One man made the enduring success of Covey Rise magazine possible—Kim N. Price. The avid sportsman and conservationist started the publication for “the serious quail hunter” in 2002. Through the magazine, Price educated untold numbers of landowners about the importance of habitat preservation. He aimed to tell the story of the dedicated quail hunter and explain what we all as a collective group can do to stop the decline of quail.

Price’s passion for quail hunting began when his father took him on a hunt at the age of 8. It continued throughout his lifetime. Price served on the Quail Forever national board of directors. He was highly honored in 2010 as being named one of the 25 Most Influential People in Hunting and Fishing in Outdoor Life.

Upon Price’s passing in January, John Thames and Kelly Waldrop picked up the reins at Covey Rise. Our team strives to honor Price’s work. While the format has changed, his goals are still our goals. We share his sincerety and drive to ensure that upland hunting is a tradition that will last for generations and generations.

Nestled beside a fairy-tale lake in northern Italy, Gardone Val Trompia is home to so many fine engravers, it could be the world capital of counterfeiting. Instead, it is to Italy what the Connecticut Valley has been to the United States: the center of the firearms industry. Unlike its American counterpart, this iron-ore-rich area in the province of Brescia has been producing guns for almost five centuries. Change there occurs gradually: In 2002, when Caesar Guerini brought its first shotguns on the market, “We were the only new factory in that valley in 50 years,” says Wes Lang, President of Guerini USA.

Brescia’s pool of skilled engravers and other craftsmen supplies the talent Guerini needs to produce over-and-under smoothbores widely hailed in the sporting press. “All our hunting guns are upland bird guns,” Lang says. “That’s our specialty. They’re really popular with quail hunters, especially the 20 and 28 gauge. They also like our ultralight models, made with high-tech aluminum alloy.” Sales, he says, are evenly split between hunting guns and target guns that offer every configuration a trap, skeet, or sporting clay shooter could want.

The American Heritage Dictionary offers a definition of “fog” as: “Condensed water vapor in cloudlike masses lying close to the ground and limited visibility…A state of mental vagueness or bewilderment.” I was reflecting on that when our day started. Have you ever seen those thought-for-the-day calendars? The thought for this day was from political activist Gloria Steinem: “There is always one true inner voice. Trust it.” Ms. Steinem, methinks, is not a chukar hunter.

Daniel Boone was not a chukar hunter, either, but he could have been. He was heard to utter, “I can’t say I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”

…There have been times when I have trusted my inner voice when I should have trusted my compass.