Like so many hunting calibers of the 20th century, particularly in the sub-30 caliber segment, the .243 Winchester is a descendant of wildcatter experimentation. As early as the 1940s, Warren Page was experimenting with .243-caliber rounds, and when the Winchester .308 was released in the early 1...
The trees that feel best to sit in are rarely the ones that put a mature buck in front of you. Hunters gravitate toward straight, comfortable, easy-to-reach trees with open sightlines because those spots feel safe and pleasant. Deer, and especially older bucks, do not live where you feel most at ...
Many of us grew up hanging off of the side of a tree while hunting. It was frigid, anxiety-inducing (swaying in wind gusts), and never stoked the fires of excitement for the pastime of hunting. Now, many of us have grown older, wiser, and desire more creature comforts. There’s no glory in f...
Michael Skvarla of Port Matilda had planned a Maryland Sitka deer bowhunt for his 40th birthday. That changed when the Pennsylvania Game Commission notified him he’d drawn one of the state’s coveted elk bull tags. Just 15 were issued against 50,000 lottery applicants. “It was a ...
Editor’s Note: The author was provided the product for this article by Vortex Optics and Silencer Central, and creates content for both companies. The rifle was provided by Springfield Armory. As a professional photographer in the hunting and shooting industry, I spend over 100 days a year in t...
Despite the marketing success of the Winchester ‘73, the Springfield trapdoor rifle was more likely the rifle that really tamed the Wild West. The U.S. government equipped its cavalry and other troops with these robust, hard-hitting rifles. A repeater like Winchester or the competition sold...
These are the hottest new cartridges in the whitetail woods, plus some old classics The post The Best Deer Hunting Cartridges of 2026 appeared first on Outdoor Life.
Public land is the reason you can grab a rifle, shotgun or bow and head into the woods without owning 500 acres or knowing someone who does. Across the country, national forests, Bureau of Land Management ground, state forests and wildlife management areas hold millions of acres open to hunters c...
A hunter who kills the buck of a lifetime and then declines to run a tape over it is not being modest. For many serious hunters, refusing to have a trophy officially scored is a deliberate choice, rooted in everything from privacy to a belief that a number cheapens the whole point of the hunt. [&...