About Us

Field & Stream is the world’s leading outdoor lifestyle brand. With origins dating back to 1871, F&S has taught a nation to hunt and fish, to camp and explore, to survive and thrive in the outdoors—all while leading the charge to conserve and fight for wildlife and wild places.

The secret to our longevity is simple: Hunters and anglers love a great story—and nobody tells one better than Field & Stream. In 2024, the legacy brand was unified under the same ownership for the first time in its history. Now embarking on a new chapter, the next generation of Field & Stream includes a return to print, a membership community, apparel, an outdoor music festival, soon-to-be announced experiential brand extensions in the outdoor space, and more.

Our Mission to You—Our Readers

• To inspire you to get outside through storytelling—in print, online, and around campfires.

• To guide you on your adventurers, and teach you the skills you need to survive and thrive in the outdoors.

• To help them fight for the conservation and protection of wildlife and wild places.

• To preserve and pass down the heritage, legacy, and culture of our sporting traditions

The History of Field & Stream

1871: The outerwear manufacturer Gordon & Ferguson Merchandising Company originates in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later they would go on to sell clothing under the brand "Field and Stream."

1873: Charles Hallock founds Forest and Stream, a large-format periodical that covered hunting, fishing, and conservation.

1895: The idea to print a magazine is born in a duck blind and soon after the owners of Field and Stream publish Northwestern Field & Stream: A Journal of the Rifle, Gun, Rod and Camera.

1896: John R. Burkhard buys the monthly journal, renames it Western Field & Stream, then simply Field & Stream, and in two years moves the operation to New York City.

1898: F&S calls for stricter game laws, an end to market hunting, and a “universal gun tax or license” to fund conservation causes.

1904: President Theodore Roosevelt takes to the pages of Field & Stream and makes a case for conserving the wilderness for future generations.

1910: Field & Stream becomes the official organ of the Camp Fire Club, a sportsman’s society and conservation group whose members include Ernest Thompson Seton, Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Rungius, and Zane Grey.

1917: F&S offers a premium subscription that includes a “field comfort kit,” (including a pipe, tobacco, toothpaste, and chewing gum) to be sent to WWI soldiers in France.

1924: Ray P. Holland becomes editor-in-chief and forms the Field & Stream Conservation Council, which pushes for a national waterfowl refuge system funded by hunters through the purchase of duck stamps. In 1934, Congress passes the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, known as the Duck Stamp Act.

1930: Forest and Stream publishes its final issue, and merges with Field & Stream under the F&S banner.

1942: In the wake of Pearl Harbor, F&S launches the “Give ’Em Guns” program, which pools cash donations from readers to buy M1 rifles for American soldiers.

1946: Field & Stream adopts the slogan, “America’s No. 1 Sportsman’s Magazine.”

1955: For its 60th anniversary, F&S publishes “Fishing with Ike,” an account of fly fishing for trout with President Eisenhower, including a letter from Ike praising the outdoor sports.

1961: Field & Stream helps found the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

1971: F&S launches the Environment Action Group, awarding readers with “Conservation Award” badges.

1995: Field & Stream celebrates its 100th Anniversary, with a circulation of almost 2 million.

2009: Field & Stream wins the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the magazine industry’s top honor.

2020: Field & Stream transitions into a premium digital destination for hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts.

2024: The Field & Stream brand relaunches, and brings back the beloved print magazine. To signal the brand's commitment to reconnecting to its history and heritage, they include "1871" within the new F&S logo, as a nod to the Gordon & Ferguson era—when the "Field and Stream" brand first came into the lives of Americans.

Our Leadership

Field & Stream is led by Editor-in-Chief, Colin Kearns and a brilliant editorial team of hunters, anglers, outdoor enthusiasts—and storytellers. They live across the country where they pursue big game and small game, ducks and birds, trout, bass, panfish, and saltwater species. Our staff has been nominated for more than a dozen National Magazine Awards, winning twice for General Excellence—the highest honor in magazine journalism.

Field & Stream Masthead

Editor-in-Chief Colin Kearns

Creative Director Elias Carlson

Executive Editor Dave Hurteau

Executive Editor, Commerce Amanda Oliver

Senior Editor Ryan Chelius

Associate Editor Travis Hall

Managing Editor Jean McKenna

Photographer Director John Toolan

Writers-at-Large Matthew Every, Bill Heavey, T. Edward Nickens, and David E. Petzal

Columnists Scott Bestul (Whitetails), Phil Bourjaily (Shotguns), Will Brantley (Hunting), Tom Davis (Dogs), Richard Mann (Shooting), Jonathan Miles (Wild Chef)

Legacy Stewards Eric Church and Morgan Wallen

Contributing Writers Gerald Almy, Shaye Baker, Jace Bauserman, Bethany Beathard, David A. Brown, Meg Carney, Craig Caudill, Allie Conti, Jack Hennessey, Hal Herring, Steven Hill, Max Inchausti, M.D. Johnson, Alice Jones Webb, Sage Marshall, Keith McCafferty, Kris Millgate, Travis Smola, Slaton L. White

Contributing Illustrators Ryan Kirby, Brandon Loving, Peter Oumanski, Paul Puckett, Clay Rodery, Frederick Stivers, Pete Sucheski, Aaron Zachary

Contributing Photographers Ian Allen, Corey Arnold, Jeff Diener, Tom Fowlks, Cliff Gardiner, Brian Grossenbacher, Donald M. Jones, John Keller, Tom Martineau, Nick Price, Ralph Smith, Keith Sutton, Leigh Webber, Jessie YuChen

