Craig Boddington

09/10/2026

09/10/2026

Africa in all its glory…the photos don’t quite do it justice. It’s been a busy week with some incredible views!

09/08/2026

A sight that never gets old: seeing a herd of elephants up close. Moments like this remind me just how lucky I am to call this continent home!

09/08/2026

Another case of

"Who Needs CBEO?"⁠
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How would you feel if you had been there when federal agents apprehended these "outfitters" and I use that term loosely.
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To avoid these situations, educate yourself by signing up for my newsletter and you’ll be up to date on what the Good Guys are offering. ⬇️

https://www.craigboddington.com/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/outlaw-hunting-guide-guilty-illegally-baiting-pond

A 55-year-old Conroe resident has admitted to operating an illegal waterfowl guiding operation.

09/06/2026

Thank you for reading Sports Afield

"...The strongest argument for the 7mm has always been the wide range of bullet weights, from fast 140-grain bullets to 175-grain heavyweights. What we call 7mm began in 1892 with the 7×57 Ma**er using a .284-inch bullet (literally 7.21mm). The 7×57 used a 1:866-inch twist to stabilize 173-grain roundnose military bullets, which “Karamoja” Bell used for elephants.

Faster European 7mms soon followed, but we didn’t have an American .284-bore until after World War II. Roy Weatherby’s 7mm Wby Mag was first in 1945, .300 H&H case shortened and necked down..."

What is your favorite variant of the "Fast Seven's"?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐬
– 𝐛𝐲 Craig Boddington
(For educational purposes only—no sales or exchanges.)

The new 7mm cartridges shoot fast and flat with heavy bullets, making them practical for a wide range of hunting applications.

Just yesterday I was asked, “What ri**es do you take to Africa?” That’s a moveable feast. There are many good plains game cartridges, also many suitable for dangerous game. I like to switch around, because Africa’s wonderful variety offers the world’s best opportunity to see how ri**es, cartridges, and bullets perform. Last year I took a .308 for plains game. Often, I take faster .30s.

I recently had to cancel a safari because of a family health issue. I won’t get there this year, but when I do I plan to take my Flat Creek Precision 7mm PRC for plains game. I realized I hadn’t taken a fast 7mm to Africa for thirty years, although I borrowed PH Fred Burchell’s 7mm Re*****on Magnum in 2023.

Introduced in 1962, Re*****on’s Big Seven became the world’s most popular magnum, recently overtaken by the .300 Wi******er Magnum. In the 1980s and 1990s, I had a succession of three 7mm Rem Mags. I never used them for elk or other extra-large game, but I used them for most of my deer hunting, much mountain hunting, and for African plains game with consistently deadly results.

Read more here: https://sportsafield.com/2026/the-fast-sevens/

09/05/2026

Have you harvested a Brocket deer? Which one?

“…The brocket deer of southern Mexico are the least-studied and least-known North American big game animals. Local hunters talk about mountain and dwarf brockets, which may or may not exist as distinct races. Today, we know that, in southern Mexico, there are Yucatan gray-brown brockets (also called brown brockets), and red brockets…”

Thank you for reading Sports Afield

𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐫
– 𝐛𝐲 Craig Boddington
This jungle deer is probably America’s least-known big-game animal.

Photo: The author’s big Yucatan gray-brown brocket was taken at Balam, state of Quintana-Roo in 2013. If you don’t know brockets, it doesn’t look like much, but a buck like this is equivalent to a monster whitetail.

Just the other day I was in deer camp at Steinbeck Vineyards, during our August coastal deer season. On a blistering afternoon, we were killing some time and swapping stories, waiting for it to cool down a bit. One of the hunters, Kyle Welker, showed me a photo of a huge gray-brown brocket, one of the biggest I’ve seen. This is sort of equivalent to a 190-inch whitetail. Its antlers were thick, sharp spikes, clearly more than six inches long. Huge. We passed his phone around and half the folks in camp, all experienced hunters, had never heard of a brocket deer.

The brockets are small jungle deer, found in multiple species and races from southern Mexico down through Central America, on through the vast Amazon Basin to northern Argentina. Most of us consider “North America” to run north from the Panama Canal. Even by the stingiest definition, Canada, Mexico, and the United States are North American countries. So, Mexico’s brocket deer are bonafide North American game animals. Yet they get so little love that many hunters aren’t aware they exist.

I first heard about brocket deer from gunwriting great and early deer hunting guru John Wootters, a patient and important mentor when I was a new editor. From Texas, Wootters did a lot of hunting in Mexico, tried several times to get a jaguar (when still legal). For sure, he’s the first person I knew who had taken a brocket deer.

Read more here: https://sportsafield.com/2026/brocket-deer/