beards, spurs and weight to score high on the National Wild Turkey Federation scoring system. The NWTF keeps the record book on turkeys.
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3 weeks ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily
While most skunk sprayings don’t do permanent harm to dogs, they will make your dog stink and possibly make it nauseous, as the scent may cling to the dog for days. Skunks live throughout North America and are most active early and late in the day. Fortunately for hunters with dogs, cool weather makes skunks spend more time in their dens. Most hunting dog-skunk encounters take place early in the warm temperatures of the early season.
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1 month ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Alice Jones Webb |Jace Bauserman |Phil Bourjaily
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn moreI first started testing out custom turkey chokes with different models and gauge shotguns a few years ago. Like old sage Toms tend to do, a thick-bearded Eastern hung up on the field edge. We had the best decoys imaginable but the bird wasn’t going to break off his girls. He was 60 yards, and never in my turkey career had I attempted such a shot.
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1 month ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn moreBrowning’s new Citori 825 is based around the premise that there wasn’t a whole lot wrong with the Citori 725. As the 725’s replacement, the 825 features a few styling tweaks and an improved trigger. Browning should be congratulated for not fixing a gun that wasn’t broken as they roll out this new O/U.
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1 month ago | 
fieldandstream.com | T. Edward Nickens |Phil Bourjaily |Mike Dickerson
The hounds have turned. I hear them in the distance, echoing off the rolling, snow-clad Maine hills. A chorus of barks and yips morphs into a clamor of bawling chops and ringing howls, sharp as breaking glass. And they’re headed my way. I shift in my snowshoes, breathing hard. For a half hour I’d clambered over blowdowns and shouldered through cedar thickets so tightly grown the snowshoes hardly fit through.
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1 month ago | 
fieldandstream.com | Phil Bourjaily |Travis Hall |Sage Marshall
North Carolina Man Survives Bite From Gaboon Viper, One of the World’s Deadliest SnakesA Wilmington, North Carolina, man has been released from the hospital after surviving a bite from a Gaboon viper, one of the most venomous snakes on the planet. The man was caring for the snake in Wilmington when he was bitten several months ago. The bite from the Gaboon viper often proves fatal. Fortunately for the victim, expert help was close at hand.
