Expert Guides

The Texas sun was just beginning to drop below the trees, when I heard the strange bellow and grunt of an Axis buck from the top of a far hill. Glassing, I caught sight of the buck’s spotted coat moving between the live oak and mesquite, well over 600 yards away.

I had the opportunity to try out some First Lite gear this fall and couldn’t wait to put it through its paces. Until this year, I had only owned one piece of their clothing and had about loved it to death so I was anxious to see what the folks at First Lite had been working on. With several deer, antelope and elk hunts planned for the fall across Montana, I was confident I could put it through the wringer and see how the different pieces performed.

Let’s face it, in the AR-15 world it’s easy to get lost in the vanilla black-rifle weeds. We reached a saturation point of sorts with semi-auto gas-operated systems quite a while ago, especially in terms of plain black rigs offered by “manufacturers” who simply assemble branded components provided by true third-party bulk-producers. Even so, some not-so-vanilla iterations have certainly risen above the others and deserve to be called out. The Brenton USA Ranger Carbon Hunter is one of them.

The first time I hefted Browning’s new Cynergy, it left me feeling pleasantly surprised and excited to take it afield in pursuit of gobblers. The shotgun is lightweight, well balanced, carries pleasantly, and comes to the shoulder nicely.

During hunting season, it can take days or weeks to locate the animal that you are pursuing and you may only have seconds to take a shot. As hunters, we must quickly evaluate how much time we have to build a shooting position, establish the distance to the target, wind speed, and shot angles.

Built on the Browning’s X-Bolt action, the Max Long Range comes ready for long range.

President Jackson was notorious for settling his differences with his fellows via gunfire. Estimates hold Jackson as having participated in between five and one hundred duels over his long and craggly life.

As all good stories begin, it all started when someone threw out a crazy Idea: “Let’s go shoot a mountain goat in Alaska.” said Ben jokingly, yet serious. I don’t think he ever expected Don to agree. From this moment on, these two men were hanging on for a ride that they were just barely prepared for mentally, physically and emotionally.

Folks from across North America gathered in Boise, Idaho last weekend at the annual meeting of the world’s fastest growing conservation group, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.