No. 1 - 2020

Field & Stream

Field & Stream Magazine is the Foremost Magazine for American Sportsmen

Field & Stream2 min read
Game Change
YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED something different about this issue the first time you picked it up. It’s got a bit more heft than usual, wouldn’t you say? That’s because it’s the first chapter in the newest volume of FIELD & STREAM. And I couldn’t be more e
Field & Stream4 min read
Out There
IT’S 5 A.M. AND FEBRUARY in northern Vermont. Virtually all of New England is asleep and cozy in their houses, wisps of wood smoke slipping from their chimneys. But not us. Norm and Marcel and I are in a dimly lit basement, in line with a bunch of ot
Field & Stream4 min read
A Keen Collection
THERE’S A LITTLE PIECE OF meat under the clavicle of a duck that drives me nuts. To get at it requires a moment of dedicated concentration when filleting the breast. I have to halt the cut that severs the fillet from the keel of the breastbone, turn
Field & Stream3 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Goose Albondigas
When you think of meatballs, your mind probably books a ticket to Italy or maybe Sweden. But as chef and outdoorsman Ford Fry reminds us in his cookbook, Tex Mex: Traditions, Innovations, and Comfort Foods from Both Sides of the Border, Mexico has a
Field & Stream2 min read
Q&A
Q: I’m planning to use Winchester’s new 350 Legend for deer in Ohio this year. How will it do for bears in my home state of Wisconsin? —JIM TINLIN, BONDUEL, WIS. A: It should do just fine. I have not found black bears to be particularly tough. Use Wi
Field & Stream4 min read
.277 Revival
NOT LONG AGO, THE .270 Winchester reigned supreme. From the post–World War II era right up to the early 2000s, the .270 was a colossus among big-game hunting cartridges, a mighty twin of the immortal .30/06. During that time, if you could get ammunit
Field & Stream4 min read
Night Shift
IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON IN February, and the farmer gave me the usual post-deer-season response when I asked if I could hunt coyotes on his land. “Go ahead,” he said. He even pulled on a weathered Carhartt coat, stepped onto his porch stoop, and motion
Field & Stream4 min read
Shell Game
FUNNY WHAT WE WILL GET USED TO PAYING ridiculous amounts of money for. First it was $100 flashlights, then $400 coolers, then $2,000 duck guns, and now it’s $30 to $50 for a box of five TSS turkey loads. Yet a $15 Mini Maglite still shows you the way
Field & Stream3 min read
Dark Of The Bay
THE COYOTES WERE east of us, running through the salt grass and ragweed that make up much of coastal South Texas. There wasn’t a breath of wind or ripple on the water, which helped amplify the howls that reverberated across Baffin Bay. The eerie crie
Field & Stream5 min read
Tree of Life
WHEN I FINALLY REACH MY treestand on the closing day of rifle season, it looks just as I remember it. The camo cushions have faded in the last few years, and the extra-tall ladder is dinged in places, but otherwise it’s in fine shape. The stand faces
Field & Stream3 min read
The Company of Stars
BACK IN THE DAYS WHEN A fly rod was my compass, I rarely found myself in a position to contemplate the stars. Nor, on most trips, did I have anyone to share my slice of heaven under them with. I would fish until dark and crawl into my sleeping bag as
Field & Stream5 min read
1. The Road Trip from Hell Was Paved with Good Intentions
Twenty years later, I remember the silence inside the car as we retreated home. The radio was on, but the three of us were quiet, and had been for some time. Sunrise was a few hours away. Joe was half-asleep in the back of the minivan, and I rode sho
Field & Stream2 min read
2. Head To The Northwest For The Portlandia Slam
A buddy of mine moved from Virginia to Portland a few years ago. He reported that there are a bunch of hippies out there—but also a staggering number of turkeys. I usually take a late-spring turkey trip to Nebraska or Kansas, and as good as those pra
Field & Stream2 min read
4. Hit the Road for the Snow Migration Marathon
Some of the best wingshooting in North America happens between February and April along the Missouri River as snow geese migrate to their Arctic breeding grounds in Canada. This route picks up the migration midflight in the Midwest, then follows the
Field & Stream2 min read
5. Take the Next Exit for Slab City
Eastern Virginia’s coastal plain and tidewater rivers sport some of the country’s best small stream fishing for panfish in waters friendly to both johnboats and canoes. It’s a region rich in history, and there’s a bonus to fishing freshwater streams
Field & Stream7 min read
We Got This
DAVE HURTEAU AND I BELLY-crawled to the ridge crest, where we could finally see the gobbler. He was 150 yards below, strutting under a cottonwood tree with a dozen hens. “What we need to do is fall back, sneak up that creek bed, and show him a fan,”
