Phil Massaro

In spite of the desert winds gusting over 18 mph, some of us were making contact with the plate, at 1,760 yards – one full mile – with a 6.5 Creedmoor.

Hunting boots can be a topic of great debate. For warm weather boots, I’ve found a brand that has been impeccable—and made from exotic leather no less.

Legendary Arms Works is back in business and that’s a good thing. They’ve made a great pair of rifles: The Professional and The Big Five.

In 1945, Roy Weatherby introduced three cartridges that became synonymous with speed. That has always been Weatherby’s calling card: high velocity equals flat trajectory, and they’ve stuck with that concept.

I love to look at Professional Hunter’s firearms; they show the rigors of day-to-day hunting life and are often beat nearly to death. While we all have our safe queens, I appreciate those beat up, well-hunted guns that invariably have a story to tell, be it that one shot that even surprised the owner, of those hair-raising tales of dangerous game at close quarters.

Wind calls, trajectory compensation, trigger control, and even the basic shooting form can be practiced and polished by using nothing more than a simple .22 rimfire.

I love new toys. While in the hunting and shooting world there are many tried and true brands and models, I’m always eager to give new stuff a try. Riton Optics is most definitely the new-kid-at-school in the optics world, but that’s not always a bad thing. Founded by a team of veterans – of [...]

Winchester’s marketing slogan was quite a bold statement, but one that was not braggadocio. When the Model 70 was introduced – way back in 1936 – it represented what I consider to be the ultimate culmination of the American bolt-action hunting rifle. It had all of the necessary appointments: a strong action – closely related to the Mauser Gewehr 98 – with a reliable extractor, capable of handling the highest of cartridge pressures, a well-fitting stock, an excellent trigger and a three-position safety which would (eventually) work perfectly with a rifle scope.

We hunters, especially those of you – who like me – enjoy carrying a bolt-action rifle for big game, owe a helluva lot to a German gentleman named Mauser. Peter Paul von Mauser, to be specific. A brilliant designer, Herr Mauser gave us not only the 7×57 and 8×57 cartridges, but the Gewehr 98 rifle, which would set the standard for bolt-action rifle reliability that stands to this day. The Mauser name – synonymous in the firearms world with the reputation that German engineering has secured – is one that hunters have come to rely on for a century and a quarter.