“western hunting”

A comprehensive guide to correctly executing four formal shooting positions in the field.

An ideal optics setup for Western big-game hunting includes a binocular, spotting scope, rangefinder and riflescope. Here’s how to choose the best of each for your needs.  

The frosty white-tipped tom of the West lures many turkey hunters from other regions. But the bird that roams the Rockies can’t necessarily be hunted the same ways as birds in Eastern forests.

For that special hunter in your life—especially if he or she dreams of hunting out west—here are a dozen items that will fit perfectly under this year’s Christmas tree.

The X-Bolt Pro McMillan is a beautiful rifle, perfectly suited to all-around Western hunting. Our test model was incredibly consistent and stable, and we would confidently carry it into the field anywhere from the moose swamps of Alaska to the Coues-deer deserts of Arizona.

Any of these five cartridges will set you up for a successful mule deer hunt anywhere they reside.

Just about every case shape imaginable has been modified to hold both 7mm and .30-caliber bullets, but it was gunwriter Layne Simpson who saw a gap in the lineup: there was no 7mm cartridge based on a full-length .375 H&H case. In 1979, Simpson took the excellent 8mm Remington Magnum and necked it down to hold 7mm bullets, giving his wildcat the name “Shooting Times Westerner.”

Here are some simple but significant “unwritten” rules you should always follow when hunting public land.

A hunter’s first elk and a bogged-down stalk on a desert mule deer highlight hunts with new versions of Ruger’s M77 Hawkeye bolt actions.