President Doug McNamee

Chief Operating Officer Richard Ashley

Chief Product Officer Sam Holcomb

Chief Marketing Officer MaryAnn McGrath

Chief of Staff Kate Kooiker

Vice President, Technology Dounya Irrgang

Vice President, Sales Katie Logan

Director of Marketing Anne Martin

Senior Sales Marketing Manager Amanda Sermeno

Community Officer Andrew Greene

Social Media Manager Anna Richardson

Field & Stream Contributors

David E. Petzal

Editor-at-Large David E. Petzal celebrated his 50th year with Field & Stream in 2022. Now in his 80s and still very active, Petzal is widely regarded as the greatest living gun writer. Petzal’s knowledge of riflery is encyclopedic, and his writing style is all his own—curmudgeonly and erudite, with a wit that’s just shy of lethal.

Bill Heavey

Editor-at-Large Bill Heavey has been a Field & Stream columnist for more than 20 years. As the brand’s resident “doofus” (his word), his columns are full of strange and delightful humor. But Heavey is more than a humorist. He has written four books about the outdoors, including If You Didn’t Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat?

Keith McCafferty

Award-winning novelist Keith McCafferty has been one of Field & Stream’s top writers since the 1980s. He has been the health and safety columnist, the outdoor skills columnist, and the survival columnist, yet none-the-less has managed to get lost in the woods in four different states. McCafferty is a two-time National Magazine Award finalist for stories published in Field & Stream.

T. Edward Nickens

T. Edward Nickens has covered hunting, fishing, and the outdoors for more than 35 years. His work has appeared in Field & Stream for more than two decades, and includes features, columns, five F&S books, and the anthology, The Last Wild Road. He lives in Raleigh and Morehead City, North Carolina, with his wife, dog, a part-time cat, the occasional sightings of two grown children, 13 fly rods, five canoes, two kayaks, two powerboats, and an indeterminate number of duck and goose decoys.

Will Brantley

Will Brantly has been writing for Field & Stream for more than 16 years and has been the brand’s hunting editor since 2015. Brantley pens features, how-to stories, commentary, gear reviews, and a regular Hunting column for F&S.

Scott Bestul

Whitetails editor Scott Bestul sold his first feature story to Field & Stream more than 25 years ago and has been a prolific contributor. Along with his regular whitetails column, Bestul writes how-to features, narrative stories, and big-buck galleries, as well as deer-related news and gear coverage. As a noted whitetail expert, he is a regular speaker at deer-hunting seminars and co-author of The Total Deer Hunter Manual and The Total Bowhunting Manual.

Phil Bourjaily

Phil Bourjaily has been Field & Stream’s shotguns editor for more than 25 years. He is the brand’s resident expert and go-to writer on anything to do with shotguns, from gun reviews and shooting instruction to upland, waterfowl, and turkey hunting. With David E. Petzal, Bourjaily is the co-author of The Total Gun Manual.

Richard Mann

Born and raised in West Virginia, shooting editor Richard Mann has hunted big game all over the world. Mann has been contributing to F&S since 2015, covering guns, ammunition, ballistics, and hunting. He has a background as a military and law enforcement firearms instructor and has helped develop rifle and pistol training courses for Gunsite Academy. Mann has authored several books, appeared on the Discovery Channel, and was the executive producer for “WildCraft: South Africa” on Amazon Prime. In 2019, he was given the Bill McRea Lifetime Achievement Award for his writings.

Editorial Standards

At Field & Stream, the only thing we value more than great writing is our readers’ trust. Both require strict editorial standards. Every F&S story you read has been carefully reviewed, fact-checked, and proofread by our editors to meet the highest standards. Our mission is to provide accurate information and reporting that is a pleasure to read.

Our editors and contributors are all recognized as outdoor-industry experts, and we routinely work with the country’s top outfitters, guides, and pros to give our audience the most cutting-edge and authoritative information. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers, so our audience knows they can trust what they read from Field & Stream. This is especially true when it comes to our gear coverage: When Field & Streams gives a new rifle, bow, rod, or reel the coveted Editors’ Choice or Best Value Awards, that recognition comes as a result of rigorous testing, careful review, and honest reporting.

Read more about our Editorial Standards here.

Product Reviews

For more than 125 years, Field & Stream has been providing readers with honest and authentic coverage of outdoor gear. You can count on F&S to keep you up to date on the best new gear. And when we write about a product—whether it’s a bass lure or a backpack—we cover the good and the bad, so you know exactly what to expect before you decide to make a purchase.

Field & Stream prides itself on evaluating a wide variety of outdoor gear. If you can take a product into the woods or on the water, odds are good that we’ve put it through the wringer at some point during hunting or fishing season. We have long provided readers with in-depth reviews of the best rifles, shotguns, handguns, bows, fishing gear, watercraft, and more.

Read more about How We Test and Review Products here.

Field & Stream in the Press

The great stories, award-winning journalism, and industry-leading product coverage Field & Stream consistently produces hardly go unnoticed. F&S editors and contributors have been seen and heard on CNN, Fox News, ESPN, The Weather Channel, NPR, America Outdoors Radio, Sportsman's Spotlight, and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers “Podcast and Blast.” The brand’s work has also been recognized by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the Society of Publication Designers, Folio, as well as outlets such as AdWeek, Newsweek, and Outsider.