The very name of the chukar evokes the sound of its call and the ache in my legs at the end of the day.
Chuka-chuka-chuka.

Idaho’s Salmon River is called the River of No Return because, in the old days, once you rafted down it, there was no way to get back up. That was before there was a trail, before there were jet boats, before there chukar in the canyon.

We could hear them when we were away from the boat and the roar of the river. Yet there were a thousand feet to climb before we might hope to see a point and the flush. I had little doubt that we were the first people this year to walk this ridge with shotguns in hand.

Here’s an easy one: What are the two largest American whiskey-producing states today?

A quick Google search shows Kentucky and Tennessee in a landslide. But before the Civil War, neither state had the most registered stills. In 1840, it was Virginia, which boasted more than 1,400 stills to Kentucky’s 889.

Back then, every state enjoyed the “likker” produced by the farmer-distiller. Even New Jersey had more than 300 distilleries.

But the Civil War began their demise.

In 1956, a young German machinist named Horst Blaser set up a business to produce a hunting rifle. Although not a trained gun maker in the German tradition, Blaser had an idea for an entirely new design. As a skilled machinist, he envisioned a rifle made to exacting standards by automation, with interchangeable parts that would make it the most versatile hunting rifle in history.