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Hunters in this Golden Age of Waterfowling have the best guns and shotshells in history.

Two days into a goose hunt outside of Hecla, South Dakota, we were sweating both figuratively and literally. Unseasonably warm and still conditions had combined with a bright moon to keep most birds grounded, and uninterested in feeding in sileage fields.

Any way you measure it, the tundra swan is a lot of bird. But it can’t be hunted in a lot of places. Only eight states, in fact, offer a tundra swan season. Utah is one of them, and near the Great Salt Lake the author sought a wide-winged trophy.

American Hunter editors announce the top guns and gear of the past year.

Our annual survey of the year’s best firearms, optics and ammunition reveals the list of shotguns destined to win in 2010.

With its rotary bolt that allows it to cycle very smoothly and makes it very quick, the SXP is a slide-action shotgun that will serve any hunter well.

The newest camouflage patterns allow hunters to disappear in any terrain or environment.

In 2012, after Benelli’s patent on its inertia action expired, Browning seized opportunity with a new-aged Auto-5, simply called the A5. Today the A5 line includes Mossy Oak bedecked guns and the shoot-all shown above, the new 31/2-inch Stalker, a semi-auto that looks and feels much like the old but that outperforms it in every way.