“bear gun”

The rifle was magnificently ugly. So ugly, in fact, that it was beautiful. Here’s how to (and why you should) build your own.

That new hunter you've been tutoring may be in love with a lever-action rifle. Alternately, he may think he absolutely needs a .30-caliber magnum to "cover all the bases." But it's up to you to talk him into making a reasonable purchase when it comes to his first big-game rig.

While the .30-06 Springfield has been a father to many successful cartridges, it remains the cartridge by which all others are measured.

North America has a wide variety of huntable species, inhabiting many different types of terrain. While there are a few cartridges that can truly be called all-around choices, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with picking a cartridge that perfectly suits the game at hand.

The Trijicon RMR (Rugged Miniaturized Reflex) Sight is a lightweight, user-friendly LED sight with 1x magnification that makes target acquisition a breeze, yet allows for precise shot placement at further ranges.

In hunting there are the rifles you choose to make sure you take an animal humanely; and then, there are the rifles you choose to make sure the animal doesn’t take you. A choice for a black bear rifle lends itself to the latter.

The game could be whitetails in the East, elk in the West, or anything from duiker to eland in Africa; these five cartridges have been there and done that.