Field & Stream4 min read
John’s Rock
DOWN THE STEEP BANK AND through dog-hair stands of invasive knotweed, the river opens up to a huge slow pool below and a riffle above. There are already a few bugs wafting by on the slight breeze, and I see two splashy rises in the tailout. But I hea
Field & Stream4 min read
Dammit, Heavey!
MY FRIEND PAULA SMITH IS helping me look for the mate of a shed antler that I found two days ago on a hillside in these thick woods that back up to a fence and the four lanes of Cabin John Parkway inside the D.C. Beltway. I’d found the left side, a b
Field & Stream3 min read
The Best Bud
THE MAN BURNS HIGH-octane gas—the premium stuff, hold the ethanol. There’s no catalytic converter under his hood, no fuel-saving gizmos that might shave down performance. His only speed is flat-out, stomp-the-skinny-pedal go. My pal, Scott Wood, can
Field & Stream11 min read
The Outer Limits
WE DROVE SOUTH FROM Albuquerque, trailing the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande, down the old Spanish royal road that once stitched old Mexico City to old Santa Fe, down to the funky town of Truth or Consequences, and then east, over the high, piney C
Field & Stream3 min read
Happy Anniversary, Pal
DRIVING THE LENGTH OF THE Hawkeye Wildlife Area’s south side, I can point to landmarks all along the way and recall successes and failures over the years. They track my growth as a turkey hunter like the pencil marks on the wall record the height of
Field & Stream4 min read
Lost and Gone
HUGH JOHNSON WAS A good-looking, athletic kid, the kind that people of all stripes are naturally drawn to. I was his hunting and trapping partner. And unlike anyone else around me during high school in Daven port, Iowa, Hughie made me believe that li
Field & Stream3 min read
You Yankee!
I MET GEORGE HERRON AT the Knifemakers Guild Show in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1975. George was a presence, over 6 feet tall, with a massive gut, cold blue eyes, slicked-back graying hair, and a trademark Cuban shirt that tried to contain the gut. Hi
Field & Stream8 min read
Thanks, Bud
IT WAS THE VERY FIRST cast I ever made with a muskie fly. The 14-inch mass of bucktail, feathers, and flash smacked down a few feet from the bank of one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes like a teal that had tangled with Remington steel. Before I could bri
Field & Stream4 min readAutomotive
The Truck That Owes Me Nothing
I WAS WAITING FOR THE moment when the truck would finally break down, and I’d be stranded in a strange place far from home. After an allnight haul from New York, it seemed like that place would be a general-store parking lot in Odessa, Missouri. I go
Field & Stream4 min read
Good Dogs
LEE KJOS NAMES ALL HIS DUCK dogs after Louis L’Amour cowboys, and Cap is no exception. When Kjos went to pick out a Lab five years ago, he had his heart set on a reddish male. But the same yellow pup kept tumbling into his lap until Kjos gave in and
Field & Stream3 min read
Swim Team
THE THREE OF US RUSHED before dawn, flickering figures in headlamp beams, piling gear into Ralph’s 10-foot johnboat. Ralph and I had been chasing ducks up and down the shores of Lake Champlain for a decade or so, and we had a feeling about the Novemb
Field & Stream7 min read
Bass Brothers
HE HAD INTRODUCED HIMSELF as Diablo. We were sure it was a nickname, but given the language barrier, getting to a real nombre seemed unlikely. Or necessary. The devil it was. He couldn’t have been older than 25, and his English was sparse, but every
Field & Stream3 min read
Baker’s Thumb
I LIKE TO SHOOT A PISTOL AS much today as I ever did, but I haven’t shot in a pistol competition since the day Logan Baker cut his thumb off. We were buddies fresh out of college, and we both had the plinking bug, spending money we didn’t have on amm
Field & Stream2 min read
Kindred Spirit
I MET NORM STRUNG IN November 1971, after he’d issued an invitation to staff members of the outdoor magazine for which I worked to hunt elk with him in Montana. He had moved to Big Sky Country in 1959, put himself through college, taught college, and
Field & Stream11 min read
2020 Fishing Gear Guide
NOW THAT THE SEASON OF GIVING to others is over, it’s time to treat yourself. Spring is either here or just around the bend, depending on where you live, and you deserve some fresh lures, a new stick, and an outboard that doesn’t require divine inter
Field & Stream4 min read
The Flinch
I LOVE EVERYTHING about shooting a bow except for one tiny thing. Hi, my name’s Bill, and I have target panic. Hi, Bill! For the last couple of years, I’ve had to hunt with a crossbow. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing against the horizontal bow. To m

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