“photos”

For most big game hunters, the chance to square your sights on a 400-inch elk is an once-in-a-lifetime thrill. Every time an elk hunter sends a bugle echoing through the hills he's hoping to get closer to the ultimate Wapiti record breaker. To help all you bone collectors get pumped up for this season, we've compiled eight examples of Boone & Crockett elk. Enjoy. (photos: Boone & Crockett Club)

To make this season’s visit to your favorite pheasant destination more successful, here’s the inside advice from four pheasant masters.

Understanding how whitetails move through your hunting area during the rut is more important than patterning a particular buck or any other factor.

The rut calls for a series of adjustments. As the bucks change their behavior patterns, you need to be there waiting for them.

Nosler’s M48 Trophy Grade Rifle features the company’s proprietary action and is guaranteed to shoot sub-MOA groups. At $1,745 it’s less than most custom rifles.

Every big-game hunt is a great opportunity, but not every hunt will turn out as you hope, because getting lucky in the draw is just the first hurdle.

The key to delicious venison is aging it properly. Just like a good twelve ounce T-bone at the best steak house in town, venison needs a lot of hang time.

All I want a trail camera to do for me is take a decent picture of critters that walk in front of it. I want to know when they came by, and don’t really care about video. If it tells me the barometric pressure and moon phase that’s cool, but not essential. I want it to be reliable and, after working with cameras for a while, I know I prefer an infrared camera over those with a white flash because the flash will scare the dickens out of any self-respecting mature buck.

Making kielbasa, a descendent of an Eastern European sausage, is a fun experiment and a chance to conjure your early human roots.